Call Her Sausage

Series: All Stars w/The Taxi Boyx

Director: Gus Meins

Producer: Hal Roach

Photography: Art Lloyd

Editor: William H. Terhune

Sound: James Greene

Stars: Ben Blue, Billy Gilbert

Company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Released: 13 May 1933

Length: 2 reels

Production No.: T-9

Filming dates:

Rating: 3/10

Call Her Sausage

Billy has just rented a premises for his new delicatessen store, and has his daughter Tillie (a name she resents and reminds her father it is 'Mathilda') as the cashier. Billy wants to fire accident-prone Ben but reluctantly makes him his chief clerk after Tillie pleads with him. Billy offers his hand to Ben to shake but Ben's hand becomes lodged in his pocket due to a large biscuit intended for his dog. Ben then pulls down the overhead canopy which is full of water, as Billy soon discovers. They make it inside the store where Ben stacks cans on a shelf whilst Billy throws them to him. Ben's apron becomes entangled in the cans and he ends up bringing them all down to the floor. Tillie then gives Ben a tin to open but like the complete twat that he is he ends up using the tin opener to undo an alarm clock. A cop walks into the store and suggests to Billy that he ought to do something special to let customers know his new store is in business.
Ben continues to cause havoc as he tries to grab a mouse which has buried himself between the stacked cans. Naturally, the cans come tumbling down. And then so does Ben. And Billy. Billy orders Ben to find him a trap to catch the mouse so Ben brings him first the biggest trap he can find (see favourite bit), followed by a gigantic piece of cheese. They then proceed to try and catch 'Mickey' but fail. Billy then unveils the new poster which he asks Ben to paste on the store window whilst Billy attends to hand-painting a sign which says "French Pastr(y)" but doesn't know how to spell it. His friend Meyer (Billy Bletcher) tries to help him out but every time Meyer says "Y" Billy thinks he is asking him a question. He finally gets it.

Ben stands admiring his work outside the store as he proudly looks at the poster he has pasted on the window (see image, right), with the the words "free" and "fresh" mixed up to imply that all stock is free to whomever wants it. Billy is conducting a music lesson with a couple of old guys in a back room, with Ben on bass drum in preparation for opening night. Meyer joins them late and the fivesome start playing music together. Badly. Ben keeps hitting the drum at the wrong time and Billy keeps telling him off. It's a really dreadful scene which drags on forever. Billy manages to stamp on the chord on the floor which disconnects the lighting, whilst Billy gets his flute stuck on his tongue and cannot get it off. Then comes the opening night for the store and dozens of would-be excited customers gather outside to read the sign "everything free".
Inside the store Ben continues to do what he does best, and Billy does to him what we all feel like doing: giving him a good smack. With dozens of customers waiting outside, Ben opens the door to let them in (well, he pulls the door OFF) and the stampede of people rushes in, grabbing everything they can in their desperate attempt to get as much as they can for free. It takes them less than a minute to completely strip the store clean of all the stock. Even a dog nicks a bunch of sausages just for good measure. However all is not lost because Ben manages to save one last item: the last sausage. The film ends with the mouse mocking him in an animated form.

Favourite bit
"Are you going to catch a mouse or a moose?"

Trivia
• Copyrighted March 27, 1933.
• Released as part of the All Star series, this was the eighth film in the Taxi Boys series.
• The title is a play on words for CALL HER SAVAGE, a film starring Thelma Todd.
• One of the gripes Billy has with Ben is that Ben had previously used gasoline to put out a fire. No comment.
• The tins that Ben is stacking on the shelf are Old Dutch Malt Syrup.
• When Billy finally paints the "Y" on his sign he does so in a close-up shot, but in the next shot we see him painting it all over again despite already having done so.

My opinion
• No matter how hard they try, no matter how good their intentions are.... it just ain't funny. How could they not see that?

	Ben Blue Benny
	Billy Gilbert Heinie Schmaltz
	Lucile Browne Mathilda Schmaltz
	Billy Bletcher Meyer
	Gus Leonard Otto, a musician
	Dick Gilbert Customer
	Billy Engle Customer
	Joseph Young Policeman