Going Places

Among the very best of all the Vitaphone shorts I've seen is Al Shaw and Sam Lee in "The Beau Brummels". That film is simply hilarious and I enjoyed watching this Vaudeville comedy team in action. So, when "Going Places" was being shown on TCM, I was thrilled as it starred these same two bizarre comedians. While it's not even close to being as good as "The Beau Brummels"...it still is quite enjoyable. In fact, both these two films are so enjoyable that I really wish they'd make features. Their appearances, however, were limited to shorts like this as well as supporting roles in a few features.

The story begins with Al and Sam trying to get into a swanky restaurant despite being dressed a bit shabbily. Somehow they manages to get inside at which point they naturally get into trouble and then inexplicably break into dance before ultimately being lead out.

Very little of what they did in this film was brilliant or extremely funny...but it was always fun and their goofy act is something you just have to see to believe. It's akin to fusing the Marx Brothers with robots! Very unique and worth seeing.

When the Vitaphone Project screened Shaw & Lee's first short, THE BEAU BRUMMELS, everyone in the audience loved them. Now it's about six years later. I still don't know which is which and I still don't care, because they are so good performing their blanked-faced idiocies that I can't stop laughing.

This one came out two years later and there are advances in how they perform. In the first one, they came out on stage and did their act. In this one, they're given a bit of a story as they sneak into a night club and interact -- slightly -- with other people there. They still have that wonderful one-on-one timing of two performers who know how to do what they do together. Enjoy.