Wise Guys Prefer Brunettes

Those words might have summed up Fin's screen personna. Here, as a stuffy college dean, he accidentally sits on a youth-restoring plaster invented by Ted Healy -- the man who founded the Three Stooges -- and quicker than you can say "23 Skidoo" He's off chasing the young ladies and serenading sorority houses in this pretty good comedy directed by Stan Laurel.

James Finlayson is the strict dean of a college in which the female students mock him at a nearby dress shop. He overhears them and tells the owner, who is also a student, to close it the next day and leave the campus. Ted Healy is another student who invents a plaster that turns anyone who comes in contact with it into a younger self. Guess who gets it? I'll just now say this was quite funny concerning both Fin (JF's nickname) and Healy especially when the latter goes into drag. Director Stan Laurel puts his all into the situations and I really enjoyed where it was going much of the time. This was Healy's film debut though without his Stooges who were at the time Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Shemp Howard. Those three would make their premiere in Soup to Nuts 4 years later.

This wacky two-reel comedy was produced by Hal Roach during the period when he was still looking for a star performer. In 1926 the Our Gang kids were the studio's biggest draw. Harold Lloyd had long since departed, and although Charley Chase was making some great comedies he somehow never got the acclaim he deserved. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were each under contract to Roach in '26, but not yet performing as a team. At this point Stan preferred to work behind the camera: he directed Wise Guys Prefer Brunettes but did not appear in it. He didn't receive a writing credit, either, but the gags have a distinctly "Laurel-esque" flavor.

This film's top billed performer is Helene Chadwick, a perky young lady who slightly resembles Colleen Moore. Our setting is a college, and we're told that Helene's character manages a popular clothing store near the campus, and is "needle-and-threading" her way through school. In keeping with most collegiate comedies there are no scenes showing students in class or doing any scholastic work whatsoever. Instead, the young folks shop, swim, and dash around all night in the dorms dressed in pajamas. (Ah, dear college days!) Miss Chadwick is a fairly pleasant leading lady but doesn't make much of a lasting impression, while most of the heavy lifting, comedically speaking, is handled by good ol' Jimmy Finlayson, who plays the college's sour-tempered Dean. Things kick into gear when a student devises a "magic plaster" that acts as a rejuvenation agent, restoring youth to anyone who comes into contact with it. Perhaps it goes without saying that it's the stuffy Dean who accidentally sits on the plaster and then spends most of the film's running time cavorting like a college boy -- and an unusually silly one, at that. The comic highpoint comes when Finlayson and Helene Chadwick dive into the campus pool and perform a surreal underwater courtship ballet, complete with slow-motion "chase."

The most unexpected player here is Ted Healy, as the student who concocts the magic plaster. Healy was a vaudeville comic who formed the original Three Stooges, known as Ted Healy & His Stooges in their initial stage incarnation; he went on to work solo as a character actor in lots of '30s features. Wise Guys Prefer Brunettes marked his movie debut and was, if I'm not mistaken, his only appearance in a silent film. I've heard that Healy was a tough, hard-living guy, so his performance in this comedy surprised me: he comes off as downright fey, at one point skipping and dancing like Eddie Cantor. Later, he dresses in highly unconvincing drag and runs around the dorm in a dress. Go figure.

The first half of this film is fairly entertaining, but inspiration seems to flag well before the finale. Much as I enjoy the unique comic shtick of Jimmy Finlayson I feel his act works best in brief doses, in support of other comedians, and neither Chadwick nor Healy are strong enough personalities (here, anyway) to pick up the slack by themselves. Even so, this short has its moments, and fans of the Roach Studio's silent output will want to give it a look.

Wise Guys Prefer Brunettes (1926), directed by Stan Laurel, would actually be Laurel's last directing gig, before joining up with Oliver Hardy, on their successful, 30 year career with each other. This silent comedy stars Ted Healy before he met the Three Stooges, although he knew Moe and Shemp Howard before this film, from their vaudeville days. Healy, at this time, was the highest paid comedian in vaudeville. This was his film debut. The version I found on YouTube is an oddly, colorized version of the film. Healy plays Napoleon Fizz, who creates a magic plaster, that rejuvenates a man and makes women more susceptible to him. The Dean of the college (James Finlayson), is the one, who accidentally gets a dose of this magic plaster. It seems more like it's Finlayson's movie, more than anyone else, including Healy. It makes sense, since Finlayson did a lot of things with Laurel and Hardy later on. The filmmakers throw in some 1926 special effects, as the plaster does its trick. Soon, the chaos ensues.

Finlayson wears the classic acronym "PU" on his shirt, which is the dirtiest thing you can say in 1926 I guess. In the movie it stands for Pinkham University, but we know what it really means. You can tell this was originally produced for adults, with all the alcohol jokes, sexual inuendoes, plenty of flirting with young bathing beauties and cross-dressing, going on in the film. There are some strange choices in the special effects, even for 1926, like, the choice to film the actors (Finlayson and an unknown female swimmer), running underwater and not swimming underwater. They could do that trick successfully, even back in 1926. Healy eventually, has to get in drag, so he can distract the Dean, plus keep the Matron of the school, who shows up unexpectedly, from expelling everyone. Finlayson breaks the fourth wall, all through this film, looking at the camera, as if, maybe the audience can save him from this jam.

Wise Guys Prefer Brunettes (1926), is a cute attempt at an early comedy, but riddled with so much chaos, that it's hard to follow the film in places. The odd technical choices also make it a little bit difficult to follow as well. This film however, is a cinematic artifact, that has the history making tagline of being Ted Healy's first film role. It's also interesting, that Stan Laurel directed it and it ended up being his last directorial effort. I think I understand why, especially since we know now, what happened to his career after this. You could say the same for Healy's future, although his ends up being a more tragic one, 11 years later. It is still a fair/good film and a must-see for Stooges fans.

5.9 (D MyGrade) = 6 IMDB.