Only Saps Work

I gave "Only Saps Work" a good 50 minutes or more. It looked promising then it got stuck in the mud when it gave too much screen time to Jim Wilson (Leon Errol). He spent at least ten minutes trying to prevent Barbara Tanner (Mary Brian) from finding out that Lawrence Payne (Richard Arlen) was a pantry boy (kitchen help) at Jasper's Health Farm. The movie turned into a one man comedy act that was too silly for my liking.

Lawrence liked Barbara and told her he was part owner of the Jasper Health Farm. Barbara liked Lawrence and arranged to go to the Farm under the guise of accompanying her sick father (Charley Grapewin). Jim was a thief who somewhat befriended Lawrence and was at the Farm to avoid the law.

The situation was a comedic one, but it played out flatly.

Free on Internet Archive.

I never thought Leon Errol could be as unfunny as he is in this piece of canned theatre with the cast all lined up to deliver their dialogue as though in a police lineup.

Watch this and you'll see why doom mongers at the time thought talkies spelled the death of the cinema.