User Reviews

Con-man Leon Errol is an expert at getting away with robbery, pick-pocketing and identity theft, and here he does it with style, involving college kid Richard Arlen in his schemes while Arlen is on his way to work as a pantry boy in a high society fat farm. There, he meets pretty Mary Brian, the daughter of wealthy Charley Grapewin. Unaware that he was driving the getaway car for Errol's bank heist, Arlen goes about his business until the less than smart detectives show up. Errol is hysterically funny as the crook, especially in a sequence where he makes the scariest batch of waffles you've ever seen, utilizing practically every ingredient at hand. Errol utilizes his rubber-legged dancing skills as if he was still on Broadway. A couple of rhyme patterned conversations come into play in the screenplay giving the film a musical feel to it.

This extremely lowest of low budget offerings from Paramount of all studios, starts off with a bit of promise, but once the train reaches its destination, competent Richard Arlen and the lovely Mary Brian are elbowed aside, and the script is virtually handed over to the pushy, talkative, loud-mouthed Leon Errol who virtually takes charge of what turns out to be a mostly one-man show.

Frankly, in my opinion, just a little of over-talkative Leon Errol, clumsily jumping around endlessly and shouting at the top of his voice to no effect (as if he were still on a theater stage), goes a real long way.

But when, on the other hand you get a real lot of Leon Errol in his endlessly talkative mode, the result is somewhat hard to digest, particularly when - as in this Paramount quickie - he is allowed to push the rest of the cast - including our competent hero, Richard Arlen, plus our super lovely heroine, Mary Brian - aside, so that he can hog the camera for nearly seventy-seven minutes as if he were still on a theater stage, using a senseless script that had little action, but more than ninety per cent, dull repetitive dialogue, the end result really is murder!