Art Trouble (1934) User Reviews

Studying Art In Gay Paree

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 13 January 2009]

Harry Gribbon former Mack Sennett Keystone Cop and Shemp Howard sometime Stooge are a pair of house painters who get a once in a lifetime opportunity for an art scholarship. All they have to do is do it under the aliases provided by James Stewart and Don Tomkins who are being forced to go to Paris and study art by their rich mater and pater. If you can believe that, you'll believe anything.

Just as I never thought I would see a film where Shemp Howard was billed over Jimmy Stewart. Yet this Vitagraph short subject marked the film debut of a screen legend.

Gribbon and Shemp are living it up in Gay Paree with the money sent by the parents of the guys they're impersonating after each pre-written letter that they send. Still they manage to screw up the arrangement.

Highlight of the short subject for me is Shemp Howard attempting to do the apache dance and getting the roles reversed. Art Trouble is a mildly amusing short that would be totally forgotten today if a screen icon weren't in it.

Cute and enjoyable.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 8 December 2016]

Harry Gribbon and Shemp Howard star in this one as a couple of painters...and I am not talking about artists but guys who paint boats, buildings and the like. The film begins with the men using some WEIRD paint...that comes out in checkered patterns. The scene then cuts to some fancy society home. Two young men (one is Jimmy Stewart in his first film) are being told by their parents that the pair MUST got to Paris to live the bohemian life of painters and chase women. While you'd think they'd be thrilled with this, the brothers want to do post-graduate work in trigonometry! So, they pay the two painters (assuming they are the artistic variety) to take their place in Paris--living off the parents' money and carousing. The only caveat is that they are supposed to mail letters regularly to the parents telling them about their exploits in Paris...while pretending to be the brothers. Naturally the painters make a mess of everything...and it's best you just see it for yourself to see how.

This is not exactly a brilliant comedy but it has quite a few clever moments. And, for Stewart lovers, it certainly is worth seeing as well. Overall, enjoyable.

By the way, this short came out a month before the new, toughened Production Code was put into effect. As a result of this, some risqué Pre-Code humor can be found here which simply would have been edited out or softened had the film debuted just a bit later.

"One time I painted a full length picture of Venus, but it turned out to be a bust."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 7 December 2016]

With Shemp Howard and Harry Gribbon heading the bill, the picture is virtually a non stop series of gags and one liners like the one in my summary above. The painters are hired by Don Tomkins and get this - Jimmy Stewart! - to impersonate them as art students in Paris so the pair can run off to Woonsocket. Sure would like to know what the attraction there was.

Jimmy Stewart was the major surprise here in his very first, but uncredited screen appearance. He and Tomkins aren't on screen very long, not that it's necessary because the joke is on 'Mater' and 'Pater' who are footing the bill for the Paris gig that Shemp and Harry are taking advantage of. I got a kick out of the business card stating their address as '5 Rue de Valle' and 'Whitewashing Our Specialty'.

The ruse would have been more of a success if Shemp hadn't screwed up by sending a batch of pre-written letters home to the elder Burton's. Instead of posting them a week at a time, he sent them all at once and blew the young siblings' cover. But not before we get to see that 'Ooh La La' singer make Howard squirm in his seat, not to mention him getting manhandled by her in a masochistic version of a French Apache Dance. That's one thing I have to admit, I learned the term by being an avid movie buff here on IMDb, which proves to me that watching this stuff doesn't have to be a passive hobby.

James Stewart tries his best to get smug, so Shemp Howard slaps him across his thin mug

[AlsExGal · 6/10 · 3 September 2023]

This is noted as the first filmed role for James Stewart, although he is not listed among the credits of this short film.

James Stewart plays one of two brothers who are ordered by their wealthy parents to go to Paris and become famous artists. They don't want to go to Paris with its atmosphere and beautiful girls and champagne. They prefer to stay in America and take a post-graduate course in trigonometry. So the brothers get a couple of painters - they paint ships not portraits - to go in their place and give them a series of letters to periodically mail back from France to their parents, so they'll think that they are there. But then the painters get tired of mailing these letters back individually and decide to mail them all at the same time, alerting the parents back home that something is up.

The two painters are played by Harry Gribbon and Shemp Howard, after he was ejected from The Three Stooges by Ted Healy. Stewart is only in a couple of scenes, and he was paid 50 dollars for his work. There is lots of filler in this short. There is a segment in the beginning about Gribbon and Howard being painters of the ships on "The Checkered Line" with them painting a ship with checkered paint. In France, there is a segment with a long scene concerning the Apache Dance, where the man throws the woman about during the dance. It goes on too long and is tedious in the end.

I'd recommend this mainly to see Stewart in his very first filmed role, but the rest of the short is pleasant enough. And if you ever wanted to see James Stewart roughed up by one of the Three Stooges, this is your opportunity.

corny short has some big names

[ksf-2 · 7/10 · 17 June 2023]

Pretty impressive, for a short talkie! SO many huge names in here. Even jimmy stewart's first appearance. Shemp howard. Marjorie main and mary wickes, according to the imdb cast list. Main was probably best known for "the women" and ma kettle. And mary wickes was a fun supporting character in "man who came to dinner". Harry gribbon must have been someone, since he started in the early days of silents. The story itself is silly... who wouldn't take a free trip to paris, with the lodging paid?? It's mostly a bunch of vaudeville bits, stapled together for a twenty minute tale. And it's in surprisingly good condition. Some funny bits. Not every joke is a winner. Pause for laughter. Directed by ralph staub, who seems to have spent most of his thirty years making shorts.

Art Trouble not only stars Harry Gribbon and Shemp Howard, it also marks the debut of one James Stewart

[tavm · 8/10 · 1 July 2019]

All you need to know about this short is that Shemp Howard and Harry Gribbon are brothers who usually paint on boats but after a couple of rich siblings (one of whom is Jimmy Stewart in his film debut) offer them to take their place in a Paris artists gallery where they can paint nude women, they take it! (Stewart and his brother are more interested in trigonometry!) This was hilarious from beginning to end so on that note, I highly recommend Art Trouble.

James Stewart's Screen Debut

[The-Lonely-Londoner · 22 September 2003]

The 26 year old James Stewart made his uncredited screen debut in this film having previously graduated from university and exploited the stage circuit. He was obviously an intelligent man with a distinctively American voice which kind of carved him out as an all-American hero.