Opened By Mistake (1934) Review // Applying Queer Theory To Thelma Todd And Patsy Kelly Films Part 10 – A Rock N’ Roll Nurse Went Through Her Head

Thelma and Patsy reuniting

Opened By Mistake is a delight. It continues the streak of really good films this series has been on. This film even features a character arc subtly for both leads, with the comedy being absurd and the character moments dense with elements to interpret. The film commits with the plot itself and certain moments going for something cartoonish, but fits with the real world. Both our leads get time to shine saying and doing some things that suggest they walked into crazy land where logic goes to die. This short, like some others, does feel like it could be a Patsy-solo film, though Thelma does get some really funny things to do. Thelma is sadly sidelined a little. There’s also the common issue of objects and people sometimes being in different locations between cuts, such as a cart that was knocked over at one point being upright later. The wonky continuity lives on. There’s a little filler, but it’s funny enough to not be a matter.

A scene of the two leads around the 5:00 mark is light on comedy, focusing more on the two having a bit of a confrontation. Both give performances that clearly have emotion under the skin. They come off more human and less absurd than normally. This is not at the sacrifice of continuity, as this is the sort of thing you could imagine happening with the sillier versions of the two. A scene of Patsy trying to contain her emotions is set as it rains in the background, suggesting that she wants to cry or is distraught on the inside. Thelma doesn’t initially seem to want to talk to Patsy as she’s trying to work. The first thing she says when she finds out Patsy is on the phone is, “Now, what do you want?”, with an annoyed tone of voice. Her character doesn’t remain as stiff, with this being a telling introduction to the adventure she and Patsy will go on. Both actresses are on top form.

The bit characters do well with their minimal material. William Burress, Charles McAvoy, and most prominently Nora Cecil expect to leave an impression and do. Cecil’s character is especially compelling as she has a bit of a character arc that’s unexpected. The fact such a minor character even has an arc speaks to how well this film can stick to its story and concept, with everyone following it.

SPOILERS

To detail the little character moments this story, Thelma is told off for making a mistake by Cecil and makes a rude face at her when she isn’t looking. This is a sign of Thelma not respecting institutions enough to maintain composure. If she did, but disliked this one person, she might not have thought it safe enough for fear of reprimand. Later, Thelma doesn’t seem happy to see Patsy. Patsy being depicted through a window in the rain is hysterical. She’s just waiting out there. A few minutes later, Thelma pushes Patsy and she falls into a loud cart of containers. Thelma blames Patsy, though she literally was the one who pushed her! What could Patsy have done differently? Thelma pushing her is more of a Patsy thing to do. By extension of this…

Thelma is going crazy. She tries to talk Patsy into getting her appendix removed, saying it’s trendy, for the sake of her job. How would letting Patsy escape as the latter wants be impeding Thelma? Thelma even tries to physically stop Patsy, saying she’ll help her escape, though she has to “play ball” right now. Patsy resists, though for a good reason. Seeing as Thelma was just trying to get her to actually have her appendix removed and now Thelma is acting a little on edge, she might be worried that Thelma either wouldn’t help her or would fail to help her. Outside of the character focus, it’s hilarious that the hospital workers are so determined to perform surgery on Patsy that they’ll have this long and impressive fight with her. It’s of course not realistic at all. It paints a great picture of society falling apart for the sake of and through comedy. Even the first short had this, but there’s been little progressions. Now an initially orderly hospital decides to force Patsy to get surgery she clearly doesn’t want off of little evidence. At the center is of course Patsy and Thelma. There’s an excellent fight scene between Patsy and some nurses. It’s at its best when it’s straightforward. They’re all kicking and screaming, with simple gags and the nature of the scene being funny. For whatever reason, a portion of it is in slow motion. It looks super weird. Who thought that was a good idea? Still, the personal nature of it is captivating. The slow-mow has a dirty and rough look, reminiscent of nature documentaries. The film is better without, especially with dialogue not matching characters’ mouths, but it’s not the worst. There is a quality gag, that doesn’t really make sense, of Patsy being in slow-motion and Thelma snapping her out with water to the face. A personal favorite gag is Patsy falling out the window of the building.

There’s a random joke where a policeman is responsible for someone’s car being damaged. Another demonstration that the whole world is becoming crazier. It is also in keeping with the film’s strange sense of humor. Another moment is Patsy being fired from her job before going to the hospital, with Patsy’s boss looking disheveled. The scene is filler, but is amusing. It’s interesting seeing her without Thelma, as the two usually associate. Later, Patsy and Thelma bizarrely don’t leave the hospital on a real stretcher, but with Patsy holding up crutches with fake feet on them, all covered by a blanket. Who thought of that? I will shake their hand. It’s so nonsensical, but so hilarious.

GAY (SPOILERS)

Just like those that came before it, we are greeted to little moments that suggest romance between the two leads. Some of these moments come off that way more in the context of the history between the two, as seen in the first nine films. Some of these moments are tenuous, but all are interesting. Patsy immediately wants to tell Thelma about an update to her life, even when at work. When Patsy is down in the dumps and is evicted from her apartment, she wants to spend the night with Thelma. It doesn’t really make sense to go to a hospital. She shows interest in being with Thelma beyond other factors. Of course, we don’t know her circumstances. Thelma could be her only option. Based on how casually Patsy mentions being evicted and not having any of her stuff, she could be lying for the sake of being with Thelma? It’s possible Patsy wasn’t allowed to get her stuff, as she was locked out of her apartment by her word.

Thelma tells Patsy she can’t stay. After Patsy fails to convince her otherwise, they have an emotional goodbye. They act like lovers. The solemnness in their tone of voice is like a couple having to part at the end of a movie, such as Casablanca. Patsy seems to expect Thelma to let her stay, but Thelma tries and mostly succeeds to stay strong willed. The two have an emblematic moment where they make eye contact as Patsy is leaving. They seem almost distraught by parting. This interpretation is skewed if you take that they’ve been apart for a while, as they aren’t the warmest at first, so perhaps it hasn’t been too long. Thelma has apparently been involved in nursing for three years. I’d like to think it’s something she was doing on the side as she got up to other adventures.

Their high emotions imply that Patsy wanted to spend more time with Thelma and when she didn’t get it, was upset, but wanted to keep composure. Listen to how she says, “Goodbye, my friend.”, calmer; and then later, “Goodbye”, with a harder time keeping herself together. Thelma also becomes more sorrowful. The tension breaks when Thelma warmly says, “Oh, Patsy.” The stiffness of Thelma’s face goes away as emotions seep out to call for her. You can see the suggestion of developing tears in Thelma’s eyes. Patsy smiles, like she’s relieved and emotionally stabilized that Thelma said she’s apparently allowed to stay. Thelma’s eyes briefly bulge like she doesn’t know how to feel about her emotions getting the best of her. Based on Patsy calling Thelma at an inappropriate time earlier, you can imagine Thelma having wanted to resist her charms for the sake of doing her own business and couldn’t for very long.

Thelma looks away shyly as the two have goofy smiles. It’s as if they’re overjoyed to see each other, but want to be coy. Thelma fiddles with a chair and both look to and away from the other a few times, like they’re waiting for the other to say something. Thelma is both straight-laced and comedic when she then hands Patsy an umbrella, like she doesn’t want to be emotionally compromised. Patsy is hurt by this. Thelma then makes a joke and says she’s thinking on how Patsy can stay. The boundaries Thelma established were thin. She wanted to hold her own, but couldn’t help herself. She doesn’t want Patsy to be out in the rain. Her doing some comedic things suggests she’s come around more to Patsy by being silly like her. Patsy is often raucous and prone to problems, but Thelma is willing to accept that and take a risk by letting her stay. It’s odd she didn’t just truthfully say to Cecil that this is a person who needs help and could get sick out in the rain, instead of trying to sneak her in.

When a maid sees them, Thelma asks if Patsy needs anything for the sake of putting on appearance. Patsy asks for some food, seemingly as a joke. Thelma actually gets her that food. She can’t say no! For a bit of the film and longer than you’d expect, Patsy is without Thelma. This shows Patsy at her most under-siege. She’s in danger and afraid without her. Thelma ultimately helps and saves Patsy, showing that their bond is what gets them through strife, with that being a cathartic resolution to their earlier issues. You’re supposed to feel relieved they are now together again and getting along. Thelma seems to progressively stop caring about her job. She ultimately gets Patsy out of the hospital by putting her on a stretcher and taking her outside. Based on how concerned she has been with getting caught doing something wrong, it’s worth wondering why she would just openly walk out with her? While Patsy didn’t know the plan when she refused to comply, if she did you’d think she’d gather that probably wouldn’t work. Thelma has progressively become more Patsy-like, with her now having this hair-brained scheme. It’s interesting this is something that has been progressively happening over time. She goes from overly concerned with formality to leaving in an obvious way. By the end, she only cares about saving Patsy.

Some social behaviors that are supposed to encourage good manners are generally facades. This has been shown in other installments of this series, like Soup and Fish and Three Chumps Ahead. The hospital is at first ordered, but by the end, some are yelling or fighting like animals for no good reason. This could be read as symbolic for the world Patsy and Thelma are trying to avoid in films like One-Horse Farmers. They want to be where there is no fear. And if they don’t escape it, they can get sucked into it. That’s what happens with Thelma here. Patsy is always resistant to Thelma wanting to fit in at the cost of herself and ultimately shows Thelma that she is sacrificing their happiness. Patsy is portrayed as correct, as the world continues to be bizarre and increasingly chaotic, but Patsy remains her weird self. When Thelma is holding Patsy’s feet as she tries to kick, Patsy yells “Thelma!” a few times. You might think she’s asking her to stop holding her, but what if Patsy is also communicating that she should come to her senses and not put her fitting-in over her? That would fit with Thelma being focused on helping Patsy after this point, without a direct explanation. She yells for Thelma because she has more trust and faith in her than anyone else. Patsy has mellowed out of some of her behavior, seemingly because Thelma has gotten her to. She’s only changed, and only a little, for Thelma.

As if to symbolize Patsy and Thelma realizing they belong together after they initially were tense, at the end they lock arms and walk away from the adventure, discarding some of the things they had been carrying. Who needs them? They have each other. They’re even smiling.

OVERVIEW

Hopefully most can love the short’s willingness to throw sanity out the window. The best Patsy and Thelma shorts will either go that route or at least dance on the window’s sill. This short and Three Chumps Ahead feature more toxicity between the two than in some of the installments, but they work quite well with that element. This more complex dynamic leads to some human moments, which balance expertly with the very silly elements and make you care more about our heroes. You understand why they like each other, even when they are upset. Scenes like the ending unite their bond in stating that their priority is more or less always each other, with the seeds of their affection sprinkled throughout the runtime. Even ignoring the non-comedic moments, there’s enough laughs to recommend Opened By Mistake to any comedy fan.

For the friends of continuity, it seems Thelma has moved out, though the two keep in touch, as Patsy reflexively calls Thelma the day she got her new job. Seeing as Patsy and Thelma were apart for a little, we’ll see if the films of Patsy with Pert Kelton or Lyda Roberti fit in that time gap. Perhaps they lived with Patsy when Thelma moved out and ultimately Thelma moved back in? This short seems like it could be after the pair’s more stressful note in their eighth film, Three Chumps Ahead. Their ninth doesn’t fit as well continuity-wise, with it seemingly coming later down the line. Seeing as the two have especially good character drama here, this should be among the earlier shorts chronologically. This short makes it harder to believe the series isn’t set in the same universe.

