Rough on Rents

With Florence Lake, Dot Farley and Jack Rice on vacation, Edgar rents the apartment to Bud Jamison, who throws a party. When the cops show up and the holidaying trio due back, Edgar gets everyone out of the apartment -- except for Jamison's wife, Dorothy Granger (in a blonde wig) in this typically funny entry in Kennedy's long-running RKO "The Common Man" series.

Jamison was born in 1895. He entered the movies in 1915, in support of Charlie Chaplin at Essanay, but soon found himself a member of the troupe supporting Harold Lloyd. A veteran of five hundred shorts and feature films, he died in 1944 from a heart attack probably caused by diabetes and his unwillingness to see doctors; he was a devout Christian Scientist.

This piece is from a set of two-reel comedy shorts, the "Edgar Kennedy Series" produced during the 1940s, that American audiences found diverting, with Kennedy performing as Edgar, an average sort of fellow who is hampered by a giddy wife, Florence (Florence Lake), along with a waspish mother-in-law, neither of whom in any way assists in easing his ongoing difficulties with simple daily survival. In this episode, Edgar is in arrears to a fractious loan shark for $80, when fortunately a man looking for a vacant apartment in the building wherein the Kennedys reside offers exactly that amount for a one-month period, but this apparent windfall instead places Edgar in dire straits when the new resident utilizes the location to host a raucous party, and when Florence and her mother, supposedly away for a vacation for the month period, are forced to suddenly return home, poor Edgar's problems only worsen. While Edgar is attempting to eject his sub-tenant along with the latter's frolicking companions, local police are called to the loud party scene, and when Florence and her mother return to the apartment, it becomes obvious that whatever may happen next, it will be disastrous for Edgar who has additionally become saddled with the new renter's left-behind and coquettish wife, played by the vibrant Dorothy Grainger who steals the film. Pure farce, this brief work is composed largely of slapstick, and although Kennedy's renowned "slow burn" is not in evidence here, several comedic moments will cause a viewer to smile.

"Rough on Rents" is the first I've seen from the long and successful series of "Average Man" comedies that Edgar Kennedy starred in for RKO. I was much more familiar with Kennedy as a foil for other comedians such as Laurel and Hardy, and while he holds up fine as a protagonist, it still seems to me that his real strength was as a frustrated second banana.

This definitely feels like an entry in a series, there's a slight by-numbers atmosphere to it, and we are thrust into events very quickly, already expected to be familiar with Edgar, his family, and his living situation. The events, catalyzed by Edgar's quickly letting his apartment after losing money in a race, are the main source of comedy here, but they happen so quickly and with so little set-up in many cases that they aren't really milked for their potential. Still, it's fairly fun viewing and there are some amusing moments. One gag -- "Do you want that button?" -- had been used a lot better in a Charley Chase short from five years earlier, "The Wrong Miss Wright." I could see the final gag coming a mile away.

This is comfortable, plain comedy. Nothing really wrong with it, but it doesn't live up to the potential latent in the presence of Edgar Kennedy and a scenario like it has.