Lambchops

This being the film debut of the comedy team of George Burns and Gracie Allen, it's fascinating to watch a vaudeville act that had been formed just a few years earlier provide their pretty amusing banter that they use here to fill seven minutes. Among the many amusements from them: George-"What man in the army has the biggest hat?" Gracie-"The one with the biggest head." or George-"What sings with four legs?" Gracie-"Two canaries." George, tired of having Gracie steal his punchlines then asks and answers, "What gives more milk than a cow? Two cows!" They also go into a song and dance routine with more amusing patter before they realize they have a few more time to fill. If you're familiar with Burns and Allen, you can probably guess what happens. So on that note, I recommend Lambchops for anyone interested in these vintage shorts.

George and Gracie enter an elegant drawing room, looking everywhere for something. Turns out, they're looking for the audience, and when George spots the camera, they start in on their patter.

Comedian Fred Allen was slated to film one of his comedy routines but had come down with the flu, leaving the studio in the lurch. Burns was told that the job paid $1,700, so he said yes on the spot. "I'd never heard of $1,700 in my life, especially for nine minutes' work," Burns quipped.

Now, this may not be the funniest thing you ever heard, but it makes for a nice debut for Gracie Allen and George Burns. Gracie may be semi-forgotten today, but Burns remains a comedy legend, and seeing him this early in his career is a treat.

An early Vitaphone film, this Warner Brothers short apparently was one created using a very complicated system through which an accompanying record was synchronized with a movie camera. There were several serious setbacks for such a system (such as if a film skipped--it became out of sync for the rest of the film plus the records quickly wore out--and 20 showings was the normal life-span of the records) and even though it produced excellent sound, it was eventually replaced. The last of the Vitaphone films were made in 1930, then the studio switched to the standard sound-on-film system.

This is Burns & Allen's first screen performance. Because it's so early, the team's style is different from what you might have come to expect. George is more of a shyster than he'd play later--with jokes about him stealing his brother-in-law's stuff. As for Gracie, she's ditsy, but less so than in later films. Their banter is also a bit different because it's a bit faster paced--like they later deliberately slowed it down for the audiences.

In addition to their comedy, you can see the team's vaudeville roots as they sing and dance a nice little number together. While neither George nor Gracie would have ever been accused of having great voices, the song works because it's within their range and was quite sweet.

Overall, a charming little short--one of the better shorts of the early sound era.

This amusing Vitaphone short captures George Burns & Gracie Allen in the full bloom of their stage success in vaudeville. The duo made their screen debut in 'Lambchops,' but based on their calm self-assurance before the camera you'd never guess it was their first film. In 1929 they were still young, the act was fresh and the jokes were new—well, fairly new, anyway. The highlight of the routine as performed here is a charming song and dance punctuated with punch-lines, effortlessly executed, or so it appears. George & Gracie are sweet and funny throughout, and their comic rapport is a joy to behold.

One of the trademarks of the Burns & Allen TV show of the '50s was George's special relationship with the viewer, i.e. the way he could step out of the action, turn to the camera and address us. It's interesting to find that even here in his screen debut, Burns is aware of the audience, and is already breaking through the fourth wall. The setting for the sketch is a drawing room decorated in high Art Deco style, and the short begins as George and Gracie enter without fanfare and begin to look under chairs and tables, seemingly for some missing item. They're looking for the audience! It's George who first "sees" us, and calls his discovery to Gracie's attention. Once the audience has been acknowledged the team launch into their act, a series of jokes, puns, and similar verbal acrobatics on a wide array of unrelated topics: family, cars, boats, crossword puzzles, and what to do when you jump from a plane and your parachute doesn't open. Gracie drives the routine with her characteristic dizzy dame act—though her genuine intelligence shines through, as it also would for Judy Holliday—while George acts as the calm, sane master of ceremonies, perennially irritated yet strangely drawn to this crazy woman. When they first teamed up, George planned to be the comedian while Gracie was merely supposed to feed him straight lines, but they soon found that her delivery was getting all the laughs. At one point in 'Lambchops' the duo seem to be making an ironic reference to this, when George attempts to tell a few jokes and Gracie keeps stepping on his laughs by jumping ahead to the punch-lines.

Most of the jokes are pretty corny, but the duo punch 'em across anyhow, and then wrap up the act with "Do You Believe Me," a cute song they later recorded. Gracie's dancing is graceful, and her singing voice is thin but quite nice; George sounds just like the George Burns we recall from TV talk shows, decades later. When the song is over we expect a quick fade-out, but the team remain on stage with the camera still rolling and no finale prepared, or so they pretend. Once more it's Mr. Burns who first becomes aware of the situation. He calls "us" (i.e. those unseen viewers) to his partner's attention, and eventually manages to ease their way off stage with one more gag. This final bit reveals that comic shtick involving a performer seemingly lacking material and nervously aware of being watched, i.e. the Actor's Nightmare routine, has been around longer than we might think. In any case, 'Lambchops' is a must for fans of Burns & Allen, vaudeville, Vitaphone shorts, and anyone who enjoys seeing a solid comedy routine smoothly handled by a pair of pros.

... which were recorded between 1926 and 1930 using the sound on disc VItaphone system by Warner Brothers. It is a good record of the basic framework of George and Gracie's act for decades. In fact, George and Gracie performed this exact skit on their TV show in the 1950s and it was still funny.

George and Gracie basically reproduce the act that had made them successful in vaudeville, which is George playing straight man to Gracie's dizzy statements. But then every now and then she outsmarts him, such as when he tells a series of jokes and she steals the punchlines. Burns always said he was a failure as a vaudevillian until he got Gracie as a partner and then everything began to fall into place.

George and Gracie "got" performing before the camera - this was their first appearance on screen just three years after they married. For that matter, it seemed most comedians got the knack of it too. I guess being a comedian before tough live audiences made doing their act before a Vitaphone camera booth a breeze.

This short is not hard to find today. Strangely enough, quite a few of Warner Brothers' Vitaphone shorts survive while many of their feature films were either accidentally lost or deliberately destroyed in the 1940s.