Midnight Blunders (1936) User Reviews

A monster mash up of the silliest kind.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 15 September 2023]

This Columbia comedy short is a zany spoof of mad scientist films, parodying Fu Manchu and Dr. Frankenstein with two actors (Val Duran and Harry Semels) billed as Dr. Wong and Wilfred Lucas cast as Professor Edwin Millstone, under later creating a giant monster for use by Dr. Wong. Numskull detectives Tom Kennedy and Monte Collins are on the case, and their cowardice creates lots of laughs even though they're not usually funny.

The monster isn't exactly realistic looking, with his face more like a bad Halloween mask than anything a mad scientist could create. Yet some imagination is put in this even though it's somewhat cheap looking. The mad doctors easily steal the short away from the dated and not very funny comedy of Kennedy and Collins.

Nice Comedy-Terror

[boblipton · 7/10 · 27 September 2023]

Dumb bell investigators Tom Kennedy and Monte Collins go in search of the Chinese man with a wooden leg who has kidnapped Wilfred Lucas. They discover a Fu-Manchu-like mastermind, and a Frankenstein-like monster in this funny Columbia comedy short.

With a script -- and gags, of course -- by Jack White, Collins, and Harry McCoy, there are lots of low-brow laughs in this short film under the direction of Del Lord. Producer Jules White was busy with the Three Stooges and expanding the number of comics at his division, so he tended to leave the people alone, so long as they came in on budget. Lots of laughs, lots of thrills.

Pretty good scare comedy..if you can scare up a copy.

[2reelers · 9/10 · 9 April 2004]

Tom Kennedy and Monty Collins made a good team. They appeared in 11 two-reel comedies for Columbia from 1935 until 1938, and "Midnight Blunders" is perhaps the best of their films. In this short, Collins and Kennedy, as bank guards, are searching for a Chinese man with a wooden leg who has kidnapped a prominent scientist. Their search takes them through the eerie dark streets of Chinatown. Although a bit strange at times, the short provides some pretty good, though standard, "scare" situations mixed with Columbia's brand of slapstick. There are some pretty funny gags throughout the short, but unfortunately, many are politically incorrect by today's standards. That said, it's still a fun little two-reeler that is sadly not easy to view. This film was later reworked by Columbia in 1941 as "Sweet Spirits Of Nighter" with El Brendel and Tom Kennedy.

UPDATE: This short has been released as an bonus on the Sam Katzman DVD Collection. It's nice to see Sony finally digging into their non-Stooge Columbia shorts holdings!

A very funny 30's comic short

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 7 January 2008]

The evil Dr. Wong (essayed with lip-smacking sinister panache by Val Durand) abducts prominent scientist Professor Edwin Millstone (solid Wilfred Lucas). Blundering bank guards Monte Collins and Tom Kennedy search through Chinatown to find Dr. Wong and rescue the professor. Director Del Lord maintains a zippy pace throughout and pitches the wacky humor at an amusingly broad level. This cheerfully inane romp reaches its gut-busting peak in an alley way sequence in which our two nitwit protagonists meow like cats. Moreover, a monstrous apeman runs amok in the last reel and further adds to the infectiously goofy hilarity. Collins and Kennedy make for an amiably bumbling duo, with nice support from Phyllis Crane as Professor Millstone's fetching daughter. Both the jaunty, merry score and Benjamin H. Kline's crisp black and white cinematography are up to speed. Granted, this comic short sure ain't subtle or sophisticated in its buffoonish humor, but it's still a delightfully silly hoot just the same.