Good Housewrecking

Good Housewrecking (1933)

* (out of 4)

While at RKO Edgar Kennedy made a string of comedies where he's doing battle with his wife (Florence Lake), his annoying brother-in-law (William Eugene) and his annoying mother-in-law (Dot Farley). I've only seen a handful of these shorts to date but this one here is without question the worst. Kennedy is signed up as an interior decorator when he and his three relatives go to the job. They start destroying the house not realizing that they're in the wrong location.

GOOD HOUSEWRECKING is yet another comedy in the style of Laurel and Hardy. You know, the type of comedy where something is destroyed by the "workers" who don't realize that they're working on the wrong house. I'm not going to lie and say there aren't any laughs in this short because there are a couple but the problem is that this thing is so downright annoying that it's rather painful to watch. The screaming matches are so high-pitched that you can't help but want to punch everyone on the screen. The mother and brother-in-law are so annoying that it's impossible to laugh at them when you want to see physical harm done to them. The jokes are so forced that this film just never stood a chance of being any good.

Starting a couple years earlier, RKO began a long series of short films featuring Edgar Kennedy and his family--consisting of his wife (Florence Lake), mother-in-law and brother-in-law. And while Kennedy was quite good, the wife and family were over-written. In other words, the characters came on way too strong--making you hate them and wonder who would ever put up with such hateful and obnoxious people?! I mentioned Lake in particular because her shtick was defending her awful mother and brother no matter what they did AND laughing like a brain-addled idiot throughout the film. She was SO annoyingly unfunny I can't believe the series continued until Kennedy's death in 1948!

In this installment, the three idiots decide to open a home decorating service--though they have absolutely no idea what they are doing. On their first job they draft Edgar into coming along and the idiots make the mistake of going to the wrong house. The man of the house (Arthur Houseman in a non-drunk role) hates them because they are making so much noise and spends much of the film punching Edgar. When the wife (Jane Darwell) arrives at the end, the film doesn't seem to know what to do, so she and the butler repeatedly punch each other in the face...really, I am NOT making this up!! Once again, the laughs are forced due to the awfulness and complete lack of any subtlety in the family. You spend more time hating them and wishing they were dead than laughing--and frankly the film made me appreciate Kennedy's appearances in other films as a supporting character more and more! Very forced humor--and not all that funny.