Product Review

A master of the "slow burn," Edgar Kennedy perfected the comedy of exasperation in his long-running series of two-reelers released by Pathe and its successor, RKO Radio Pictures, between 1931 and 1948. The bald comic actor - who had earlier worked for producer Hal Roach in rib-tickling shorts starring Laurel & Hardy, the Little Rascals and Charley Chase - played the perpetually put-upon husband of cute but ditzy Florence Lake, whose overbearing mother (first played by Dot Farley, then by Vivian Oakland) and lazy brother (initially William Eugene, later Jack Rice) conspired to make his life miserable. Reliant more on situational humor than raucous slapstick, the long unseen Edgar Kennedy series created the template that has been used since in countless TV sitcoms. - Ed Hulse

• Help Wanted Female (1930)
• Next Door Neighbors (1931)
• Quiet Please (1933)
• Good Housewrecking (1933)
• Wrong Direction (1934)
• A Blasted Event (1934)
• Love On A Ladder (1934)
• Will Power (1936)
• Dumb's The Word (1937)
• Beaux and Errors (1938)