Rural Romeos

During the early 1930s, Harry Sweet and Harry Gribbon made a series of comedy shorts together. I've seen quite a few of them and must they they weren't particularly funny nor something you should rush to see. However, Sweet was killed in a plane crash in 1933 and so Gribbon tried making some shorts on his own...."Rural Romeos" is one of these solo efforts.

When the story begins, Harry is a hobo...wandering the country and living on handouts. A housewife agrees to feed him...if he does work around the farm first. Soon the farmer's daughter meets Harry and is inexplicably smitten by him. I think it's a combination of liking his singing voice AND she might just want to make her boyfriend jealous.

A bit later, Harry takes the young lady to the county fair. Her boyfriend also comes along and does VERY well at the hog calling contest...so Harry decides to cheat in order to win and impress the girl. Of course, it all backfires.

The problem with this short is simple....it's just not funny. I don't recall a single time I laughed or even smirked. With efforts like this and the Gribbon-Sweet films, I can see why Harry Gribbon is mostly forgotten today. I give it a 3 because at least it's not annoying.