Series: All Stars w/The Boy Friends Director: Robert A. McGowan, Lloyd French Producer: Hal Roach Dialogue: Photography: Len Powers Editor: Richard C. Currier Sound: James Greene Stars: Mickey Daniels, Grady Sutton, Gordon Douglas, Jacqueline Wells Company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Released: 16 April 1932 Length: 2 reels Production No.: S-6 Filming dates: January 11-16, 1932 Rating: -/10

You're Telling Me

"The four wildest tribes of American Indiana are ~ Shoshones, Mohawks, Cherokees and Sophomores" And so begins our story. Outside Elmira train station, Eddie, Alabam and Mickey sit in their car when Eddie suggests the other two ought to come to the city and stay with him and his folks for a couple of days. As the girls begin to board the train to leave, Eddie runs for the train and is helped on board by the excited girls. Alabam and Mickey meet three awkwardly shy girls who are keen to hook up with them but the boys decide to drive to Eddie's house instead. Eddie arrives home and is greeted warmly by his parents and girlfriend Jacqui. Alabam and Mickey arrive straight after in their car, which they crash into the back of another parked car. Eddie quickly flees, not wanting to be seen by the boys. The boys see the beautiful Jacqui and feign injury so that she will come over and make a fuss of them. She tells them she is planning a surprise party for Eddie that evening and wants them to attend. Meanwhile Eddie squares it with his folks to let Mickey and Alabam stay the night. Reluctantly, Eddie's father agrees, even after they play a practical joke on him (see favourite bit). Alabam and Mickey win the affections of Eddie's folks after a display of some embarrassing charm. Jacqui calls Eddie over to her place where a lot of friends are waiting to give him the surprise party. Alabam and Mickey arrive shortly afterwards dressed smartly in tuxedos and repeat their display of charm on Jacqui's mother.

The party kicks off with a dance: Eddie dancing with the Bolen girl, whilst Mickey dances with Jacqui. As Alabam helps himself to a handful of sandwiches the maid gives him the watchful eye, which he counters by charming her. Back at Eddie's house, his father notices a leak coming from the ceiling and goes upstairs to investigate and finds the bathroom flooded. The dog (have I mentioned there was a dog?) is downstairs ripping up a cushion and gets covered in feathers and is put out by Eddie's father. The maid brings a big cake into Jacqui's kitchen but sees the dog at the window and "drops" the cake. It flies through the air backwards and covers Alabam. Mickey and Eddie exchange some cake-throwing amongst themselves before returning to Eddie's father's house. Things go from bad to worse when the cops show up in the middle of the night to arrest Eddie's father for an incident caused by his car on Main Street (of course, he had nothing to do with it!) A month later and Alabam and Mickey are still at the house outstaying their welcome, with Eddie's parents turned to nervous wrecks. As the family sit down to dinner without Alabam and Mickey, it doesn't take long before the smell of the freshly-cooked meatballs stimulates their senses and brings them downstairs (there's a great moment where Lyle Tayo tries to stick a fork into a meatball and it flies off across the table!) A flying meatball ends up being batted around the room by everybody with their dinner plates until Mickey smashes his over Eddie's father's head. The final straw finally comes when it is revealed that Alabam and Mickey have wrecked the family car. The father takes the boys into the garage armed with a baseball bat. Alabam's cries of "Well fan my brow" are met with "I'll get to you in a minute... and it won't be your brow!"

Favourite bit This is actually quite funny: Alabam and Mickey knock on Mr. Morgan's door and then hold onto the doorknob so that when Eddie's father tries to open the door to them from the inside he is met with the resistance from the outside.

Trivia • Copyrighted April 18, 1932. • This was the 13th film in the series to be released. • The stills shown below on this page display a production number of S-7, but according to the Stone/Demoss list this film was S-6. • This is the only film in the series in which Mary Kornman did not appear. Initially I thought she was one of the girls seen at the back of the train early on in the film but this was disputed by several people. • The station seen at the beginning of the film, "Elmira", is the same one used as "Pottsville" in Laurel and Hardy's Berth Marks. Talking of which, keep an eye out for a very brief appearance from Silas D. Wilcox as the train conductor who calls out "all aboard" at the station. He was also the train conductor in Berth Marks. • When Eddie runs for the train at the beginning of the film we are made to believe the train is moving. It clearly isn't. • If you look closely you can see that Eddie's mother wears an ankle bracelet on her left leg. • In the scene where Billy Gilbert is lying on the couch and reading a book (before the water drips on him) you can clearly see the make-up on his face above his eyes. In the next scene when he goes to investigate the leak and opens the bathroom door he slips on the floor. He bangs his head hard on the floor - and this looks like it was a genuine accident. • In order to have their food without Alabam and Mickey, Eddie and his parents sit around the dinner table but leave two empty chairs set out. I mean, that's like inviting trouble isn't it? My opinion • When you think of a Boy Friends film you would probably and instinctively think rubbish. But to be fair this is actually quite a good entry in the series. It made me laugh - which, trust me, takes some doing!

	Mickey Daniels Mickey
	Grady Sutton Alabam
	Gordon Douglas Eddie Morgan
	Jacqueline Wells Jacqui
	Betty Bolen The Bolen girl
	Billy Gilbert Bill Morgan
	Louise Beavers Maid
	Sumner Getchell Party guest
	Lyle Tayo Mrs. Morgan
	May Wallace Jacqui's mother
	Silas D. Wilcox Train conductor
	Lois January Girl on train
	Charles McMurphy Cop
	Spencer Bell Train porter

UNIDENTIFIED CAST

CREDITS (click image to enlarge)

STILLS (click any image to enlarge)

SHOT ON LOCATION (click any image to enlarge)

Acknowledgements: Richard Finegan (all stills) Jorge Finkielman (cleaning) Jesse Brisson (identification of Lois January, Spencer Bell, Charles McMurphy) This page was last updated on: 16 April 2023