Money Squawks

I wasn't expecting much from this Columbia short teaming of Andy Clyde with Shemp Howard under the director of Jules White. Andy's relatively low-key character wouldn't seem to mesh well with Shemp's twitchy neurotic, and Clyde, despite his long association with the Columbia shorts department, worked better with other directors with his slow-reaction takes.

On the first count, I was surprised at how well the two leads worked together. There was about half a minute when Shemp seemed about to swamp Andy, but then Andy sped himself and the two worked very well together.

White's direction was a bit more troublesome, and he seems to have simply cut in large sections of Andy's 1935 short OLD SAWBONES as an economy measure. The two lead comedians survive White's rough handling and manage some decent laughs along the way.

In "Money Squawks", Andy Clyde and Shemp Howard are station agents for the railroad. Their job is to defend against robberies but neither seems capable of doing anything but trouble. Through the course of the story, they shoot at some innocent hunters, are terrorized by a duck AND end up GIVING the money to the crooks by mistake. Can Andy and Shemp somehow redeem themselves?

If you are looking for sophisticated entertainment, you'd better keep looking. Remember...Columbia is the same studio that brought us the Three Stooges and the humor here is pretty much along the same vein. Fortunately, the film did end will and I found myself (against my better judgment) actually laughing at this portion of the short.