User Reviews

Here's one that's just got to be seen to be believed. Most of Edgar Kennedy's "average man" shorts could be considered absurd and somewhat surreal, but this one is so removed from reality, I just had to spotlight it. It all began when Edgar came home from the grocery store, arms full of bags so he couldn't even open the door. So, why not carry even more by taking on milk bottles, a newspaper and a telegram? Said telegram is to Mother in-Law from an old boyfriend looking to come back and marry her. Apparently he's a millionaire with "acres of oil wells." As for Brother, he's invested in a friend's latest invention: an outboard motor that can run all day on one cup of gasoline. Edgar's bathtub was the perfect place to try it out. But the big sap is really all wet when he realizes Florence gave Brother the $1500 to invest out of Edgar's money. After all, it was just "lying there in the bank." Edgar yells and screams about it for a bit, but Brother timidly assures him they'll all be rich in no time. Yeah, I doubt that. So anyway, what about Mother's oil tycoon lover? Ol' Tom pays them a visit that very night. Tall, dark, and bumbling. While they all gab about important affairs downstairs, Edgar attempts to take a bath, only he can't get Brother's outboard motor out of the tub. When he decided kicking it was a good solution, it started right up, but now the big palooka can't figure out how to turn it off. His efforts nearly break through the floor, so the rest of the family hurries upstairs to take a look. Tom's efforts to try and shut off the motor only result in a bigger mess.

Well, despite all that havoc, Tom displays an interest in the motor and proclaims his desire to invest in it, after they test it out, of course. So Edgar gets to work reinforcing a boat, because you can never be too careful. Unfortunately the boards keep popping out, Goofy style. When it's finally repaired, Edgar and Tom set out to try the motor, only it won't start. When "helping" to make adjustments, the motor starts right up and Edgar gets his hand caught in the cord and, as a result, is pulled into the water and towed all around the lake. That oaf Tom is little help in trying to get Edgar to stop. So after another tour of the lake, Edgar and the motor collide with Tom and the boat, sending all four shore-side. Despite all that chaos, Tom concludes he loves the motor and will invest $1500... just as soon as his first oil well strikes, which will happen as soon as he can find somebody to do the drilling. Wah-wah-wah.

While I normally enjoy Edgar Kennedy and these wacky short subjects he did in the '30s and '40s, I found this one to be incredibly ridiculous, insipid and just downright stupid. Though this time Edgar is more or less the cause of his own misfortunes as opposed to just his family. Yeah, that horrible, annoying family of is, now punctuated with another stupid person: Tom the wannabe oil magnate, played by Tom Kennedy, who had no relation to Edgar. I know audiences in 1946 didn't have high expectations for a product like this, but that doesn't detract from its many flaws. The set pieces and gags go on much too long, like the outboard motor in the bath tub, or Edgar being pulled by the motor in the lake. They obviously had very little material to work with, so they prolonged those ludicrous scenes. If you're a fan of Kennedy and want to see all his shorts, I don't recommend this one. It's not very funny, just annoying and stupid. Oh, and predictable, as yet again Edgar HAS to lose. Not because of circumstances, but because he's Edgar.