Two-Reeler Comedy Collection – Edgar Kennedy + Leon Errol
Picture: C
Sound: C Extras: D Shorts: C
One of the casualties of television was the short subject,
whether a documentary piece or amusing dramatization. The latter included comedies, and RKO Radio Pictures were at
their most literal in this respect.
Working as a sort of live-action version of network radio comedies of
the day, the short comedy films of Edgar Kennedy and Leon Errol were running
successes for the studio. VCI has issued
two separate DVDs on each comedian in their Two-Reeler Comedy Classics
series, each containing 10 such shorts per disc, per comedian. These programs run under 15 minutes each,
average, and reflect the state of such comedy in their day.
The Edgar Kennedy set has shorts that ruin from
1930 – 1946, going back to Pathé Studios.
The box says he was the master of the “slow burn” routine, but he also
was a solid all-around comic. He racked
up 103 such shorts, so this DVD covers almost a tenth of his entire output. Like those radio comedies, the Kennedy
shorts were ahead of the TV sitcoms and their amusing portrayals of the family,
but they did not exactly challenge the family structure either. The Help Wanted Female short, the
oldest one, does not even have this set situation.
The Leon Errol shorts have a time span of 1938 –
1951, focusing more on husband and wife only, more similar to the sitcom
formulas of today. This “pairing down”
of the family seems emptier, so several decades later, current TV sitcoms are
as hollow as ever in following such formulas with none of the authentic feel of
these particular shorts. Why the song London
Bridges happens to be the theme song that opens each short is still a
mystery, though.
VCI has offered some of these shorts as bonus features on
other DVDs, but these collections are the first stand-alones on DVD from the
company. Both DVDs offer full screen,
black and white images and Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on all shorts, which vary in
quality from piece to piece. Some look
decent, others show their age, and one or two offer poor video transfers. That is typical of such offerings of such
older material, though. Biographies of
each comedian are offered on the DVD with their work, plus the same TV trailers
preview is available on both.
Though not the greatest comedy ever committed to film,
these shorts are still class product from a major studio that eventually became
Desilu, the home of I Love Lucy and many of the greatest comedies made
during TV’s golden era, so something good just might have rubbed off from these
works, and that’s not bad at all.
- Nicholas Sheffo