ON THE CORNER AND OFF THE WALL

I’m now especially interested in seeing the Thelma and ZaSu shorts, mainly so I can see if Thelma was particularly crazy in them. It seems that ZaSu was the silly one, so Thelma might’ve been the straight one, at least by comparison. Hopefully she isn’t too like her character in the first three Patsy shorts, as she wasn’t as compelling. I’ll also want to see if society and Thelma become more crazy, and if that’s because of Patsy and Thelma. However, I may take a break from them, so as to not overload myself. ZaSu has been great in the clips I’ve seen of her, such as a Superman cereal commercial, so I am compelled to move to that. Some feature length comedies starring Thelma, Patsy, ZaSu, The Marx Brothers, or other stars may be my next interest. I’m also looking into reviewing more 1800s films, Christine Jorgensen’s interview album, and the music of Ken Fleischman. Stay tuned!

One-Horse Farmers (1934) Review // Applying Queer Theory To Thelma Todd And Patsy Kelly Films Part 9 – A Cottagecore Lifestyle

Thelma and Patsy’s farmer clothes

One-Horse Farmers is a fun short. Its main success serves more in character deconstruction than in comedy. In fact, it might not be very engaging to someone who wasn’t already familiar with the duo and then started here. Certain character decisions wouldn’t make so much sense outside of an appreciation for the leads. Namely, why are Patsy and Thelma moving to a farm away from people? Who knows unless you like them already and have seen the little ways they have rejected society? The plot concerns the girls moving to “Paradise Acres”. They can grow their own food and live their own lives away from the struggles of busy life. If you care about the characters, these little moments of them getting along or not will be funny or at least enlightening. If you don’t, you might wonder why you should care.

Both get a chance to expand on their characters more. More than any other short so far, we see them bond like people who love being together. The plot necessitates that they have to pick society or the other and they go with being together. They would have to spend more time together on a farm than in a city. In tandem with this are good character and actor moments, like Patsy having a point to be quiet when something goes wrong, not seeming as confident or thoughtless as she sometimes is. The humor is generally solid, though as always can be hit or miss. The faster third act is the best, due to its fast pace and upping the ante. Sadly, there’s not much of a “final joke”, which leaves the film on a less satisfying note than it could. Based on how it ends, you could believe there was a third reel afterwards.

GAY (SPOILERS)

My theory that “Patsy and Thelma are trying to find their place of comfort” is absolutely lit up right now. This short is basically about that. The film opens on sardines closely packed in a tin, before fading to Thelma and Patsy on a crowded subway, evoking how either the audience and our leads feel/should feel about this sort of environment. Thelma tells Patsy to be careful with their money, as if she loses it, they’ll “have no place to live”, said morbidly tongued. Thelma is demoralized by the social pressures and importance of things like money, based on this moment and some later ones. Apparently, Thelma trusts Patsy to hold their money, which suggests Patsy is trustworthy enough to not lose it, adding to the signs that she’s a lot more stable off-screen.

This film has many queer moments, though some are tenuous or based in stereotyping. “Well, we gotta eat, we gotta live.”, Patsy says to someone about how they “can stand it there”. The dialogue associates Patsy and Thelma as a unit. The man refers to them as “you girls” and Patsy refers to them collectively, talking about them being together with their own food and land, using pronouns that refer to the both of them as a collective. It’s just a given that they’re never separate. The man even says to Thelma, “Say lady, you got a very smart girlfriend here.” Their bond is suggested by Patsy never asking Thelma if she wants to go to “Paradise Acres”, perhaps she already knew she’d be up for something like that? It would’ve made sense for her to pass this particular hustle by her, so the fact she didn’t is telling. Thelma on the subway and prior to seeing the house in person isn’t shown to mind this sudden change in lifestyle. Thus, she was probably willing to go along with this and trust that Patsy wasn’t being foolish. Later on, it’s shown to be a given that the two sleep in the same bed, despite there being two there. When the bed itself becomes problematic, Thelma sleeps on the other. A little later, Patsy joins Thelma and she doesn’t seem to mind. Once they’ve fallen asleep, they’re shown cuddling. In a moment of danger, Patsy holds onto Thelma.

They’re literally moving to a secluded area to be away from people. Thelma is never shown wanting to drop Patsy for her mistakes. If things had gone according to plan and Thelma and Patsy lived in “paradise”, it’d be much harder for them to find boyfriends. This film doesn’t really make sense in the view that they would want that. They’re choosing to live together. They’re idea of “heaven” is being together. They even dress like an old married couple on a farm. When Patsy is under their bed, Thelma jokes, “Looking for a man?” The idea of Patsy looking for a man for herself is funny to Thelma, because she would never do that. What else would that be referring to? It’s not like she’s referencing Patsy ever showing interest in finding a husband. Thelma had shown interest in being a social person in past shorts, but gave that up for an environment where the only person she’d be around often is Patsy. If not, then why is she here?

SPOILERS

In the beginning, Thelma talks about being careful with the rent money, yet the two later show up to their new home with a lot of animals. How did they afford them? Even if the animals themselves were free, the food and other things they would need to take care of them aren’t. The character moments are insightful for recurring fans. When it’s revealed the land they bought is difficult to live in and not as sold, Patsy feels bad about what she did. She normally wouldn’t accept her own shortcomings. Thelma doesn’t seem that upset, telling Patsy, “Cheer up, kid. At least we’re out of the subway.” They both want to be away from the city enough that they’ll live here! Patsy says she’ll clean the house. We see a brief scene of her doing so without making a mistake. After that ends, the place is clean. Patsy did something that would’ve probably taken a while without us seeing a mistake. Later, it’s shown that there was sand in the sandwich Thelma was eating, which may or may not have been the fault of Patsy, it’s not stated.

Patsy does do some little things wrong, with a gag from earlier in the series popping up; Thelma telling Patsy to sit down and not get up, so she doesn’t make a mistake. Unlike in the past, she doesn’t do anything wrong until that sequence is over. Thelma has progressively been showing more Patsy-esque behavior. The big one is that she would apparently go along with Patsy buying the house, instead of being the Thelma that seemed more interested in normal society in the earlier shorts. Thelma also makes some mistakes, like burning a broom. She has a proud look on her face before seeming distressed over her blunder.

The humor is light and approachable, unless you find the moments that seem related to the great depression funny, which they are. The jokes of our heroes crammed in a subway have an aura of sadness, but that’s the type of laugh you’d get from a Chaplin film. They make the characters feel more real and introduce an axiom for which they exist on. Perhaps Patsy was so fed up with the struggles, she would accept a smooth-talking man’s word that a house he was selling was good without proof. He was taking advantage of her, and is never seen getting his comeuppance in any way.

When a storm starts terrorizing the duo, the pacing gets faster and the story more exciting. A personal favorite moment is when Patsy screams and falls out the window, unbeknownst to Thelma. She tries to get back in, but Thelma pushes against the door. The house shifting around as the two slide around is a funny joke in the vein of The Gold Rush. There are a few minor nonsensical moments that are easy to forgive, like Thelma being hungry, not eating, and that plot point being dropped. Also, there’s the two sleeping with a face of makeup on. I hope they had a good skincare routine if they were going to do that! Hopefully Patsy and Thelma didn’t drive around with a cow attached to their car for too long. That would hurt.

OVERVIEW

Anyone disappointed by the on-the-surface heterosexual Three Chumps Ahead should feel relieved this time around. We are greeted to a lesbian couple in the 1930s being a working unit that puts the other above all else. It is rewarding to see them making life together after the trials and tribulations of a world filled with the struggles of social expectations and Capitalism. The film intrigues in what they’ll do next now that their bond and goals have evolved to this point. Even if you don’t care about that, it’s still a funny short. While One-Horse Farmers does have some duller moments, there’s enough good material here to place it among the better Patsy and Thelma shorts and make you want to go catch the next one. This one really is Cottagecore: The Movie.

Patsy’s amazing outfit in the beginning

Three Chumps Ahead (1934) Review // Applying Queer Theory To Thelma Todd And Patsy Kelly Films Part 8 – If I Got Paid A Buck A Word For This, I’d Be A Millionaire!

Patsy and Thelma in the film

I went into this film a little nervous. My interpretation of our two leads thus far has been of “love conquers all”. While Patsy can get on Thelma’s nerves a lot (and a little the other way around), the two manage to be relatively solid next time around. This film is an inherent disagreement of such a narrative. As a way of explaining it away, I was going to see if it could fit as the chronological first short, before things developed. That isn’t possible. The short changes a noticeable amount of what I’ve taken from the series and how I feel about it. And for that, I dearly thank it.

Three Chumps Ahead is an incredibly delightful installment of the Thelma-Patsy series. It goes the whole hog of “give our characters a very simple premise and let them run wild with what they do.” That premise can easily be filled with lame jokes, or great jokes. This one usually has great ones. Thelma reveals she has a boyfriend and Patsy does not approve. The situation naturally gives Patsy opportunities for not only comedic moments, but also character moments. We get a lot from how she handles the matter at hand. Seemingly unable to respect Thelma’s wishes, Patsy doesn’t dress or act politely. She in other films has great fashion-sense, so her here wearing mal-fitting clothes paints how she feels.

As is standard, Thelma is less prominent than Patsy, but is not without moments to be fun. She’s had more to do as of late. Perhaps she asked to be given more material? Seeing as the series originally starred Thelma and ZaSu Pitts, I wonder if she didn’t like that Patsy got most of the action. Thelma, as typically, does a lot of criticizing Patsy and making facial expressions, while trying her best to maintain the peace with an outside entity. The twist is that she does more with/in response to Patsy, like insisting she practice how to properly greet someone at the door or exploding at Patsy for being so problematic. Some of Thelma’s gags you can imagine were intended for Patsy; like when she opens the door carelessly, it hits Patsy, and the latter falls over. Despite such gags, she doesn’t feel like Patsy, but a reflection of Patsy. In some ways, they are opposites and in some, they are the same.

Archie Baker is Thelma’s boyfriend, played by Eddie Phillips. Phillips gives a more nuanced performance than you might expect and is simply one of the best bit actors of the series. He has a list of accomplishments to his name and a sly persona that is understandably convincing, but feels a little off under scrutiny. Even from his first scene onward, you get hints at something under the surface. Note how he feels about Thelma and especially Patsy as the film goes on. His brother is Benny Baker, played by an actor bearing the same name. He is ready to follow his brother’s orders and comes to his orders and the situation with certain expectations and feelings. Those being challenged create lots of moments plastered on his face or through his voice that make him and his brother enjoyable characters and more relatable than you might expect. It’d be nice if they became recurring characters, but alas.

The film’s comedy excels primarily because it is based in our characters. What a character will do next is rooted in the information they have and their understood personalities. They do little things that color and reflect how they think. The little moments can make a difference. After Patsy takes Archie’s hat when he enters, she at a random point puts it on. That’s such a simple thing, but it tells us a bit about Patsy and people in general in how you can either want to fiddle with objects or not really think about what you do with them.

SPOILERS

Thelma says Archie means “everything to her”, yet she still keeps Patsy around for the date after she becomes a problem. Why not kick Patsy out of the apartment or leave herself? Can Thelma just not handle that? Even if Patsy was well-behaved, wouldn’t she want some privacy on her date? She does leave later, though, but Archie encouraged it. Thelma recurrently makes her relationship Patsy’s business, like how she wants Patsy to greet Archie at the door and asks her to make sandwiches for her and Archie. Wouldn’t she be concerned that Patsy would do something bad to them, which she does? Thelma’s behavior is more consistent with someone trying to make Patsy feel jealous or more kindly, that she can’t handle not having Patsy involved in her life, even to the point of keeping her on her date. A relatively-common sitcom trope that would come years later is “someone tries to make their friend/ex feel jealous, but ultimately doesn’t get anywhere with who they’re pretending to like.” Thelma continues to be shown as more mistake-prone than early on. Beyond her knocking over Patsy, she later forces uncomfortable shoes on Patsy’s foot, instead of letting her put them on herself. At the end, Thelma knocks over a stack of cleaned dishes she and Patsy did. I’d like to think Patsy didn’t see any issue with stacking the dishes so high and unstably.

