8mm Forum: OFF THE HORSES (Bert lahr Comedy)

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Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on March 27, 2007, 04:31 PM:

I love being the champion of rare oldies, and Niles came forth with this one from the mid thirties. It is entitled,

"Off the Horses"

This is a Bert lahr comedy. Bert lahr will always be immortalized as the Cowardly lion from "The Wizard of OZ", but he did have a career before this, mostly as a song and dance man. After the "Wizard of OZ", his career slipped back into the mode of before "OZ", but at this time, (before OZ), he had enough clout to have his own short subjects.

This particular title has Lahr as a financier who likes to work the ponies, (he bets on horses), but he uses astrology in order to do it, (anyone interested, check out my review of Joe E Brown's "When's Your Birthday?", already reviewed at an earlier time, as it appear Joe E. Brown basically borrowed somewhat from this short.)

His company is in financial chaos. He is expecting a raise, and hears he's to be fired. he cons his boss to take a chance on the horses in order to save the company.

The only problem is that Lahr's wife (in the film) forbids him to have anything to do with the horses. needless to say, he doesn't tell his wife he's going to the tracks. Unbeknownst to our hero, friends of the family invite his wife over to the track the very day, just for relaxation! Uh Oh!

While at the track, our hero is bothered by a fence to bet on a horse that is "a sure thing", that turns out to be anything BUT a sure thing! Meanwhile, the wife is constantly around the corner, and knows that her no good husband is there.

Amidst constant returns of the fence, as well as dodging of the wife, as well as an edgy boss, our hero Finally does come out on top, to the joy of boss as well as wife. Job saved!

Bert lahr didn't change much of his personality as well as his best traits as the Cowardly lion, becuase they are here as well, all the little "ticks" that made lahr famous. The laugh is most noticeable, as well as that big grin, his famous "mugging"!

This is a Niles print, running 17 minutes. The contrast is okay, but the focus is just barely there, but passable. the sound is fine. The only problem with this print is that the original negative had a few splices to it, actually more than a few.

But considering that this is a rare title to see, whether on film or DVD/video, you can live with those imperfections.

The original titles are on this print as well.

A fun little comedy with a good number of little comedic moments, (sorry, I can't remember them at the moment.) If you can find this film, pick it up, it's worth a good little laugh, as well as seeing that Bert lahr had his own career besides OZ.

Posted by Paul Spinks (Member # 573) on March 28, 2007, 07:47 AM:

Great review Osi, many thanks. It's great to know that other Bert Lahr titles made it on to Super 8. I have a feature length print of "One Body Too Many" (1944) which I principally got because it featured Bela Lugosi in the cast. It's a comedy horror film in "The Cat and the Canary" tradition and stars "The Tin Man" Jack Haley. He's really good in a "Bob Hope" sort of way. It's nice to see these performers in roles that, were it not for super 8 releases, would have probably become long forgotten because of that one famous picture they made which has become a perennial classic on TV and dvd and is therefore all that is made available.

Best wishes,
Paul.

Posted by David Michael Leugers (Member # 166) on March 28, 2007, 11:20 AM:

I have a print also, a very enjoyable short comedy. A shame a better print was not obtainable.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on March 28, 2007, 03:17 PM:

I agree David. Blackhawk would have done this release better, as Niles was always kind of "iffy" when it came to overall quality control, but I liken Niles to a glorified "Thunderbird", who also had a number of rare titles but once again marginal quality.

So, mariginal quality is better than no film at all, (although I have run into some rare super 8's that are so poor of quality, I really wonder why they bothered to print it.)

Posted by Joe Caruso (Member # 11) on March 28, 2007, 05:53 PM:

There's another; HENRY THE ACHE, by Niles, also very funny with Lahr

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on March 29, 2007, 01:53 PM:

I'll look for that one Joe, thanks.

OSI

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