Treasure Blues

Treasure Blues (1935)

** (out of 4)

Flat comedy has Thelma Todd working in a restaurant flipping pancakes and Patsy Kelly sitting at home unemployed. Patsy receives a letter that her rich uncle has left her his estate but it turns out to be just a treasure map. Thelma and Patsy take off to find the treasure with the help of a drunk sailor (Arthur Housman). It seems that the further this series went along that the star's salaries went up, which meant that less money could be spent on a screenplay. There's no question these films weren't meant to be as great as the ones from Laurel and Hardy but at the same time you'd think they'd at least put a little more imagination into the screenplay. There's really not too much that happens in this film and instead of anything funny going on we just get one bad joke after another and sadly each bad joke just keeps on and on. One early example is when Kelly gets the scuba helmet stuck on her head so we've got to see Thelma and the sailor trying to get it off. This unfunny sequence lasts at least three or four minutes. We then get a scene in the ocean where Patsy finds a sword and then fights a swordfish with it. Again, unfunny and it goes on way too long. We then get a long sequence at the end where the sailor finds some alcohol at the bottom of the sea so he decides to drink it down there. There really wasn't many funny sequences here as everything just came across rather poorly written and the execution wasn't even there. Both Todd and Kelly don't seem too impressed with the material either.

I just watched this on TCM - 19 minutes of Laverne and Shirley - a la Hal Roach. Add some commercials and that's what you have - a 30 minute sitcom. Roommates Patsy and Thelma are struggling to make ends meet, Thelma in a dead end job and Patsy looking for work. A telegram informs Patsy that she has inherited her uncle's estate - but there's a catch. Cute "special effects", cleverly done - for 1935! Stars Patsy Kelly and Thelma Todd in one of their many classic shorts that they did together in the 30's. I love it when TCM shows these! This is not a real waste of time, lots of sight gags and slapstick, all with the Hal Roach signature music playing in the background.

Before Indiana Jones (no relation to Cornbread) went on his many popular hair-raising adventures, there was this engaging little gemstone made in 1935 about a pair of crazy dames who go on this hunt for a bevy of undersea booty. Booty as in ""loot," not the other definition of the term, of course.

Thelma's flipping flapjacks at the greasy spoon as Patsy's at home reading the want ads and playing with the dog. Subsequently, she receives a telegram saying that Uncle Salty left them a map that points to a special spot in the ocean where they can uncover many precious jewels, coins, and other shiny goodies. Hot diggety dog!

But Patsy gets stuck in a diving bell Salty sent them while trying it out in their tub and they must visit Houseman The Souse at his machine shop to get her out of it. Luckily they do, and then they hop aboard a vessel hoping to locate the missing swag.

The scenes underwater are indeed the funniest parts, and it's interesting to see what being underwater looked like in the 1930s. The set is obviously spurious, but don't let it stop you from howling out with laughter, particularly the scene with the champagne. Is that a swordfish I see? Poking his nose into their business, is he?

It's one of the more likable entries in the girls' series, and I expressly recommend it to fans of scuba diving, treasure hunting, and Jacques Cousteau.

Those who don't appreciate anything at all... will be all wet.