Poisoned Ivory

Edgar, Florence Lake, Dot Farley and Jack Rice are at their cabin for the winter. After Edgar quarrels with his doctor, Florence gives him his pills -- and thinks she has poisoned him by mistake!

It's a jolly and heartless Christmas entry in Kennedy's long-running "Common Man" series, now in its second year, and the writing is still brisk and varied, with the relationship between Edgar and Florence still possessed of its moments of tenderness and skilled acting. That's one of the things that people don't usually associate with the comedians who, like Edgar, came out of Mack Sennett's comedy troupe. Although he was usually called upon to do two things in most of his feature appearances -- bluster and the Slow Burn -- he was quite capable of turning in a creditable performance. So was Miss Rice.

IMDB lists "Poisoned Ivory" with a running time of 18 minutes, though the copy I found on YouTube ran 21.

The story begins at Christmas and Edgar is in a worse mood than usual. While he justifiably hates his mother-in-law and her son, he's just plain mean. So, when a doctor friend comes to see him, Edgar picks a fight with him and the doc storms out of the house. A bit later, he'll regret that. It's because Mrs. Kennedy thinks she's poisoned him but the brother-in-law told the doctor that this was NOT true....and she was mistaken. So, the doc and brother-in-law decide to teach him a lesson.

This is a good short, though it certainly doesn't cover any new territory as he and his in-laws are ALWAYS at odds in these films. I must say, however, for once he's a lot meaner than them!

This is the perfect anti-Christmas film...with no sweetness, no sentimentality and not holiday spirit. I appreciated this aspect of the film.

Poisoned Ivory (1934)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Edgar Kennedy is trying to enjoy his Christmas but his annoying mother-in-law (Dot Farley) and brother-in-law (Jack Rice) are driving him crazy. Edgar goes to rest when his wife (Florence Lake) thinks that she has given him some poison. Fearing he's dying Edgar tries to make peace with everyone.

I've seen nearly a dozen shorts from this RKO series and the majority of them have been pretty bland. This here is certainly the best I've seen as it contains some very funny moments but it also has the same weak spots as others. The bad stuff is the fact that the family members aren't funny but instead deadly annoying. Being as annoying as they are makes you want them to simply go away. With that said, once the story kicks in dealing with Edgar dying things pick up and actually turn funny. Edgar's "dying" phase certainly had me laughing as well as the reactions from the family.