User Reviews

This is my third Andy Clyde short, and I am impressed by just how versatile his character is in terms of the kinds of comedy he works well in; I had seen Clyde in two two-reelers that were basically a comedy of frustration and a twenty-minute version of a farce, and here he is in a comedy short that is basically a series of wacky, bizarre gags based around an equally wacky premise: Andy is a barber who spends all his money training terrible prizefighters, and his wife wants him to stop.

There's a few short, almost blackout sequences, and they're all funny. Andy shows his pantomime skills in a very funny scene where he has trouble finding his collar, but most of the other most memorable moments are crazy sight, sound, and concept gags that really work. In most cases a glass-breaking sound effect when a bad boxer is punched would fall totally flat, but here it works. A sequence where an ironically fat weight-loss instructor confuses Andy for his boxer and puts his through a very suspect reducing machine is topped off some very appropriate neck-cracking sound effects and a suitable outlandish sight gag.

I won't give the closing moment away in style, but it works and definitely suits the tone of the movie. In all, this was a good, funny short. Maybe this kind of crazy, fast humor works so well with Andy Clyde because of the contrast -- he's so slow and befuddled in reacting to it. In any case I will certainly be taking the opportunity to watch more Andy Clyde shorts hen I get it.

The person who wrote the plot up above for this short is wrong, the fighter did not skip town but because of what happens to his jaw, he cannot fight. Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. This was another hilarious Columbia Andy Clyde short that I just watched on YouTube. In this one, Andy is a barber who also trains fighters. His wife (Vivian Oakland), however, threatens to leave him if he keeps boarding them in their home. He promises not to train them before pretending to throw one he kept upstairs out. Then comes the day of the fight...Like I said, there's plenty of hilarious slapstick throughout courtesy of director Del Lord (who also helmed many funny Three Stooges shorts) and the Columbia sound effects department. Ms. Oakland herself (who I remember from Laurel and Hardy's Way Out West) makes a fine foil for Clyde here and while Dudley Dickerson-a veteran of many Stooges shorts-isn't very funny here, it's nice to see him have more of a role as an associate of Clyde's at his barber place, not to mention at the boxing ring. So on that note, I highly recommend The Ring and the Belle.

A typically funny Andy Clyde short. This is also the only Columbia short of his where he is given story credit, though Harry Edwards is solely credited for the screenplay. This is another boxing comedy where Andy is a trainer for a somewhat lazy fighter that's also living as a boarder in Andy's house, much to his wife's dismay. Great visual gags abound, with nice supporting roles from Vivian Oakland, Dudley Dickerson, Vernon Dent, and Hank Mann.