THE SHOW-OFF (1934)

Third of four filmings of George Kelly’s once-popular play went begging for a leading man after rising M-G-M player Lee Tracy went on an epic drunk that left him permanently banned from all major Hollywood studios.*  Who better to step in then Hollywood’s other alcoholic Tracy, Spencer (no relation), just now temporarily banned at home studio FOX.  (This was Tracy’s first M-G-M pic before finishing up at FOX and returning under contract to M-G-M.)  It makes for an odd fit as Spencer’s ultra-natural style considerably alters the tone of Kelly’s largely comic horror, a know-it-all, motor-mouth who sabotages his go-getting ways with blowhard manners and bluster.  The part first played on film by Keystone Kop Ford Sterling and later Red Skelton (neither seen here).  But with Tracy, the idiotic bromides stick in the throat, leaving a melancholy aftertaste from this little man who’ll never make the grade.  The plot has him wreck his own career as a clerk along with the finances of his in-laws.  Or does until Kelly lets him off the hook with a series of happy reversals.  Not that he’s learned anything; the next disaster merely a brag away.  Clara Blandick, repeating from the 1930 Early Talkie version, is particularly good as the mother-in-law who loathes him on sight.  (Watch her close a door in Tracy's face.)   But director Charles Reisner doesn’t get much out of the rest of the cast.  Even lenser James Wong Howe disappoints, unable to figure out how to light Tracy’s inky blob of dark red hair.  (Or is it the print?)  Something the studio would soon have to figure out.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *Many B’way revivals, one with Lee Tracy finally in the lead.  (He played the brother in the 1924 B’way premiere.)  Even a WPA Negro Theater production.  Nowadays, George Kelly, once known for community theater perennials like THE TORCH BEARERS, CRAIG’S WIFE and this, is mostly remembered for being Grace Kelly’s uncle.  As for those drinking Tracys: Spencer may have gone on bigger benders, but only Lee caused an international incident, peeing off a balcony in Mexico City onto a unit of Mexican Army Cadets while filming VIVA VILLA!/’34.