User reviews

One thing that we know for sure. THE JOE McDOAKES comedies were not meant to be seen one after another. There is little chance of any Revival Movie House or any Movie Cable Network featuring a Joe McDoakes Retrospective, nor any "Evening With Joe McDoakes".

Mr. Richard L. Bare (Writer/Director) and Mr. George O'Hanlon (Writer/Actor-) certainly must have done something right, for the series continued for about 13 years and was highly successful in a period when The Short Subject Field was rapidly disappearing from the Theatrical Film World.

In addition to some typical antics featuring Joe getting the 'Acting Bug' and receiving correspondence school lessons, this episode takes us out of the McDoakes' Home and down to the Movie Studio. In this case, of course, it is Warner Brothers' own studio playing itself in front of the camera. (That's a Joke, Son!) The one thing that makes this entry into the series is that very thing alluded to previously. That is the filming at the studio off of the sound stages. It includes cameos by numerous Warner Bros. contract players tops off this production, giving it that little extra.

We are treated to the appearance of Martha Vickers, Alexis Smith,Janis Page, Wayne Morris and one Actor and Future U.S. President, "Ronnie" Reagan.

But probably the best point of this McDoakes episode is provided by Mr. Jack Carson. Jack does a little bit of interplay with George O'Hanlon that is truly funny and just so unique to the sort of schtick only Jack Carson would do.

George O'Hanlon stars as Joe McDoakes in one of several Warner Brothers shorts that were shown with feature films through the mid-20th century. His character is always "behind the 8-ball."

In this short, McDoakes is an out-of-work or would-be actor who's hungry and goes into a restaurant for a meal. That leads to the best line in the film.

After folding the main menu and putting it in his shoe over the worn hole, he looks at the specials board. When the waiter comes over to take his order, he asks, "What're you asking for soup?" The waiter answers, "A dime." McDoakes then says, "I'll have a bowl of hot water," and the waiter yells to the kitchen, "One actor's special. Make it hot."

So You Want to Be an Actor (1949)

*** (out of 4)

Joe McDoakes (George O'Hanlon) is a broke and out of work actor who gets a job as a stand-in but of course he messes that up when stage fright hits him. Having now seen well over twenty films in this series there's no question that they stuck to one basic formula with the main goal being to make people laugh. That formula holds true here as we get all sorts of silly situations meant to make us laugh and for the most part these jokes work well. There's a nice sequence at the start of the film where Joe, being broke, just orders hot water and then puts ketchup in it to make it soup. The scenes where Joe finally gets on stage have a couple goods twists in them as does another funny sequence where he tries to kill himself but it doesn't work out like he had planned. This film certainly isn't a masterpiece but if you're a fan of the series then you're going to find quite a bit to enjoy here.

In the 1940s and 50s, Warner Brothers made a ton of Joe McDokes shorts starring George O'Hanlon. Although the films were rarely bad, they were rarely that good, either--and this one, "So You Want to Be an Actor" is no exception. It's the ultimately in mediocrity.

Joe wants to be an actor and throughout the short he messes up one rehearsal or job after another. Most of the humor is a bit forced and silly but on a brain-dead level, you can laugh and appreciate Joe's antics. Does this sound like I am less than enthusiastic about the film? Well, that would be correct. A time-passer and not a lot more.

If you want to see this one, it's included as a DVD extra on the Doris Day film "My Dream is Yours".