Thelma Todd and Zasu Pitts exhibit little of their usual chemistry in this outing of their 'Girl Friends' series for Hal Roach. I attribute some of the weakness to Gus Meins' directing, but mostly to an unsuitable script in which Thelma Todd plays a defense attorney and Zasu her housemate who has somehow snuck onto the jury and takes delight in lines like 'I knew her when.' Most of the pleasure in this short is due to James Morton's slow burns as the judge and to Billy Gilbert's over-the-top performance as the prosecuting attorney. Art Lloyd's photography is, as usual, spot on for a slapstick comedy and Billy Bletcher can be heard briefly as a police dispatcher.
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boblipton27 May 2008
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mark.waltz27 November 2019The team of Thelma Todd and Zasu Pitts are together here as an attorney for the defense and a juror who ironically are roommates (dismissible in most courts for the juror), involved in a silly case of the presumed murder of a silly scientists wife who allegedly blew up as a result of a bomb she accidentally swallowed. Somehow, Zasu swallows another explosive and must be rushed to the scientists house for the antidote. This leads to a very funny chase through the Hollywood Hills and an amusing, if a bit of a let-down, of s conclusion. Like we've seen in the Laurel and Hardy shorts (and a few features), there were often violent but hysterically funny endings that left one or the other (or both) in some weird transformation. I guess you couldn't do that in 1932 with female characters, even if Zasu Pitts is a female of her own single mode.
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lzf027 May 2008This was director Gus Meins' first attempt to correct the mistakes George Marshall had made in the previous Pitts-Todd comedies. Marshall attempted to give ZaSu and Thelma a slapstick emphasis. Seeing women perform these antics was just not funny. In "Sneak Easily", Meins gives most of the physical stuff to supporting players Billy Gilbert, James C. Morton and Bobby Burns. As always, they are welcome players in a Roach comedy and chew up the scenery as usual. The real problem with the film is its flimsy premise. Burns, a mad doctor, is on trial for blowing up his wife with an explosive pill. Thelma is the inept defense attorney. ZaSu is a juror. Thelma should have never been cast as the attorney. The film would have worked better had both Thelma and ZaSu been selected as jurors. Establishing the relationship that Thelma and ZaSu are room mates weakens the film. How could ZaSu have ever been selected as a juror with that connection to the attorney. The second reel is a slapstick dash to the doctor's house, since ZaSu has swallowed one of his exploding pills. Some of the sight gags are clever, but as a whole, the film is a misfire.
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In the 1930s, Hal Roach Studios was on top of the comedy world with such stars as Laurel and Hardy, Charley Chase and the Little Rascals. Most of these films are exceptional and have withstood the passing of time. However, a lesser-known Roach product was the pairing of Thelma Todd and Zasu Pitts (later, Todd was paired with the equally untalented Patsy Kelly). Try as I might, I just can't stand these pictures--they just aren't funny. Plus, unlike Laurel and Hardy, there was not an ounce of chemistry between Todd and her two co-stars. Before you just think I am a crank, understand that I have seen and reviewed several hundred Roach films as well as many other early comedies, so I am well acquainted with the genre and within the genre, this team is among the worst. Part of the reason I think I am right about the team is that as a lower-tier team at Roach, they were given all the scripts no one else wanted. If Stan or Ollie hated a given plot idea, it was often given to Todd and Pitts/Kelly--and usually it showed.
In this film, however, the team is at their absolute lowest. It's hard to imagine a comedy with less laughs and a more contrived plot. The film begins with Zasu in the jury and Thelma as a defense lawyer. As for Zasu, she's a completely annoying moron. NOT the lovable type moron (like Stan Laurel or Lou Costello), but just a totally annoying and grating person who is pushy and obnoxious. As for Thelma, as usual, she's the rather bland "straight man" and as such has little to do but react to Zasu's boorish behavior.
The plot involves Thelma defending a client who is accused of selling exploding diet pills. Considering that the pills are highly dangerous, when the attorney asks Zasu to try swallowing one it just seems dumb. And, while they were called "pills", they were more like giant black blobs that were larger than golf balls. Swallowing them only seemed contrived and made no sense--even for a low-brow comedy. When they find she has swallowed the pill and it really is explosive, everyone panics and runs about like idiots until the film ends.
As I said, I am not a fan of this team. However, even for those who want to like the film, there isn't one legitimate laugh in the entire short! When I talked over this review with my wife (who also saw the movie with me), she thought my score of 2 was overly generous!! -
jknoppow-127 May 2008Professor Austin, chemist extraordinaire is said to have invented a new very powerful explosive, which for reasons never explained nor examined, he put up in a pill: or so say the police when an explosion occurs and his wife disappears.
We open on the trial. Zasu Pitts is one of the jurors. The defense attorney, twenty minutes late, is Thelma Todd, the prosecutor is Billy Gilbert. Gilbert shows his evidence, one of the bomb pills and a dummy made as an exhibit.
The pill is very large. Todd for the Defense claims to the jurors that no woman could possibly swallow such a large pill. Zasu, who is sharing a domicile with Todd, reminds Thelma of how Zasu once swallowed a plumb, entire.
She tries it. And she accidentally swallows it. The 'real' pill rolls off the judge's bench. Nothing happens. The Court Clerk has accidentally switched the real pill for the demonstration pill, and Zasu has swallowed the real one!
All panic. Zasu is rushed to Prof. Austin's laboratory, where a merry mix-up proceeds; only to be interrupted by a loud pounding on the door. It is Professor Austins 'murdered' wife, who merely had gone out for a while.
At the end, it is explained that it was she who invented the giant pills, and not her husband: and that they are perfectly harmless.
Nevertheless, Zasu complains that she's feeling sick.
Todd asks Mrs. Austin what is in those pills.
Mrs. Austin explains that they contain nothing but castor oil, and Thelma rushes Zasu out of the room.
The End. -
Michael_Elliott16 June 2008Sneak Easily (1932)
* 1/2 (out of 4)
Hal Roach short has a scientist on trial for creating a pill that he fed to his wife, which eventually blew up and killed her. The prosecuting attorney (Thelma Todd) keeps having trouble with her case due to a dumb juror (Zasu Pitts) who accidentally swallows the evidence and soon will blow up herself. This short runs seventeen-minutes and sadly it doesn't get funny until the last minute when everyone goes back to the home of the scientist so that he can try to create another formula to take away the explosion, which is now in Pitts stomach. The comedy in the film is pretty dry and it never really works. Pitts has a chance to do some physical humor but none of this works either because we've seen it countless times before and we've certainly seen it better done. We get the typical stuff of her messing with the judge and another scene with her bothering the other jurors. Todd keeps the film moving with her good charm.