Product Review

Edgar Kennedy (1890-1948) was one of the funniest movie comedians of his era and the master of "the slow burn": playing characters who struggle to keep their composure up to, including and beyond the boiling point - but then all yell breaks loose!

Bald and stocky, the former boxer honed the comedy of exasperation in silent days, opposite such greats as Laurel & Hardy and Charley Chase. In the sound era, he made scores of RKO shorts playing an "Average Man" for whom marriage is a three-ring circus: engagement ring, wedding ring and suffering. Between 1931 and 1948 he acted in 100-plus RKO shorts in which he fought losing battles with his wife, in-laws, neighbors, landlords, cops and more.

In addition to the nine RKO shorts featured in this compilation, there is an unusual oddity: "The Other Fellow," a Chevrolet-General Motors driver safety short with Edgar as a motorist exploding with road rage at the carelessness of other drivers - all of them also played by Kennedy!

• The Other Fellow (1937)
• Ears Of Experience (1938)
• Clock Wise (1939)
• Sunk By The Census (1940)
• A Quiet Fourth (1941)
• Hot Foot (1943)
• It's Your Move (1945)
• You Drive Me Crazy (1945)
• Motor Maniacs (1946)
• Trouble Or Nothing (1946)