So you want to be a gambler

I've mentioned the Joe McDoakes shorts on a number of occasions. Recently, I watched the recording I made of The Cincinnati Kid back when Joan Blondell was Star of the Month. They put a 102-minute movie in a 2:15 slot, which left time for a pair of shorts. One was the promo short for the movie; the other was the Joe McDoakes short So You Want to Be a Gambler.

George O'Hanlon returns to play Joe McDoakes, the more-or-less good guy who always seems to have bad luck. In this one, he's an inveterate gambler who just needs another nickel which he knows he can parlay into a fortune. He eventually gets it at a drugstore and wins big on the pinball machine -- $50 in 1948 dollars.

Armed with this, he goes off to a casino where he meets friend Homer (Clifton Young, reminding me of Wayne Morris in John Loves Mary). There, Joe humorously tries his hand at blackjack, poker, craps, and roulette, each with mild comedy mixed in.

As I was watching this one, I couldn't help but think of Joe McDoakes as being Warner Bros.' answer to Pete Smith, only with more actual dialogue. There's some reasonably good humor in this one, such as the poker player with an extra hand, or the parrot that Joe shouldn't listen to -- take your $50 and quit while you're ahead! But at the same time, I found myself feeling more like this stuff is an acquired taste. Not everybody is going to like it.

One thing I don't think I've actually mentioned when pointing out that a Joe McDoakes short is coming up is that the Warner Archives put them all together in a box set, 63 shorts on six discs. So if you want, you can watch any of them at any time.