Patsy has a funny moment where she acts like how she’ll greet Archie. She’s overly enthused, possibly emulating how she’d normally greet someone. When Archie does show up, she is actually pretty polite and not overbearing. While it’s hard to gather why she acts well, it should be noted that Thelma wasn’t there for them meeting, but basically all of Patsy’s disturbances are with Thelma in the room. You could say she was really being considerate, but why bother if she’s going to be disrespectful elsewhere? It’s as if she’s only putting it on for Thelma. In the past, Patsy has been shown to be very thoughtful and intelligent, so this may be an attempt to be calculating for some purpose.

Archie calls upon his brother as he thinks he’ll distract Patsy now that she has a date. When Benny greets Patsy and almost immediately asks her for a kiss, she is in disbelief. She never kisses him or otherwise shows any interest in him. As a conspiracy theory, maybe she was originally going to in an earlier version of the script, as he has somewhat similar humor and eats her sandwiches, while no one else does. Imagine a story where Thelma is with a man that she loves and Patsy is forced with his brother, then Thelma’s date falls through, but Patsy falls in love with the brother. Thelma is ultimately upset that that family will still be in her life! Patsy Kelly not being particularly suited to falling for men could result in that idea being dropped. Quite the opposite of her falling for Benny, Patsy shows some fun character moments by being so focused on Thelma. She doesn’t seem to be thinking about anything else. When Thelma goes, she takes the first course of action to find her. She luls Benny into a false sense of security, then beats him up for information. The audio-only gag is creative. This is another moment of Patsy being able to be smart by pretending to like Benny so she can get the info.

Patsy and Benny go to the restaurant Thelma and Archie are at. Thelma, who is not happy to see Patsy, accepts her invitation to sit down. When Patsy overhears some men being beaten up for not paying for their food, she buys an excessive amount of food just to get at Archie. You can imagine a lot of funny gags that never were of Patsy receiving and eating the food, as we skip from her ordering to her being done. Archie and Benny figure out a way to leave and the girls have to do the dishes as punishment.

Like in some previous shorts, Patsy does the trick of, “Not giving Thelma what she wanted, but giving her something more worthwhile”, but not entirely. Throughout the film, Patsy suspects and is later proven right that Archie isn’t rich or kind. The ending I expected was Archie somehow screwing over our leads completely selfishly, leading to Patsy being vindicated by Thelma. While he does screw them over, it’s for a more understandable reason. He was taken advantage of by Patsy, who knew he’d be beaten for not having money. Thelma also had to participate in a probably very long and tedious punishment that was entirely Patsy’s fault. Patsy did still prove that Archie wasn’t rich. A more pro-Patsy ending would be for her to take the punishment herself and Thelma either being allowed to go or voluntarily helping Patsy. In fact, we don’t know the latter didn’t happen. Thelma doesn’t appear bitter or angry over having to do the dishes, though we only see her once they’ve basically done them all.

To try to exonerate Patsy, it doesn’t really make sense she’d be forced to do the dishes. It would’ve been expected for a man to pay and presuming the girls truthfully said Archie tricked everyone so he could leave, why should they be punished? Against her, Patsy could’ve done something to catch Archie that wouldn’t kick back at her and Thelma. As an aside, why was it ever on the table that Archie would pay for Patsy? While Archie and Benny are under pressure to put up with social conventions, that wouldn’t include paying for someone who is technically another guy’s date.

Archie embodies a fun twist of a straight man character being unstraightened by the silly antics by the main characters. When he hears the sound of Patsy loudly crashing into the kitchen early on, he shows concern. By the end, he doesn’t care about them getting into heat, with a smug look on his face that reads, “You thought you could get me, but I won.”

GAY (SPOILERS)

After discovering the “straight short”, it seemed that the most logical placement chronologically for this short would be before everything else, as in before Patsy and Thelma “got closer”. Despite the duo being colder to each other, it’s more like two people who have been together excessively and want a break. There are many moments, some tenuous, that speak to them having a romantic bond, which has perhaps been strained. Thelma wants Patsy to feel her heart (which requires touching her boob), though Thelma Todd may not know where the heart is located based on where she referred to. Thelma then kisses Patsy’s hand when describing how Archie kisses hers romantically, saying he kisses hers the same. Patsy is in disbelief, saying things like, “Hey, wait-a, hey listen, toots, you don’t mean to tell me you’ve fallen in love with some guy?” “Hook, line, and sinker.” “Well, you poor fish.” Later Patsy says, “After all these years, you’re gonna let a guy with a yacht and a mustache come between us.” If they were both straight women living together out of financial necessity or just being friends, why would Patsy care about Thelma dating a man? Finding someone you love is something most want. Patsy should be happy for her, not trying to ruin the date. Also, Patsy being so upset and them knowing each other for “years” makes it hard to say both logically and for the benefit of a good story that this is the chronological first short. They suggest a history.

Social conventions and norms force characters here to do things they wouldn’t want to do. Archie is compelled to pay for Patsy’s food and he was going to before she ordered more than he could handle. Thelma tries hard to act like everything is fine between her and Patsy and feels better when things get to the point that she can’t hide it, and thus doesn’t have to try. This extends to little things like Thelma being mad that Patsy won’t wear uncomfortable, but nice-looking shoes. Wouldn’t everyone rather just do what they want? They come off as miserable. More consequentially, Archie is merely pretending to be rich. While it isn’t explained why, one apparent explanation is to impress women. He has to hide a lot about himself and thus be a nuisance to those that find him and discover who he really is. Patsy is looked at poorly for being herself, while others hide in boxes to varying degrees and she is the happiest. If you are to take my interpretations of these characters, Thelma has internalized homophobia and is making life harder for herself by pretending she isn’t what she is. She isn’t the only character in this film facing such an experience… “A girl? You sure? Oh yeah, if it’s a girl I’ll come right up because I like girls.” That’s the line Benny says when his brother informs him he wants him to come see a girl. Talk about overkill. He’s overly try-hard about getting Patsy to kiss him or “play games with him”, being needlessly overt. While Benny isn’t focused on enough to make any sort of judgment call, it’s a curious element, especially when taken in totality of this short and even more so in the series.

The most pro-gay interpretation of Patsy and Thelma in this story is that they are on a break and Patsy is jealous of someone else being with Thelma, with the relationship being in some trouble due to the two being frustrated with the other’s behavior and other aspects. While Patsy is the overt trouble maker, Thelma is heartless for involving Patsy in her romantic life, despite her clearly not liking it, even having her do things like make sandwiches. They both act like they’re sick of the other’s problems and wish the other would be more amenable, but not like they would leave and never see each other again. They both are at least usually focused on the other. That could make them in-line with some tv couples that are somewhat toxic and at each other, but have enough affection to put up with the other. Will be looking forward to the sequel, “Two Skirts See A Shrink”. Other interpretations that are not impossible, but less satisfying are that the film is a dream, the two are in an open relationship, or Thelma is playing an elaborate prank. They would erase a lot of the little defining moments by giving a stranger context.

Thelma seems compelled by “compulsory heterosexuality”. Thelma’s obsession with Patsy only being dented by Archie asking her to leave the apartment could suggest a desire to not be part of an outsider life coming to fruition. When Patsy finds her, Thelma doesn’t ask her to leave. While you could say she was trying to follow social manners, she was already willing to take Patsy in another room and tell her off earlier. Thelma sees Archie as a natural way to fit in. We don’t see why he’s so great to her other than superficial things, things like having money and presenting himself as a caring man. She can only see him in superficial ways because she’s forcing it. Thelma being shown at the end with Patsy represents her deciding that Patsy and what she has to offer is what is for her. We don’t see Thelma trying to find or reconnect with Archie, though it’s not impossible that happened. Based on how Thelma doesn’t seem too worked up by the relationship ending at the very end and also in other shorts, she might’ve been trying to convince herself she loved him, possibly for the sake of feeling superior to Patsy.

The next installment in the series features Thelma seeming content with her life with Patsy and no one else. They move somewhere away from people and don’t seem to like being around people. One debatable contradiction to this whole theory is how excited she is to tell Patsy about Archie at the beginning, but that could be considered her either playing it up for Patsy and/or herself. If Patsy hadn’t screwed the date over, Thelma might’ve kept dating Archie, but seeing as he wasn’t real about himself, that would’ve been a waste of time. Patsy in a way “saved” Thelma from the trouble. My friend told me she’d rather do those dishes than continue dating a dishonest person like that.

This short honestly doesn’t paint Thelma and Patsy as being in a currently stable relationship. In my notes, I was less kind and said they weren’t that “well as a couple or like they could be one”. Their near-inability to bother with anything unrelated to them makes that older opinion weaker, though even this more positive interpretation means they’re on each other’s nerves. Earlier shorts have had them seem more like they feel good about the other, to say the least. Something is good enough for them to stick around. Here, it’s more like there’s a mental codependence. A romantic might say they’re too in love to let it die and others that they are too psychologically attached to want to truly end things. What you would hope they would do for their own personal benefits, whether to stay or separate, is up to you. I am simply left intrigued by what will come next. Their conflict here is more human and complicated than, “Patsy makes a mistake and Thelma yells at her” or “Our love is unstoppable”. This dynamic leads to better comedy, like in how our heroes fight each other. There’s also potential for character growth. If Patsy and Thelma want to find their place and be happy, they can’t just get over society, but they have to get over themselves. Despite originally thinking they worked best when unbreakable, this film pleasantly challenged that, though I still think they should be unbreakable in certain ways that Three Chumps Ahead doesn’t refute. At the end of the day, they stay together.

Those inclined can of course take a completely heterosexual view. If that’s how they see it, that’s completely fine. However, many reviews have pointed out the romantic elements of the fictional characters that began when the real life lesbian Patsy Kelly replaced Thelma’s initial partner, the heterosexual ZaSu Pitts. Consider that as of the first seven shorts, the two girls are never shown to be attracted to men. Patsy calls Thelma “toots” several times in this short and others. Thelma is eager to tell Patsy about her goings-on and involve her in her life. You’d imagine that if your friend or roommate ruined your date the way Patsy did, you’d end the relationship. Thelma never is shown to consider leaving Patsy.

Finally, Patsy and Thelma are looking for their place and their people, per my interpretation of these films. Thelma is sometimes near-desperate to be a normal person in society. What better way to do that than to fall in love with a rich man and be away from that problematic Patsy that doesn’t conform to societal expectations? At the end, Thelma knocks over the stack of cleaned dishes she and Patsy did, symbolically suggesting that she is or will end up more Patsy-like and doesn’t fit normal conventions of what a woman should be.

