The Miss They Missed

In addition to his usual profession as a professor of French, dialect comedian Willie Howard is also a detective in this comedy short. He is hired to find a missing lady--first he goes after a mysterious character called "Red Herring"! You can imagine how this progresses, as Howard stumbles from one situation to another--you even get to see him do an Asian routine, decades before Jerry Lewis! He also does a British routine, making me wish he did more various dialects in his shorts, as he is quite versatile and they are a welcome relief from the bogus French accent. I understand that Howard was born in Germany-- he could probably have done many different European accents. The short winds up at a party, where music can be featured, always a staple of Educational Pictures comedy short. This allows us to see Howard do a brief musical comedy sequence. Overall, this is a funny entry in Howard's series of Educational shorts.

I know very little about Willie Howard apart from his being popular on the radio because he could do a wide variety of accents. Here, he plays a seemingly stupid detective.

When the story begins, you learn that an heiress has been missing for 20 years. If she's not located, a worthless relative will instead inherit the money. Unfortunately, the private detective agency hasn't been trying to find her, as they are in league with this awful relative. And, to make the client happy, they assign a new man to the case....a guy they assume will bungle the case. During the course of the investigation, the Professor (Howard) pretends to be many different people...including one who is Scottish and another who is Chinese!

So is this any good? Well, the story is very short on laughs, so it's no great comedy. It is, however, a good showcase for Howard as he gets to show off these dialect skills...even if the Chinese one will no doubt give politically correct folks a coronary!