Ma's Pride and Joy

Ma's Pride and Joy (1932)

** (out of 4)

Rather static Mack Sennett produced short has Donald Novis playing Danny O'Brien, a young singer whose mother takes him to a talent agent office where she demands that the owners listen to him.

Novis has pretty much been forgotten today but back when this short was produced he was quite big on the radio. As with a lot of Sennett shorts, this one here features very little to no plot and was obviously just made to show off Novis' voice. On a technical level there's certainly nothing impressive about this short as it's filmed rather ugly and the "story" isn't here. As far as Novis voice goes, it's certainly good but I can't say he's any greater than countless others that were featured in these shorts from this era.