Joe and Alice's phone and gas have been cut off, so Alice insists that they take in a boarder. Joe refuses until Alice pulls out the usual threat of having her mother move in. Of course, Joe caves.
First, it's the battle of the sexes. Joe dresses up suavely in the morning when he gets a female roomer (Joi Lansing). Alice doesn't like this, so the female roomer is out. Then the mirror-opposite happens with a male roomer (Douglas Evans), whom Joe throws out.
Joe's neighbor Marvin (Rodney Bell) asks to be the roomer, only he doesn't have money for rent. He tells Joe that he is now a broker in potatoes, and Joe can have half of his earnings. Joe duly takes down potato orders from phone calls and then hands them to Marvin.
What Joe doesn't know is that the "potato orders" are coded bets for horse races. When one of the horses loses big, Marvin skedaddles out of town, leaving Joe to deal with a very sore winner named Heimie Callahan (Herb Vigran). When Joe can't pay off on the bet, Heimie and his partner take Joe for a ride and an almost-permanent river-dive. A cop happens by, prompting the priceless headline "Rookie Saves Bookie." Joe and Marvin eventually reunite, but not happily.
The McDoakes are obviously getting a tad more complicated than they were in the early days. Happily, this short is almost as funny as some of the best. Five points' demerit, though, for the new, "streamlined" intro to the McDoakes shorts. The truncated version of the opening theme, and the sci-fi-looking titles, seem to indicate some budget-cutting measures took effect on these shorts.
Our rating: (C) 2012, Steve Bailey.
Go to:
Our home page