OVERVIEW

I fully admit that I would rather a lesbian narrative than not, that Patsy and Thelma are committed together despite not always getting along. If you’ve bought my interpretation of their first seven films, a more straightforward interpretation might be that Thelma is bisexual and that their relationship is on thin enough standing that if Thelma says she’s fallen in love with a man, Patsy won’t say, “But we’re together?” Media that isn’t afraid to reach the vicinity of homosexuality can strike as very meaningful, giving a starved person the comfort of knowing that there is and always has been. No matter the intentions behind these films, they still communicate a message that is absent from Laurel and Hardy or The Liver Birds, as examples. They communicate moments of a true warmth in the maddening world that is both real life and fictional. If you take a deep look in Three Chumps Ahead, there’s a lot of interesting things to gather. Things that may prove me worth taking seriously or worth laughing at. Admittedly, many of these queer elements were noticeable once under analysis, but that analysis proved this installment a game changer.

You should take from this one what you will. It’s a bit of an oddity for the more coarse textures that have been softer in the past. As someone who has been advocating for Patsy and Thelma really having a deep affection for each other, this one succeeded for one simple reason, it’s absolutely hilarious. There’s not a lot of needless material that feels like it is to make a runtime. Everything here is in service of good humor. While affection is preferable, at least it’s not ‘mean’ and unfunny. For the friends of continuity, this short is a little weird coming off of the previous one’s progressive bond developed between the leads. Them being more unnerved suggests that this is one of their later adventures chronologically.

While previous films have bent the characters’ traits, this one arguably is a much more drastic example of Patsy and Thelma being out of character. Film series like The Three Stooges imply that all of their adventures share a universe, except for the occasional film that is in its own independent continuity. One could say this film here is, though that feels too easy and you’d be ignoring all the interesting implications, but that might serve a better rationale for some. If there’s one takeaway to gleam from this short, it’s that Patsy probably makes good sandwiches, as Thelma asked her to make them when she was trying to make a good impression on Archie.

I’ll Be Suing You (1934) Review // Applying Queer Theory To Thelma Todd And Patsy Kelly Films Part 7

A frame from the film

I’ll Be Suing You is a great pick up in pace from what came before. Representative of this is the excellent opener. It’s a raucous and energy-filled start that doesn’t forget to be funny or weird. It’s a nice moment after some of the slower shorts. It has good character moments with Thelma and Patsy being a unit. They’re having a normal adventure together and aren’t at odds. Demonstratively, a mistake is an inciting incident for the story and it was made by Thelma, not Patsy. In the past, Thelma was giving “normal responses” to Patsy making mistakes. There’s little hints in the series that Thelma isn’t so normal, but has been pretending for the sake of societal acceptance, while Patsy doesn’t seem to care so much about that. The ending of the fifth short in the series, Soup and Fish, gave Thelma the biggest reason to loosen up and accept herself. A more general reason she might really be like this is that she doesn’t seem to genuinely enjoy polite society, overly putting on appearances and spending probably a lot of time with her “roommate”, Patsy. There’s various moments of the two together in such a way to suggest they are just always in each other’s company and that’s part of life, yet it’s not due to necessity.

Patsy is not left without anything to do. She is loud and irritable to some characters, but has such wit and charm that some can’t not love her. I can imagine that fans of Thelma Todd with ZaSu Pitts at this stage would decide whether or not they want to continue from this point. Patsy is very Patsy and the two are really in sync here, suggesting this is how Patsy’s going to be forever. If you hate Patsy, you might not think she’ll ever mellow out and thus you should stop here. If you love her, you get a dose of her that fits great with this story and makes you excited for more. She’s such a fun oddball of a character, giving such strong reactions to everything for no reason. Thelma and Patsy look integrated both in their chemistry and with little details, like having a puppy, who isn’t explained. I’d personally like to think that they were driving so fast to escape an unseen adventure where they ended up with someone’s dog based on an absurd series of events. At one point, the dog bites at Patsy, possibly because they don’t trust her. Eddie Foy is a sleazy lawyer that helps our leads. He lies and cheats throughout this whole thing. He’s such a slimebag, you love to hate him. He delights throughout the whole thing with his weird charisma and delivery, but can’t seem to quite steal a scene from the two very talented leads. You can’t say he didn’t try, though.

There’s a level of wonkiness to the film’s construction, almost seeming like tradition at this point. Early on, Foy somewhat carelessly sits Patsy down, kind of pushing her. After a few seconds, Thelma interjects. Why wouldn’t she have interjected immediately after the push? Maybe it made sense in writing, but not in staging? She also doesn’t inject after a specific thing happens, so it at least feels like Todd forgot a queue or something like that. There’s another scene of her giving a belated response later. Thelma has a fun facial expression dedicated to Patsy being annoying, though here it can come at weird points, like when she gets frustrated at their lawyer. It’s as if a random point in the film was selected to showcase this. Why not have that near the climax when things are tense? These films feel rushed to the point of these moments slipping by frequently. They have their charm, but it would be better for them to be absent. Somewhat more consequently to the story, Foy is pushed into the story so fast, with him immediately convincing Thelma he’s worth trusting after a little razor quick dialogue. She should’ve been given a reason to believe him. That could be done as simply as saying, “she’s met him before and knows he’s someone worth cooperating with.” The film is in a huge hurry to introduce him, then move on. Problems like that make you wish these two-reelers were a little longer.

GAY (SPOILERS)

Here is a list of gay-interpreted moments from the film. Some of these are tenuous or based on stereotyping. This film so far has the fewest “gay moments” of any of the first seven Patsy and Thelma installments. Patsy shows a quality more associated with men when she apparently wants to physically attack some guys, who she thinks hurt her. That being said, they didn’t and she was probably about to attack them because of an incorrect suspicion. After Foy seems to be badgering Patsy, Thelma replies, “Say, you can’t do that to my girlfriend.” Foy tries to get the two to follow his plan. Patsy is generally reluctant, but seems more willing to comply when Thelma herself wants her to do it. That being said, she is still resistant and may be difficult, despite seemingly knowing Thelma would want her to cooperate. Due to the plan only being relayed quickly by Foy at the beginning and Patsy not expressing understanding of what’s going on, maybe she just doesn’t know what the point of this whole thing is? Could no one have explained it to her? Thelma has an amusing scream and look of alarm when Patsy is held upside down. These moments of the two caring about each other and wanting to assist have been lacking. This brief moment of a scream, a facial and body expression, and run from Thelma is both funny and defines their relationship all in one. Finally, Patsy calls Thelma “Tootsie”.

Suddenly having the opportunity to make a lot of money can be enticing. The problems that working class people have can be solved and Thelma would have the ability to do as she pleases. Patsy and Thelma don’t ever appear to be rich, and conversely do jobs that can get away with treating them poorly, probably because they can’t afford to leave. Perhaps Thelma is sick of the social situation she’s in and wants the chance to live in comfort. The wealthy have an easier time doing what they want, even breaking social taboos, because they have so many more resources than poor people. Also, there’s no sign Thelma wants to escape from Patsy, but instead wants to escape with Patsy.

SPOILERS

This film is a pretty fun romp about insurance fraud, with Foy pretending Patsy was injured in an accident that was her and Thelma’s fault. Thelma has no qualms or quarrels about saying Patsy was injured for money. Thelma potentially thought the accident wasn’t her fault, but she at least knows Patsy is fine and that they’re lying by making Patsy appear injured. Patsy somewhat randomly seems to either be willing or not willing to cooperate, as if whichever mindset has the most potential for a joke is used. You’d think that after the first time she clearly was told to by Thelma, she’d comply, but logic is sacrificed. It is understandable that she wouldn’t want to, but will begrudgingly accept for Thelma. Seeing as Patsy was unwilling, was there any reason to not pretend Thelma was the one hurt? Both were equally not really hurt. Of course, this is a plot convenience so the story can happen. That being said, the story is hilarious in its absurdity, with Patsy being told to use a fake leg that doesn’t look realistic at all. In the real world, this wouldn’t have had a chance of working, which is more beneficial to the film than if something realistic happened.

Thelma is finally given some really solid material consistently. She hints at a darker underbelly for wanting to commit fraud for money. Her character is generally a lot less flat than in the past. She has one especially good comedic moment where she tells a fake story about what happened, acting over dramatically. You can imagine Thelma Todd, the actress, asking for more to do. She’s excellent at this chance to be an eccentric kook. There’s a very funny gag of a phone repairman being confused for someone who will inspect Patsy’s leg. They at one point think he’ll cut the leg and Patsy is scared, though even if he did do that, he would’ve only been cutting the fake leg. That repairman is a funny straight man to the protagonists. Later, the lawyer kicks out someone he doesn’t know, the repairman, but acts like he’s a medical specialist in front of the insurance men. This is a nice moment to show what he’ll do to sell his story, though he was lucky the repairman didn’t mention that he wasn’t a doctor. The insurance men nod in response to Foy talking to the repairman, which is an amusing thing to add in.

The ending joke isn’t too bad, with one of the bit characters having a funny line delivery. It’s not exceptional, however. There could’ve been a better last joke, instead of ending quickly on a decent one. Two obvious endings that would’ve been funnier include Foy, that’s done nothing but be dishonest, turning on Patsy and Thelma. Maybe someone involved in the initial scene of the two driving recklessly comes into the room and claims to have been hurt as a result of the protagonists? Foy stands up and says, “I’ll Be Suing You” to Patsy and Thelma. The other joke would be for someone, anyone, to get hit in the head with that fake leg. Both those gags could co-exist, mind you. Also, you’d think that after the credits, our heroes would get arrested for lying so malicious. Based on previous films and this one, Patsy isn’t the type to be consistent with a narrative. There could be a sequel of her being told to say certain things and she doesn’t cooperate, but maybe the judge has a personal problem she fixes, so he lets them off?

OVERVIEW

The ending was pretty poor. It ends very suddenly. You could imagine this short was intended to be three reels, then the last reel went missing and all that could be done was create a brief ending gag. This is probably among this series’ weaker endings, though it’s not hard to enjoy the film in spite of it; especially because humor-wise, the ending isn’t bad, just sudden beyond belief. Despite the ending. I’ll Be Suing You is a real gem that gives our heroes and a side character a lot of good moments and nice elements to play with, with the bit players on top form, as well. They all make it seem like they really cared to sell the story. Nothing bad about this one is so bad that it’s a particularly big issue, unless you’re a Hal Roach fan that doesn’t like Patsy Kelly. I’ve been procrastinating on seeing The Fortune Cookie for a while. Little did I know that here I’d be seeing a bite-sized version of that story.

For the friends of continuity, the girls’ car here looks the same as the one in Beauty and the Bus. What if this short is mostly set before Beauty, save for the early scene? What if they won a different car from the same place and the people giving away the cars were using the same model? Thematically, this one works well after Babes in the Goods, as it feels like a more logical progression character-development wise than Babes’ actual follow-up. Both feature the two as a gruesome twosome, with the short after Babes having a rule of three effect before the dynamic will change a little, Maid in Hollywood is more sentimental than the other early’s.

Maid in Hollywood (1934) Review // Applying Queer Theory To Thelma Todd And Patsy Kelly Films Part 6

Thelma and Patsy have an emotional moment.

Maid in Hollywood is one of the stranger entries in the Patsy and Thelma series. It harkens back to the first three shorts in how Patsy is prone to mistakes while also having some of the better qualities she began to inhabit in the fourth and fifth shorts. When she is the hyper-mistake making Patsy, it’s not very endearing and more importantly not very funny. These films need their leads to be likable and not ruining things. There’s enough good moments to prove we’re supposed to like them. Maid has a way of pulling this off better than in the past, but that’s for spoilers. The humor sometimes boils down to, “things are fine, but then Patsy finds a way to cause havoc.” Those methods of havoc-causing are too predictable and straightforward. Patsy will play with something that obviously she shouldn’t touch due to that disrupting others or damaging the object. At least in shorts like Backs to Nature she obviously has good intentions. Unlike in Nature, here there are more moments of interesting or unique humor that is noticeably better than the weaker stuff. No one is credited for writing these shorts. Maybe there’s a team of people and some are much better than others?

