On the Loose

Thelma Todd and Zasu Pitts bemoan the fact that every time they have a date, it seems the guys want to take them to Coney Island. While this amusement park was a hot spot for young people, it was probably the same old same old. We get scenes of the two begrudgingly trying to look like they are having fun. Dating was interesting because these two were at the mercy of the guy who asked them out. They are both interesting actress. I remember Zasu in Erich Von Stroheim's epic movie "Greed." In that she plays a woman who becomes obsessed with her savings. Mostly she was a gawky comedy actress. This is lightweight but probably best remembered for the two guys that show up at her door at the conclusion of the film.

I've long known about this Hal Roach-directed short because of its inclusion in a book about a famous comedy team but the actual stars of this one were Thelma Todd and Zazu Pitts, a female version of that other famous comedy team. In this one, the girls are tired of another date to Coney Island. The next day they get splashed mud by a car that happened to pass them by. A man sees them and offers to buy them new clothes. He then gets a date with one of them and offers his friend for the other. I'll stop there and just say this was quite a treat to watch especially when we see where they end up in and also the reveal of that famous comedy team when it's almost all over... P. S. What a treat to also see such familiar faces like Billy Gilbert and Charlie Hall here!

The comedy team of of Pitts and Todd find themselves unable to get a date to anywhere but Coney Island but feel they are headed uptown when a Euro bon vivant in his flashy car splashes them with mud. He springs for new duds and asks them out on a date with his pal to where else but.

The girls are their usually entertainingly clumsy clownish selves but this time with a decided advantage over their cad pursuers. The girls and the rubes play well off each other harmlessly and the pair have a fun scene in the dark bonding over past jaunts to Coney but Billy Gilbert's effeminate dress designer is outrageously hilarious especially if you are familiar with his extensive career of playing blustery, frustrated characters. With a surprise ending regarding their last pair of dates suggesting they go to you guessed it makes On the loose a pretty tight short.

It looks like Hal Roach was attempting to popularise the pairing of the gorgeous Thelma Todd and Zasu Pitts here by including cameos by Laurel & Hardy and their occasional nemesis Charlie Hall. This film actually re-works a number of ideas from one of Laurel & Hardy's silent shorts - mostly in the Coney Island funfair locations - even using the same shaky hand-held shots.

The film is quite good of it's kind and Todd and Pitt work well together - especially in the scene in which they reminisce about all the losers who have taken them to Coney Island - their least favourite destination - on dates. Billy Gilbert also stands out as the camp dressmaker who finds it impossible to describe his creations without embarrassing himself and hides his true character behind his effeminate manner. And of course, a film only needs ninety seconds of Laurel & Hardy to be lifted immeasurably.

ON THE LOOSE

Aspect ratio: 1.37:1

Sound format: Mono

(Black and white - Short film)

Two young party girls (ZaSu Pitts and Thelma Todd) are romanced by a couple of clueless Brits (John Loder and Claud Allister) who take them out to their least favorite place on earth - Coney Island - where they suffer a series of adventures and indignities.

Part of an attempt by producer-director Hal Roach to recreate the successful Laurel and Hardy formula with other performers, this lumbering comedy is long on sight gags and short on laughs. Pitts and Todd - neither of them strangers to this kind of material - fail to strike many sparks as a potential 'comedy team', and the scenario is both obvious and heavy-handed. There's a surprising amount of risqué material, much of it revolving around gay stereotypes: Roach regular Billy Gilbert camps it up as an effeminate haute couturier, much embarrassed whenever he tries to describe the manner in which his dresses emphasize various parts of a woman's anatomy (however, a gruff aside to his staff reveals the campery to be a mere façade), and Allister plays his Brit character as a queenish fop, caught up in a running gag which finds him falling repeatedly into the arms of a young woman and her hot-tempered boyfriend, and he's more than happy to accommodate *both* of them! Laurel and Hardy make an unbilled appearance at the very end of the movie, and there's a brief cameo by frequent L&H co-star Charlie Hall.