The Lady and the Lug

Famous society hostess Elsa Maxwell starred in this short subject, The Lady And The Lug in which America's most famous party giver goes into the highly esoteric field of prize fight manager.

Her nephew and reporter future TV Superman George Reeves wins Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom's contract in a poker game. Rosenbloom who was the light heavyweight champion for a number of years in the early Thirties was now playing fighters for a living and other amiable, but not too bright pugs on the screen.

Elsa is looking for a gimmick for a charity event and Reeves gives her the bright idea to sponsor a prize fight. Maxie goes into training and Elsa right along with him.

The fight itself goes down as one of the classic boxing spoofs of the screen right up there with Harold Lloyd's The Milk Way and Abbott&Costello Meet The Invisible Man. The Lady And The Lug is a good short subject comedy from Warner Brothers and gives us one of Elsa Maxwell's few big screen appearances.

This is a rare screen appearance by party giver Elsa Maxwell. Here, she plays herself and is teamed with Slapsy Maxie Rosenbloom and George "Superman" Reeves. Warners comedy shorts were hit or miss, but this one is definitely a hit. Who would ever believe Maxwell as a slapstick comedienne? But she's really good here. Reeves plays it straight while Rosenbloom shows good comedy style. It is doubly funny that Maxwell is the butt of a number of the slapstick gags. She's a natural before the camera. If I had been unaware of her, I would have thought she was a vaudeville comedienne. Rosenbloom does his usual punch drunk routine and Reeves is as smooth as silk. The Romeo and Juliet parody in the middle of the film is hysterical. Even the comedy boxing scene, an idea which had been done to death, is fresh and funny. Add to this the always welcome, bass heavy Warners background music, and you have a winning, funny short.

Lady and the Lug, The (1941)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Elsa Maxwell, a famous gossip columnist, plays herself here. Her nephew (George Reeves) wins the contract of a boxer (Max "Slapsie" Rosenbloom) during a poker game and decides to make him fight for a special benefit. This Warner short isn't the greatest comedy ever written and there's no doubt that it's not Oscar-worthy material but there's enough charm and imagination to it that fans of comedies should certainly check it out. What makes the film worth viewing is the fact that both Maxwell and Rosenbloom are willing to make themselves look like idiots in order to get a laugh. I've become a fan of Rosenbloom over the years as I find the former boxer to have a nice comic timing and he's certainly very capable of playing dumb. I was surprised to see how many jokes Maxwell makes about herself and how much abuse she goes through in the film. The highlight of the movie is when the two perform the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet. The final boxing match is fairly funny even if it is predictable.

To make her charity do a success, Georgia Caine has Elsa Maxwell stage a fight between Slapsie MAxie Rosenbloom and Frank Hagney, aka "One Punch Maguirk."

Most of the humor in this short comes from the contrast between Rosenbloom's dese-dem-doze personality and Miss Maxwell's linkage to high society. Actually, Miss Maxwell wasn't high society, but one of those people who make themselves useful to the idle rich, and become famous for being celebrities as a result. She started out devising games for rich peoples' parties, and wound up being an social arbiter and gossip columnist