Thelma’s presence is muted for much of the film, with her not adding very much of her charm. This movie could relatively easily be a Patsy solo film about her going on a film set and causing trouble. Some of the bit character actors that appeared in other Patsy and Thelma films reappear here. Don Barclay is one and Billy Gilbert another. Both, especially the latter, are fun as always. Billy can literally sneeze funny! What saves this movie, and gives Patsy and especially Thelma more to do, is the seven minutes that make up the first act. It focuses on character moments between Patsy and Thelma. Much of the time they’re just talking, but it’s very entrancing. It’s especially entrancing if you care about these characters and are seeing their highs and lows. Even ignoring the recurring films, it’s a solid way to open for a newcomer. The cinematography and scoring are subtle, but paint the somber nature of what’s going on and how our characters feel. The music becomes more and more prominent as our characters talk. This first act is also a third of the runtime, meaning a decent chunk of the film is very good.

SPOILERS

Thelma in the past has wanted to keep the peace while also inviting Patsy to events. Here, she tells her not to go with her to the film set. The difference between this film and in the past is that either she’s bringing Patsy to a job and possibly wants to not be away from Patsy day-after-day or she’s going to a social gathering. Thelma could feel incomplete without Patsy, based on how she takes comfort from her here and in other films. If she succeeds in becoming a Hollywood actress that could result in money from something more fulfilling than a low wage job. Thelma wasn’t wrong to want to exclude her. It’s frustrating how often Patsy is told to do something simple, like be quiet, then she immediately is loud. This works on some occasions, like when a man is condescending to her and she’s irritating in response to that, but that doesn’t apply to most of her difficult moments.

The characters often act odd for the sake of the plot. There’s a fun goof where someone walks in front of the in-universe camera after it started rolling. Later, the film’s director acts like Thelma doesn’t know how to sneeze, when in fact she just can’t get herself to produce one. The big question you may find yourself screaming is… ‘Why does no one kick Patsy out?’ They’ll even move her “out of the way”, still enabling her to do more damage than if she was literally removed from the set. Just like in the fifth film, Patsy in fact saves the day, though unlike in the last short where her goofiness throughout was part of the positive resolution, here it doesn’t feed into her doing well. There’s no benefit to Patsy’s tomfoolery. The funniest Patsy moments come when she’s accomplishing something positive. It makes sense that someone like her would think to have a fan blow on pepper to make Thelma sneeze. Jokes where she is being inconsiderate often boil down to “someone gets hit or falls down”. The ending is nice and very warm. Thelma, satisfied and happy with Patsy, says “After you” to her as they enter their apartment. The ending gag is pretty good, with Patsy being hit in the head by the woman she locked in the closet…

GAY (SPOILERS)

The first act has a lot of little moments. After Patsy loudly vents about them failing to make it, she shows a lighter side of herself by consoling an upset Thelma; speaking softly and touching her arm. Patsy starts to feel bad about herself for being insensitive about it. Thelma responds not by telling her to shut up, but by putting her arm over Patsy’s shoulder, returning the favor from when Patsy did that in Babes in the Goods. Thelma smiles at Patsy as she says things to cheer her up, like that they don’t know talent when they see it. When a woman brags about getting a test for a role, Patsy looks furious about her upsetting Thelma by pointlessly gloating. Patsy is determined to help Thelma, trying to stop competition and get her what she wants; doing what she needs to do for Thelma. Patsy carries a level headedness and competence in how she gets Thelma that test role. She knows what she must do and she will do it. Patsy locks that woman in the closet, then calls the studio saying the woman is simply unavailable and they should consider Thelma, so she gets called in. She’s literally willing to commit a crime for Thelma (in one of the funniest moments in the film).

Patsy doesn’t want anything for herself. Her intentions are solely on Thelma, like sneaking onto the film set just to give her her makeup. Other films might pit the two female leads against each other, like if someone thought Patsy would do well in Thelma’s role and now they’re fighting over it. After Patsy gets Thelma the role, she doesn’t have that razor sharp focus she was shown to have, even ripping some of Thelma’s clothes accidentally. Despite this, Thelma seems to forgive her quickly. Thelma doesn’t tell Patsy to leave the set after she arrives, possibly liking her there.

When Thelma is seen in her undergarments by Patsy, she seems to have no issue being seen by her like that, even acting like it’s a normal occurrence. At one point, two men ask Thelma to turn around in her dress, at least one seems to be ogling her. When Patsy walks in later, she asks Thelma to turn around, evoking the earlier scene. That might be the most unambiguously gay moment of the first six shorts. Patsy also calls Thelma “toots” at another point.

Becoming a Hollywood star would mean not only freedom from the working class system, but also more ability to express yourself. A handful of Hollywood people of the time; including James Whale, Dorothy Arzner, and Patsy Kelly herself, didn’t hide their sexuality. That must feel great and enticing to queer people looking for a welcoming environment. Patsy seems generally liked by the film director. Despite Thelma wanting Patsy to be away and quiet, her actions end up helping her. Enough people are charmed by Patsy and Thelma’s uniqueness for them to ultimately succeed. They aren’t destined to be on the margins, they can have a place.

OVERVIEW

Based on the two suddenly being in Hollywood, possibly this short is set later or earlier in the timeline. We’ll see if any later films feature them showing the desire to be stars or bigger than they are. With how prone to mistakes Patsy is and also that Thelma was willing to exclude Patsy from something due to her nature, maybe this is set before the past five? Patsy does some extremely beneficial and helpful things here. This would then cause Thelma to be more willing to put up with Patsy’s problematic side. Patsy and Thelma in the fifth short became liked by a bunch of rich people, so maybe some in some way helped them go to Hollywood and this is set in release order?

Maid in Hollywood is still funny but would be better if at least some characters acted realistically and Patsy was “competent” and less problematic, more like how she is in other films. This short feels like a product of rushed storytelling, with elements like Thelma having to sneeze coming from nowhere and feeling very random. There are many good moments that make it worth watching. One thing to celebrate is that some Thelma and Patsy shorts have weak endings, having poor jokes to finish things out, but not here. This is the first time the ending joke is pretty good. It results in the same abrupt ending as in the past, but the joke allows for such an ending.

Soup and Fish (1934) Review // Applying Queer Theory To Thelma Todd And Patsy Kelly Films Part 5

Patsy and Thelma in the film

Soup and Fish is an interesting addition to the canon, being better than the ones before it. While Air Fright and Babes in the Goods are forgiving to the sorts of power structures that hurt working class people like Patsy and Thelma, this one is less so. Intentionally or not, it makes for a lighthearted and fun adventure about Patsy versus the world. Despite this, Thelma is not left without a purpose in the story. She is in a sense in the middle of those two extremes, but Patsy isn’t demeaning or insulting to Thelma or the world, managing to make a clever point about life by just being herself. Thelma gives an interesting perspective by being somewhat disapproving of Patsy, while still associating with her. The supporting cast emphasizes the comedy, being mostly made up of snooty and overly complacent rich people; most getting very little to do. A fun side character is Gladys Gale as Mrs. Dukesbery. She carries herself with an amusing voice and lighthearted vibe. Billy Gilbert is delightful as Count Gustav. He brings a good balance to Patsy and Thelma and the rest of the cast. He’s best not discussed until spoilers.

The editing is wonky as always. One weird moment is when a man opens a door and Thelma falls as if she was leaning on the door, despite her not having been shown leaning or being pushed or anything out of the ordinary. Was there a gag that was there, then removed? The comedy is generally good, though the film does ask for more. It would be satisfying to learn more about what people like and emphasize how the story changes. Same with giving Patsy a reason to be a trickster…

Patsy is depicted as a prankster. This essentially fills the role of her making mistakes. Thelma acts like she’s been a prankster for a while. Is the film trying to retcon her past actions as pranks or saying they happened to not show this side of her? The latter seems far more likely, because the former doesn’t make any sense. Some of the funniest moments in the film come from Patsy’s gags. She hands someone a piece of paper so sticky it’s hard to remove. She plays with her silverware. It’s weird whenever her jokes veer into being more like how a child would act, as it makes her look like she hasn’t had social training, but there aren’t too many such moments. Patsy is a better character when portrayed as intelligent, because if not then it’s hard to connect with her. She would just be some inane annoyance. That is a problem with various moments in the earlier films. Those looking to exonerate Patsy could say she was trying to impress someone there that she was clearly getting along with, it being beneficial to get on their good side.

GAY (SPOILERS)

Here is a list of sometimes tenuous moments that seem queer. Some of this is based in stereotyping, such as one favorite moment when Patsy leans on Thelma’s shoulder. Mrs. Dukesbery desires Thelma and Patsy for a party because they’re the only girls she knows that can give a party “that genuine continental flavor”. Gay people are perceived as distinct by many throughout history. While not necessarily knowing what it is about Thelma and Patsy that’s worth getting, Mrs. Dukesbery might see their uniqueness regardless. This is bolstered by how different Patsy is from the other party goers. Thelma says she and Patsy are available to go to the party despite Patsy’s habit of playing pranks on people against the wishes of Thelma. Just like in Air Fright, Thelma can’t seem to not include Patsy to things. If she didn’t want to be with her, why let her go? Thelma asks Patsy to act like a lady, as she did in Beauty and the Bus. She knows that Patsy and to a lesser extent herself don’t really fit into society. Take a conversation two minor characters have, “These boring affairs are getting me down.” “Oh, well one must, y’know.” Patsy replies, “Must one?”

A possibly straight moment is when just after Thelma is invited to the party, she imagines an encounter… “Patsy, I’m so thrilled thinking of going to their house. ‘Oh, why Count, haven’t I met you at Monte Carlo?’” While one interpretation is that she wants to win the affection of a man, that would lead to a bit of a logical error. Why would she bring Patsy along? She knows she causes trouble. A more probable interpretation is she is too attached to Patsy to part with her and either wants social clout or wants to pick on Patsy, especially because she acts out how she’d talk to this Count with over the top body language. The film’s audio is a little muffled, so while Thelma was probably saying “Count”, it sounds much more like she’s saying, “Countess”. If you take that she is saying Countess, that adds to the interpretation of her picking on Patsy. Later she goes to someone she thinks is the Count and tries to get him to kiss her hand, as well as referring to Patsy as her friend. If she wanted to make the best possible impression, why bring Patsy along? Also, in Three Chumps Ahead, Patsy tries to ruin her date with a man, but here does nothing to interfere; suggesting she doesn’t see her with the count as a threat. Maybe it was for social clout and Patsy knew it wouldn’t be anything? Even from a more straightforward interpretation, it doesn’t make sense that she’d fall for some random man or pursue him or others. You can also buy that Thelma just wanted her hand shaken, but that is a bit of a stretch.

Patsy has been playing pranks on people, including Thelma, who still is comfortable dating her. It’s queer for Patsy to be at contrast with a social environment, especially one that is used to people being a certain way that just doesn’t fit everyone. Qualities our heroes have are not considered feminine (Beauty having many moments of that), like Patsy being loud. This lack of femininity or traditional behavior can be used to their advantage. Patsy gets everyone at the party to be unruly and ridiculous, not taking themselves so seriously. Everyone is shown to be happier doing things her way, especially Count Gustav who is delighted by Patsy from square one.

