Twin Triplets

Twin Triplets (1935)

** (out of 4)

A rather bland entry in the Hal Roach series has Thelma Todd playing a dumb reporter who takes her friend (Patsy Kelly) along to the hospital to try and get a story. Todd thinks she's got the biggest story of her career when Kelly tells her that a woman just gave birth to six kids but it turns out that it was only two so the girls must round up four more babies before the newspaper bosses get in. I don't think anyone would ever argue that this Girl Friends series was high quality but there were a few good shorts made but also some rather bland ones and sadly this one here just doesn't work. Once again we're left with a pretty simple story that just doesn't have enough laughs to make it worth sitting through unless you're fans of the stars. The short gets off to a pretty good start as Todd does a very good job playing the dumb blonde. This isn't something she played too many times in the series so I thought it was fun seeing her this way but before the half-way point she's turned back to the character we're use to seeing her play. I really wish they would have kept the dumbness going as she did a good job with it. Kelly once again goes over-the-top but it doesn't get any laughs. The stuff with mixing up all the babies just wasn't funny and once we get to the climax we get an obvious joke with one of the babies not being white.

Although Thelma Todd never developed the chemistry with Patsy Kelly that she had earlier in the series with Zasu Pitts, there are signs of a relationship that looks possible here: Thelma a bit ditzy but willing to stand up to Miss Kelly's unending -- and to me -- annoying brashness.

The story -- about the two of them as reporters trying to get a good story out at the hospital, has plenty of possibilities.

There are also some interesting performers here, including Charlie Hall and, in a rare on screen appearance in the talkies, Billy Bletcher, who started out in silent comedies and wound up as a major voice artist for Disney -- doing Pete -- as well as Warner's -- where he specialized in explosive, growly fathers. The result is not a great comedy short, but it has enough moments to make it amusing.

Hi-de-ho. Cornbread here. What's happenin'? What's goin' down? What's going on down uptown, all you fine feathered film buffs out there in movieland?

Well! As I live and breathe! It looks as if we've come to a nasty bump in the road on this little journey, an orphan that I don't know if I have the wherewithal to look after. And unfortunately, it looks like a miscarriage to me.

After viewing this nutty little pediatric mix-up a couple of times, I just wanna stick a bottle in its mouth and let it go to town on the pacifier.

With very little fanfare, folks, let me admit in all candor that it's the episode of the girls' I dislike the most, and maybe you just might be on my side?

I'm sad to say the laughs are almost eerily vacant in this outing, and the only really big gut laugh comes near the end of it, almost twenty minutes after we are incessantly pummeled by German accents and FAKE German accents.

"Was is das?!?!?"

Do I love it anyhow? Does a bear go to the bathroom in the woods? I think if you give it an "OK," then that makes you a special person in my book, because you're the type of person what takes their bitter with their sweet.

You don't need roses, you don't need soft music, and you don't need color. It's no "Men In White" with Gable and Loy, and it NEVER strove to be, but it passes muster, even though I find it to be the runt of the litter. It's a scrappy little runt at that!