So You Want to Be an Actor (1949) User Reviews

So You Want To See Something A Little Different! While Still Sticking To Formula, This Gives Us Just A Little More For Our Movie Money!

[redryan64 · 7/10 · 24 June 2007]

One thing that we know for sure. THE JOE McDOAKES comedies were not meant to be seen one after another. There is little chance of any Revival Movie House or any Movie Cable Network featuring a Joe McDoakes Retrospective, nor any "Evening With Joe McDoakes".

Mr. Richard L. Bare (Writer/Director) and Mr. George O'Hanlon (Writer/Actor-) certainly must have done something right, for the series continued for about 13 years and was highly successful in a period when The Short Subject Field was rapidly disappearing from the Theatrical Film World.

In addition to some typical antics featuring Joe getting the 'Acting Bug' and receiving correspondence school lessons, this episode takes us out of the McDoakes' Home and down to the Movie Studio. In this case, of course, it is Warner Brothers' own studio playing itself in front of the camera. (That's a Joke, Son!) The one thing that makes this entry into the series is that very thing alluded to previously. That is the filming at the studio off of the sound stages. It includes cameos by numerous Warner Bros. contract players tops off this production, giving it that little extra.

We are treated to the appearance of Martha Vickers, Alexis Smith,Janis Page, Wayne Morris and one Actor and Future U.S. President, "Ronnie" Reagan.

But probably the best point of this McDoakes episode is provided by Mr. Jack Carson. Jack does a little bit of interplay with George O'Hanlon that is truly funny and just so unique to the sort of schtick only Jack Carson would do.

Pretty Amusing, But I think the Version I Saw was not the complete film.

[theowinthrop · 6/10 · 26 April 2009]

I rather like the "Behind the Eighth Ball" series when they are shown on television. The formula is set - Joe McDoakes (George O'Hanlon) is always interested in becoming something more colorful and interesting than he is. Inevitably, with all his attempts at preparation he fails miserably. How he fails (usually with plenty of slapstick involved) is funny.

This one is better than average because the idea is that Joe wants to become an actor. We see him taking a course in acting given by some fly-by-night company, complete with records that have you imitate the voices of Charles Boyer and Ronald Colman (in their roles from "Algiers" and "If I Were King", respectively - roles they played a decade earlier). Suddenly he gets a call from a studio (the call is from George Chandler, later to be on television's "Lassie") to report for a role with dialog the next day. This certainly is better news than usual for Joe.

We see him arrive at the studio, and start trying to find the stage he has to report to. He meets Jack Carson, who in an amusing sequence at a turnstile tries to direct him to the stage and finds he can't (and also finds he is now lost himself). Eventually he gets closer, meeting the actor George O'Hanlon (talking to the director of his comic shorts. The director sees that McDoakes resembles O'Hanlon, but the latter does not agree.

Finally Joe reaches the sound stage, only to find he is late, and that he has just ruined a scene that was going well. Ordered by the dyspeptic and skeptical director (Ralph Sanford) to put on his costume, Joe is to be a messenger. He proceeds to ruin take after take after take, trying to imitate Boyer, Colman, and Lionel Barrymore in the process. Sanford leaves the shooting of the one scene to Chandler, who thinks this is his great opportunity. The results (in the words of Sanford) set back motion pictures by thirty years.

Joe does find his place in movies in the end. You can say he is thrown a lifeline of sorts by a mirror.

It actually is a funny little short - the film being made by Sanford being one of those "men at the Western Front" films like "Journey's End" or "The Road to Glory". There is even a kind of spoof of the British actor Sir Guy Standing in one of the "leads" in the film within this film, who is wearing a mustache and a monocle like Standing did.

I did see the footage of Reagan, Morris, and the others that have been mentioned. But the Turner Movie Classic version I watched did not have sequences about Joe and making hot water into "ketchup soup" or of Joe fouling up his lines on stage. I wonder if the version on TMC is a different cut of the short. Possibly it is, and if so I am sorry so much was not in it. But what remains will certainly bring a laugh to an audience.

Joe McDoakes comedy short on Hollywood

[SimonJack · 6/10 · 1 July 2019]

George O'Hanlon stars as Joe McDoakes in one of several Warner Brothers shorts that were shown with feature films through the mid-20th century. His character is always "behind the 8-ball."

In this short, McDoakes is an out-of-work or would-be actor who's hungry and goes into a restaurant for a meal. That leads to the best line in the film.

After folding the main menu and putting it in his shoe over the worn hole, he looks at the specials board. When the waiter comes over to take his order, he asks, "What're you asking for soup?" The waiter answers, "A dime." McDoakes then says, "I'll have a bowl of hot water," and the waiter yells to the kitchen, "One actor's special. Make it hot."

McDoakes 101

[Michael_Elliott · 24 February 2009]

So You Want to Be an Actor (1949)

*** (out of 4)

Joe McDoakes (George O'Hanlon) is a broke and out of work actor who gets a job as a stand-in but of course he messes that up when stage fright hits him. Having now seen well over twenty films in this series there's no question that they stuck to one basic formula with the main goal being to make people laugh. That formula holds true here as we get all sorts of silly situations meant to make us laugh and for the most part these jokes work well. There's a nice sequence at the start of the film where Joe, being broke, just orders hot water and then puts ketchup in it to make it soup. The scenes where Joe finally gets on stage have a couple goods twists in them as does another funny sequence where he tries to kill himself but it doesn't work out like he had planned. This film certainly isn't a masterpiece but if you're a fan of the series then you're going to find quite a bit to enjoy here.

A mildly enjoyable Joe McDokes film.

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 6 March 2014]

In the 1940s and 50s, Warner Brothers made a ton of Joe McDokes shorts starring George O'Hanlon. Although the films were rarely bad, they were rarely that good, either--and this one, "So You Want to Be an Actor" is no exception. It's the ultimately in mediocrity.

Joe wants to be an actor and throughout the short he messes up one rehearsal or job after another. Most of the humor is a bit forced and silly but on a brain-dead level, you can laugh and appreciate Joe's antics. Does this sound like I am less than enthusiastic about the film? Well, that would be correct. A time-passer and not a lot more.

If you want to see this one, it's included as a DVD extra on the Doris Day film "My Dream is Yours".