To radio-show host Mr. Agony (Arthur Q. Bryan), Alice tells the story of how Joe bought his nephew a model train set as a Christmas present, only to get obsessed with it himself. Soon, the McDoakes home is wall-to-wall with miniature train tracks.
Another great Everyman story about Joe taking something simple and blowing it all out of proportion. In a routine bodily lifted from Buster Keaton's silent short The Electric House (1922), Joe even sets up the dining room so that trains will roll out various courses of the evening meal. Other than that (flawlessly done) scene, the best gag is probably Joe checking out the latest gadgets at the local train store and buying extra tracks for nearby patrons, as though he was in a bar buying drinks for the house.
Our rating: (C) 2012, Steve Bailey.
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