Menu

Luis Alberni shows Una Merkel how to prepare a duck for husband Franklin Pangborn, while a Smith called Pete describes what's going on, leaving everyone more confused than when they started. At least, however, You've got a duck ready for the oven.

You also have Una Merkel in color. That means a lot to fanciers of pre-code comedies. True, we get only two-strip Technicolor, giving the entire movie a sepia wash, but Miss Merkel - who entered the movies as Lilian Gish's stand-in before making a name for herself as a blank-faced sexual predator.... that's her starring persona. I say nothing about her actual character.

You also get good recipes for duck and for baked apples. I would add some cinnamon to the apples before baking.

"Menu" is a color Oscar-nominated short from MGM and Pete Smith. Smith was a man in charge of the publicity department and narrated a ton of short films where he talks in a humorous manner. Some love this...I mostly find Smith's comments annoying. Fortunately, "Menu" is better than most of the Pete Smith Specialties.

The short is unusual in that all the actors are familiar faces, though you may not know the actors' names. The husband is played by Franklin Pangborn, his wife is Una Merkel and the magical chef is played by Luis Alberni. All three are wonderful character actors....and apart from one funny comment by Merkel, the three say nothing and all the dialog is spoken by Smith. To me, this is a major problem with this film...you have three wonderful and often funny actors and Smith consigns them to do nothing but pantomime...which is typical of his films but which wastes their fine talents. And, because of this, ANYONE could have played their roles!

The story is simple. The new wife is a god-awful cook and a magical chef appears with a puff of smoke and shows her how to make a duck dinner. The instructions are generally easy to follow--so a viewer could replicated what they see on the screen. But times needed to cook the duck and side dish of baked apples are pretty vague.

There are a few mildly funny moments but it's a film that could have been hilarious but isn't. We never get to see Pangborn with his usual snippy reactions, nor Alberni ham it up like we expect and Merkel, a funny lady, only gets one line. Watchable but nothing more.

Nick Grinde's Menu is an uproariously funny short film, focusing on a chef (Pete Smith), who is summoned by the narrator of the short (also Smith) to assist a housewife (Una Merkel) in cooking a complete duck dinner with baked apples that will be delicious and not give her husband (Luis Alberni) debilitating indigestion. The narrator talks us through several hilarious scenes between the chef and the housewife, as he teaches her to prepare the duck and the proper steps of seasoning and topping it off before it is cooked.

Menu feels like a playful nudge in the sides of the cooking shows we see network Television populated with, despite being over eighty years old. Smith has an elegance and a deadpan sense of wit in the short, frequently poking fun at the ineptitude of the housewife or playing along to the chef's free-spirited cooking process throughout the short. Never is writer Thorne Smith's screenplay too condescending or mean-spirited but, much like the duck dinner, fresh and pleasant, enough to leave one with an appetite for more. At ten minutes, Menu is a fulfilling comedic appetizer.

Starring: Pete Smith, Una Merkel, and Luis Alberni. Directed by: Nick Grinde.

This very slight MGM comedy short from 1933 isn't particularly funny, but it received an Oscar nomination for "Best Short Subject" that year, and it has the wonderful UNA MERKEL in her physical prime in TECHNICOLOR! (She would not appear in a color feature film until the early '50's MGM remake of "The Merry Widow" starring Lana Turner.) I'd give "Menu" a "10" if it had more of Merkel, but as it stands, it's worthy of an "8" for a Technicolor Una Merkel alone. Merkel was one of the great supporting players of the Hollywood studio era, and one of its most prolific, appearing in about three dozen feature films, primarily for MGM and Warner Brothers from 1931 to 1934. "Menu" is an early example of the three-strip Technicolor process that would not be used in feature films until 1935's "Becky Sharp" with Miriam Hopkins. Up until that point, it was reserved for short films, but usually musical shorts, unlike this simple "Pete Smith" MGM comedy short, most of which were shot in plain B&W. Una Merkel, with her strawberry blonde hair, blue eyes and pale pink complexion, was a feast for the eyes in the then "new" Technicolor process, and is the primary reason to see this film.

An MGM PETE SMITH Short Subject.

A very silly housewife receives help with her dinner MENU - and a cure for her hubby's upset tummy - when a chef magically arrives in her kitchen.

This fanciful little film is an enjoyable bit of early Technicolor fluff. The practical demonstrations, mixed up with the gentle humor, serve up a most pleasing result - almost as appetizing as the roast duck & baked apples. Movie mavens will recognize Franklin Pangborn as the dyspeptic husband, Una Merkel as his featherbrained wife, and Luis Alberni as the remarkable chef, all uncredited.

Off-the-wall narrator Pete Smith would produce a reworked version of this story - with Oscar winning results - four years later in PENNY WISDOM (1937).

Often overlooked or neglected today, the one and two-reel short subjects were useful to the Studios as important training grounds for new or burgeoning talents, both in front & behind the camera. The dynamics for creating a successful short subject was completely different from that of a feature length film, something akin to writing a topnotch short story rather than a novel. Economical to produce in terms of both budget & schedule and capable of portraying a wide range of material, short subjects were the perfect complement to the Studios' feature films.