False Impressions

After DOUBLING IN THE QUICKIES (see my review), the under-rated comedienne Marjorie Beebe teamed up once again with Lloyd Hamilton for this enjoyable comedy short. Hamilton and Beebe both work in a large department store--he in the toy department, she in the music department (which gives her a chance to sing a few sequences as she demonstrates songs for customers). One day while talking with a friend in the fur department and trying on an expensive fur, she sees a rich guy ("Windy Windemere, from Windemere Estate, Windemere, Long Island") looking at some merchandise and decides to pose as a rich customer to attract his attention. The next thing you know, she and her friend are invited to a party at his estate. Her friend Lloyd Hamilton comes along and impersonates a butler. Windy is more interested in the friend than in Marjorie, which sends her into a rage that generates many wild physical comedy sequences. There's a nice twist ending, and the whole short moves quickly and features lots of laughs. It's another opportunity to see the great Marjorie Beebe, and it's a nice showcase for her talents. Within a few years she was playing bit roles as older women in z-grade westerns, then she was gone from the screen, but Mack Sennett was an excellent judge of talent, and he spotlighted her in a number of vehicles in the early days of sound. Had Sennett not been in a serious business decline by 1932-33, perhaps he could have developed Marjorie Beebe as a major star in shorts and graduated her to features? Unfortunately, that didn't happen, but we can enjoy the fine shorts that she DID make, and FALSE IMPRESSIONS is a great example of her work. Running time is 20:00. I'm not that familiar with director Leslie Pearce, but he DID direct two classic shorts for Sennett: BILLBOARD GIRL with Bing Crosby, and THE DENTIST with W. C. Fields.