Joe and Alice McDoakes are 26 days from being evicted. But Joe feels no pressure to do anything about it -- at least until Alice threatens that they'll have to move in with her mother.
Joe's first course of action is to meet up with "Happy Jack, the Laughing Irishman" (Ralph Peters, the movie's highlight). Alice saw a newspaper ad proclaiming that Happy Jack could find them a lot and a house plan "for nothing." Unfortunately, Jack is so busy spouting plans at Joe in rhyme, he's like a Dr. Seuss nightmare. Jack eventually gets Joe to write him a check for that "nothing" (!) and motion him on to a loan company, where Joe must write another check to guarantee the loan he hasn't even gotten yet.
Joe's worst mistake is returning to his office and spilling his woes to fellow office shmoozer Homer (Clifton Young, as funny as ever). When Homer finds out that Joe's lot is being appraised while Joe is at work, he immediately shoehorns his way into Joe's house plans, assuring Joe that with his input, he'll have him as good as moved in tomorrow. Good luck with that, Joe.
This is a hysterical take on the average guy trying to simply build a house and getting caught up in red tape. Too bad Joe wasn't around for the real-estate crash of the late 2000's; this short subject would have been ripe for a remake/update right about then.
Our rating: (C) 2012, Steve Bailey.
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