Prunes and Politics

Edgar is annoyed that he can't get breakfast at home because mother-in-law Dot Farley is having a Woman's club meeting. Nonetheless, it's a good day when he is told that the Businessman's Club is running him for office....until he goes home and discovers that Miss Farley is running for the same office. It's not long before dirty tricks and active warfare breaks out in this fine example of Kennedy's long-running short subject series for RKO.

Kennedy had entered the movies in 1912 and spent half a dozen years with Sennett, then the transition to sound with Roach, perfecting his burly, splenetic character that he used in the RKO series from 1932 until his death in 1948, as well as a major supporting comic in dozens of features, like DUCK SOUP and THE SINS OF HAROLD DIDDLEBOCK. His specialty was the "slow burn", as he gradually lost his temper and finally attacked his tormentor.

I recently bought a couple DVDs filled with Edgar Kennedy domestic comedies for RKO. In the course of watching the 20 shorts, I was surprised to see how frequently they changed wives for Edgar--though the plots were otherwise all pretty similar. Florence Lake and Vivian Oakland made a bunch of these films but you can also find Mrs. Kennedy played by Sally Austin, Irene Ryan and, in this film, Pauline Drake!! His character seemed to change wives even more frequently than Mickey Rooney! Yet, oddly, he often was saddled with the same obnoxious mother-in-law no matter who played the wife (except for Oakland--hers were made without the nasty old buzzard).

In "Prunes and Politics", both Edgar and his battle-axe mother in law have been nominated to run for office. Not surprisingly, this creates even more tension in the home than usual. And, repeatedly, Edgar makes a mess of things. First, he insults women when he's talking to a reporter, then he is caught trying to release rats to disrupt his mother-in-law's campaign--but his crazy schemes don't stop there. All in all, a pretty stupid film--one of the worst of the series.

By the way, Hugh Beaumont (Ward from "Leave it to Beaver") is in a supporting role. He's pretty skinny here but otherwise it's the same old Beaumont.