Joe McDoakes has suddenly decided he's going to be a movie actor. Hmm, I don't suppose this will result in every possible plug of parent company Warner Bros., now, will it?
On the one hand, this does result in the only Joe McDoakes cameo from a future U.S. President (then-current Warners star Ronald Reagan). On the debit side, we get Ralph Sanford, whom Laurel & Hardy buffs know all too well as the hammy actor who played a very non-threatening villain in L&H's final Hollywood film, The Bullfighters (1945). Here, Sanford is just as unconvincing in the role of Anthony Anguish, director of the war movie in which Joe has a bit role as a messenger boy. Joe, unfortunately, has decided he just has to play out his three-line role with bad impersonations of Charles Boyer, Ronald Colman, and Cary Grant, even though Anguish expresses his displeasure at each impression.
(Oh, and we also get a cute bit with George O'Hanlon playing two roles: himself, very confidently and condescendingly talking to Joe McDoakes. Har-har.)
Hooray for Hollywood, my butt. Now, if this short could've pulled off a Bugs Bunny cameo, it might have had something.
Our rating: (C) 2012, Steve Bailey.
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