All Over Town

ALL OVER TOWN (Republic Pictures, 1937), directed by James Horne, stars the comedy team of Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson in their second feature for the studio, following COUNTRY GENTLEMEN (Republic, 1936). Although popular vaudeville headliners having appeared in some early sound comedies for Warner Brothers (1930-1931), which hardly matched their stage successes, ALL OVER TOWN is no exception. Due to low-budget scales and some forced humor, ALL OVER TOWN is often regarded to be slightly better than most. As much as the premise does show great promise, considering its fine character types as James Finlayson, Franklin Pangborn and Fred Kelsey (notable for playing stooge detectives), around for humor purposes, the final results still show weakness in comedy rather than the strength of entertainment value.

Opening title: "Not in the wide open spaces nor in the depths of the vast wilderness -- but in a remote section of Manhattan Island struggle the last of their tribe -- the true vanishing Americans." Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson (as themselves) play vaudeville entertainers from Oklahoma staying at Mother Wilson's Home for Ladies and Gentlemen of Vaudeville Profession. Other than being accompanied by their pet seal, Sally, they are close friends with Don Fletcher (Harry Stockwell), a pianist and composer of numerous unpublished songs. Being behind on their rent owed to landlady, Mother Wilson (Blanche Payson), the trio seek employment at the Eldridge Theater, a theater with a bad reputation of being jinxed and haunted due to an unsolved murder of actor, Ramsey Taylor. Having inherited the theater from her now deceased father and heavily in debt, Joan Eldridge (Mary Howard) hires Olsen and Johnson and their seal for an upcoming show, especially after being lead to believe they are oil millionaires who could finance the show. William Bailey (Eddie Kane) wants control of the theater for investor, Peter Stuyvesant Phillips (Otto Hoffman), and tries to convince Joan to sell the theater to him. After discovering Olsen and Johnson are not millionaires after all, it is Don, believing the show will become a success, who advises Joan to have her production crew to rehearse without salaries. Further hi-jinx prevail when Bailey is shot and killed, having Olsen and Johnson to endanger themselves by doing a radio broadcast hoping to expose the murderer, regardless of the fact that they have no idea who the killer is. Featuring D'Arcy Corrigan, Stanley Fields, John Sheehan, Lew Kelly and Gertrude Astor in supporting roles. Olsen and Johnson are credited for composing a song they perform titled "McDougal's Mackerel."

As much as director James Horne had worked wonders with Laurel and Hardy comedy/western of WAY OUT WEST (MGM, 1937), it's a pity he didn't do equal justice to Olsen and Johnson's ALL OVER TOWN. Considering the fact the Olsen and Johnson failed to have a cult following due to frequent television revivals of other comedy teams as Laurel and Hardy, The Marx Brothers or Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, what maybe sets Olsen and Johnson back is Chic Johnson's constant high-pitched laugh and forced humor, which grows tiresome very quickly. When their pet seal, Sally, gets more laughs than the Ole and Chic, something is definitely wrong.

This material of murder and comedy makes one think about WHO DONE IT? (Universal, 1942), one of Abbott and Costello's best comedies, compiled with character types (William Bendix and Mary Wickes), fast-paced chases around the radio studio, and a surprise finish. A pity ALL OVER TOWN didn't provide enough workable gag material to make this a laugh-out-loud classic comedy. It's been said that Olsen and Johnson's latter production, HELLZAPOPPIN (Universal, 1941) showed the comedy team at their finest. Yet, the only Olsen and Johnson Universal comedy of three to have played on cable television in recent years was CRAZY HOUSE (1943) on American Movie Classics in the 1990s.

A public domain movie title formerly distributed on video cassette, and later DVD, ALL OVER TOWN can be found in two versions: its original 62 minute edition (minus Republic Pictures logo) or shorter 52 minute reissue released through Hollywood Television Service, the print used for television broadcasts in the 1960s to fit into one hour time slots with commercial breaks. (** seals)

For a movie made on a shoestring during the Great Depression, this movie delivers plenty of laughs -- which is precisely what it was designed to do. It isn't educational, and it doesn't have a "moral", and it isn't high-brow. Neither were the Stooges. The only public goal of making a movie like this (besides getting paid) is to make people laugh a little during one of the darkest times of modern history. And it pulls that off with aplomb.