Soup and Fish is a bit of an outlier from those that came before it. Patsy isn’t incompetent. She doesn’t seem to make any mistakes, with her destructive nature coming from tackling a way of being she doesn’t approve of on purpose. One could consider her at her worst for intentionally causing mayhem and doing something she knew would upset Thelma or at her best for bringing such joy to the party and perhaps creating for Thelma a better time than if she had been well-mannered. We get a little of Thelma and Patsy “connecting” when Thelma is ultimately won over and enjoys what Patsy’s done, seeing as she is seen participating in the silly antics at the end. She even pranks Patsy in a pretty good “final joke” for the film. You could say Patsy wanted Thelma and everyone to live a little and succeeded at that, and thus wasn’t trying to hurt Thelma. The Patsy of the first three shorts would’ve been so incompetent she just happened to destroy everything.

Characters in these films often conforming to Conservative societal expectations suggests society is still homophobic, as much as it was in the 30s. Thelma does her best to fit in, but clearly enjoys Patsy being Patsy at the end. ‘Queer’ is a term that means different, outside of the norm. In looking for their place, Patsy and Thelma have to a degree made something incongruent to them their place, at least in a way. Something different being proven to be better or at least acceptable to an unlikely group. Patsy fulfilled Mrs. Dukesbery’s request by giving a very different flavor to the party. You’d think she would know what Patsy is like from interacting with her at the latter’s job, suggesting this was something Patsy felt best and that she knew how to behave when she should. She did so with the not-Count. Patsy is clearly shown to be in the right at the end, despite her being portrayed as wrong in the past and someone calling her and Thelma “not like ladies, but wildcats.”

OVERVIEW

Soup and Fish might have been a lot more fun as a feature film. There’s plenty of ideas to work with. That being said, what we have is funny, though underdeveloped due to these films’ focus on being funny and not really thoughtful. Still, what we do have is a good way to spend twenty minutes and is especially rewarding if you’ve been watching Patsy and Thelma in order from the beginning. Even those that haven’t seen them should check this one out.

Babes in the Goods (1934) Review // Applying Queer Theory To Thelma Todd And Patsy Kelly Films Part 4

After watching the first three Thelma and Patsy shorts, you might imagine that for their career as a duo, Patsy will be a screwup and Thelma a straight man. However, starting with Babes in the Goods that is challenged and bent. Here is the first time the main cause of conflict isn’t Patsy (though the third installment of the series was partially caused by others). Now, it’s other people who are raining on the parade of Thelma and Patsy. The two then have to manage together. While Patsy does make mistakes, there are fewer and Thelma makes more. See a great gag where Thelma opens a door in Patsy’s face, Patsy pushes her into a shower, which then causes water to spray at Patsy. There, both do a similar amount of dishing and receiving comedic abuse. Opening a door in the other’s face seems like something Patsy would do.

The reason they get into the pickle they’re in is because of a greedy and uncaring boss. The film doesn’t directly say he did anything wrong, as he never gets his comeuppance for his actions and isn’t shown to be rude. He tells them to demonstrate their kitchen appliances for the public until no one is watching. The two follow his instruction to not stop performing carefully, doing so until unreasonably late despite being told it wouldn’t take long. This suggests the two are concerned with losing their job and if they stopped performing when it started getting late, he might’ve found out and fired them. That or they didn’t think to stop, which seems unlikely. The reason for this probably goes back to a central quality all these films have shared. They’re about getting out jokes. They’re not about critiques of Capitalism or how young gay women manage in a Conservative and uncaring world. On their face, they’re supposed to make you laugh for a little. Ignore the editing mistakes and implications of the story. However, these themes appear relatively unobscured in multiple of these films. Someone might’ve had the idea to put them there on purpose. If not, they’re still very compelling, especially to someone in 2022 watching several of these films in a short period of time on DVD and with the knowledge that Patsy Kelly was a lesbian and others involved were gay allies.

Many of these shorts have titillation. Those who like to see women in a minimal amount of clothing will want to check this one out. We also get moments of that in their second and third shorts. You can imagine the filmmakers trying to justify any reason for them to be scantily clad. Said moments manage to be funny, happening in such a way that makes you laugh; though obviously the point is more to show women parts than be funny. Some might see that as worth the wait through the most of the film, which includes some drag in the pacing. There’s a period of just the girls fumbling around in the store, not doing anything particularly interesting.

SPOILERS

A moment of Patsy trying to open a door leads Thelma to believe she simply isn’t opening it right, only to confirm for herself that it’s locked. Patsy convinced a man watching them to leave, thus not only not making a mistake, but doing something helpful. The writers seem to have realized how she was too annoying in the past, so now that’s lessened. Some small mistakes include her going to sleep immediately instead of waiting to see if Thelma needed anything of her; getting out of the bed when she knew the weight imbalance would cause the bed and Thelma to fall; and Patsy jolting and making noises in bed, as if in an intense dream. As an aside, Thelma looked annoyed, but in such a way to suggest Patsy hasn’t done this before. If she had, Thelma may have shown a face of or said, “Here we go again.” We can see in multiple other shorts that they sleep in the same bed, even when they don’t have to. So if Patsy had done this serially, Thelma would know. It was pretty funny when Thelma hit Patsy with her butt so as to knock her out of bed, despite probably knowing that the sudden weight imbalance would cause her to fall over.

Patsy’s only big mistake this film was when she promised Thelma she’d stay awake all night, then failed. A simple way to give Patsy a great character moment would be to just keep her awake. It would’ve been unexpected and another moment to make Patsy look good, seeing as there’s an effort to make her more likable. We could have a funny scene of her doing something stupid due to being delirious. It was established that they were going to go on a “dance date”, so maybe Patsy decides to dance? Maybe Thelma gets up and does one with her, before insisting Patsy have a chance to get some sleep? If that’s too nice, maybe one or both of them fall down due to fatigue, causing Thelma to ask her to sleep. Perhaps Thelma didn’t really care about Patsy not sleeping because based on her behavior, obviously she would’ve fallen asleep.

GAY (SPOILERS)

Here is a list of sometimes tenuous lesbian moments in this film. Every Thelma and Patsy movie so far has had several moments. “C’mon Patsy, we gotta date.” is one favorite. Unrelated to Patsy and Thelma, a crowd of men, and a small few women, watch an attractive woman bend over. When our leads are told to work longer than they originally had to, Patsy says, “There goes our dance date.”, suggesting it was something they were going to do together. It’s their date. Of course, a gay interpretation isn’t the only one. She could mean they were both going to go find men to dance with, but that’s not the more apparent conclusion. Later when the two leave their job, Patsy puts her arm over Thelma’s shoulder. Once they sleep, Patsy is seen sleeping on top of Thelma, which could be seen as a nice gesture that she wanted to shield her from public view and also that she would miss not cuddling up with her, as she was doing. She did so quite lovingly, with her arm around Thelma. Trying to sell fabric to a woman, Thelma says, “Now here’s one, Madame, that I’m sure you’d like. Gay colors and all.” While the usage of that word is etymologically unrelated to homosexuality, it’s funny, so it’s included.

If Patsy and Thelma had disobeyed their boss and left earlier than they were told to, they might’ve been able to go home and thus not sleep at the store. They essentially were exploited and not really left with an option to not get in trouble. They may have caught onto the bad deal they had, because when their boss fires them, they don’t try to explain what actually happened. Maybe they thought they wouldn’t be believed or just didn’t care anymore? The powers that be don’t care and maybe our heroes had enough. In front of a crowd, their boss tells them to remove the blankets they’re wearing, which are covering their undergarments. Instead of explaining the problem, they just take them off. They could’ve explained that easily.

Following the motif of the two trying to find a comfortable and satisfying environment to exist in, they seem to realize there that that’s not where they belong, as they then didn’t care about a group of people seeing them indecent. You could take that as them being annoyed that they either have to cover their bodies or not cover their bodies, though they were already covering of their own volition. When they removed the blankets, they extended their arms, as if presenting to and for the crowd. They could’ve released the blankets, but still covered up best they could. It’s a somewhat progressive scene to have women decide “Screw it” and reveal what they naturally have. They walk off, symbolizing them leaving this job behind. But what are their options? They’ll have to find a different job. For those keeping track, they never appear to mind that the other protagonist is seeing them partially nude.

OVERVIEW

All of these shorts have some filler and some wasted potential. What if in this film, stranger things of the night prevented them from sleeping or escaping? While what we have is good, there’s some filler and a lot of wasted potential. The low budgets are so evident that here we are in a small set for the whole movie. Not that there was a need for more sets. Babes in the Goods is a fun little comedy and an improvement on the first three shorts, but still suffers from basic problems. It would be amazing if there were deleted scenes, possibly too risqué for the times, that could be dug up and included in the movies.

Air Fright (1933) Review // Applying Queer Theory To Thelma Todd And Patsy Kelly Films Part 3

You might look at Thelma and Patsy’s second film, Backs to Nature, and say it’s too straightforward, too lowkey. Air Fright challenges that immediately. It makes a strong first impression by showing the cast and crew’s names on top of buildings. The camera then shakes around before settling on and showing the next set of credits. This introduction is strange in how striking it is. It gets you into the film, gives you a sense of what it will be like, but doesn’t share too much. The movie as a whole is chaotic, just like the intro.

This, as well as the first two installments, feature Patsy being comically inept and Thelma being the straight man character. This formula is better served in this film, as it’s more ridiculous and absurdist than the first two. Thelma and Patsy are air hostesses. A man is showing his new invention on a plane. That invention is silly and our heroes find a way to get involved. The concept of the film is weird enough that if you throw some comedy conventions in there, you get something inherently unique. Not to say that a more nuanced dynamic isn’t desired or appreciated, but it isn’t so necessary here as it sometimes is. Patsy does a good job as always bouncing off of other characters’ energies, especially here with the ridiculous premise. Don Barclay returns in a supporting role, he is a kooky inventor who gets into some little shenanigans. He’s not given much to do, but he’s fun regardless. His tone of voice comes off as, “I am overly confident and eccentric to a fault.”

Thelma’s presence is more muted here, at some points not distinguishing herself from the various side characters that do little more than have lines or actions designed essentially to just move the plot forward. At other points, Thelma is away and Patsy is given the focus. Patsy’s antics don’t necessarily bounce off of Thelma, with a lot of her moments relating to other people. With a little tweaking, this could have been sold as a solo Patsy film. Patsy doesn’t exclusively act against Thelma in the others, but she does less here. Thelma seems to be trying to prevent Patsy’s mistakes before they happen. In fact, Patsy in this film made fewer than in the first two movies. Quite a few things happen to Patsy, with Patsy more or less blamed for them, but they weren’t really her fault. She does still make a few mistakes. Thelma is more prone to getting upset with Patsy in Air Fright, though based on how many factors were out of Patsy’s control, Thelma comes off as unreasonable. You can imagine she’d be getting pretty sick of her mistakes after how constant they are. What did she expect when she allowed Patsy to get this job? Patsy has acted like this in the last two.

The film could’ve done more to be funny or interesting. While the basic concept is very good, it doesn’t do much with it. That being said, there’s funny gags and moments, like when Patsy is asked to sit and talk to the side characters, but factors keep preventing that from happening. Another is when Patsy tries to steal food for herself. Just like in Backs to Nature, Patsy gets a nice scream. This film is more rewarding less as a comedy and more as something for those taking these films as in continuity with each other and gay-themed…

GAY (SPOILERS)

Here is a list of sometimes tenuous Sapphic moments in this film. Thelma describes the rules for being an air hostess to Patsy. When Patsy doesn’t seem to be paying attention, Thelma asks, “Did you get what I said?” Patsy replies, “I’ve been getting it every night for a week.” Why night? Maybe she reminds her before bed, as in they sleep in the same bed. Also, if they were just friends, why would Thelma be pressuring her so strongly? It makes more sense that she sees them as a team and genuinely wants them to do well together. A romantic relationship is a partnership after all. It seems that Patsy makes fewer mistakes off screen, perhaps Thelma is clinging to that and is encouraging her to do a better job. Not too long later, Thelma literally calls Patsy her girlfriend. While that term wasn’t necessarily romantic at the time, it often was. It was used as a romantic term in and before the 1930s. Thelma holds Patsy’s hand as they leave a room, though that was probably to deter her from touching anything. 

