I don't know much about Val and Ernie Stanton and there's almost nothing about these vaudeville-style performers other than they were British and are quite dead. As far as the act they perform on this Vitaphone one- reeler, it's pretty hard to describe and a bit bizarre. It consists of a lot of weird stuff, such as one of them imitating a Jews harp and making chicken sounds while the other prattles on a bit, recites a poem and plays with a wooden toy. Then, at the end, they both perform a musical number which sounds a bit like something you might expect street corner buskers to do for change. Strange and disjoint--and not among the better Vitaphone shorts of the era.
2 Reviews
Just Take the Cake and Leave This
Michael_Elliott19 January 2013
Cut Yourself a Piece of Cake (1928)
** (out of 4)
Val and Ernie Stanton make up the comedy group for this Vitaphone short that was obviously capturing their vaudeville act. This short has a great title but in the end it really adds up to very little as for the most part this is a pretty bland short that drags through its 9-minute running time. The strange thing is that on a technical level this is pretty impressive from the audio all the way to the cinematography. The stage is made up to look like a hotel lobby and this too is quite impressive compared to other shorts from this period. Like other shorts, this one here is basically just captured with one camera as the two men do their routine. Speaking of their routine, that's the downfall of this short because it's simply not funny. The majority of the jokes are the verbal kind but none of them really take off and in fact they're pretty boring. The musical numbers are slightly more impressive but still not enough to save the film and the various noises being made (mostly farm animals) is mildly cute but not enough to make one sit through the film. Another strange thing is that the two men really do a nice job at working to the camera but the material just isn't there.
** (out of 4)
Val and Ernie Stanton make up the comedy group for this Vitaphone short that was obviously capturing their vaudeville act. This short has a great title but in the end it really adds up to very little as for the most part this is a pretty bland short that drags through its 9-minute running time. The strange thing is that on a technical level this is pretty impressive from the audio all the way to the cinematography. The stage is made up to look like a hotel lobby and this too is quite impressive compared to other shorts from this period. Like other shorts, this one here is basically just captured with one camera as the two men do their routine. Speaking of their routine, that's the downfall of this short because it's simply not funny. The majority of the jokes are the verbal kind but none of them really take off and in fact they're pretty boring. The musical numbers are slightly more impressive but still not enough to save the film and the various noises being made (mostly farm animals) is mildly cute but not enough to make one sit through the film. Another strange thing is that the two men really do a nice job at working to the camera but the material just isn't there.
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