On the Loose

The comedy team of of Pitts and Todd find themselves unable to get a date to anywhere but Coney Island but feel they are headed uptown when a Euro bon vivant in his flashy car splashes them with mud. He springs for new duds and asks them out on a date with his pal to where else but.

The girls are their usually entertainingly clumsy clownish selves but this time with a decided advantage over their cad pursuers. The girls and the rubes play well off each other harmlessly and the pair have a fun scene in the dark bonding over past jaunts to Coney but Billy Gilbert's effeminate dress designer is outrageously hilarious especially if you are familiar with his extensive career of playing blustery, frustrated characters. With a surprise ending regarding their last pair of dates suggesting they go to you guessed it makes On the loose a pretty tight short.

Thelma Todd and Zasu Pitts bemoan the fact that every time they have a date, it seems the guys want to take them to Coney Island. While this amusement park was a hot spot for young people, it was probably the same old same old. We get scenes of the two begrudgingly trying to look like they are having fun. Dating was interesting because these two were at the mercy of the guy who asked them out. They are both interesting actress. I remember Zasu in Erich Von Stroheim's epic movie "Greed." In that she plays a woman who becomes obsessed with her savings. Mostly she was a gawky comedy actress. This is lightweight but probably best remembered for the two guys that show up at her door at the conclusion of the film.

It looks like Hal Roach was attempting to popularise the pairing of the gorgeous Thelma Todd and Zasu Pitts here by including cameos by Laurel & Hardy and their occasional nemesis Charlie Hall. This film actually re-works a number of ideas from one of Laurel & Hardy's silent shorts - mostly in the Coney Island funfair locations - even using the same shaky hand-held shots.

The film is quite good of it's kind and Todd and Pitt work well together - especially in the scene in which they reminisce about all the losers who have taken them to Coney Island - their least favourite destination - on dates. Billy Gilbert also stands out as the camp dressmaker who finds it impossible to describe his creations without embarrassing himself and hides his true character behind his effeminate manner. And of course, a film only needs ninety seconds of Laurel & Hardy to be lifted immeasurably.

This movie is very light to watch and has some nice humor in it. It also provides us with a good view of how fairs looked like in the '30's. It was especially fun and weird to see that the adults were having just as much fun as children on the fair.

There basically of course is very little story present but there are more than enough sequences and humor present to make us forget that. The characters in the movie are also really good and strong enough to carry the movie. Zasu Pitts and Thelma Todd formed a pretty good comical duo. Claud Allister was also good and quite fun to watch in the movie, as an over-the-top English chap.

There also are surprising quite a few sexual-references present, even some homosexual-references, which was all quite daring for its time.

At the very end of the movie we also see two very well known boys, none other than Laurel & Hardy, who want to ask the girls out.

Good fun, directed by Mr. Hal Roach himself.

7/10

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On the Loose (1931)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Zasu Pitts and Thelma Todd are tired of all their dates taking them to Coney Island. They finally meet a couple gentlemen who they think highly of but the surprise date turns out to be another trip to Coney Island. Pitts and Todd really don't bring too much to this film but things pick up once they arrive at Coney Island. The biggest laugh comes from the cameo by Laurel and Hardy.

Along Came Auntie (1926)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Screwball comedy has a woman wanting to inherit $100,000 from her aunt so she must pretend to be married to her first husband (Oliver Hardy), which doesn't sit too well with her new husband. There's nothing overly funny or original here but the rather violent fighting gets a few laughs and Hardy is as energetic as ever.