verbusen If you are a Hal Roach, Patsy Kelly, Charlie Chase, Little Rascals Alfalfa or Irish 1930's exploitation movie fan, you can find a good reason to enjoy this film. Luckily for me I'm all of those! My mistake was reading some of the comments BEFORE viewing and I hate that but sometimes I cannot resist, but in this case they are mostly way off. One review even goes to say this is more of a DRAMA then a comedy, I don't know what that person was smoking but it wasn't tobacco (maybe a foreigner who does not understand American humor?)! If you like any of those characters/reasons I mentioned at the beginning this is definitely worth a viewing. I saw it on Turner Classic Movies, they were doing a women of comedy thing and Patsy Kelly's first feature film was the first film shown. Likewise with reading IMDb.com reviews before a viewing I also DVR these movies from TCM and SKIP the intro from Robert Osbourne, I mean the guy gives the whole plot away every time! I love the stories behind the story but please, let me enjoy the movie first! I watch Robert's comments after I finish the movie. Anyway another reviewer said he was turned on by Patsy and I have to admit if I was around with her and we were in the same time and age period in a bar I wouldn't mind her being my date, she looks like a whole lot of fun! I have not seen Patsy in too much stuff that I noticed her in, just Rosemary's Baby and Pick A Star, Pick A Star was also good so check that one out if you see it scheduled on TCM, the Hollywood Producer part had some very memorable risqué scenes! I'm giving this a 7 of 10, I laughed more than 3 times, its a 30's comedy, Hal Roach did it, it's short. and you get to see a really really young (and cute as a button) Alfalfa!

GManfred This picture was shown on TCM recently and it is strictly for hard-core Patsy Kelly fans. Apparently it was a vehicle for her in hopes it would lead to a series of films, according to Maltin.But Patsy Kelly is an acquired taste and this film did her no favors. The humor is extremely broad and the storyline is vapid. The climax has to be seen to be believed and is far removed from true comedy. The one bright light is the inimitable Charley Chase who injects as much fun as he can into the proceedings and which sorely needs his expertise.Can't really recommend this one except for the historical value via a glimpse of some of '30's Hollywood's great extras and character actors. A rainy day movie - but it is only 70 minutes long and doesn't kill enough bad weather time.

