Lodge Night

Andy is getting ready to go to his lodge meeting when he learns that his nephew is involved with a nightclub singer (Joan Woodbury). He goes to stop her and she ends up robbing him for his troubles. In addition, Andy's wife soon arrives and things get crazy with the wife and nephew and others running amok at the nightclub.

The best part of this Columbia short is watching Andy Clyde do some amazing contortionism at the beginning. It's not only funny but pretty amazing to watch! What's a little less funny is the mirror gag, as it was hardly original (watch "Duck Soup"....you'll see it done better...and earlier). Apart from these bits, the short has quite a bit of action and slapstick fun. None of it brilliant but it is reasonably fun to watch.

This Columbia comedy short that I just watched on YouTube was my first exposure to another forgotten movie comic called Andy Clyde. In this one, he's trying to keep his nephew (Doodles Weaver) from getting involved with a nightclub singer named Lola (Joan Woodbury). His wife (Bonita Weber) is also looking for him...This one has plenty of funny slapstick scenes as well as a "mirror" sequence that is reminiscent of the similar one performed by Groucho and Harpo in Duck Soup. Lola also sings a pretty good if not memorable song. Clyde was from a group of vaudeville comics who ended up at the then poverty row Columbia after years at other studios. If many of his shorts are as funny as the one I just saw, I'll be one of his latter-day fans. So on that note, I recommend Lodge Night.

Like a previous IMDb reviewer I got my first exposure to Andy Clyde through watching this 1937 Columbia two-reeler, and like that reviewer I am glad I did. Clyde appeared what is believed to be the longest series of short comedies in cinema history without ever becoming a big star, and from this film I think I got something of a sense of why. There are plenty of laughs, it's pleasant viewing all the way through, and even though not all the laughs come directly from it, Clyde's character of a good-hearted fuddyduddy old man is an amusing one I enjoyed spending time with, and he's pseudo-dignified enough to be funny to put in compromising situations.

Humor involving men's lodges seems to have been much more prevalent than today in the 1930s - 1950s era (see Laurel and Hardy's "Sons of the Desert" or "Be Big," or countless Amos 'n' Andy scenarios), but here, unusually, the lodge is the wholesome influence on suffering-husband Clyde and the problems arise when his nephews dalliances take him away from a lodge meeting, and when a questionable night-club singer steals his lodge money. It's basically an old-fashioned farce condensed into two reels, and it's very well played. Andy Clyde also demonstrates some impressive physical flexibility in the early scenes! Watch out for a slightly disturbing moment where the singer tries to seduce Andy by appealing to him as a father.