Producer: Allan Dwan. Copyright 8 September 1941 by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Palace: 24 December 1941. U.S. release: 21 November 1941. Australian release: 4 December 1942. 7,228 feet. 80 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: As president of the local Chamber of Commerce, a small-town bird-brain wants to lure a new airplane factory to the county.
COMMENT: As a general rule, the writers and producers of radio and television shows design their programs for what they euphemistically call mass appeal. In this endeavor, "mass" does not equal weight, but rather the reverse. In other words, light, as in light-headed.
Look Who's Laughing is a typical radio clone. The plot is slight, the material weak, the acting hammy, production values minimal.
I could go on for pages, detailing everything that's annoying about the movie from the flaccid direction, the boring slapstick, the criminal waste of some of our favorite character players, the tedious dialogue and the scene-chewing relish with which "actors" like Harold Peary bombard the audience with even the most insipid of their seemingly endless lines, but let me just pass over all that in silence and concentrate my venom on the gut-wrenching bombast of Fibber McGee and Molly, plus a few passing swipes at the mindlessly impossible charade perpetrated by Edgar Bergen and his alter ego.
No, out of respect for my auteur readers who have elevated Allan Dwan to the heights of the Hollywood masters, I will at this point desist.
P.S. Miss Ball's admirers won't have a ball either. She looks great, but her role is small being confined to beginning and "climax" only. Otherwise, this movie is strictly for simpletons and maybe indulgent relatives of the ill-used principals.
SYNOPSIS: As president of the local Chamber of Commerce, a small-town bird-brain wants to lure a new airplane factory to the county.
COMMENT: As a general rule, the writers and producers of radio and television shows design their programs for what they euphemistically call mass appeal. In this endeavor, "mass" does not equal weight, but rather the reverse. In other words, light, as in light-headed.
Look Who's Laughing is a typical radio clone. The plot is slight, the material weak, the acting hammy, production values minimal.
I could go on for pages, detailing everything that's annoying about the movie from the flaccid direction, the boring slapstick, the criminal waste of some of our favorite character players, the tedious dialogue and the scene-chewing relish with which "actors" like Harold Peary bombard the audience with even the most insipid of their seemingly endless lines, but let me just pass over all that in silence and concentrate my venom on the gut-wrenching bombast of Fibber McGee and Molly, plus a few passing swipes at the mindlessly impossible charade perpetrated by Edgar Bergen and his alter ego.
No, out of respect for my auteur readers who have elevated Allan Dwan to the heights of the Hollywood masters, I will at this point desist.
P.S. Miss Ball's admirers won't have a ball either. She looks great, but her role is small being confined to beginning and "climax" only. Otherwise, this movie is strictly for simpletons and maybe indulgent relatives of the ill-used principals.