Broadminded

... which is about 20 or 30 minutes, but at 65 minutes it just outstays its welcome and the jokes drag on for too long.

Wealthy Mabel Robinson has a "Baby Party" where everyone invited must show up dressed as a baby. Naturally the baby bottles all have liquor in them, and prohibition is still in force. When things get rowdy the cops show up and arrest everybody, but Jack Hackett and Ossie Simpson (Joe E. Brown) manage to evade arrest. Still, Jack's father isn't amused as the next morning the scandal makes headlines in the New York papers and names Jack as Mabel's fiance. Jack's father orders Jack to never see Mabel again and to take an extended trip somewhere until the scandal is forgotten. Dad tells Jack's cousin Ossie to go with Jack to make sure he stays out of trouble, not realizing that Ossie is a bigger partier than Jack could ever be and falsely believing that Ossie is a sober young man.

The pair go to Pasadena, and Ossie falls for Penny (Marjorie White) and Jack falls for Connie (Ona Munson), who is a girl of whom Jack's dad heartily approves. But Mabel finds Jack in Pasadena, is angry about being thrown over, and is threatening to show her love letters to Connie and break up Jack's (new) marriage plans. Also, on the road, Ossie has managed to anger a hot blooded South American (Bela Lugosi???) who is also very jealous of his girlfriend (Thelma Todd), an actress.

Originally a play by songwriting team Kalmar and Ruby, this might have also been a musical that had its songs removed because of musical films going out of fashion for the moviegoing public after they had been ubiquitous - and not very good - during 1929 and 1930. That may be why the material seems so stretched out. It's interesting seeing Bela Lugosi playing a hot blooded Latin lover, and coupled with Thelma Todd of all people. Ona Munson, who played Belle Watling in Gone With the Wind, is unrecognizable here. Marjorie White was a unique spritely comedienne, but her life was cut short due to an auto accident in 1935. She was featured in the first Three Stooges short in 1934 which actually was a musical short.

This one was painful to get through, and I say that as somebody who very much appreciates the humor of Joe E. Brown.