A Neckin' Party

WITH THE UNLIKELY success of a ventriloquist's being in the realm of radio, the "team" of Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy were a hot item. As is the custom, Hollywood was quick to capitalize on the Bergen Franchise and following 'their' costarring with Radio Nemises, W.C. Fields in YOU CAN'T CHEAT AN HONEST MAN, Universal gave us CHARLIE McCARTHY, DETECTIVE.

BUT BEFORE THAT was to become a reality, we had somebody at Warner Brothers' Vitaphone Short Subjects come up with this 2 reeler comedy.

OUR REVIEW OF today's lucky honoree, A NECKIN' PARTY, finds that there are pretty standard situations and gags involved in this amusing, but not outstanding comedy. We have the movement of Bergen & Charlie from the New York Night Club scene to a Western Dude Ranch, located South of what used to be the Border between the US and Mexico. Standard, clichéd and (by today's standards) non Politically Correct gags follow in abundance. We have lovely senorita, her Panch Villa-like bandito boyfriend and a myriad of Spanish language malaprops. All is very standard and cook-cutter two reel stuff.

AS FOR OUR conclusion, we must declare that this is one comedy which is low on the laugh scale with little else to recommend it except for the early appearance of Bergen, McCarthy & Mortimer Snerd; who are always worth at least a little viewing.

While Edgar Bergen and his puppets could be very good in a film, here they are definitely not used effectively. Much of the problem is that there really isn't any plot, the situations aren't particularly funny and the laughs are very muted.

The film begins in a nightclub and then inexplicably picks up in Mexico! There Charlie McCarthy makes a pass at a cute lass (and nearly gets himself hung by her jealous boyfriend) and Mortimer is stupid. Nothing particularly earth-shatteringly original here. The could have been much better had it had a decent script and perhaps a foil for McCarthy--who was great when battling with W.C. Fields on the radio or in full-length movies.

Not terrible, but a very poor representation of what Bergen and his puppets could do to entertain us.

This Edgar Bergin and Charlie McCarthy short is one I just watched on the Varsity Show DVD. It begins at a nightclub with McCarthy in his familiar top hat outfit and Edgar in tow doing some funny risqué pick-up lines at a beautiful woman. Then, after Edgar invites Charlie to go to Mexico, they're there (with Charlie in appropriate outfit) with a lovely senorita dancing and her jealous boyfriend. Yes, some flirting goes there too and yes, he confronts that boyfriend. And Edgar also meets Elmer Mortimer Snerd, goofy as ever especially when mentioning three brothers. I'll stop there and just say I liked this one enough to say A Neckin' Party is worth a look.

Well-dressed dummy Charlie McCarthy is discovered in a nightclub by ventriloquist guardian Edgar Bergen. Charlie thinks he's having a great time, but Edgar disagrees and invites Charlie to fly out to his Mexican ranch for some real fun. Charlie is distracted by a curvaceous woman in a low-cut evening gown and almost loses his bearings. Quickly, Edgar and Charlie are in Mexico. The meet an attractive senorita and Charlie falls hard. Her boyfriend gets jealous and plans "A Neckin' Party" for the horny puppet. Before the climax, Edgar finds dummy Elmer Mortimer Snerd in the woods...

Edgar Bergan won a special "Academy Award" for his 1937 work, with this short film possibly the most recent in the voting members' memory. It also inspired more "Tijuana Bibles" (illegal and raunchy comic books versions of popular entertainers), which often featured unseen parts of Charlie's anatomy, in full swing.

**** A Neckin' Party (9/4/37) Lloyd French ~ Edgar Bergen, Charlie McCarthy, Mortimer Snerd

Neckin' Party, A (1937)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Edgar Bergen and his dummy Charlie McCarthy are up to their old tricks in this Warner short. This time out the duo travel to Bergen's hometown where a woman begins to flirt with Charlie and this doesn't sit too well with her crazy boyfriend who wants to hang the dummy by his neck. This is a pretty bad short that I doubt even fans of the duo will enjoy. They've always been hit and miss with me but this one here is without question the worst I've seen from them. The biggest problem is that the short appears to be missing any type of actual story. We have a beginning and an ending but it appears everything in the middle is just missing and in the end the entire film doesn't make much sense. The jokes are pretty bland, the settings boring and there isn't a laugh to be had anywhere. Puppet Elmer Mortimer also appears here and at least contains a little life to gets things moving.