Starring ZaSu Pitts and Thelma Todd.
Featuring Billy Gilbert, Anita Garvin, and Eddie Dunn.
Directed by Gus Meins.
Synopsis
"I'm so tired I'm nearly dead!"
ZaSu and Thelma return from a busy day working at a department store. They set about making dinner. ZaSu makes a mess of things.
The girls overhear that a fellow tenant, Miss Brown, is having trouble paying rent due to the landlady (Kay Lavelle). She owes $20.
Thelma and ZaSu decide to help the girl by loaning her the money. Thelma goes to their "bank" (a mousetrap under the rug) and finds that some money is missing.
ZaSu admits to having taken the money to buy a ring.
The landlady enters, harbouring concerns that the girls are cooking food in their room. In their attempt to hide the food, ZaSu manages to put the peas in the bin, which the landlady then carries away.
Another tenant (Anita Garvin) knocks on the door of the girls' room and asks to borrow an onion. She advises Thelma and ZaSu to go down to the local dance hall that evening, suggesting that they could make a couple of bucks.
Thelma figures that between the both of them, they might be able to earn $20 to give to Miss Brown. Despite her staunch protests, ZaSu does accompany Thelma to the dance hall.
ZaSu dances with a bearded oddball, whereas Thelma gets nautical with the most annoying sailor in the world (Eddie Dunn).
ZaSu breaks a heel dancing with a very tall man. Thelma leads ZaSu off the dance floor.
They meet Anita, who has earned a lot of tickets from just one dance by fluttering her eyes and wiggling her hips - she advises Thelma and ZaSu to do the same.
In the meantime, the police turn up (Nora Cecil, Julia Griffith, and Nelson McDowell) to inspect the dance hall proprietor's (Billy Gilbert) joint.
Mr Gilbert manages to tell all the patrons to dance respectably - except ZaSu, who has been receiving lessons in how to flirt from Anita. Anita also helps ZaSu by advising her how to apply some 'enticing' make-up!
Having missed Mr Gilbert's announcement, ZaSu promptly 'swishes' to the floor - all hips and fluttering eyes - in an attempt to earn more tickets. Thelma is powerless, trapped at the entrance to the Ladies' Lounge, as her sailor paramour won't leave her alone.
ZaSu's flirtations arouse the suspicion of the police officers, and one of them (Nelson McDowell) decides to dance with her to try to gather evidence against the 'lewd' establishment.
During a racy number, ZaSu and Nelson crash to the floor after failing to pull off a spectacular dance move.
Thelma asks Eddie to go and put a stop to Nelson's antics with ZaSu. Eddie goes over, and is reunited with his uncle!
Mr Gilbert removes the girls from the dance floor. He tells them to go home but before they can, there is a scuffle, where one of the dancers is hit by Anita, getting a black eye.
Mr Gilbert pays out $20 in compensation. This gives ZaSu an idea...
The lights go off, and when they come back on, Thelma has a black eye!
Mr Gilbert gives the girls $20 and they go home.
Back home, Thelma looks in the mirror at her black eye and sees that her cheek has the same pattern on it that is on ZaSu's ring! Realising that ZaSu hit her, Thelma turns round to be greeted by a crying and apologetic ZaSu.
ZaSu's make-up has run all down her face, leaving Thelma laughing at the whole matter.
The girls overhear that a fellow tenant, Miss Brown, is having trouble paying rent due to the landlady (Kay Lavelle). She owes $20.
Thelma and ZaSu decide to help the girl by loaning her the money. Thelma goes to their "bank" (a mousetrap under the rug) and finds that some money is missing.
ZaSu admits to having taken the money to buy a ring.
The landlady enters, harbouring concerns that the girls are cooking food in their room. In their attempt to hide the food, ZaSu manages to put the peas in the bin, which the landlady then carries away.
