A Nose for News

Joe Cook stars in this short comedy from Christie Comedies. It's very silly...even more so than most Three Stooges films....but also fun despite the ridiculous plot.

When the story begins, Joe gets a job working for a newspaper and is sent to the police station to interview Slaughterhouse Pete, the notorious criminal. However, soon Pete sneaks out of jail...leaving Joe and the police thinking Joe is Slaughterhouse Pete. Oddly, again and again, Joe easily breaks out of jail but keeps turning himself in to the police when the real Pete threatens him. Ultimately, this leads to a weird trial and unexpected results.

This is about as far from an intellectual comedy as you can find. Instead, it's just incredibly silly, high energy and made me laugh a bit despite it's incredibly dopey plot.

Tyro newspaperman Joe Cook is sent to interview mean criminal Richard Cramer. Cramer steals his press pass, and Joe is jailed as Cramer. For about two thirds of this short comedy, he escapes several times and is captured by Cramer. Finally he is put on trial.

Cook tells a bunch of silly stories, takes part in a couple of comedy sketches, and winds up juggling three balls in a way that is new to me: by bouncing them off the floor. It's all complete nonsense, of course, but very engagingly done.