Selected Short Subject: FALSE ROOMERS (1931)

Directed by Mark Sandrich. Cast: Bobby Clark and Paul McCullough, James Finlayson, Kewpie Morgan, Harry Dunkinson, Nora Cecil, Josephine Whittell, Gus Leonard.

Bobby Clark and Paul McCullough were a comedy team who had been childhood friends. They became good at gymnastics and tumbling and ended up working in the circus, in vaudeville, all the way to Broadway. They made some short comedies for Fox in the late 1920s, moving to RKO at the beginning of the next decade. "False Roomers" is the duo's second RKO short (their first was "A Peep on the Deep," but that is a lost film).

Often Bobby Clark is singled out as the whole show. He is the one who offers the funny dialog, while McCullough stands off to the side and cackles. However, when one gives Paul a bit more attention, he maintains character throughout and doesn't merely stand there while his partner performs. He offers amusing reactions, with subtle facial nuance, that supports and enhances what Bobby is doing in the immediate spotlight. When McCullough tosses in a line, it is never forced, and always times into the dialog nicely.

"False Roomers" is a particularly funny two-reeler in which the duo gets into some trouble on the golf course (hitting an entire bucket of balls, bucket and all, and knocking a golf ball into a parking lot and causing it to tip over a car). Leaving that situation, they go to a rooming house run by James Finlayson -- a brilliant comic foil best known for his work with Laurel and Hardy.

What is striking about this comedy is how perfectly surreal it is. Fin points to a room and says, "I could let you have this room, but someone else has it." He then points to another and says, "this is the best room in the house, but it's mine." In each case, the boys react. When they finally get a room, Bobby breaks a table and Fin says that it'll be good as new with some glue. Bobby replies, "yeah, and about seventeen carpenters." There is a very strict rule against cooking in the rooms. Fin can't hear, doesn't see well, but has strong olfactory senses and will know if cooking is going on in the room. He tells Bobby, "I can't hear so good. The eyes aren't what they used to be. But I smell great." Whereupon Clark replies: "not to me you don't!" Naturally, the duo decides to pop some popcorn in their room at a stove that is their for cold nights. They need to conceal this from the landlord, of course. Paul says, "he told us no cooking!" Bobby replies logically, "we aren't cooking, we're popping."

The catchphrase is "no cookin" which is repeated regularly. When the landlord stops in to see how things are, Bobby and Paul put the popcorn under the blankets and get into bed. It starts popping, and Fin does manage to hear that. Bobby says it is his ears popping. Paul has popcorn concealed under his hat. When he lifts it and the popcorn spills out, they convince the landlord that it's "the biggest dandruff I've ever seen." The shot of Kewpie Morgan carrying a car up the stairs with plans to "hide it under my bed" is a wildly surreal visual image -- that is until McCullough drives the car down the stairs and out of the building with Clark perched atop it on a bed.

Clark and McCullough are a vintage representation of classic vaudeville comedy. In this, and their other short films, they work within a situation and offer both verbal and visual humor. Their verbal routines are in the classic vaudeville tradition. Their visual gags are outrageous and take advantage of the cinematic process. Historically significant and aesthetically rewarding, "False Roomers" is one of their very best films.