The film begins with a father (Andy Clyde) announcing his daughter's engagement. It's obvious she is not thrilled about this and soon her lover appears to elope with her--leaving her fiancé in the dust. The fiancé and her dad pursue them as they look for a minister to legitimize their love. Along the way, a variety of very old fashioned sight gags are used--all of which I have seen in movies also made by Mack Sennett Studios a decade or so earlier.
The 1920s and 30s were not kind to Mack Sennett. The once King of Slapstick was now scrambling to find work and pay bills, as Hal Roach and other producers of comedies had now surpassed him--mostly because Sennett's style was hopelessly locked in the same pattern he made so great in the teens and the gags were by now tired and repetitive. While car chases, people dressed in ridiculous cow costumes and bees in people's pants might have seemed funny, by the time this film came out it was all passé. Quite simply, Roach's comedians like Laurel and Hardy, Charley Chase and the Our Gang were able to change with the times and transitioned well from a broad physical style of comedy (of the silents) to the sound era. However, BEES' BUZZ is practically speaking, an older style silent film with some added sound. And to make things worse, the once very funny Andy Clyde (who wrote and acted in many silent classics) is wasted here in this unfunny mess.
It's no coincidence that the film's opening and closing emblem is a dog--as this film is DEFINITELY one for the dogs! Don't believe the amazingly high score on IMDb for this public domain film--find it on the web and watch it for yourself to see how low Sennett had fallen.
