The Antique Shop

If George Burns thought his trip to a haberdashery in Fit To Be Tied was a surreal exercise as a contemporary used to remark, he hadn't seen nothing yet. This time Burns goes into an antique shop where his encounter with Chester Clute is almost as funny as his trip to Gracieland.

Burns was trying to get the attention of salesman Clute who is giving him a warmup for his patter with Gracie. Clute is ready to throw him out of the store and summon the police when manager Herschell Mayall intervenes. It turns out Clute is a guy who just goes into places and pretends he's one of the staff. His line exiting the store is a pip.

After that Mayall sends George to saleswoman Gracie where they discuss various antiques not necessarily confined to store items. It's another trip to Gracieland. As for the ending it involves a lot of priceless statuary and how durable the various items are and it's as anarchistic as anything the Marx Brothers or Monty Python ever did.

I am not a huge fans of Burns & Allen. They made quite a few comedy shorts in the early 1930s and there is a certain sameness to nearly all of them. But "The Antique Shop" is better...mostly due to the goofy clerk played by Chester Clute. He's actually much funnier than Burns or Allen!

George (George Burns) enters an antique store to buy a statue. Unfortunately, the salesman is nuts! But no matter how bad he is, it only gets worse when Gracie (Gracie Allen) next waits on him!

The is not a brilliant comedy....but it did make me laugh...unlike most Burns & Allen shorts. Well worth seeing and fun.