Another tenant (Anita Garvin) knocks on the door of the girls' room and asks to borrow an onion. She advises Thelma and ZaSu to go down to the local dance hall that evening, suggesting that they could make a couple of bucks.
Thelma figures that between the both of them, they might be able to earn $20 to give to Miss Brown. Despite her staunch protests, ZaSu does accompany Thelma to the dance hall.
ZaSu dances with a bearded oddball, whereas Thelma gets nautical with the most annoying sailor in the world (Eddie Dunn).
ZaSu breaks a heel dancing with a very tall man. Thelma leads ZaSu off the dance floor.
They meet Anita, who has earned a lot of tickets from just one dance by fluttering her eyes and wiggling her hips - she advises Thelma and ZaSu to do the same.
In the meantime, the police turn up (Nora Cecil, Julia Griffith, and Nelson McDowell) to inspect the dance hall proprietor's (Billy Gilbert) joint.
Mr Gilbert manages to tell all the patrons to dance respectably - except ZaSu, who has been receiving lessons in how to flirt from Anita. Anita also helps ZaSu by advising her how to apply some 'enticing' make-up!
Having missed Mr Gilbert's announcement, ZaSu promptly 'swishes' to the floor - all hips and fluttering eyes - in an attempt to earn more tickets. Thelma is powerless, trapped at the entrance to the Ladies' Lounge, as her sailor paramour won't leave her alone.
ZaSu's flirtations arouse the suspicion of the police officers, and one of them (Nelson McDowell) decides to dance with her to try to gather evidence against the 'lewd' establishment.
During a racy number, ZaSu and Nelson crash to the floor after failing to pull off a spectacular dance move.
Thelma asks Eddie to go and put a stop to Nelson's antics with ZaSu. Eddie goes over, and is reunited with his uncle!
Mr Gilbert removes the girls from the dance floor. He tells them to go home but before they can, there is a scuffle, where one of the dancers is hit by Anita, getting a black eye.
Mr Gilbert pays out $20 in compensation. This gives ZaSu an idea...
The lights go off, and when they come back on, Thelma has a black eye!
Mr Gilbert gives the girls $20 and they go home.
Back home, Thelma looks in the mirror at her black eye and sees that her cheek has the same pattern on it that is on ZaSu's ring! Realising that ZaSu hit her, Thelma turns round to be greeted by a crying and apologetic ZaSu.
ZaSu's make-up has run all down her face, leaving Thelma laughing at the whole matter.
Review
"boop-boop-be-doop!"
The relatively basic premise of the girls' getting home tired from work and setting about preparing their evening meal is made funnier by unexpected twists and turns. For example, ZaSu has lost the tomatoes on the way home and spills most of the peas over the table - fairly simple, generic stuff. But it's very funny to see ZaSu attempt to pour the liquid contents of a can into the pot after she has pierced both ends of the can!
It's also funny to see ZaSu's bumbling continue when she attempts to hide the peas from the prying eyes of the landlady. Her decision to hide them in the bin would seem like a safe hiding spot, but, oh dear, the landlady takes away the bin to empty it. Likewise, after repeated interruptions to their attempts to cook dinner, ZaSu manages to trip over and throw the pot through the open window, where the contents of the pot land on the landlady's head! That was a nice moment.
The scenes that deal with the landlady threatening to throw out Miss Brown are also funny, largely because we get to see Thelma's anger upon realising that ZaSu has "borrowed" $16.50 from their savings to purchase a ring.
I remember the first time that I watched this short that it was a pleasant surprise to see Anita Garvin appear! She doesn't receive any billing in the title credits despite the fact that her role is of equal size to Billy Gilbert and Eddie Dunn.
She'd appeared in the Pitts and Todd short "Show Business" (1932), and I wonder what Anita Garvin would have thought about appearing in supporting roles in Hal Roach's 'second' female comedy team, having been one of the stars of the first pairing? Probably not envy, but I wonder if she ever thought: "That could/should have been me"?
