Water Wagons

Although it has some positive points to it, "Water Wagons" is brought down by its story, which starts out rather silly and does not get much better. It is uneven at best, with some sequences that are relatively funny, but others that are incomprehensible. The cast is not bad, the characters are mildly interesting, and there are a handful of decent gags, but none of these are good enough to lift it above mediocrity.

Andy Clyde stars in a dual role, and he does well enough when the material gives him half a chance. Madeline Hurlock has some presence as the daughter of one of Clyde's characters, and in fact there is a long, otherwise pointless sequence that seems to have been inserted merely as a showcase for her. Unfortunately, that sequence, as well as a couple of others, features some ragged and occasionally off-putting material.

The climactic race sequence features many gag ideas. Some of them come off all right, while others just do not work. Some of the gags in the movie are based on visual effects that cannot have been very convincing even at the time.

This is the kind of feature that was probably mildly popular in its day even though most viewers certainly realized that there were many better movies out there. At least it is unpretentious, and it simply promises a few gags, nothing more - nor does it deliver much more than that.