The four leads are nothing short of miraculous, and calling them great simply isn't enough. Remarkable, legendary Charlie Murray plays the lanky, rubber-faced, temper-prone career police officer Kelly, and beaming, robust, beer-lovin' Kate Price, that absolute first choice among Irish Mums during the 1920s, is the Missus. George Sidney is the proud Nathan Cohen, a squat-stocky, blustering, hair-yanking businessman, while pleasantly plump, dark-eyed, forever worrying Vera Gordon plays Mrs. Cohen (she brings hand-wringing to new levels!) THE COHENS AND THE KELLYS is, for the most part, about the perfect casting of these four leading roles, so successful it spawned a series of sequels (and in true Hollywood fashion, George Sidney is the only member of this original quartet to appear in all of the sequels). Kelly and Cohen are funny enough on their own, but add wives, the offspring, and then (not being content) even the family pets, all competing with one another in a great and gusto-laced rivalry, we have a film that generously lives up to its promotional tagline - "An Uproarious Knockout! -- A Thousand Laughs!" Fortune smiles on the Cohens, who move rapidly up in the world and into a fancy, spacious mansion, and the rivalry is jumped a notch. Now, all along there has been a secret relationship between their eldest offspring, police officer Jason Robards, Sr. as the Junior Kelly, and "Nannie" Cohen, played by attractive Universal contract player Olive Hasbrouck, and this BRIDGET LOVES BERNIE/ABIE'S IRISH ROSE sub-plot plays itself out to the expected sentimental yet humorous conclusion. The pace is fast, the jokes are, indeed, very funny, and the cast is marvelous (including skinny, cranky Nat Carr as a business associate). The unavoidable stereo-types you will expect (this picture was screened for a highly appreciative audience at last year's Syracuse festival) prove hilarious and warmly, timelessly entertaining.
