Because he is associated with Laurel & Hardy, Harold Lloyd, and Charlie Chase, and later the Little Rascals, Hal Roach's work with Patsy Kelly (with or without Thelma Todd or Lyda Roberti or Zazu Pitts) is somehow ignored. Roach was pretty good at sizing up his comic talent and balancing it - and his Kelly / Todd films were supposed to be the match of his Laurel & Hardy pairings (in fact in one film they actually turn out to be the girls' boyfriends, but only as a final joke). Strangely it never seemed to occur to him to put Stan and Babe with Patsy and Thelma in a single short or feature from beginning to end. The girls were individually in features with the boys but only as support (Thelma in FRA DIAVALO; Patsy in PICK A STAR). It was like Roach saw a similarity in teams, but never thought of constructing a quartet film (which might have worked - Thelma with Babe and Patsy with Stan).
(In the late 1930s, when Roach was having contract problems with Stan Laurel, he announced a series with Babe, Patsy, and Spanky McFarlane called "The Hardys" which sounds promising. Only a still of Babe Hardy holding Spanky - each trying to stare down the other - with Patsy watching them survives).
Kelly had always been great assisting on the humor of the films she was in. Some have been critical of her "shouting" all her lines, but her personality is supposed to be hyper, and I really can't understand the nature of the criticism. She still emphasize the jokes in her lines.
In KELLY THE SECOND she is working as the breakfast-lunch-dinner counter girl in a drugstore owned by Charlie Chase. One day she is trying to get to her job in time, and her car is backed into by a truck driven by "Big Boy" Williams. Here (instead of his usual side-kick role for Errol Flynn) Big Boy is a good natured lug ever ready for a fight. In particular he fights well when he hears the old tune "The Irish Washer Woman". They are arguing about the car-truck problem when assorted passers-by get involved. Inevitably a donnybrook occurs. Before the police (who fully know Big Boy by reputation) arrive, he drives off with Patsy's car in his truck, and drops her off at her job. But the police come, and arrest him, Patsy, and Chase (the latter two lied about him being on their premises.
In court Big Boy is sentenced for creating a disturbance, but the judge is lenient to both Patsy and Chase. Unfortunately for Chase, he tries to get Big Boy out of jail - he succeeds only by putting up a $1,000.00 bond using his store for collateral. The judge he'll lose the bond if Big Boy fights again. But Patsy gets the idea that Big Boy can fight legally in the ring, and she and Chase act as his trainer and manager.
In the initial fight, Chase has the misfortune of sitting near Ed Brophy, a local crime kingpin, and his mistress (Pert Kelton) and his henchmen, led by Harold Huber. Brophy and Huber were in several films together (THE THIN MAN is the best recalled) but they have a comic pitch and catch between them that should also have been built on (it was once - in NAUGHTY MARRIETTA - but only as support for Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald). Brophy is clever, but easily flustered and Huber normally calms him down. Here, due to Chase building up Big Boy's abilities, Brophy puts down over #1,000.00 on him as a bet. But Big Boy loses the match, and Brophy wants blood. However, he sees proof that Big Boy can punch his opponents effectively. Confronting Chase (trying to calm his nerves with some patent medicine in the drug store), he offers a choice: make Brophy his partner (he means in Big Boy, not in the drug store!), or be taken care of by Huber. Chase sees no alternative.
That is the basis of the film. The actors go to town, with Brophy's hood showing tremendous stupidity mixed with cleverness (look at the sequence about Brophy giving a smart Kelton an "ermine mink"). Huber notes his boss is not always bright, and somewhat dryly (and effectively) he manages to tweak Brophy about how gullible he can become. Kelton is attracted to Big Boy, but really goes after him when Brophy seems to treat her less respectfully than she feels is her due. Chase is constantly trying to balance between his bouts of indignation and anger and his confusion and nervousness (I like him facing total destruction in a boxer's preparation room while wearing a paper hat and making paper dolls). Big Boy's fat headedness is matched by his friendly banter (sometimes close to coming to blows) with Patsy, who returns it as they slowly realize they really like each other a lot. Patsy does well in several scenes, one dealing with a crowded little car where the breaks are in a pair of difficult places for her to reach, and another where she finds she can't make friends with any animals on a farm Brophy has them training on.
