So You Think You're Not Guilty

George O'Hanlon is on the hook for a $2 traffic fine. But being O'Hanlon, he insists he is not guilty and hires jailed lawyer Ted Stanhope to defend him.

It's based on an old vaudeville skit in which a man's lawyer insists on fighting a traffic ticket. While the man keeps saying "Pay the $2!" the situation grows worse until he's going to be executed.

This being one of Richard Bare's absurd short, the situation includes blind eye-witnesses, and O'Hanlon caught up in a jailbreak. There's lots of fun in this episode, which got a well deserved Oscar nomination. With Phyllis Coates, Douglas Fowley, Fred Kelsey and Paul Panzer.

I just watched this on cable. It is part of the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) On Demand series that is free with my digital cable service. I'm looking forward to more in the series.

Speaking of the "So You ..." series: According to IMDb.com, George O'Hanlon starred as Joe McDoakes in about 65 of these shorts from 1942 to 1956. Titles included:

"So You Want to Keep Your Hair" "So You Want to Be a Gladiator" "So You Think the Grass is Greener" "So You're Wife Wants to Work"

You get the idea.

By the way, I recognized Phyllis Coates of Lois Lane fame right away (she appeared in 17 or so of these) but I didn't recognize the George O'Hanlon name. However, after listening to him for awhile I realized where I had heard the voice: GEORGE JETSON!

So You Think You're Not Guilty (1950)

*** (out of 4)

One of the better entries in the series has Joe McDoakes (George O'Hanlon) running a traffic light but instead of pleading guilty and paying two dollars, he decides to fight the charges, which just ends up costing him more fines and prison time. There were over sixty of these shorts made and they were certainly hit and miss but this here is one of the better ones. The entire situation is handled very well by director Bare who also wrote the screenplay, which has plenty of nice twists and turns throughout the nine minute running time. There are countless highlight but the best one is a scene where McDoakes is forced to break out of jail, which of course just gets him into more trouble. There's several scenes that perfectly spoof the gangster and courtroom drama films out at the time as well.

Just watched this Vitaphone Joe McDoakes comedy short starring George O'Hanlon on YouTube. In this one, Joe runs a traffic sign that keeps gong "up and down" as he gets stopped by a traffic cop. It doesn't help Joe's case when he doesn't have his license or registration so he goes to court and then jail for contempt. I'll stop there and just say this was one of the more cleverly funny entries in the short comedy series that ran from the early '40s through the '50s. Many funny sight gags abound and wait till you see who the witnesses in the court are! If the voice of O'Hanlon sounds familiar, then you probably watched "The Jetsons" when you were a kid since he was the voice of George Jetson. Anyway, I highly recommend So You Think You're Not Guilty.

I can't say I found this particularly amusing since the Joe McDoakes character is extremely irritating and foolish to resist paying the $2 and going free by putting up protests until he lands in jail on a ten-year sentence. GEORGE O'HANLON is Joe in this series that was popular during the '50s.

It's a cliché ridden script--done much more briskly by Edward Arnold and Victor Moore in MGM's "Ziegfeld Follies of 1946" wherein Moore is the stubborn man who ends up in jail for not paying the two dollars, in a skit called "Pay the Two Dollars!"

It's moderately amusing but not hilarious, as intended. DOUGLAS FOWLEY (best remembered as the over-excited director in SINGIN' IN THE RAIN), has an uncredited bit.

Too many of the gags, built around one theme, fall flat.