Babes in the Goods

The Hal Roach Studio tried to create a female version of their big stars, Laurel & Hardy. First, they tried pairing Zasu Pitts and Thelma Todd...with only moderate success. Then, they paired Todd with Patsy Kelly and the pair made films of about the same mediocre quality as the previous ones. Then, after the death of Todd, they tired Kelly out with a couple different partners...and eventually the concept just fizzled. The problem with these films, in my opinion, was mostly the writing. To me, it seemed that the better scripts went to Laurel & Hardy...and even Charley Chase. The rest was given to the female team...and they just aren't all that funny.

In "Babes in the Goods", Patsy and Thelma work at a department store. They are asked to stay late and work as demonstrators in the window. But they are also told not to stop working until the crowd is gone....and a drunk (Arthur Houseman, who made a career out of such parts) sticks around until after the night watchman leaves...and the ladies are locked in the window. So, they try to make the best of it. What's next? See for yourself.

While the concept was very original, this short seems as if it was written with very few laughs. You cannot entirely blame the ladies for this one being a bit limp...and for Houseman upstaging them. Not a bad film....just not all that good either...although I did like the hat scene at the very end.

Thelma Todd and Patsy Kelly work in a department store. They demonstrate a washing machine so late that they get locked into the store overnight in this funny entry in "The Girl Friends" series from Hal Roach.

It's a well-scripted comedy, which is a given for Roach productions in this period, with three clearly demarcated set-ups. A lot of short comedies were set in department stores for this very reason: several locations with reasonable set-design, lots of props for gags -- a bed which keeps collapsing on the girls is a very nice one here -- and lots of close-up reaction shots of the lovely and funny Miss Todd to Miss Kelly's self-involved annoyances. There's also Arthur Housman in one of his typical, funny drunk roles as a man who waits around to see what the comediennes will do next for his and the audience's amusement.

Babes in the Goods (1934)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Funny entry has Thelma Todd and Patsy Kelly working at a department store where they must work in the front window showing off the old way of doing dishes and the new way. After work the girl's find themselves locked inside the store where they must be sure and get up before the store opens in the morning. In terms of story there's very little going on in this short but the two starts make it worth viewing but the real highlight is Arthur Housman who plays the drunk who keeps watching the girls. Housman appeared in quite a few of the shorts in this series and each time he was playing a drunk and boy was he good at it. One of the highlights in the film is when the drunk believes it's raining but it too out of it to realize that the water is hitting the window from the other side and can't possible get to him. Another funny bit has him thinking a woman is having her body parts ripped off but he doesn't understand something else is actually happening. Housman clearly steals the film but both Todd and Kelly are good as well. Both of them turn in natural performances and thankfully Kelly stays pretty much under control as the two women work well off of one another. The majority of the laughs come from the drunk but there are a few other funny bits including one with Todd and Kelly in their night gear.

Thelma Todd and Patsy Kelly were the Abbott & Costello or Laurel and Hardy of the femme comedy world. These two women are absolutely hilarious! Their comedy still plays very well today.

In this comedy short Thelma and Patsy takes jobs in a department store where they demonstrate appliances in a make shift mock kitchen setup. They also demonstrate the beds as they have nowhere else to sleep, so they sleep in the store window.

If you like the three stooges shorts, or little rascals shorts, or Abbott & Costello or Laurel & hardy then you will love Thelma and Patsy in this wonderfully hilarious short.

Time for another irresistible, thrilling episode in the lives of stoot Todd and stoot Kelly. For those o' you not in the know, and are slow with the current events, "Stoot" is upside-down for "sweet," get it?!

This turn at bat, they're a pair of unwitting shopgirls recruited by their boss (Jack Barty) to stay in the window demonstrating a new-fangled electric dishwasher until everyone in the crowd goes home, and I can't help but feel bad about that because the girls already look tired and worn out as it is.

We could all use a good backrub. But there isn't anything else much to feel bad about! Cherries and lemons! Together, they make a fruity little cocktail these two minds, ALSO, without a single thought.

This short almost feels as if it had been directed and flown by someone else other than usual pilot Gus Meins, but it's a ribbon-wrapped present nevertheless, with a wonderful opportunity for Arthur Houseman to perform his usual drunken wackyness. I find it to have been challenging for the girls because there is a lack of movement in this short, a claustrophobia not altogether uncommon in the rest of their work. But the ending is so precious, I can't tattle about it here simply because it'll spoil it, and I don't wanna do that for you. I'm here to give you the skinny, and boy does this daisy ever give you the skinny!

Houseman is the lush who can't go home because the show is too enticing. And who on Earth can possibly blame him?! The last moments of the short are almost oh so risqué, it drives me cuckoo!

It comes recommended just because it's so darn funny. Does it make a fella blush? I'll never tell!