Sure Cures

That's the name that Dave O'Brien goes by in this funny short. He had spent most of the 1930s as a minor cowboy star and director of oaters before he hooked up with a Smith called Pete for the last ten years or so of Pete's career as a producer-narrator of comedy one-reelers for MGM. This early one was nominated for an Oscar, possibly because O'Brien didn't wear his toupee for part of this one when Pete is discussing non-existent cures for baldness, among issues of how many glasses of water you have to drink to put down the hiccups or which side of the bed you should sleep on. Or maybe it's because MGM pushed this one on the Academy. Whatever. It's very enjoyable.

After Pete stopped making them in 1955, O'Brien -- or Barclay, depending on whether he was writing, directing or taking a pratfall -- went to work writing for Red Skelton's TV show. He won an Emmy for that work.

Though this does rather labour the points it makes, it still manages to poke some fun as this poor chap (Dave O'Brien) tries all manner of cures he might have bought from a quack medicine show to stop everything from baldness to sleep deprivation and then hiccups. The first of his ailments offers narrator Pete Smith a chance to showcase the range of miracle cures available as his hairline recedes, whilst the make-up artists have some fun creating his ever exposing scalp. Then the poor fella, whose hair appears to have now stabilised, cannot get to sleep. Perhaps that's down to his wife's snoring, or to a squeaky mattress - he appears to be sleeping on some wartime army surplus contraption. Finally, perhaps he is attempting to solve his previous problem by turning himself into a water bed to eradicate his hiccups. Maybe he should just have taken a pill, or a pillow? Simple, but still quite good fun.

This is another of the Pete Smith Specialities, which was co-written and directed by Dave O'Brien, who plays the poor fool with the hiccoughs. He tries various "remedies" to "cure" himself (some of which Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition might have applauded) to no avail. It's all great fun, for everyone but the poor twit. O'Brien frequently played a character not likely to be joining Mensa any time soon in these shorts. This runs on TCM as filler fairly often and virtually every March as part of the "31 Days of Oscar". Most recommended.

"Sure Cures" is an 11-minute short that played with an MGM feature film in late 1946. This appears as a Pete Smith Specialty, in which Pete Smith narrates and Dave O'Brien is the sole member of the cast. These shorts are types of docudramas that the major studios made in the early decades of sound pictures. I just watched this as a bonus item on the DVD release of a 1946 Esther Williams movie that was actually made nearly half a year before the short was filmed.

This one is a comical portrayal of so-called home remedies and market place cures for certain conditions. In this case, O'Brien's character, Xavier Schmeckendorff, tries the various means to stop baldness, cure insomnia and overcome the hiccups. I can recall these type of shorts being slightly funny, or more goofy than funny, way back when. But, most often they were the wamups before the main feature film that allowed one to be a little late, or finish buying popcorn or candy in the lobby before the start of the films. But, as I recall, previews showed first, then these shorts, and then the cartoon right before the feature. We always tried to be on time to see the cartoons.

I recently read an older book by Leonard Maltin all about Hollywood shorts. In it, he seemed to have an appreciation of the Pete Smith films that I just have never found myself. I'm not at all saying he's wrong--but the films just haven't appealed to me because of Smith's VERY broad narration as well as the corny humor.

In this installment, Smith narrates as Dave O'Brien does the acting--the same pattern that the pair followed through the 40s and 50s. This film is about home remedies for minor problems and you see O'Brien work on growing hair, curing insomnia and ridding himself of hiccups. The best of the jokes are only okay--many others fall flat. The only part that interested me were the segments on baldness because O'Brien sure looks bald--and either the makeup people did a great job or he hid his hairpiece very well in previous installments of the series. You know it's pretty bad when THIS is the best thing about the short!