So You Want to Be a Handy Man (1951) User Reviews

Sight Gags On Parade

[redryan64 · 7/10 · 14 February 2016]

PERHAPS AS SOME sort of return to its origins, this installment of the series spotlights the ongoing gag of the new and inexperience guy's having to follow instructions in performing some series of "do it yourself" tasks. In this sense, it certainly would seem that it was a throwback to the earliest episodes in which the final product had a strong resemblance to the MGM series of PETE SMITH SPECIALTIES ("Produced and Narrated by a Smith named Pete").

THIS ASSERTION WOULD seem to have merit. The only fault that one could find would be that there is no voice-over narration, a fact we hadn't noticed until the one reeler was well along its all too brief way to conclusion. All of a sudden, we asked our self, "Where's Art (Gilmore)?

HIS WAS THE voice of just about all shorts done, with a few exceptions. The missing narrator was neatly replaced by dialog between Joe (George O'Hanlon) and neighbor, Marvin (Rodney Bell); with these two being the only two in the picture. Two brief scenes show Marvin's wife (uncredited) shouting out orders from 2nd story window.

OTHER THAN THAT, we have a rapid fire presentation of these handy-man gags, strung together in the same manner as a ROAD RUNNER & COYOTE cartoon. Even the ending is right from the animator's storyboard.

WE DID FIND this one to be a good laugh maker, if not exactly "Top of the Line." We must admit, it certainly was just a little different.

A lot of fun....

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 18 October 2017]

Although Joe is enjoying his down time at home, his perennially busy neighbor, Marvin, is chiding Joe...insisting he do some minor repairs around the house. Joe agrees to let Marvin help...and again and again, the pair end up doing a job much like you'd expect from the Three Stooges. They accidentally mix up the gas line with the water pipes, end up painting EVERYTHING in the house white and make a thorough mess of everything. The sight gags in this one are pretty clever and the laughs keep coming one after the other in this one, so there's never a dull moment...as well as a funny punch line at the end about television. Well worth seeing and a good example of how funny the McDoakes shorts could be...but weren't always.

Funny Short

[Michael_Elliott · 17 April 2010]

So You Want to Be a Handyman (1951)

*** (out of 4)

Joe McDoakes (George O'Hanlon) is at home wasting time when his neighbor Marvin (Rodney Bell) recommends that he learn how to become a handy man. Joe decides to take Marvin up on his offer and the two start fixing things up around the house but before long one disaster after another happens. This here is yet another winning entry in the series that has one big laugh after another. There are many great sequences here but the highlight has to be the final joke of the film, which I won't ruin but it'll have tears running down your face from laughing so hard. The entire premise is a pretty simple one as one mistake leads to another but O'Hanlon and Bell are so good together that they make the smallest laugh work. The two men have wonderful chemistry together and the addition of Bell certainly took the series to a new level. The painting of the table sequence is another very funny sequence. Fans of the series will certainly eat this up but those new to McDoakes should find this a good one to start with.