As could be expected, the main course of comedy - you could say, the real meat of the stew - is served at the dancing hall, which is chock full of whimsical moments and hilarious gags.
The first few moments, where we see ZaSu dancing with a bearded chap are hilarious!
Huh! He looks like a
The moment where there is just one guy left waving his ticket, and ZaSu thinks he's going to dance with her but instead he walks right over to the other remaining girl...that's just cruel! Poor ZaSu!
Poor old Thelma gets saddled with the most annoying sailor to have ever sailed the ballroom floor. Eddie Dunn plays such an obnoxious anchor with a bunch of nautical jokes that even I find too cheesy. I tend to cringe whenever he's on screen, rather than laugh. But having said that, we all know that one skipper who thinks he's a ladies' man, don't we?
By far my favourite moment of the film is when the girls receive tips in the art of flirting from Anita and the chaos that comes of it. Now that is funny! It's hilarious to see Anita reveal her flirtation techniques - comically fluttering her eyelashes and wiggling her hips - much to the obvious disgruntlement of ZaSu and Thelma.
Poor old ZaSu. Poor old ZaSu...
Seeing her decked out with 'alluring' make-up plastered all over her face, you can't help but laugh. Anita's obviously gone for the Clara Bow and Betty Boop look, but sadly, ZaSu doesn't quite manage to pull it off...
...Thelma's expression can tell you that...
Still, it's hilarious to see ZaSu 'swishing' around all over the place and pouting, desperate to obtain a lot of tickets. Perhaps her line of "boop-boop-be-do" is the best line of the film, delivered in a comically deadpan way! And check out Anita's look of approval!
I particularly like the dance hall inspectors, especially Nelson, and his attempts to dance with ZaSu will trigger snort laughter in you, the viewer. ZaSu's wiggling about all over the place, and when she tries to get closer to Nelson, he comically has trouble pushing her away. It's all the funnier when you see all the other patrons dancing so demurely and the slow, dreary music playing.
But then, at Nelson's request, once the racy music starts, their attempt to dance in more adventurous fashion sees them end up on the floor together! That's a great moment of comedy, beautifully timed. It gets better, once the other police inspectors venture onto the dance floor and are quickly swept off their feet by two sailors (with one even losing her bloomers in the process...).
And then we see Nelson's shoes start smoking because he's dancing so quickly; hats jump and down in time to the music; one of the musicians plays the trombone with his eyes crossed - all brilliant stuff.
And the film ends with Thelma and ZaSu reconciled, after the latter gives Thelma a black eye. It's funny to see Thelma's expression as she twigs that ZaSu hit her, and then to hear ZaSu sound like a cat as she starts whimpering.
But it's funnier to see ZaSu's face after the make-up has started running down it!
And, as you could expect, there is excellent support from Billy Gilbert. Generally speaking, every short that he is in with the girls is very good. He's fabulous in this film, playing the nervously angry German dancing-hall proprietor. Along with his usual hilarious trademark mannerisms, you also get a peach of a line from Mr Gilbert: "Dance nice, like your grandmothers"!
I wonder why nobody has written a biography of Billy Gilbert? I'd love to read that.
I feel that Thelma Todd is a little underutilised in this film - she doesn't really have much to do as most of the comedy and action centres around ZaSu. This isn't a criticism, just an observation, as the film works really well as it is. But it definitely feels much more of a "Pitts" film than a "Todd", if you get my drift.
Overall though, it is a wonderful short film, definitely one of my favourite Pitts and Todd films, and it has lots of rewatchability - if that's such a word...
What do you think of "Asleep in the Feet"? Where does it rank in your list of favourite Pitts / Todd shorts?
Watch it
"I didn't want to hit ya!"
"Asleep in the Feet" is available on DVD, beautifully restored by the German Filmmuseum as part of their "Female Comedy Teams" set.
Here's the link: Female Comedy Teams DVD
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