You're Telling Me

Mickey Daniels and Grady Sutton visit Gordon Douglas for an overnight visit and stay for months, wreaking havoc on his parents home in this entry in the Hal Roach series, THE BOY FRIENDS.

It has some interesting players, including Billy Gilbert as Douglas's father, Louise Beavers as the maid, and Julie Bishop -- credited as Jacqueline Wells -- as the girl next door. Gilbert gets to do some his explosive anger in this good comedy.

YOU'RE TELLING ME is a '32 comedy short that is decidedly dated in concept and performance--but at least BILLY GILBERT (the rotund comedian famous for his sneezing--he was the voice for Sneezy in "Snow White and the Seven Dwards"), makes the whole short worth watching.

He does his famous stint as a much put upon father of GORDON DOUGLAS (who became a Warner Bros. director in later years). It's a good thing Douglas turned to directing. He's certainly no actor.

The thin plot has GORDON DOUGLAS, GRADY SUTTON and MICKEY DANIELS, all college boys, spending time with Douglas' family. From the start, everything goes wrong at a party for Douglas and Billy Gilbert is in for a raw deal. The worst things happen to him until the slapstick finale when everyone gets cake in the face (instead of pie)! Silly and sophomoric and as dated as can be.

From 1930 through 1932, Hal Roach Studios made a series of 15 films in the "Boy Friends series. They starred ex-Little Rascals actor Mickey Daniels and most also featured a group of stock actors (usually including Grady Sutton). These college films were sort of like the Little Rascals grown up and were of average quality--though too many featured Mickey doing the most god-awful laugh known to film. Thankfully, this gimmick was not in every film and that's why YOU'RE TELLING ME is one of the better films in the series.

The film begins with Mickey and Grady talking with a visiting friend. The friend invites them to visit him sometime. Little did he know that almost immediately these two freeloaders would come knocking. The parents don't want to be rude, so they ask them to stay for a couple days. Unfortunately, these days turned into months and again and again the boys drive everyone crazy with their Laurel and Hardy-like antics. They break everything and way overstay their welcome.

The film is very enjoyable and fortunately Mickey never laughs and the gags seem a bit fresher and more genuine than the norm. While not a great film, it's a good example from the era and stacks up pretty well with the studio's other fare, such as Stan and Ollie as well as Charley Chase.

This is one of the final shorts in Hal Roach's "Boy Friends" series. The spotlight is on Mickey and Grady, who have come to the city to visit Gordon and his family. Billy Gilbert, as Gordon's father is hysterical. There is a good deal of slapstick and the action is beautifully punctuated by the Leroy Shield background music, so familiar to Laurel and Hardy and Our Gang fans.

You're Telling Me (1932)

*** (out of 4)

Short film in Hal Roach's "Boyfriends" series has Mickey (Mickey Daniels) and Alabama (Grady Sutton) imposing on their best friend. They're only suppose to stay with him for a day but this then turns into weeks, which drives his parents crazy. I'll be honest and admit that I had never heard of this series before this film showed up on Turner Classic Movies but after watching it I certainly hope they air more. I wasn't sure what to expect and of course I didn't have anything to compare it to but this movie certainly made me interesting in seeing the others, which I guess is the best thing I could say. I found the humor to be quite entertaining and the constantly jokes about trying to be Southern were pretty funny. We get some typical Roach comedy like a cake fight but other than that most of the comedy comes from the actors. Comic veteran Billy Gilbert steals the film as the friend's father who slowly goes crazy.