A Pete Smith specialty

TCM is showing the short Let's Talk Turkey at approximately 2:00 PM ET today, following Christmas in Connecticut. This is one of the hundred or more shorts produced by Pete Smith for MGM from the early 1930s through the early 1950s. Smith had a comedic talent for finding the humorous aspects of everyday life, and his shorts usually have the actors remain silent while Smith provides the humor in his voiceover.

In the case of Let's Talk Turkey, that humor revolves around a newlywed man who has to carve his first holiday turkey -- and, the wife wants him to carve it in front of her family, because she's oh so proud of him. Smith first has an "expert" show us how the task is correctly done, and that expert performs the task accurately and efficiently, quickly ending up with very nice and appetizing pieces of meat, much like on those TV cooking shows. Of course, whenever you try reproducing what the TV chefs do, the result never quite seems to live up to what you see on TV, and that's the case in this short.

It's perfectly entertaining for a one-reeler, and doesn't overstay its welcome.

Merry Christmas!