Thelma is asked how Patsy is when Patsy is nearby, as if Thelma is close enough to her to know how she is. While Thelma is upset at Patsy, the two have a nice alone moment as Thelma makes sandwiches. When Patsy steals one, Thelma playfully asks her what she’s hiding in her mouth in a way that suggests an understanding of Patsy. She doesn’t hate her and perhaps knows that eventually Patsy will win her over again. It’s not like when one of the Three Stooges always manage to mess things up for each other. There’s a clear warmth here. Despite that warmth, Thelma throughout the scene is annoyed and Patsy continues to be childish. Don’t steal a sandwich, you already made Thelma mad. Just afterwards the most heartwarming thing ever happened… once Patsy is kicked out of the room they were in, Thelma comes out to give Patsy a sandwich, one that’s in fact larger than the ones she was seen making. There’s no joke or twist here. Thelma is just doing something nice for someone she cares about, despite being mad at her. This demonstrates her affection for her, despite the issues. While Thelma is often in that little room making sandwiches or other work, Patsy sits right outside the room, though not going in because Thelma is mad at her. When someone asks if she feels lonely sitting by herself, Patsy says no, because her “pal, toots, is there”.

Barclay is there to test an invention of his; parachuted seats that can be ejected from a plane at the pull of a lever. When the person who was going to test the stunt becomes unavailable suddenly, the group of mostly male and all white company directors decide to have Patsy sit in a chair and eject her without her permission. When it’s all said and done, Patsy is the last person to be ejected from the plane, with Barclay and the plane’s pilots never being ejected. Much can be said about a bunch of businessmen who don’t care about the comfort and safety of someone, especially someone who is certainly a woman and, by interpretation, queer. Ultimately, their cruelty results in their downfall. The two arguably queer leads don’t desire their downfall, but Patsy still partially caused it by accidentally pulling some of the levers that eject the chairs.

One could look at this as the power structures designed to shut people down not helping anyone in the long run. If you fill the ground with holes that people you don’t like can fall through, be careful you yourself don’t fall through them. The businessmen still have an advantage. They were comfortably in their seats, so had pretty clean falls to the ground. When almost all the chairs fell, Patsy had to walk across to the other side. If she fell she wouldn’t have a parachute. Patsy and Thelma get tangled up in the last chair and it drops, with them at points being in danger of falling without a parachute or anything to save their lives. The inventor doesn’t even fall at all. Through all this Thelma was mostly concerned with Patsy making mistakes, though she didn’t know that she was being tricked into being ejected. When it was all said and done, Thelma might’ve just thought that Patsy messed everything up; those more to blame not being. The business people did get a fright, some falling in some kind of danger, but Patsy and Thelma arguably had it worse by almost getting hit by a train. You can bet they’ll be out of a job after this, too. While these scenes are very much up to interpretation, one is that people being disadvantaged is dangerous. If no one planned to eject Patsy, this would not have happened.

As a side note, when Thelma falls after Patsy pulled the lever, Patsy is clearly trying to pull her up, but Barclay clearly isn’t. He does briefly try to help. When Patsy falls out a different hole and Barclay is pinned by the parachute rope, he cuts the wood of the plane, causing them to fall. Barclay’s intentions are never made clear, but they can be interpreted. There’s not really a reason for him to not try to help Thelma up, though you could argue he was afraid of falling. When he’s pinned down, he doesn’t try to lift Patsy or Thelma back into the plane, despite having the mobility to. If he had done so incorrectly, they might’ve fallen out without a parachute, but their deaths were more likely as a result of him doing what he did, sawing the wood. He can’t control how they fall. You could take his actions as him not caring about their wellbeing, maybe he only helped when it would make him look bad in the eyes of Patsy or the pilots? Of course, this entire sequence is most accurately interpreted as the filmmakers trying to do a funny and exciting ending, without much concern for what is suggested by the character’s actions. Still, this is what we have, so it’s interesting to engage with.

SPOILERS

A favorite moment comes when Patsy is told to go into the plane before everyone boards. Barclay talks and Patsy is absent for longer than we’re used to, until Barclay pulls a switch and Patsy falls out the plane. We never see her sit down, so it’s a nice surprise for those wondering what happened to her. The film plays a scattershot of predictable, but amusing comedic moments. Once one of the businesspeople falls out of the plane, you know they all will, and they all do. You also know that they’ll fall into something uncomfortable, but not too dangerous. That happens. These moments are still chuckle worthy. The ending, when all hell breaks loose, is a mess, though. There’s lots of minor continuity errors between shots and lots of cutting. It can be hard to keep track of what’s going on. The film doesn’t even know what’s happening. When Patsy tries to pull Thelma back onto the plane, she asks for Thelma’s help. Why not ask Barclay? How could Thelma have helped her? A Chekov’s gun of the two rehearsing the rules of being a hostess doesn’t have a pay off. 

While Patsy makes some mistakes, various problems occur outside of her. One time her outfit is caught on a gate and when the gate moves, she’s dragged by it. How was she supposed to know that would happen? A big one is when she bumps into the man hired for the stunt, his cigar falls into his clothes, and he jumps out of the plane when trying to remove the cigar. Thelma was pulling on her, as she was lightheaded. Thelma could’ve been more careful. Even though it would be hard to anticipate that the result would be the stuntman falling, she was still pulling on Patsy in a cramped room full of people. She should’ve anticipated that would cause Patsy to bump into someone. Also, the stuntman easily jumped out a door to the plane, why not make that harder to do? This whole thing might’ve still failed if Patsy was never on board. Barclay at one point intends to eject Patsy, but pulls the wrong lever and ejects someone else. During the proper demonstration, he might’ve still ejected the wrong person instead of the person recruited for the stunt. Patsy making fewer mistakes here could be a sign that she has taken Thelma’s previous reactions to heart and is thus trying to better herself.

Thelma guides Patsy to safety when she’s afraid of falling down a hole out the plane. It isn’t gay to save someone of the same gender from falling to their death, but it’s a nice scene that shows that they’re caring for each other. That didn’t have to be there. Instead of Patsy ejecting Thelma, Barclay should’ve, so as to not make it her fault. She inadvertently was harming someone she cares about. Patsy arguably almost killed Thelma by being partially responsible for some of the things that went wrong, but this whole idea was so stupid, to have literal holes in the plane floor, that she can be partially exonerated for not having come up with it. Despite that, if Patsy was less clumsy, Thelma would’ve been less likely to be killed. If instead of Barclay cutting the wood to the plane he cut their parachute rope, they’d be dead. If Patsy hadn’t accidentally ejected Thelma, that wouldn’t have been a concern. This is Patsy’s second film where she debatably almost killed Thelma. Those desperate to save Patsy from guilt could say she would’ve been more careful had Thelma’s life been more directly on the line, which is entirely possible. It’s not like she pushed Thelma out the plane. Also, it seems Patsy didn’t want to even do this or have faith in her own abilities. She basically did what she was told, though made quite a few mistakes along the way.

It would make more sense for after the chairs fall, the hole is closed up somehow, so no one has to fear falling to their death. Why would the levers to drop the chairs be so accessible, where someone might hit them by accident? Why even have more than one or two chairs drop? This was a test after all. The ending starts strong, being very chaotic, but once it resolves, the film just kind of ends. There’s a slight scare of a train coming for the girls, it passes them, then the film ends. Why not have one of them throw out a one-liner?

OVERVIEW

I was intrigued to watch this series due to seeing an intimate and charming promotional photo of Patsy and Thelma. Now that I’ve seen the film it’s attached to, there are no regrets. We’re treated to a spectacle of what was probably some random writer’s kooky idea. The film doesn’t do much, but it’s nice it bothered to do anything. Some of these films suffer from cheap moments. Air Fright is one of the more noticeable examples because its concept is somewhat bigger than the others, for probably a similarly low budget. Is this a good film? No. However, the high of all the insanity lasts just enough until the end, and thus the film doesn’t outstay its welcome. If it was feature length and just as little happened, a skip would be encouraged, but it isn’t even twenty minutes.

1933: Actresses Thelma Todd and Patsy Kelly starred together in several Hal Roach-directed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films.

Backs to Nature (1933) Review // Applying Queer Theory To Thelma Todd And Patsy Kelly Films Part 2

Thelma and Patsy in the film

Backs to Nature is the first tale of Thelma and Patsy to not have to serve as an introduction to the characters. As you’d expect, it does present our heroes and ask you to interpret them. Let’s see what they’re like and what they do in situations. See Thelma and Patsy cook food in a fire started in the middle of the woods; conflict with customers in a day job, despite this film being about the wilderness; and lesbian subtext for critics ninety years in the future to interpret or make up.

Bizarrely, the beginnings of the film detail the girls working at a checking area, getting into comedic situations with customers. This sequence doesn’t connect to the meat of the film, though Thelma does describe wanting to vacation at a hotel and Patsy convincing her to go to nature instead. This exchange could’ve happened anywhere, possibly with something that feels connected. What if Thelma comes home one day and is glad to have her paycheck, which she’ll use on that hotel, then Patsy changes her mind, saying that paycheck can thus be saved? That’d be a more understandable reason for Thelma to go with Patsy’s idea and it establishes where they live. This way they feel a little more human and real. They aren’t just thrown in random comedy scenarios, they have other things going on! For that reason it’s nice to see them at their job, as that does round the characters more, but it would’ve been better to save that for a short more deserving of it.

After that intro the girls go to the woods. If you imagine what could go wrong, that basically happens. It’s as if the writer took all the most obvious ideas and just included them with no twist. Our two leads being good performers does help a little, but not enough to make this a good film by any means. The dynamic is a little more generic than in their first film. Patsy makes a mistake and Thelma is annoyed. That formula isn’t challenged much. One could imagine this was their first filmed short as what was released before and after shows a more nuanced portrayal of their characters. This film doesn’t give many moments of Patsy and Thelma seeming to get along, though there are minor moments. These sorts of comedies work best when there’s a reason they want to stay together, despite the issues. Alternatively, make it so they have no choice but to associate; a trope that’s more common with British comedies. A few elements of the first film are repeated here, like Thelma making a very foolish mistake. See the ‘bacon’ scene!

There are funny moments in Nature. Patsy gets her wisecracks and jokes. Beyond that, she is good at taking something you wouldn’t think would be funny and making it funny. Yelling “What kind of a cat is that?” is one highlight. A favorite Thelma moment is when she yells and slides out of the situation causing her distress. Both are silly and endearing elements that didn’t have to be included. If you decide to skip this film due to its general low quality, at least go to 18:20 for Patsy’s roar and the setup to it. You won’t be disappointed.

