When it comes to comedy, Clark & McCullough were not exactly hilarious. Their antics were even more low-brow than Wheeler & Woolsey or the Three Stooges! This, combined with McCullough's suicide in 1936 help to explain why the pair have been all but forgotten today. And, amazingly, with "In the Devildog House" they actually meet up with someone MORE obnoxious and loud than them!!
When the story begins, a marine (Tom Kennedy) is about to ship out and says goodbye to the wife. However, she suspects he's actually just going to meet his mistress...so she calls a detective (Clark) and asks him to follow Mr. Smith. At about the same time, Mr. Smith calls a detective (McCullough...Clark's business partner) and asks him to follow Mrs. Smith!
Initially, the trail leads to the woman who MIGHT be Mr. Smith's girlfriend. She's leaving but her boss (who is Mrs. Smith's boyfriend) is there. It turns out the man owns a novelty company and he does MANY obnoxious and boorish things to Clark...and follows up each brutal trick with saying "It's all in good fun"!
After leaving this jerk, the pair head to a hotel where Mrs. Smith is waiting to see her boyfriend. Since he hasn't yet shown up, she starts fooling around with Clark. Then, at the same time, McCullough meets the husband downstairs and tells him that there's a wild party going on upstairs....and he invites him to join Mrs. Smith and Clark!
So is it any good? Well, compared to most of their films, it's actually pretty good...though this is faint praise! Most of the reason it's better is because the situation is a bit funny and I also enjoyed Clark's little asides he makes to the audience...which were kind of cute.
By the way, the film's title uses the word 'devildog'. Long ago, it was a nickname for Marines....so that's why they gave the short film this title.
