The Smart Set-Up (1931) User Reviews (3)

"Lucky's Speech" from WAITING FOR GODOT . . .

[oscaralbert · 6/10 · 4 May 2017]

. . . has nothing on "Wally's Complaint" here in THE SMART SET-UP. Invited to a Dinner Party at Mar-a-Lago, Wally's surrounded by every Blue-Blooded Swamp Creature Rumpland has to drain. Warner Bros.' clairvoyant prognosticators of our (Then) Far Future use Wally to represent the American Majority of Normal True Blue Loyal Patriotic Average Union Label Working Class Americans who did NOT vote for Putin Party People to murder Granny, Uncle Joe, and the little girl across the street born with an expensive medical condition. Like Today's Real Life American Main-Streamers, Wally has talents and works for his living. He can dance and sing while strumming the guitar. All but one of the people surrounding him in this (then) futuristic mock-up of Mar-a-Lago are lazy, stock coupon-clipping Fat Cat Fraudsters, practicing one or more of Lucifer's interchangeable Three C's (that would be Capitalism, Communism, and Conservatism, all of which involve stealing from the Poor to give to the Rich). The lone exception to The Art of the Steal Takers Mob is "Hillary," purse designer Eunice Rump's butler. Warner clearly telegraphs that Hillary deserves the Common Man's vote, a decade and a half before she's even born! As for the MBA types populating Rumpnatiion, Wally concludes by judging them to be "empty, shallow, and hollow." These are epithets you would expect to rain down upon any Bozo licensing their "name rights" world-wide to build a franchise of Rump Ivory Towers. "Repent," Wally urges America's squeaky wheels, "before you all get greased!"

Telling Off The Shallow Snobs

[ccthemovieman-1 · 9/10 · 9 April 2008]

This was excellent, far exceeding anything I expected. Many of these short films were added to the theater features in hopes of promoting someone. Well, that didn't happen with Walter O'Keefe or anyone else in here, I don't think, but this was still an excellent short movie.

O'Keefe plays "Wally Keen," a crooner who wants to better himself. Rich people hear him sing at a nightclub and ask if he'll sing at their private parties. He's always willing since it could prove profitable. However, when he tries to mingle with the folks after his act, he's snubbed by everyone. They like his singing but don't care to hob-knob with the lower class, so to speak.

How he handles this by telling the group off is pretty cool. He does it with a story about a mythical kingdom where there are two kinds of people. His audience gets the message.

Earlier in the film, O'Keefe sings a song or two and is excellent. However, his acting is suspect. In one scene where he has a serious talk with his girlfriend, he stumbles through several lines like he forgot them. This must have been a low-budget effort for the director not to re-shoot the scene! Nonetheless, he was fun to watch, and so were all the scantily- clad show girls! Wowza!

This is a bonus feature on the feature film DVD of "Smart Money," which stars Edward G. Robinson.

A Satisfactory Little Film

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 18 July 2002]

A VITAPHONE Short Subject.

A social climbing Broadway crooner thinks he's made THE SMART SET-UP when he's invited to attend a swanky Park Avenue party.

This is a fairly interesting & generally competent little film. Although Walter O'Keefe is not the most talented singer, his manner is easy to like & the songs are pleasant. The highlight comes when he's able to put a group of rich snobs very much in their places.

Often overlooked or neglected today, the one and two-reel short subjects were useful to the Studios as important training grounds for new or burgeoning talents, both in front & behind the camera. The dynamics for creating a successful short subject was completely different from that of a feature length film, something akin to writing a topnotch short story rather than a novel. Economical to produce in terms of both budget & schedule and capable of portraying a wide range of material, short subjects were the perfect complement to the Studios' feature films.