This shorts strong point and short comings are the many songs and rhyming lines. Clever as a meat cleaver in your socks kind of dialogue. Still it's very rare and I feel luck to have seen a worn 35mm nitrate print at the Library Of Congress. The folks that book Slapsticon will love it. But then again they are a silly lot. And because IMDb needs more info... Notes: Copyright: Educational Productions, Inc.; 16Nov34; LP5098. Educational Pictures no. 5204. An Educational coronet comedy. Widerange Western Electric Sound System. Produced at Eastern Service Studios, Inc. Sources used: Catalogue of copyright entries, motion pictures, 1912-1939, p. 732; Maltin, The great movie shorts, p. 11-12.
2 Reviews
Harry croons his way into a free meal, bed and heart of farmer's daughter.
larry41onEbay7 January 2014
Warning: Spoilers
Gribbon...without Sweet.
planktonrules21 May 2021
During the early 1930s, Harry Sweet and Harry Gribbon made a series of comedy shorts together. I've seen quite a few of them and must they they weren't particularly funny nor something you should rush to see. However, Sweet was killed in a plane crash in 1933 and so Gribbon tried making some shorts on his own...."Rural Romeos" is one of these solo efforts.
When the story begins, Harry is a hobo...wandering the country and living on handouts. A housewife agrees to feed him...if he does work around the farm first. Soon the farmer's daughter meets Harry and is inexplicably smitten by him. I think it's a combination of liking his singing voice AND she might just want to make her boyfriend jealous.
A bit later, Harry takes the young lady to the county fair. Her boyfriend also comes along and does VERY well at the hog calling contest...so Harry decides to cheat in order to win and impress the girl. Of course, it all backfires.
The problem with this short is simple....it's just not funny. I don't recall a single time I laughed or even smirked. With efforts like this and the Gribbon-Sweet films, I can see why Harry Gribbon is mostly forgotten today. I give it a 3 because at least it's not annoying.
When the story begins, Harry is a hobo...wandering the country and living on handouts. A housewife agrees to feed him...if he does work around the farm first. Soon the farmer's daughter meets Harry and is inexplicably smitten by him. I think it's a combination of liking his singing voice AND she might just want to make her boyfriend jealous.
A bit later, Harry takes the young lady to the county fair. Her boyfriend also comes along and does VERY well at the hog calling contest...so Harry decides to cheat in order to win and impress the girl. Of course, it all backfires.
The problem with this short is simple....it's just not funny. I don't recall a single time I laughed or even smirked. With efforts like this and the Gribbon-Sweet films, I can see why Harry Gribbon is mostly forgotten today. I give it a 3 because at least it's not annoying.
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