User Reviews

Hal Roach brought the world Laurel and Hardy, Charley Chase and the Little Rascals/Our Gang and for this, we owe him a debt of gratitude. Of course, he also brought us Patsy Kelly, Zasu Pitts and Thelma Todd and the Boy Friends and for this, we owe him complete indifference! This comedy series was definitely a step or two below the top Roach series films and in general the films have a lot of energy but not a whole lot more to recommend them. Now this isn't to say they were bad--they just weren't up to the quality of even a lesser Laurel and Hardy vehicle.

The Boy Friends were made up of some former Our Gang members who were now too old to be in these films. It was sort of like they graduated to a new series. The lead of these Boy Friends was Mickey, who you will recognize if you are a silent-era little Rascals/Our Gang fan. In a way it's sad the films focused so much on Mickey because while he wasn't untalented, his trademark laugh is among the most annoying monikers in film history--even worse than Pauley Shore's "buh----dee". Also among the Boy Friends is Grady Sutton who you might recognize from a variety of comedies from the 1940s--such as THE BANK DICK.

This short is actually pretty watchable and is one of the better ones from the series. The film starts with Mickey and the gang apprehending two robbers--only to be told the men were detectives! So after being thoroughly reprimanded by his father, the Chief of Police, Mickey swears never again to take the law into his own hands but wait for the police. Naturally, soon after this the girls (the Boy Friends'girlfriends) hear something late at night and think there's a robber in the house. Instead of calling the cops, they are idiots and phone all their boyfriends--who respond and make a total mess of everything.

The short has some pretty good gags and is reasonably well-paced, but the number of laughs is still pretty low compared to other series of the day.

Although slow at spots, this entry in "The Boy Friends" Series of Hal Roach shorts is quite good. It was one of several shown this morning on the Turner Classic Network as examples of shorts directed by George Stevens, George Marshall, and others, many for Roach's studios.

I suppose that few of the comedy shorts (and hundreds were turned out in the 1920s - 1950s) survive in our memory because of Laurel & Hardy, Edgar Kennedy, Our Gang, the Three Stooges, W.C.Fields, Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, Langdon, Robert Benchley, and (maybe) Leon Erroll dominating the field. Certainly these comics are the ones we recall in short comedies. One can also add Pete Smith's Specialties and the "Behind the Eighth Ball" Series in the 1940s. But the films with Grady Sutton (such as this series - he was "Alabam'") are not recalled, nor are those with Burns and Allen, Clark & McCullough, or Thelma Todd and Zasu Pitts or Patsy Kelly. Yet they frequently are as good as the better remembered comedians I listed before...possibly sometimes superior (here I'm thinking of Leon Erroll, whom I have never totally liked).

In this comedy, Mickey Daniels is the rather overly enthusiastic, if clumsy, boyfriend of Mary Kornman. He lives across the street from her as does his friends Sutton and David Sharpe. Kornman lives with her friend Gertrude Messinger. They have a pet cat, and at the start of the film the cat causes a pet dog belonging to Sharpe to chase it. This leads our trio of half-witted goof heroes to spot an apparent hold-up, and drive onto a sidewalk to break up the hold up and bring the two gunman to the local precinct house (where Harry Bernard - Mickey's dad - is Captain). Bernard lectures his son about taking the law into his hands, and not letting the police handle such dangerous matters. But he is secretly delighted to see his son's bravery, until he finds out that Mickey, Grady, and Dave broke up two of Bernard's best officers from completing the arrest of two other dangerous criminals. He kicks Mickey out of the Precinct.

That night Mary and Gert hear noises in their house (actually their pet cat) and feel there is a burglar downstairs. Mickey is called over as are his two chums, but no attempt is made to coordinate the three of them, and the results are that in the dark house each of the three thinks the other two are burglars. This results in numerously well timed prat falls, conks on the head with flower pots, and other objects including one priceless moment when Sutton is hitting one "burglar" under a rug who rises whenever he yells for Dave, and hitting another "burglar" wearing a moose's head when he yells for Mickey! The arrival of most of the precinct's police staff, complete with Bernard, does not help matters. The final moment, when the police reveal themselves, may have influenced a similar type of joke a few years later in one of the Three Stooges' shorts.

The strengths of the series are in the obvious friendly feelings of the three male and two female friends in the tales, and the sense of reality in the settings. Stevens use of well timed damage and mayhem is part of his long work with Stan and Ollie. But Stan and Ollie (and Edgar, and the other leading comedians in the shorts that are remembered) had actual personalities that we noted and approved of knowing more and more about - so their series lasted and lasted. Aside from some minor characteristics (the girls are naive and dumb at times, and Sutton can scare himself very easily - we see him reading a scary book at one point - and Mickey is too swift to jump to conclusions) there is not really enough to build up a desire for closer study and review. Put another way, it is hard to think of a "Sons of the Desert" club being formed for The Boy Friends. The short, and others in the series, was fun to watch once. I would not make a habit of it.