Come to Papa! (1931) User Reviews

A cute short....with one glaring problem.

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 2 August 2018]

Ford Sterling (an old veteran of the Keystone Studio) made some comedy shorts for RKO in the early 1930s. "Come to Papa!" is one of them and is worth seeing...though it has one glaring mistake.

When the story begins, creditors are threatening to take everything from a fashion designer (Sterling). But he assures them everything will be fine, as he's created an undergarment for women that will make him a fortune. His competitors apparently agree, as they soon steal the lingerie...and the man spends the rest of the movie trying to get it back.

When he realizes where the garment is, people think he's some sort of pervert. After all, he keeps trying to sneak into the women's dressing room and insists on taking a piece of lingerie. Not one did he EVER stop to explain to the policeman or anyone else that the lingerie had been stolen....and doing so would have cleared everything up quickly...so quickly that the film would have been short and unnecessary. But this is a plot problem when a serious problem can EASILY be worked out but isn't. Despite this huge problem, the film is cute and worth seeing.

By the way, the guy who stole the lingerie was played by Snub Pollard, a veteran of Hal Roach comedies.

The Best Short Ever Made!

[JohnHowardReid · 10/10 · 24 September 2016]

Boys, boys, wake up! You've got a really beautiful photo of Eleanor Hunt there, but you're not crediting her! Snub Pollard is in the movie too. But it is Ford Sterling's picture - and he does some absolutely marvelous stunts! In fact, all the stunt-work is absolutely incredible and the film moves so fast that the first thing you want to do after seeing the movie is to run it again! The pace is so fast, and production values so vast, that you can scarcely believe your eyes. And a lot of it was obviously shot on real locations too. Ford Sterling does his funny accent in this one, and he is a scream. You can hardly believe that a man with his weight and such clumsy feet can run so fast. It's also hard to believe that a movie so inspired, so breathtaking, so funny could come from Educational, of all exchanges! Wonders will never cease. Director William Watson deserves a bit pat on the back, and so does producer Al Christie. The writers, George Bentley (story) and Leon Berry (dialogue) are also to be congratulated. But, as said above, it's Ford Sterling's movie, and my hat's off to him. He is a wonder!