The Pete Smith shorts were a staple of the MGM program for more than two decades and audiences eagerly anticipated a certain number of sub-series or series-within-a-series entries. Each movie-season (running from September to August), there were a few Technicolor "novelties" (usually a cooking demonstration or an athletic spectacular), a football review of last year's newsreel clips, a cute animal subject, three or more sports-reels featuring great stunts, a couple of Dave O'Brien pantomime slap-sticks of the "you can't win" mode and one or two "What's Your IQ?" quizzes. This title belongs to the last of these sub-series and is also called "What's Your IQ No. 16".
The whole concept of a quiz-reel sounds dry and boring on paper, but when presented on screen is quite enjoyable. That's because Pete Smith provides so much high comedy: measuring the weight of a piano by skunk and lion sizes and showing an offbeat news clip of a ship disaster that has NOTHING to do with the core subject of musical instruments. The audience participates in the multiple choice questions (this was during the heyday of "following the bouncing ball" sing-a-longs) and our witty narrator provides hilarious criticism for those of us who chose the wrong answer. For example, five weird words that Smith can't even pronounce correctly are tossed out as a which-is-an-instrument? question.
In-between the question and answer sessions are some Ed Sullivan-ish novelty acts, this time involving music. The best of these little acts is a pianist who plays blindfolded with a sheet over the keys. Others, like the blown-up glove "instrument" are strictly for laughs.
The whole concept of a quiz-reel sounds dry and boring on paper, but when presented on screen is quite enjoyable. That's because Pete Smith provides so much high comedy: measuring the weight of a piano by skunk and lion sizes and showing an offbeat news clip of a ship disaster that has NOTHING to do with the core subject of musical instruments. The audience participates in the multiple choice questions (this was during the heyday of "following the bouncing ball" sing-a-longs) and our witty narrator provides hilarious criticism for those of us who chose the wrong answer. For example, five weird words that Smith can't even pronounce correctly are tossed out as a which-is-an-instrument? question.
In-between the question and answer sessions are some Ed Sullivan-ish novelty acts, this time involving music. The best of these little acts is a pianist who plays blindfolded with a sheet over the keys. Others, like the blown-up glove "instrument" are strictly for laughs.