What, No Men? (1935)
** (out of 4)
Technicolor short from Warner has two men (El Brendel, Phil Regan) kidnapped by a group of scientist and taken to an island where there's only women. Once on the island El Brendel goes around telling non-funny jokes while Regan sings a few numbers. WHAT, NO MEN? isn't nearly as clever or as entertaining as one would hope and in fact it really drags in spots and in the end there's not really a reason to watch it. I believe this was the second film that I had seen with El Brendel so I'm not sure if he acted the same all the time but his slow-witted characteristics are pretty hard to take, although they are easy not to laugh at. I really didn't find any of his humor to work here but to be fair the screenplay really didn't come up with any good jokes. Regan has a nice voice and he does a good job with the songs but none of them are very memorable. In fact, there's really not too much that stands out with this film except for the rather insulting way the women are made to "act" like Indians and of course there are several negative stereotypes that come from this. Fans of early Technicolor might want to check it out for this but others should just stay away.
** (out of 4)
Technicolor short from Warner has two men (El Brendel, Phil Regan) kidnapped by a group of scientist and taken to an island where there's only women. Once on the island El Brendel goes around telling non-funny jokes while Regan sings a few numbers. WHAT, NO MEN? isn't nearly as clever or as entertaining as one would hope and in fact it really drags in spots and in the end there's not really a reason to watch it. I believe this was the second film that I had seen with El Brendel so I'm not sure if he acted the same all the time but his slow-witted characteristics are pretty hard to take, although they are easy not to laugh at. I really didn't find any of his humor to work here but to be fair the screenplay really didn't come up with any good jokes. Regan has a nice voice and he does a good job with the songs but none of them are very memorable. In fact, there's really not too much that stands out with this film except for the rather insulting way the women are made to "act" like Indians and of course there are several negative stereotypes that come from this. Fans of early Technicolor might want to check it out for this but others should just stay away.