That was who I thought it was

One of the things in terms of my movie viewing that I don't do but probably should is make a not somewhere of what feature on my DVR precedes an interesting short that I might like to do a post on in case I need to do anything to jog my memory or try to get a screenshot of the short in question. Such is the case with one short I recently watched, Art Trouble.

Since it's only a two-reeler, it's not as if the short has a complicated plot. It starts off with two painters in the industrial, not artistic, sense. These are played by Harry Gribbon, who apparently got his start at Keystone but not, as far as I can tell, with the Keystone Kops; and, perhaps a bit more interestingly to today's viewer, Shemp Howard who had been one of the Three Stooges on stage but only came back to the Stooges on film a dozen years after this short. They have a sight gag involving checkerboard paint and then one involving invisible paint.

The action then shifts to one of those 1930s mansions. Two twentysomething brothers have the opportunity to take art scholarships in Paris since their parents want to make them the next great American artist. Neither brother wants to go to Paris, however, since they both have a girlfriend at home. So they come up with the idea of paying two guys to go to Paris for the art schoarship and select Shemp and Harry, with the brothers' parents none the wiser since they've written a series of predated letters for Shemp and Harry to send. Shemp and Harry have a series of adventures and even get into an art contest in Paris. But they screw up the plan by, after some weeks in Paris, sending the rest of the letters all at once, which makes the two brothers' parents suspect something is amiss.

What I noticed on watching Art Trouble is that one of the brothers sure looked familiar, and sounded familiar too. The resemblance is one that you should probably spot even on looking at a smaller copy of the photo. But on going to the IMDb page for the movie and looking through the uncredited cast, my thought was correct that this was indeed James Stewart, right at the beginning of his film career. The other actor is a man named Don Tomkins whom I'd never heard of.

Art Trouble has some amusing moments, although I don't think anybody would remember it today if it weren't for the presence of James Stewart.