"Shoot the Works" (1934), with Jack Oakie, Ben Bernie, Dorothy Dell, Roscoe Karns, Alison Skipworth, William Frawley, Arline Judge, Lew Cody, Paul Cavanaugh, and others, is one of those pieces of fluff that you just keep on watching because... Because, why? Just because... It's a musical...well, sort-of... Oakie can shoot off the lines like a machine gun and still be understood. He's really good. This is so-o rote for him. Show opens with Roscoe Karns (Sailor Burke) sitting on a flagpole and becoming woild-champeen flagpole sitter, with lots of comedic things happening simultaneously. It's not uproariously funny, but it leaves a smile. His girl, Arline Judge, is getting it on with leader of the con promoters, Oakie. He's nothing but a con promoter. Con. Con. Con. Alison Skipworth is like his mother-figure - or IS his mother...it's never quite made clear. The leading lady is Dorothy Dell. She falls for Oakie and he for her, but complication upon complication arise. Ben Bernie, a member of the Oakie con group, and - - - a band leader with a band - - - pretty much succeeds and leads the group on. His humor is droll and Hollywoodish claptrap, but it works. He's a good band leader. Meanwhile, Oakie's failed. Now come the inside jokes and lots of geographical snides: Iowa is definitely in the middle of no-o-owhere, where Oakie finally lands a job - - - if he'll go there. He doesn't need to... But...he IS working in Brooklyn now, not NYC... It's like being sent to hell, according to the way the script is making the actors look at the situation. Etc., etc., etc....
Lew Cody died just after production finished, and he never got to see the finished product. Tragically, Dorothy Dell was killed in an automobile accident eight days after Cody died.
The film is a fun ride for 64 minutes. Definitely a good way to enjoy seeing what the 1930s enjoyed as sitcom style pre-TV entertainment.