Raised and Called (1935) Poster

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5/10
I Was Not Impressed
boblipton8 January 2022
Tom Kennedy wants a raise, but boss Robert Graves only gives them to married men. So Chick Chandler tells him to claim to be married. Kennedy gets his raise, and Graves invites himself to dinner.

Good premise, but instead of building bit by bit, they go over the top almost immediately, so that a bunch of comedians are involved struggling for screen time, while Chandler pretends to go into a trance. This was the fourth of four shorts with Kennedy and Chandler. I've seen one other and am glad they didn't make more.
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3/10
It could have been a lot funnier.
planktonrules10 January 2022
While the story line is reasonably familiar, having Tom Kennedy playing a secretary is pretty weird. Kennedy made a good living playing big lugs...often cops or occasionally dopey crooks. So, seeing this large guy playing a secretary to his boss...well that is unusual.

The film begins with Kennedy taking orders from his boss to give another employee a raise. Afterwards, Kennedy is talking with Chick (Chick Chandler) and Chick tells him he's gotten yet another raise as well! And, Chick bullies his pal into confronting the boss and demanding a raise as well...but the boss tells him to get lost! Well, that is until Tom plays his trump card--telling the boss that he's married. It seems that the boss is prone to giving married guys higher salaries! But there's a problem...Tom ISN'T married and really doesn't know how to cook...and the boss just up and invites himself over to dinner to meet Tom's new wife over dinner!!

The situation is pretty familiar but funny as I've seen sit-coms and other shorts use similar problems. Unfortunately, while the situation is reasonably funny, the 'wife' that Chandler finds to impress Tom's boss is played by Jeanie Roberts. I say unfortunately because he main claim to fame was a voice that could curdle milk or make dogs barf...it's THAT annoying. An unfunny one-note performance from her as the wife is a real shame and she sadly also appeared in other Chandler-Kennedy shorts. Also annoying is Chandler's routine once dinner begins...playing a madman for no discernable reason. It just wasn't funny because of these two performances as well as some dopey slapstick at the end, I was NOT impressed.

By the way, a sad product of the time is seeing Willie Best appearing under the demeaning name 'Sleep 'n' Eat'! I am not especially politically correct but can easily see how offensive such a moniker could be....and fortunately Best abandoned this later in his career.
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