6/10
Allergic To Work
10 March 2011
The unusual teaming of Edna May Oliver and Hugh Herbert are the main treats behind Laugh And Get Rich. For those of you who are used to the Hugh Herbert of those Warner Brothers musicals, you'll find him quite a bit more restrained here.

Herbert and Oliver are a married couple who with daughter Dorothy Lee run a boardinghouse. They have to take in tenants because Herbert will not go out and get a job. The man is just plain allergic to work, preferring to spend time inventing Rube Goldberg type contraptions that he figures will make him rich. Add to that he's also a mark for every get rich quick scheme for the rent money that Oliver has to squeeze from tenants because he won't.

They are in love however and that fact is brought out in the film's best scene when at a country club dance Herbert and Oliver go into the best Virginia Reel this side of Gone With The Wind. They manage to knock the stuffings out of many an expanded shirt at the dance and it's done oh so charmingly.

Dorothy Lee is the apex of a romantic subplot with Russell Gleason and John Harron. I think you can figure out whether she chooses home town kid Gleason and city slicker Harron. Harron in fact has quite a large agenda in this film.

Laugh And Get Rich is not a great film, but definitely one that should satisfy the fans of either of the big screen's best identified character players.
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