A Panic in the Parlor (1941) User Reviews

When the all American wife becomes a Mexican spitfire.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 13 September 2023]

Leon Errol has gone from the matronly, hard as nails Elisabeth Risdon as wife Della in the "Mexican Spitfire" series to the much younger Virginia Vale ("Holiday Inn") in this RKO shorts with all the unbelievable antics that you expect in a Leon Errol short. The rubber legged comic and pal Joseph Forte have pulled a Laurel and Hardy and pretended to be on a business trip while they've really been south of the border partying. Vale finds out and plots to get even, while Errol goes out of his way to weasel his way out of this mess.

Don't expect reality in these shorts as there is absolutely none. Errol and fellow comic Edgar Kennedy did tons of these shorts and while the characters all had different names, they were variations of the same person, the personality of the actor playing the part. Errol and Vale are obviously mismatched, but it's fun to see the old scamp being a Lothario while the dutiful much younger wife stays faithful, pretending to be a widow involved with another man when Errol shows up at home in disguise. Dated fun, but a must for Errol fans who enjoyed the fact that this skinny, short bald man never acted his age and had more fun than most playboys.

Leon's Plane Is Missing

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 17 April 2010]

This one of Leon Errol's short subjects for RKO was clearly influenced by the Laurel&Hardy classic Sons Of The Desert. It's almost an illegitimate son of the Sons Of The Desert. Errol gets himself in enough trouble for both Stan and Ollie put together.

Poor Leon and his friend Josef Forte really think they've put one over on Errol's wife. He says he was at a business convention in Seattle, but what he has been doing is having fun and frolic in Tijuana. The jig should have been up because when Errol returns he finds that the plane from Seattle that Virginia Vale who is Mrs. Errol thinks Leon is on is missing and overdue and feared down.

Leon's in a real spot, but he and Forte go back to the apartment with no real set plan in mind. But Vale who knows about the missing plane and sees Leon arriving in front sets him with a few gags of her own with fake lover.

In this film Leon eschews his normal drunk act and plays it strictly sober, not that it helps any. If this short had been done at MGM instead of RKO, Frank Morgan would have gone to town with poor Leon's predicament. Josef Forte has an unusual role of kibitzer in the film, just commenting on the situation, offering Errol bad advice, maybe deliberately because he looks amused at the whole affair.

This is a pretty amusing short subject with of course bows to Stan and Ollie for inspiring it.

A poor reworking of Laurel & Hardy's "Sons of the Desert"

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 31 December 2021]

The Laurel & Hardy film "Sons of the Desert" has been the inspiration (in other words, blatantly copied) in TV shows from "The Flintstones" to "The Honeymooners". Here in "A Panic in the Parlor", the script from "Sons of the Desert" has been reworked into this Leon Errol short.

Leon was supposed to be at a business convention in Seattle. Instead, he headed to Mexico to party. And, when he returns, his boss spots him in Mexican garb at the airport....and Leon is in trouble. As for the wife, she's learned that something has happened to the flight coming in from Seattle and it's the one Leon was supposed to take home.

In the meantime, and I have no idea why, but Leon comes home dressed in his Mexican outfit and pretending to be someone else. And, Leon spends the rest of the film lying and conniving and trying to weasel his way out of hot water.

The original idea was brilliant and is Laurel & Hardy's best film. The remake, by comparison, is senseless and a bit dopey. Just see the Laurel & Hardy film and do yourself a favor.

Hilarious Short

[Michael_Elliott · 24 April 2010]

Panic in the Parlor, A (1941)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Hilarious short has Leon Errol sneaking off to Mexico with a friend but his wife (Virginia Vale) finds out about it and decides to make him think she has a couple lovers on the side. Laurel and Hardy fans are going to find this very similar to SONS OF THE DESERT but that really didn't take away any entertainment because I found myself laughing out loud quite a few times during the film. The set up is pretty easy but we have an apartment with the wife inside making man voices so that her husband on the outside will think she has a couple men with her. The jealously eventually gets the best of Errol and he tries to get even but of course things don't go as planned. I'm still rather new to the work of Errol but so far I've found these RKO shorts to be incredibly funny. This here is certainly the best I've seen as the majority of the jokes work extremely well and that includes a few very funny bits with the boss also finding out Errol wasn't where he was suppose to be.