Just What I Needed

Just What I Needed (1955)

*** (out of 4)

Another fun short from the Pete Smith and Dave O'Brien team at MGM. This one here has O'Brien playing Harry Horseknuckle, a man who is constantly getting things that he doesn't need and they usually just lead to more trouble. Case in point is a tool chest that his wife gives him when there's nothing to fix so Horseknuckle decides to break things in order to fix them. Another example is buying a chest when he doesn't know what's inside of it. You see the type of humor you're getting with this 9-minute short and if you're a fan of the duo then you should at least get a few nice laughs out of this. I thought this contained everything you'd want from the two with Smith adding some perfectly times narration and O'Brien delivering that spot-on performance with that perfect comic timing. The two worked so well together I often wondered if Smith recorded the narration and then they shot the footage or if the footage was shot and Smith when over it. There are a few scenes where the timing is just so good you wondered who was reacting to who.