Bargain Madness

A Smith called Pete produces this one-reel comedy about how Dorothy Short (the wife of the short's director and co-writer) goes downtown to fight a dozen other women for the goods on sale at a department store.

It's shot wild (i.e., without sound) and narrated by Pete Smith in his usual mixture of corniness and sarcasm, with lots of slapstick falls and crossed eyes. Nowadays we'd say it was stereotyped, but in the aftermath of the Second World War, when goods were in short supply, sales were important for the one-income family rebuilding wealth. Miss Short fights her best friend, Sally Payne, while the hefty Maxine Gates tries to wriggle into a girdle six sizes too small; and Heaven help the men working at the store who get in their way!