weezeralfalfa Review of Scram!

Scram! (1932)

Stan and Ollie are admonished vagrants who make whoopee with the judge's wife

[8/10 · 7 November 2018]

What I especially like about this L&H short is that the comedy depends on events that are rather different from their usual menagerie of slapstick, pratfalls, verbal humor, etc........It starts with the boys in court, being admonished by the judge(played by Richard Cramer), for being vagrants, sleeping on park benches. He would like to give them 6 months in the slammer, but the jail is full. So, he gives them 1 hr. to get out of town(or else ?). Unfortunately, the boys don't get out of town, and, ironically, are destined to meet up with the judge that evening, under very compromising conditions : They're cavorting with the judge's wife, while all were in bed clothes in the judge's house, all inebriated from the 'water' in the water pitcher. Certainly a riskay scene. . I dare say they couldn't have gotten away with some parts of the scene a few years later, and the film was banned in the Netherlands for this scene. First, in the wife's bedroom, they all laugh themselves silly, which hopefully induces the audience to join in. Then, the wife wants to dance with them, turning on the player piano. But, it turns out to be more like wrestling, as the boys are reluctant to dance with her. Eventually, they are 'wrestling' on the floor. The judge arrives home and is not pleased with what he sees and hears. The boys are scared to death, and Stan flips the light switch. We hear crashes and screams, as the film ends........... So, how did the boys manage to end up in the judge's house, cavorting with his wife? When the boys exited from the court house, they encountered a falling down drunk(Arthur Houseman), who complained he dropped his car key. The boys spy it under the grating, and offer to help. Stan puts s piece of chewed gum on the end of his umbrella, and pushes his umbrella through the grating(Must have been extraordinarily skinny.) He catches the key, but the umbrella keeps opening when it touches the grating. So, Ollie manages to lift the grating to get at the end of the umbrella. Unfortunately, he falls in this now much deeper pit below the grating(?). In a running gag, Stan and the drunk conk heads and fall into the hole together. Ollie sees a policeman coming, and replaces the grating. when the cop walks by, the drunk gives out a raspberry. The cop assumes it came from Ollie, and gives him a rap, before turning around. The drunk utters another raspberry.. This time, Ollie runs around the block, with the cop chasing. Meanwhile, Stan and the drunk have managed to push the grating away, and are standing on the sidewalk. The cop falls into the grating hole, and the men get into the drunk's car, he having invited them to spend the night in his house, since it's raining a bit. The drunk drives((heaven forbid!) to a house he claims is his, but it's not. He wants to unlock the front door, but can't find his key. So, the boys try to reach a slightly open window. They make it. Meanwhile, the drunk has fallen against the door, and it opens! The drunk tells the boys to go upstairs and make themselves comfortable. Eventually, he goes upstairs too, and pours some of his gin into the water pitcher, after he pours out the water. Then, he encounters the butler, who awoke from some noise. The butler tells him he must be in the wrong house. So, the goes downstairs and we don't see him again. Meanwhile, the wife also is awakened, and the boys come out of their room for some reason. She screams and faints. The boys try to revive her with some of the 'water'. She invites them into her room, as company, until her husband comes home. I've already related the rest of the screenplay.........See it at YouTube.