Mutiny in the County

When neighborhood boys break his windows playing baseball, Edgar throws the ball away in a temper -- through a window in a police car, hitting a cop. When he goes to the courthouse the next day, it's Boy's Day and all the municipal officers are children -- and his judge is one of yesterday's ball players.

The delight of Edgar Kennedy's "Common Man" short-subject series at RKO (it ran from 1932 through his death in 1948) was watching him deal with his increasing frustration with his patented "slow burn", waiting for his anger to boil over into violence. Given the absurdity of the situation, this is a particularly fine comedy.

Besides series semi-regulars Vivien Oakland (as his wife) and Billy Franey (as his father-in-law), Fred Kelsey, perennial dumb cop of silent and sound comedy, is on hand as a .... dumb cop!

During the 1930s and 40s, Edgar Kennedy made a bunch of domestic comedies for RKO Studio. Most of them find Edgar saddled with hellishly awful in-laws! In this case, instead of the usual mother-in-law and brother-in-law, Edgar's stuck with a father-in-law who, as usual, meddles in Edgar's life.

The plot to "Mutiny in the County" is incredibly contrived and impossible to take seriously. The story begins with Edgar putting up with a lot of crap from not only his father-in-law but the neighbor kids who hit him twice with baseballs. The police cite him after he throws away the kids' ball...as it hits the police car. Later, when he comes to the municipal building, he finds the police chief, judge, public defender and mayor to be children. It seems that the city let the kids run things for a day...which really makes no sense whatsoever. Does the film get any better than this?! Well, during the trial, the two cops beat up Edgar...and no one seems to object!!

Overall, this is a frustrating film. It seems that the only joke is to do horrible things to Edgar....even if none of it is very funny. And, it's frustrating because Edgar Kennedy COULD be very funny...just not here.