It's an amusing film, and one wishes Roach might have tried a sequel or two.
(In the late 1930s, when Roach was having contract problems with Stan Laurel, he announced a series with Babe, Patsy, and Spanky McFarlane called "The Hardys" which sounds promising. Only a still of Babe Hardy holding Spanky - each trying to stare down the other - with Patsy watching them survives).
Kelly had always been great assisting on the humor of the films she was in. Some have been critical of her "shouting" all her lines, but her personality is supposed to be hyper, and I really can't understand the nature of the criticism. She still emphasize the jokes in her lines.
In KELLY THE SECOND she is working as the breakfast-lunch-dinner counter girl in a drugstore owned by Charlie Chase. One day she is trying to get to her job in time, and her car is backed into by a truck driven by "Big Boy" Williams. Here (instead of his usual side-kick role for Errol Flynn) Big Boy is a good natured lug ever ready for a fight. In particular he fights well when he hears the old tune "The Irish Washer Woman". They are arguing about the car-truck problem when assorted passers-by get involved. Inevitably a donnybrook occurs. Before the police (who fully know Big Boy by reputation) arrive, he drives off with Patsy's car in his truck, and drops her off at her job. But the police come, and arrest him, Patsy, and Chase (the latter two lied about him being on their premises.
In court Big Boy is sentenced for creating a disturbance, but the judge is lenient to both Patsy and Chase. Unfortunately for Chase, he tries to get Big Boy out of jail - he succeeds only by putting up a $1,000.00 bond using his store for collateral. The judge he'll lose the bond if Big Boy fights again. But Patsy gets the idea that Big Boy can fight legally in the ring, and she and Chase act as his trainer and manager.
In the initial fight, Chase has the misfortune of sitting near Ed Brophy, a local crime kingpin, and his mistress (Pert Kelton) and his henchmen, led by Harold Huber. Brophy and Huber were in several films together (THE THIN MAN is the best recalled) but they have a comic pitch and catch between them that should also have been built on (it was once - in NAUGHTY MARRIETTA - but only as support for Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald). Brophy is clever, but easily flustered and Huber normally calms him down. Here, due to Chase building up Big Boy's abilities, Brophy puts down over #1,000.00 on him as a bet. But Big Boy loses the match, and Brophy wants blood. However, he sees proof that Big Boy can punch his opponents effectively. Confronting Chase (trying to calm his nerves with some patent medicine in the drug store), he offers a choice: make Brophy his partner (he means in Big Boy, not in the drug store!), or be taken care of by Huber. Chase sees no alternative.
That is the basis of the film. The actors go to town, with Brophy's hood showing tremendous stupidity mixed with cleverness (look at the sequence about Brophy giving a smart Kelton an "ermine mink"). Huber notes his boss is not always bright, and somewhat dryly (and effectively) he manages to tweak Brophy about how gullible he can become. Kelton is attracted to Big Boy, but really goes after him when Brophy seems to treat her less respectfully than she feels is her due. Chase is constantly trying to balance between his bouts of indignation and anger and his confusion and nervousness (I like him facing total destruction in a boxer's preparation room while wearing a paper hat and making paper dolls). Big Boy's fat headedness is matched by his friendly banter (sometimes close to coming to blows) with Patsy, who returns it as they slowly realize they really like each other a lot. Patsy does well in several scenes, one dealing with a crowded little car where the breaks are in a pair of difficult places for her to reach, and another where she finds she can't make friends with any animals on a farm Brophy has them training on.
It's an amusing film, and one wishes Roach might have tried a sequel or two.