Show Business

Here is a rare combination: Jules White and Hal Roach. White, of course, produced and directed comedy shorts for Columbia from 1934 to 1958. Leading Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard, Shemp Howard, and Joe Besser through over 100 shorts, White's films moved fast and were loaded with violent sight gags. Roach's films were slower paced, relied heavily on sight gags, but were generally warmer and more creative than the Columbia product. This short contains many of White's trademark gags, but misses its mark because of gender. ZaSu Pitts is in Stan Laurel's role and Oliver Hardy's is played by Thelma Todd. With Stan and Oliver, this film could have been hilarious. However, White's gags are less effective when played by women. White's Columbia films with Vera Vague suffer from the same problem. Monte Collins, a favorite of White, has a small supporting role in the film. Here he is before his nose job. It is disconcerting, but still fascinating to see White gags performed on the familiar Roach sets, with Leroy Shield's background music and the darker lighting of the Roach product.

White did not work for Roach. He was, at this time, under contract to MGM, where he made the dreadful Dogville comedies, some droll Pete Smith sports shorts and the Keaton feature, "Sidewalks of New York". Roach, who distributed his product through MGM, must have borrowed White. White was about a year away from his long tenure at Columbia.