Scratch-As-Catch-Can

Hmmm. I struggled a bit with this. Bobby Clark and Paul McCullough find themselves arriving, Cleopatra-style, in a gymnasium where they encounter a man pleasantly enjoying a steam bath. In the course of their rather strained antics, they manage to trap him in the machine with the steam and the freeze settings on full blast! Meantime, "Sandow" (Charlotte Ogden) is under huge pressure to get wealthy industrialist "Clackworthy" to sign an insurance policy. Her team are so useless she reckons any old man off the street could do a better job. Guess who gets picked? They are misdirected to the home of "Gilfoil" (James Finlayson) who is President of the very same insurance company and Clark convinces him to buy a $100,000 policy whilst his pal works on his guest. They don't quite use persuasion and rational chat, they use wrestling - and pretty soon a combination of pain, panic and the ruination of his home ensures that "Gilfoil" signs and his mate, well it turns out that they've met before! The dialogue is relentless and though there is the odd wise-crack in there to raise a smile, there just isn't nearly enough to sustain this story. It's disjointed and at times quite irritating and though I didn't hate it, I doubt I'll ever watch it again.

James Finlayson owns an insurance company. He bets Phil Dunham his salesmen can sell him a policy. When the regular boys can't do it, sales manager Charlotte Ogden says she can pull in someone off the street who can do better. She winds up with Clark & McCullough. Worried about their jobs, the regular salesmen give Our Heroes Finlayson's address instead of Dunham's.

C&C, as nobody but me ever called them, were a pair of crazy comics, like the Marx Brothers and Wheeler & Woolsey, trained in vaudeville, burlesque, and anything for a laugh. In this one, under the direction of Mark Sandrich, they pull out all the stops, as they boil Dunham and wrestle Finlayson. Other participants in this mayhem include Walter Brennan and Charlie Hall.

"Scratch-As-Catch-Can" is unusual because it's the SECOND Clark & McCullough comedy short where the boys are working as insurance salesman. And, interestingly, these are also the two best comedies I've seen by the team.

As a bet, a tough looking lady boss thinks she can make ANYONE into a decent insurance salesman. Unfortunately, she chooses these two knuckleheads. Oddly, the DO end up being amazing and incredibly aggressive salesmen...and essentially act more like wrestlers than salesmen!

The film is stupid...but in a good way. It has a few very funny bits and is about as unsophisticated and silly as you can find. But it manages to STILL be quite funny.

By the way, in addition to James Finlayson (who appeared in many of Laurel & Hardy's best films), you see a young and pre-famous Walter Brennan near the beginning of the film.