For anyone out there seeking depth where there isn't supposed to be any, I have this to say: Just because the plot changes direction to fit the jokes instead of the other way around, that doesn't make it a bad movie. Watch the flick and laugh along. It's only 63 minutes long. Can you stand 63 minutes of laughter in your life?

I'm a person whose taste in film runs to strong plots and structured stories. But in the case of Olsen and Johnson one doesn't really need them, they get in the way.

Even the Marx Brothers had to have a structured story line for their films, but Ole and Chic had to have them forced on their persons. All Over Town is the story of a couple Oklahoma filling station operators and part time vaudevillians with a seal act who are behind at their theatrical boarding house with their rent. Somehow the sale of their filling station which nets them the astronomical sum of $150.00 makes some think they've inherited a bankroll. As we learn that term is relative.

They try to get a show going at Mary Howard's theater, but the place has been closed down for years due to an actor's homicide there. Then another homicide of a potential show backer in the same place almost finishes Olsen and Johnson and the seal for good. But a choleric radio sponsor played by Laurel and Hardy regular James Finlayson gives them their break with a promise of them solving the crime. It's close run thing after that.

I have to say that in his scenes Finlayson proves just as perfect a foil for Ole and Chic as he was for Stan and Ollie. And Stanley Fields who does equally good in comedy and drama has a great scene as the murderer's henchmen who gets outsmarted by the seal.

All Over Town is a fine introduction to the zany comedy of Olsen And Johnson.

This was made when they were still trying to turn Olsen and Johnson into the next Wheeler and Woolsey instead of the next Abbott and Costello, and long before their Broadway hit, "Hellzapoppin'".

This is really a weak mixed bag. It starts out in a boarding house where O&J have stashed a trained seal as part of their vaudeville act, and are trying to hide it from the landlady (who towers over them! What were Ole and Chick, midgets?) They go to a theater to audition their act and discover the theater is supposed to be haunted. So you think this is going to be their "Hold That Ghost". But no, they quickly forget the ghost angle and get involved with trying to save the theater by putting on a show and solving a murder on a live radio broadcast.

Ole and Chick are the stars and get featured bits with the seal, doing a ventriloquist act, and have a mildly amusing Abbott-like scene where the slick talking partner tries to get his tubby sidekick to confess to the murder. They also do a nice play by play broadcast of the final chase scene as the cops try and capture the killer, constantly punctuated by the product placement: "brought to you through the courtesy of MacDougal's Mackeral".

James Finlayson took a holiday from the Laurel and Hardy films to play the angry Mr. MacDougal. He's okay, but its not his best work. The crazy theater stage manager probably has the best bits in the film, which is far from Olsen and Johnson's best, but still watchable.

Olsen and Johnson have a trained seal and they want to book it into a show at Mary Howard's theater. The trouble is that Miss Howard is about to lose the theater, so Olsen and Johnson....

Why am I discussing plot in an Olsen and Johnson movie? It's all just an excuse get from one comedy set-piece to the next under the nominal direction of James Horne, with lots of supporting comics like Fred Kelsey and James Finlayson and Franklin Pangborn and Getrude Astor. There's a sequence at the chaotic boarding house run by Blanche Payson. There's a scene at the chaotic theater when they're trying to put on a show. There's the scene when Fred Kelsey comes in to investigate the murder. There's the scene.....

What murder you ask? It doesn't matter, it's all an excuse to get to the next gag set-up. They made this one for Republic, so it's certainly a step down from trouping for Warner Brothers in 1930.

The pair were burlesque comedians with timing and chaotic gags to match. They had entered show business as musicians -- Olsen was credited as the lyricist for "You're in the Army Now." The movies kept trying to make them a working screen pair, and they would appear in several more movies, until Universal filmed their stage hit HELLZAPOPPIN', which was basically a collection of chaotic gags. Then Abbott and Costello came along and knocked them out of the box.

And this movie? There are some funny moments in it, mostly when they're trying to put one over on Jimmy Finlayson, but despite Horne, an ailing Jimmy Parrott building gags and the other alumni from Roach, their style didn't match anything, except a plotless chaos.