A Quiet Fourth

When neighbor Charlie Hall's two boys celebrate Independence Day y letting off a bunch of firecrackers, Charlie wants to wallop them. Edgar thinks that the 4th is meant for fireworks, so he takes the boys with him, wife Sally Payne and brother-in-law Jack Rice for a picnic.... onto an army testing base where there are war games involving heavy artillery.

It's a typically funny entry in Edgar's long-running "The Common Man" comedy series at RKO. Over the years, the actress who played his wife most often was Florence Lake, with Vivien Oakland probably in second place. Here, it's Miss Payne, who spent a lot of time in Republic Pictures westerns. She made about six of these shorts with Kennedy in 1941 and 1942, playing the same sort of helium-voiced nitwit that Miss Lake did. She largely retired in 1943, to marry, raise a family and run a small bookstore. She died in 1999, aged 86.

The Plot.

Edgar decides the 4th of July fireworks celebration in town is too much for his nerves, and he and his wife Sally and her brother will take a nice drive out into the countryside and have a nice, peaceful picnic.

His first mistake is inviting the sons of his neighbor to go with them, and his second is picking an Army artillery firing range as the location of the picnic.

A VERY tubby Charlie Hall from the Laurel & Hardy films appears in this film.

The evolution of this series is interesting. The n'er do well brother appears in it but Edgar's ditsy wife is someone else. Still she's pretty ditsy.

I love this series.