Oh, My Operation (1931) User Reviews

People are dying to get into this hospital.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 26 July 2020]

When the story begins, George (George Burns) comes upon a man lying on the pavement...presumably a victim of a traffic accident. However, while he's offering help to the guy, an ambulance arrives and takes GEORGE to the hospital. If you think that's dumb, wait until you see the hospital and it's goofy staff. The doctor is a complete incompetent and soon operates on poor George...'just to see if he needs an operation'! Things go from bad to worse when George's new nurse is Gracie (Gracie Allen) and the usual weird banter occurs.

This film is pretty typical of the Paramount shorts the team made during the early 1930s. But, fortunately, it does offer a bit to differentiate it...the dopey ambulance and the even dopier doctor. This helped make the film more fun as not all the pressure was on Gracie to carry the picture. Funny and enjoyable....an one of their better shorts.

By the way, this film featured one of the most tasteless jokes I've ever heard. It's about twins and triplets and is awful...but I did find myself laughing.

Two short films by the same name within a year... Sounds like something Gracie would do!

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 26 January 2019]

If you ever walk into a hospital and see and hear Gracie Allen there, run run run! One of the first thing she says to the bedridden George Burns is "Are you the patient who died?" from then on, pretty much everything she talks to him about involves death including dogs for brother has shot, a woman who had triplets and left with twins and the number of patients she's treated who ended up in the morgue. Admitting to him that he's her last chance or otherwise she'll be fired, Allen has Burns prepared for the mental ward within 10 minutes, the running time of this short.

Breezy but dark, the premise of this comedy has Burns in surgery by mistake, simply having found a man passed out on the street and trying to help. While much of the comedy is very funny, it is dated and may be a bit disturbing considering some of the subject matter that it covers. Still, Burns and Allen are a classic team and Gracie is irresistible. One of the funnier moments has her screwing up the names of the various months and claiming that her sister has a brother whom she is not related to. If they ever decide to crown the queen of the malapropism, they need look no further than the delightful Gracie Allen.

Burns and Allen are most hilarious in Oh, My Operation

[tavm · 10/10 · 8 July 2006]

A millionaire faints on the street. George comes through the crowd to try to revive him. A couple of men takes George away mistaking him for a patient which was supposed to be the man who fainted! At the hospital, we see nurse Gracie mentioning to the head nurse that she cut her finger with soup. "You cut you finger with soup?" asks the head nurse. "Yes, I had trouble opening the can." replies Gracie. George then comes in with the doctors exclaiming, "I'm not dead!" Fade in to scene after operation, the doctor declaring, "Well, if he lives, the operation was a failure." Then the doctors back off as we find George eating dinner which is soon taken away from him. He then asks his doctor what he was operated for. "To find if you needed an operation." "Supposing the man dies?" "Well, if the man dies, then we know we made a mistake." "Well, that makes me feel better, I was worried for a minute there." Nurse Gracie checks up on George and we get some nonsense lines like: "A woman had triplets one day and then she had twins." "And then she had twins?" "Yes, one of the triplets died." It goes on like this before Gracie then mentions a twin sister who was born in Septober while Gracie was born in Octember. "Ask me when I was born." "When were you born?" "In Remember!" Then Gracie's twin sister nurse-who looks nothing like Gracie-comes to have lunch as they leave George alone. Two other patients in the same room mentions troubles with George's doctor: One had gloves left in his neck, the other had scissors in his ear. Then that doctor comes in, looks around, and then asks, "Has anyone seen my umbrella?" resulting in George gasping as we fade out. These are some of the most hilarious one-liners I've heard yet from the Burns and Allen team in their third year in the movies. By all means, if you're a die-hard George and Gracie fan, seek this one out!

Funny Short

[Michael_Elliott · 22 September 2017]

Oh, My Operation (1931)

*** (out of 4)

George Burns is in the hospital recovering from an operation when he gets into an interesting discussion on why he had the operation in the first place. From here the nurse (Gracie Allen) decides to try and teach him a few things.

OH, MY OPERATION isn't the greatest film that Burns and Allen made but it's certainly an entertaining one and one that their fans will enjoy. What works best about the film is once again how Allen can come across as so dumb and not catch the various insults being thrown her way by Burns. There were several very good gags done throughout the short and there's also a funny bit between Burns and his doctor who explains why you need to operate on a person in order to see if they need an operation.