Variety Time

Gruesome collection of RKO cast-offs, with a few variety acts bolstered, if that's the word, by large swatches of two shorts with Leon Errol and Edgar Kennedy. These last two play like prehistoric versions of UPN or WB sitcoms, all obvious slapstick and cross-eyed slow burns. Interspersed are some negligible specialty dancing, big bands, and silent shorts with "comic" sub-MST3K commentary. Jack Paar, in his screen debut, does maintain some Bob Hope aplomb, even though his jokes about Hollywood circa 1947 aren't funny. There are two lovely minutes of the great vaudevillian Pat Rooney clog-tapping to "The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady," and a slapstick dancing threesome are noteworthy if only for their sheer bizarreness. The rest can be fast-forwarded through.

Two comedy shorts from the RKO department -- one from the Edgar Kennedy series and one from the Leon Errol series -- and a few of musical shorts from RKO pasted together with a liberal dose of Jack Paar telling some mediocre jokes and introducing the shorts as if this were all intended.

Edgar Kennedy does a pretty good domestic situation comedy -- his RKO series lasted from about 1932 until his death the year this was released, 1948; Leon Errol's ran from 1933 through his death in 1951. RKO's short subject department was pretty lively through the 1950s. You may particularly enjoy, as I did, Jesse & James, a pair of acrobatic dancers in the vein of the Nichola Brothers. Paar's comedy monologue has not aged well and his sarcastic cutting up of a couple of silent movies, including D.W. Griffith's TWO PATHS and a William S. Hart short, done the year Griffith died, is in poor taste. Griffith has, it seems, aged better than Paar.

Paar is very smooth, and funnier than a lot of stuff around today. The novelty dance trio mentioned by the earlier reviewer is a knockout. Almost literally. It's good to have some of this vaudeville preserved so that audiences today can see how really hard these folks worked. The tap dance duo is also worth watching for. Comedy fans may be interested in the prehistoric sitcoms with Leon Errol and Edgar Kennedy. Paar helps us have a good laugh AT the two silent films that are shown in brief. Very corny stuff. Some of the bits don't even come close to working, such as the Hans Conried sketch. Thank goodness for TiVo so you can zip through some of the bad stuff and catch some unique and nostalgic stuff.

Some very unamusing bits by modern comedic standards, but well worth watching for its nostalgic and historical value. Jack Paar isn't at his best in this film, but you can see the infancy of his style minus the emotional outbursts. And it will probably make you want to see more of the Errol and Kennedy shorts.

One thing I found most interesting was that the bits with Paar - specifically the one with Paar and Conried - appeared to be filmed with three cameras, which would later become a common television production practice. (Maybe Desi Arnaz wasn't so original after all.) I give it a 6/10 just because I'm a nostalgia buff.

Well, this IS a hodgepodge, so it's bound to be hit and miss, but the misses far outweigh the hits. Jack Paar makes his first appearance on screen (and he tells you that at the beginning) as the host of this film/vaudeville collection. He already has his inimitable casual delivery down pat and delivers self-deprecating material, but it's forced and he seems uncomfortable with it. Film features two shorts, one with Edgar Kennedy that's okay and another with Leon Errol that's frantic farce but not particularly funny. The hodgepodge includes Jesse & James, a Nicholas Brothers-like acrobatic dance team that is quite good; as is an evocative "Babalu" dance number. Hans Conreid comes on to do a comic mis-translated French singing number that is humdrum, and Paar does jokey commentaries over some old silent movie footage. In fact, Paar is a dead weight throughout, flatly reciting patter that is stale to begin with, but could have been given some lift if a brighter, snappier personality had delivered it. More or less a curio.