I'll Be Suing You

I'll Be Suing You (1934)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Thelma Todd and Patsy Kelly are in their car speeding when they accidentally bump into the back of a parked truck. A no-good lawyer arrives on the scene and talks the girls into pretending that they're hurt so they can get some quick cash. This short features some of the most annoying attempts at comedy that you're likely to see. Kelly was obviously a talented lady and could be funny but at the same time she also had the ability to go so over-the-top that you'd want to blow your own brains out and that's the case here. She was always loud and in your face but nothing quite like what she does here. There are several scenes where she just screams at the top of her lungs and this here was nearly enough to make one want to turn the film off. The loudness of her character was just downright annoying and especially during some of the early scenes where she's fighting with the lawyer after the wreck. Todd, on the other hand, manages to be pretty good but for some reason the screenplay doesn't offer her too much to do and for the most part she just gets to sit around and watch Kelly go wild. There are a few funny sequences in the film including one where a telephone repairman enters the room and the girls mistake him for the insurance man. What follows is certainly the best laughs in the film.

The girls crash into a truck whose driver we never meet, and that's the biggest shame of the thing. Ambulance chaser Eddie Foy wastes no time in trying to get these dames to squeeze every last dollar out of the insurance people. Foy tips a hat that topples onto Patsy's top, he hands them his card, and is now representing them. Easy money, huh? We'll see about that, providing the girls play ball, recite their lines properly, and play their cards right.

When the adjustors (one of them is Fred Kelsey who plays the smarter cop in "Hot Money") come to see what's up, it's up to Foy and the girls to keep the charade up. Everyone's okay, obviously, and there's even a sweet little part involving a mouse what's crawling up Patsy's leg. Va va va voom. Some mice have all the fun! Lots of moaning going on here. Love the moaning.

"It was a lovely morning in spring."

Dimples all over. Charley Rogers tickles a rib as the telephone repair man.

There's really not much to it, and I'm kinda sad these reviews are almost as long as the length of the shorts themselves... sometimes the shorts are shorter, sometimes vice versa...

One will argue it isn't up to par with the other shorts; that Foy's song-and-dance man approach gets a little grating after a while, but I find this one of his finest moments. Catch him in "Roamin' Vandals" as the snake oil man, if ya can and have a mind to.