So You Want to Be a V.P.

So You Want to Be a V.P. (1955)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Another nice entry in the Joe McDoakes series has our hero working at a company who promotes their own employees when one dies. Joe's Vice President passes away so Homer gives him some tips on what he can do to the boss to get noticed. Considering it's Joe McDoakes we're talking about it goes without saying that nothing goes as planned. SO YOU WANT TO BE A V.P. certainly isn't the highlight of the series but there are enough nice jokes to make it worth sitting through and especially if you're a fan. You could easily say the screenplay is rather weak as we get Joe and Homer sitting in the office where Homer will tell the dumb one something and then we get a quick flash to what happens. One example is Joe getting a hot secretary for his boss but of course his wife shows up. Another example has McDoakes pretending to work all night even though he actually went home. Towards the end there's a sequence clearly influenced by CITY LIGHTS as the boss, who hasn't paid any attention to Joe, finally gets drunk and the two become best friends but of course in the morning the boss doesn't remember anything that happened the night before. Once again George O'Hanlon is in fine form as McDoakes and he clearly makes the laughs work.

It seems that one of the company's vice presidents has died and the boss is considering who to appoint in the man's place. Joe wants the job and foolishly goes to his co-worker Homer in order to get advice on what to do to win the boss over to his side. But, again and again, the plans backfire...and Joe ends up making things much worse.

So is this one any good? Not especially, but it is mildly entertaining with a decent punchline at the end. Skipable but not especially bad.