Slightly Static

Slightly Static (1935)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

One of the least enjoyable of the Thelma Todd/Patsy Kelly series from Hal Roach. This time out the girls play "actresses" trying to land a job on the radio but no one is interested in seeing them until there's a walk-out due to the station owner's son getting a shot to do his horrible story. The kid ends up hiring Thelma and Patsy and of course things don't go too well. I'm sure the majority of the people know that Thelma Todd would soon be dead and I'm sure most people know that 1935 was a very troubled year for the star. There were several times were the studio had to give her a break from her duties and I'm curious if this was such a time because it's strange that there are so many "other acts" being shown here. You get a musical act from The Randall Sisters as well as another from Sons of the Pioneers. Neither act is what I'd call good but what they deliver is certainly better than the second half of the film, which has Todd and Kelly putting on this play. As you'd expect, Kelly goes way over-the-top and isn't funny but instead becomes quite annoying. She's doing way too much mugging and pushing to be funny. Todd, on the other hand, delivers a cute smile but very little else. The main interest this film might have for people is that Roy Rogers made his debut as a member of the Sons of the Pioneers.

Patsy Kelly shows herself to be a very good dancer, and very funny when she goes into a a sort of hi de ho routine which Todd cuts short. It's actually a fun look at the world of radio in the early thirties at L O C O which is supposed to be located in New York. When the actors of the broadcast refuse to play animal characters in an insipid play Todd and Kelly take over. Todd is "spring" and Kelly is "groundhog" among other characters. Kelly gives a very wacky reading making the most of the dopy dialog. Todd plays "spring" straight to no effect. The audience takes this play as an uproarious farce. It's comical. I like the Kelly and Todd pairing. Kelly is a good comedian who is nearly forgotten and that's too bad. She sang...she danced. The Randall Sisters sing a ditty in an odd western or southern twang which is a curiosity in this short. The Sons of the Pioneers have little to do. If Roy Rogers is among them, I missed him. I'll have to watch again.

This film's formula isn't that different from most of the Thelma Todd/Patsy Kelly shorts. Thelma is pretty but has little personality and Patsy is loud, brash and overbearing. The only major difference is that this time they get jobs at a radio station putting on a sappy radio program and this setting is even more dull than what you usually find in their films. The jokes, such as they are, aren't funny and just fall flat again and again. To make things worse, one of the singing groups (a trio) is among the most horrible I have ever seen and heard...and at least that helps the viewer to be distracted from how boorish Kelly is when she breaks into an intense tap dance routine (which she did three or four times during the film). Not the least bit entertaining despite being made by Hal Roach studios. This turkey is only for devoted fans of the comedy team.

This is probably this duo's "Berthmarks," which you may recall features Stan and Babe as two struggling musicians aboard a train, one carrying a bass fiddle, the other, well, we're not sure what instrument the other one plays, but it's a creaky classic that shows just how economical those two could be, and get the most amount of laughs over something as simple as that.

I compare these two shorts because it's about as claustrophobic as you'll ever see either pair, with the girls showing off their diamond-studded talents at the local radio station, LOCO. Patsy dances, shows us some of that fancy 5th Avenue footwork, and wow! Can she dance. Thelma... well... she's here, too, though I'm not sure for exactly what at the moment. But they've played a couple of big and small towns, and now they're in this one-horse burg and they're gonna put on a show for the folks at home or my name's not Cornbread Jones! And it isn't!

It's a charmer, though, something I don't think "Berthmarks" was, quite frankly, and I think its positively adorable with all the cute little animal voices and silly bubbles Thelma blows into the air after swallowing some soap, regardless of the ever-prevalent claustrophobic vibe.

It almost makes one wish that we were all little woodland creatures performing a radio program, or something nearly as adorable. Adorability is certainly the word to use here, and it is off the charts! We're talking about a ten registering on the adorable scale.