Edgar Kennedy Two-Reeler Comedy Collection

Description

American comic actor Edgar Kennedy began his film career working for Max Sennett on the Keystone comedies. He later moved over to Hal Roach Studios, where he developed his stock-in-trade "slow burn" routine. In 1931 he wound up at RKO Studios where he starred in a total of 103 two-reelers, unofficially titled "Mr. Average Man." These short films, precursors to the TV sitcoms of the 1950s, cast Kennedy as the head of a zany family, which included his ditzy wife (usually played by Florence Lake, sister of Arthur "Dagwood" Lake), a nagging mother-in-law and lazy brother-in-law. Bonus Features: Edgar Kennedy Bio| Trailers| Motion Menus| Classic TV Previews| Episode Menu. Specs: DVD9; Dolby Digital Mono; 180 minutes; B&W; 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio; MPAA - NR; Year - 1933-1946; SRP - $19.99.

Customer Reviews:

Edgar Deserves Better.......2004-01-24

I'm a devout Edgar Kennedy fan, and while the 16 shorts on this DVD show him throughout his career from the early '30s up, the audio hiss ranges from horrendous on the early Pathe' shorts, to tolerable-but-still-too-hissy on the late '40s stuff. It goes without saying that this is not digitally restored (video & audio both). The choice of shorts is not the greatest either... This is certainly no "Best-Of" collection Some winners, some snoozers. VCI also managed to list some of the shorts in the wrong order on the packaging! But overall, if you want Edgar, here you go! Not a total loss of a release, but far, far below what Edgar deserves. I was hoping VCI would've done as good of a job on this as they did on the Republic "Jungle Girl" serial. Alas...

Great collection with lackluster quality.......2004-01-18

Getting to see Edgar Kennedy's seldom-seen RKO short subjects of the 1930's and 40's is a treat. They are down-to-earth, middle America humor. Kennedy's starring series was nicknamed "Mr. Everyman" and the name fits. Also, his trademark slow burn and bursts of temper are sights to behold.
It's too bad that VCI spent so little time with this collection. The content is great, but most of the prints are at best good and for the most part fair to poor, especially "I'll Build It Myself" which looks like it came from a 10th generation bootleg videotape.
The sound on most of the shorts is either muffled or hidden in a sea of hiss and static.
But if you can weather the low quality, the films themselves are, for the most part, gems of a bygone era. Florence Lake plays Kennedy's wife in most of the shorts and she was a real doll.
I hope that some company will one day give Edgar Kennedy and the other stars of short subjects the respect they deserve and present their films with clear, remastered pictures and cleaned-up sound. As VCI has presented this collection, the viewer only gets a hint at some wonderful comedy from Hollywood's golden age.

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