Happily Buried

I'm surprised that no one has caught on to the fact that it was none other than Jonathan Swift from Gulliver's Travels who inspired this short subject. The island kingdoms of those little people of Lilliput and Blefescu and their quarrel about which end to break an egg, the big or the small is clearly what the makers of this short subject Happily Buried took their idea from.

Here the quarrel is waffle irons. John Hubbard president of a company that makes square waffle irons wants to merge professionally and personally with Rita Oehman CEO of a company that makes round waffle irons. What will the merged company make, who will give in?

Benny Rubin playing a Hindu fakir goes to work to get the merger on track, who will win? For that you see the film for.

Bob Wright and Chet Forrest who would soon be writing better songs for Song Of Norway and Kismet contribute some non-memorable numbers. Some amusing moments, but this one is sub par.

I doubt Jonathan Swift would be too flattered.

This two reel MGM curiosity concerns the romantic adventures of two competing waffle iron manufacturers. Benny Rubin is cast as an Asian fakir and his characterization is far from politically correct. But, of course, this short was made in 1939. Two new songs are provided by Wright and Forrest, who went on to Broadway fame with "Song of Norway", "Kismet", and "Grand Hotel". At this time, they were staff writers at MGM, more or less replacing Brown and Freed as the house song smiths. The musical numbers are well written and can proudly stand beside other theater music written in 1939. Watch for Tommy "Butch" Bond in a cameo role. At this time, he was making one reel "Our Gang" comedies for MGM.

With the end of short subject production at the Roach studios in 1936, MGM expanded its production of comedy shorts. Unhappily, MGM rarely turned out top comedies, and this short subject is a fairly typical exemplar of the problem: it is overwritten with a plot about two waffle iron heirs breaking up their impending marriage over the shape of waffles. Add in a glum Benny Rubin as an Indian yogi, a couple of pointless songs, director Felix Feist who never seemed to add anything to the mix and two leads with no particular comedy ability and you have this piece. The whole thing is topped off with a dance number that is performed on a giant waffle iron. Like so many of the overproduced MGM comedy shorts, the effect is bizarre, rather than funny.

Just like in a Spongebob cartoon, you learn in "Happily Buried" that square is the shape of evil! What do I mean? Well, in this short from MGM they announce that waffle iron sales are way down...and soon, to help remedy the problem, the owners of the Four Square and Magic Circle waffle companies are going to marry and merge their companies. But when he insists their waffles be square, she realizes he's evil and calls off the marriage! What's next in this weird tale of love? And, how can an odd Hindu mystic (Benny Rubin) help out the angry lovers?

Like any MGM production, this short is well made and features some of MGM's lesser-known contract players. The biggest negative is the leading lady's singing...which I found a bit painful. However, on balance it's pleasant and a decent time-passer.