GAY (SPOILERS)

My dedication to cataloging gay moments in these films, even very tenuous ones, will continue here… One of the nicer moments of the film is how Patsy is consistently determined to make a nice vacation for Thelma. Sure, she doesn’t actually do it much, but she clearly wants to very much. When a monkey escapes and starts jumping around, terrorizing people, Patsy helps Thelma escape by pulling her away from harm’s way. If this was a Three Stooges short, you’d expect them to push each other into danger. Patsy is shown to be very caring in intention. Later, Patsy protects Thelma from popping corn, once again seeming more concerned with her comedic partner than you might expect from others. When the two are cooking food at the fire, Thelma is shown to be happy there and glad they went to the woods instead of the hotel. Seeing as she’s not painted to be annoyed, enough probably worked out right for her to not be upset. If what we see on screen is the only thing that happened, you’d think she’d be annoyed, expecting something else to go wrong. We get a relatively lengthy sequence of about sixty seconds of the two just enjoying the scene and not conflicting before things start going wrong again. This could be support for my theory that “Patsy usually is good enough at making things work out that Thelma trusts her and likes being with her.” This scene is peaceful to the point of being out of step with the rest of the film due to how slow it is.

After Thelma tries to calm Patsy’s nerves about a bear trying to hurt them by smelling and following their bacon, Thelma puts it under her pillow. When the bear goes in their tent for it (What did the two of them think was going to happen when they put bacon under their pillow?) and rustles the bed and Thelma, Thelma thinks Patsy is doing something. Those with dirty minds can interpret the meaning of her thinking Patsy is rustling the bed and herself, as if she’s done it in the past. Despite how nervous and scared she is, Patsy comes up with them escaping the bear by going up a tree, helps Thelma up the tree, and tries to scare the bear away when prompted to by Thelma. While Patsy wasn’t endangering herself by doing those things, they still show how she is thinking of Thelma’s wishes and well being. Patsy also calls Thelma the romantic term, “Toots”.

When Thelma and Patsy are less under pressure by social expectations, they are shown to be more comfortable here than in the previous film when things are going well. They wear clothes that wouldn’t be considered appropriate in a social setting, being butcher. They enjoy the peace and quiet they have access to now. Queer stories often have a theme of wanting to be away from societal pressures, whether that be by transforming society to be more accepting, or simply leaving society and being alone. Thelma and Patsy aren’t shown to not want to go back to civilization, but they would rather be doing this than go to a hotel. Things like the wind blowing in their face, a bear approaching them, and something some park rangers do later suggest the wilderness is more hostile than they’d like to think. Many interpretations can be drawn from that, such as leaving society won’t gain them happiness or they need to try elsewhere or everywhere is hell or any number of things. Future films might give more clues into that.

SPOILERS

There are a few moments of the two not at odds, like them working together and talking out dealing with the tent. These moments don’t outnumber the bickering, such as Patsy constantly knocking the tent over, sometimes with Thelma inside. That being said, sometimes a scene ends and at the start of the next, the tent is built and stable. Seeing as Patsy has had trouble not doing something to help, perhaps she did in fact successfully construct the tent off screen? While these scenes are sometimes implied and not shown, the duo does seem to work well together at points. Thelma trusts Patsy to scare away the bear by asking her to make a noise at it.

Continuity errors and Patsy being careless are still prevalent. The tree Patsy chopped down was obviously not as big as what fell on Thelma. When the corn she was cooking starts popping violently, Patsy at first puts the corn in Thelma’s face, not being careful enough to move it elsewhere. Patsy, here and in the first film, is told to stay put by Thelma, but she still finds a way to create trouble. More drastic than her other screw ups, Patsy shoots at a rabbit without looking and instead shoots a container Thelma is holding, meaning Patsy almost shot Thelma. The implications of this are unsettling. She could’ve killed her. Continuity errors could arguably save Patsy. The gun was pointed too low down to actually hit where the container was and the sound effect of the bullet hitting its destination doesn’t match up with the condition the container is in. All this along with us not literally seeing the bullet hit could mean the bullet didn’t even come close to Thelma. Obviously the intentions were different, but poor editing suggests something different.

The ending gag was an interesting bit of titillation. Park rangers show up and shoot at the bear in the tree, but also shoot off the backs of Patsy and Thelma’s clothes, thus exposing their bare backs. It’s a weird pre-code moment in how forced this bit of nudity is, especially because this serves as the very end of the film. It would’ve paid to have an actual pay off instead of things ending right here. If you want to keep that nudity, what if they fall or jump out the tree, realize the fronts of their clothes aren’t very well attached, see that there’s a bunch of park rangers on the verge of seeing them naked, and decide to run away into the woods or jump in their car and drive away?

OVERVIEW

While Backs to Nature is bland, it’s not so offensively bland or offensively anything else to constitute not watching it if you are a fan of anyone involved. Those just wanting a good comedy should go elsewhere. At least catch that roar, though! As a side note for those keeping track of continuity, Patsy and Thelma have a different car here than the car they had in Beauty and the Bus. It also seems they’ve been working at their day job for a while, due to their level of proficiency.

Beauty and the Bus (1933) Review // Applying Queer Theory To Thelma Todd And Patsy Kelly Films Part 1

A frame from the film

Hal Roach hit it big putting together the successful comedy duo of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. To appeal more widely, he put together a female duo of… Anita Garvin and Marion Byron. Three films later they were over. A few years after he tried again with Thelma Todd and… ZaSu Pitts. After a healthy seventeen films, Pitts left and was replaced by Patsy Kelly. Here we find the classic line up of Hal Roach’s female duos, collectively known as “Girl Friends”. The Todd-Kelly line-up yielded the most films of any of the Girl Friends line-ups. The reason for me skipping over the first two was an inability to resist what makes Thelma and Patsy so special to some. Patsy Kelly the actress was a lesbian. Her tomboy-aura bounced off Thelma in a manner that suggested the characters were more than just friends, falling into somewhat typical depictions of lesbians in films. The subject was fascinating enough to look into in depth, starting with their first film.

Beauty and the Bus, and other Thelma and Patsy shorts, are delightful collections of weird humor that has the sense of coming from minds that don’t see the world like the rest of us. Essentially, their only priority is to quickly fire laughs in efficient comedy vehicles. The great performances are demonstrated by the actor’s abilities to do something not necessarily funny in a funny way. Patsy manhandles a car door like she’s from a farm, arching over it; Thelma makes startled facial expressions; Patsy crawls under some chairs and gets into arguments. The two have a “straight man” and “funny man” dynamic that works well, though you can wonder why Thelma is putting up with Patsy by dealing with her, though there is a joke that sort-of comments on that issue.

It’s interesting to compare Patsy and Thelma to Laurel and Hardy, especially the shorts that focus heavily on Laurel making a lot of mistakes. Patsy and Laurel are prone to making said mistakes, sometimes ones that are too childish. You’d think that even a klutzy adult would be able to manage themselves better than those two. Hardy and Thelma get put in the role of “straight man that has a response to the person being weird”. That being said, there’s more to Hal Roach’s duos than just a straight man and funny man. Hardy and Thelma get into trouble and are given some great lines and moments to interact with guest actors. A scene of Beauty set on the road features Patsy on her quest to steal the scene, but Thelma walks away with some of the more memorable lines. This dynamic is more engaging than if only one ever was funny and the other was just there for the sake of being there. The guest cast is also solid. At worst, they effectively do their job, such as the cop that Patsy argues with, but at best can be amusing and a highlight. Don Barclay is one. He’s a snooty motorist that gets in a confrontation with the girls. You can imagine him trying to seem like a weird annoyance that sometimes shows up in people’s lives.

A common issue are editing errors. Environments slightly change between a cut, showing a lack of control for continuity. At one point, a man’s car is damaged, but later it’s shown to be fine. Thelma says to Patsy, “You keep your eye open for a man on a motorcycle”, despite it not previously being explained why she wants one or what that means, perhaps it was a term of the time. Another problem, that also occurs with Laurel and Hardy, is how the film can push too hard on the differences between our two leads. We always see them fighting. Usually, both pairs don’t have to be together. The suggested reason for that is that they like each other enough to put up with the problems. However, if you rarely show good moments viewers won’t buy why they put up with each other. One positive moment is when Thelma trusts Patsy to hold something, suggesting she is trustworthy to some degree, but that doesn’t really go well.

SPOILERS

Patsy generally is the reason things go wrong. Thelma convinced a cop to not ticket them, but Patsy loudly insulting him prompts him to provide said ticket. Just like Hardy, Thelma is not free of causing destruction, such as foolishly throwing pieces of glass in the road for cars to drive by. Was that not obviously a bad idea? When Thelma tells a man that Barclay’s character flattened his tire, he starts destroying Thelma’s car under the belief it’s Barclay’s. Thelma doesn’t tell the man it’s the wrong car until so much damage had been done.

Intentionally or not, this film can come off as a response to Laurel and Hardy. Beauty pokes fun at the male duo’s violent tendencies, making the situation more absurd by having a more over the top catastrophe, noting the traffic jam and fight around it. Beauty and the Bus is still consistently funny, but could’ve used a better ending. One would be for the film to end with them looking at Barclay’s car, instead of going on a little longer. Another would be for after Thelma drives away from Patsy, something funny happens. Maybe the cop from earlier offers Patsy a ride and she gets in, saying it “Beats walking”.

GAY (SPOILERS)

On top of the constant humor, the movie characterizes the two protagonist’s relationship in a way it didn’t have to, covering them both show annoyance and affection for the other. Here is a list of gay-interpreted moments. Some are tenuous, with non-gay interpretations being possible or more probable in some cases, but it seemed better to include as much as possible than not.

Patsy describes doing chores and making the bed, plus various other things at the aim of doing nice things for Thelma. Patsy has the “butchy” desire to fight men that cause her or Thelma problems. Thelma claims to know Patsy “too well” to trust her with holding the tickets for a new car. Thelma is disgusted when pretending to be into the cop so as to get out of a ticket. Don Barclay is somewhat effeminate and could be believed to be trying to “act gay”, a trope relatively common at the time. One of the film’s funniest moments comes when the two grab Barclay and without a flinch throw him in the water before stealing his car. Other films might not have the women do something “masculine”, such a moment would usually happen between men. A favorite line is, “Patsy, will you try to be a lady?” Of course some of these are based on stereotypes, but still interesting regardless, especially when looked at through the lens of them being a couple.

In general, Patsy frequently wants the best for Thelma, even though she can’t be careful enough to not create problems for the both of them. Their arguing has a tone and sense like a married couple. “I don’t want to hurt you or your feelings, but you just keep being problematic.” More damningly is Patsy frequently calling Thelma “Toots”, which was somewhat seen as romantic at the time. This could also be an explanation for why Thelma puts up with Patsy, she’s well meaning and they love each other too much to part over minor incidents.

Many comedies focus on a group at odds. While there isn’t an exception here, there’s not a conflict over something like attracting a man or defeating the other, but to exist in a straight laced and Conservative world. Even Thelma is at odds with people, not liking the various characters she deals with. The difference between her and Patsy is she is a better pretender. She smiles for and is nice to the cop, not because she wants him, but because she wants to be unafflicted by his social punishment. She still messes up by throwing the glass. The difference between these outcasts and someone like The Three Stooges is that the Stooges are clowns by just looking at them. They would be clowns if removed from society and left in isolation. Patsy and Thelma look like normal people who if put in isolation, would be at home in what is comfortable for them. They wouldn’t have to deal with people, though they’d still be their weird selves. Patsy would of course be silly, but not in the way someone like the Stooges are.

OVERVIEW

Beauty and the Bus is the product of something coming into its own. Thelma and Patsy’s dynamic will soon change and develop for the better. Taken on its own merits, this first installment is a quirky and admirable piece of comedy that is satisfying to watch and doesn’t out stay its welcome.