theowinthrop Because he is associated with Laurel & Hardy, Harold Lloyd, and Charlie Chase, and later the Little Rascals, Hal Roach's work with Patsy Kelly (with or without Thelma Todd or Lyda Roberti or Zazu Pitts) is somehow ignored. Roach was pretty good at sizing up his comic talent and balancing it - and his Kelly / Todd films were supposed to be the match of his Laurel & Hardy pairings (in fact in one film they actually turn out to be the girls' boyfriends, but only as a final joke). Strangely it never seemed to occur to him to put Stan and Babe with Patsy and Thelma in a single short or feature from beginning to end. The girls were individually in features with the boys but only as support (Thelma in FRA DIAVALO; Patsy in PICK A STAR). It was like Roach saw a similarity in teams, but never thought of constructing a quartet film (which might have worked - Thelma with Babe and Patsy with Stan). (In the late 1930s, when Roach was having contract problems with Stan Laurel, he announced a series with Babe, Patsy, and Spanky McFarlane called "The Hardys" which sounds promising. Only a still of Babe Hardy holding Spanky - each trying to stare down the other - with Patsy watching them survives).Kelly had always been great assisting on the humor of the films she was in. Some have been critical of her "shouting" all her lines, but her personality is supposed to be hyper, and I really can't understand the nature of the criticism. She still emphasize the jokes in her lines.In KELLY THE SECOND she is working as the breakfast-lunch-dinner counter girl in a drugstore owned by Charlie Chase. One day she is trying to get to her job in time, and her car is backed into by a truck driven by "Big Boy" Williams. Here (instead of his usual side-kick role for Errol Flynn) Big Boy is a good natured lug ever ready for a fight. In particular he fights well when he hears the old tune "The Irish Washer Woman". They are arguing about the car-truck problem when assorted passers-by get involved. Inevitably a donnybrook occurs. Before the police (who fully know Big Boy by reputation) arrive, he drives off with Patsy's car in his truck, and drops her off at her job. But the police come, and arrest him, Patsy, and Chase (the latter two lied about him being on their premises.In court Big Boy is sentenced for creating a disturbance, but the judge is lenient to both Patsy and Chase. Unfortunately for Chase, he tries to get Big Boy out of jail - he succeeds only by putting up a $1,000.00 bond using his store for collateral. The judge he'll lose the bond if Big Boy fights again. But Patsy gets the idea that Big Boy can fight legally in the ring, and she and Chase act as his trainer and manager.In the initial fight, Chase has the misfortune of sitting near Ed Brophy, a local crime kingpin, and his mistress (Pert Kelton) and his henchmen, led by Harold Huber. Brophy and Huber were in several films together (THE THIN MAN is the best recalled) but they have a comic pitch and catch between them that should also have been built on (it was once - in NAUGHTY MARRIETTA - but only as support for Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald). Brophy is clever, but easily flustered and Huber normally calms him down. Here, due to Chase building up Big Boy's abilities, Brophy puts down over #1,000.00 on him as a bet. But Big Boy loses the match, and Brophy wants blood. However, he sees proof that Big Boy can punch his opponents effectively. Confronting Chase (trying to calm his nerves with some patent medicine in the drug store), he offers a choice: make Brophy his partner (he means in Big Boy, not in the drug store!), or be taken care of by Huber. Chase sees no alternative.That is the basis of the film. The actors go to town, with Brophy's hood showing tremendous stupidity mixed with cleverness (look at the sequence about Brophy giving a smart Kelton an "ermine mink"). Huber notes his boss is not always bright, and somewhat dryly (and effectively) he manages to tweak Brophy about how gullible he can become. Kelton is attracted to Big Boy, but really goes after him when Brophy seems to treat her less respectfully than she feels is her due. Chase is constantly trying to balance between his bouts of indignation and anger and his confusion and nervousness (I like him facing total destruction in a boxer's preparation room while wearing a paper hat and making paper dolls). Big Boy's fat headedness is matched by his friendly banter (sometimes close to coming to blows) with Patsy, who returns it as they slowly realize they really like each other a lot. Patsy does well in several scenes, one dealing with a crowded little car where the breaks are in a pair of difficult places for her to reach, and another where she finds she can't make friends with any animals on a farm Brophy has them training on.It's an amusing film, and one wishes Roach might have tried a sequel or two.

F Gwynplaine MacIntyre In 'Kelly the Second', Patsy Kelly meets an Irish lorry-driver who rejoices in the name Cecil Callahan, and she trains him to become a prizefighter. This is a Hal Roach feature, so its production budget is at the bottom of the barrel. You might expect all parties concerned to set their sights on appropriately modest goals. Hell, no! Patsy trains Cecil to be the heavyweight champion of the *world*, and before the end of the film he gets a crack at the championship. But we know in advance that we're not going to see a realistic depiction of a heavyweight title bout on screen, because this movie's budget won't stretch that far.Cecil is played by Guinn Williams, a fine character actor whose immense size typecast him as hulking thugs of less intellect than the hero. I'll admit that my interest in Guinn (real name Gwynn) Williams isn't entirely objective: my own name, Gwynplaine, is occasionally mistaken (usually by Americans) for a female name: I wish that Guinn Williams - a huge, macho actor - were better known, so that the gender of my own name would be a bit less cryptic to some people. Personal motives aside, Guinn Williams was a talented and versatile actor (within his physical range) who never got the lead roles he deserved. Williams spent most of his career playing the roles turned down by Nat Pendleton.There are funny performances in 'Kelly the Second' by Edward Brophy and Billy Gilbert. Pert Kelton is vulgar (as usual), but brunette Rosina Lawrence is winsome and pleasant. Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom (whose acting talents were underrated) is effective and funny as a rival pugilist. Charley Chase was already well into his dipso decline at this point; Hal Roach seems to have stuck him into this film simply because Chase was available and under contract. I'll rate 'Kelly the Second' 3 points out of 10.