Catch-As Catch-Can

I've always enjoyed watching Zazu Pitts but do kinda feel sorry for her that she was typecast so early in her career. In this one, she is a little less dithery than usual and suitably amusing. Zazu and Thelma are friends who work as switchboard operators at the Empire Hotel. There's a bit early in the short where a drunk is trying to make a phone call; at one point a bumble bee (how likely is that?) lands on the phone's old fashioned mouth piece buzzing away and the drunk hangs up saying "busy." Simple humor but I like it. Thelma's boyfriend manages a wrestler nicknamed "Strangler." He's homesick for the family farm in Kansas and plans to leave prior to a big fight on which his manager has bet a bundle. "Strangler" falls for Zazu and agrees to fight. I thought the fight scenes and the business with Zazu's hat was pretty funny – this short was pleasant and amusing although not a "laugh-out-loud comedy.