Meet Schilling and Lane!

While it’s true that the Three Stooges are by far the most popular stars of the Columbia Pictures comedy short department from the era of the studio’s short subject production (which lasted from the early 1930s through the late 1950s), they’re only a small part of the group of funny men and women that passed across the nation’s movie screens and convulsed audiences during the heyday of the short subject. Hopefully, the recent DVD release by Sony of the ten 2-reel Columbia comedies starring Buster Keaton will spark similar releases of such Columbia short subject stars as Charley Chase, El Brendel, Vera Vague, Shemp Howard, and Andy Clyde. Meanwhile, various collectors offer VHS and DVD-R collections, usually duped from dark, murky prints taken years ago from 16mm TV prints. Oldiedvd.com offers a few collections of higher quality, and at last we had a chance here In The Balcony to view prints that were of sufficient clarity to watch and enjoy without feeling like we were watching a film shot through a dirty window.

The first set on display is called The Schilling and Lane Comedies. Gus Schilling (1908-1957) was a burlesque comic, and a good one: the nervous, addle-brained type. Richard Lane (1899-1992) was the gruff, blustery straight man, best remembered these days as Inspector Farraday in Columbia’s Boston Blackie films and for his lengthy career as a TV announcer. The studio paired the two and offered them the same exposure they gave most of their other comedy short subject stars: rather than 8 or 10 films a season, which is what the Three Stooges and Andy Clyde usually turned out, Schilling & Lane were called upon to film a short subject whenever Columbia needed to fill out its release schedule. Their 11 co-starring 2-reel comedies were spread out over more than four years, making it difficult to build a successful series that would inspire the audience to ask for more. OldieDVD offers the first five Schilling/Lane comedies on one disc for $10. (The disc is not advertised on their website as of yet, but you can ask for it if you tell 'em In The Balcony sent ya!)

They’re enjoyable, fast-moving comedies, but typical of the Columbia output under Jules White, with lots of hitting, potent sound effects, and broad slapstick.

High Blood Pleasure (1945), first in the series, is typical of the type of comedy the duo were asked to do. They’re on their way to a baseball game when a cop pulls them over for speeding; Dick pretends to be a famous surgeon rushing the seriously ill Gus to the hospital for emergency surgery. The cops insist on escorting them – and watching the surgery performed. It's no skin off Dick's nose, but Gus gets nervouser and nervouser.

Ain't Love Cuckoo? (1946) has such a convoluted plot that there’s scarcely any room for comedy. Dick and Gus were thought killed in the war, and they were erroneously advised that their wives have died, so they marry each other’s “widows”. They then honeymoon in the same hotel. The goofy story is narrated by a pretty girl dressed as a cuckoo and sitting in a clock.

When next-door neighbor Christine McIntyre and her mobster boyfriend Dick Curtis hide stolen jewels in their apartment, Gus and Dick find themselves in Hot Water (1946). Plot situations are “adapted” from Laurel & Hardy’s Helpmates and Unaccustomed as we Are, but again the plot is too complex for a 2-reeler, with jealous wives and sleepwalking husbands tossed in to the already dense mix.

Pardon My Terror (1946) was actually written for the Three Stooges, but when Curly suffered the massive stroke that ended his career, it was hastily rewritten for Schilling and Lane. A pair of inept detectives are called in when a millionaire disappears. Features a wealth of familiar Columbia faces, including Christine McIntyre, Kenneth MacDonald, Dick Wessel, Phil Van Zandt, Vernon Dent, Dudley Dickerson, and Emil Sitka.

Training for Trouble (1947) is a remake of the Stooges’ A Pain in the Pullman; Gus and Dick and their pet monkey disturb a train full of vaudevillians heading for a gig. Sidney Field, the landlord from The Abbott & Costello Show, is the head disturbee.

Incidentally, by far the funniest thing in these films is a recurring gag that pops up in nearly all of them: out of nowhere, a pretty girl (Judy Malcolm) appears, walks up to Gus Schilling, says, “How DARE you remind me of somebody I hate!” slaps him across the face, and stomps off, leaving the scene to continue. Nutty and hilarious, and I looked forward to the scene in all the films.

The other films in the Schilling/Lane series:

Wedding Belle (1947)
Two Nuts in a Rut (1948)
Pardon My Lamb Chop (1948)
He's in Again (1949)
Flung by a Fling (1949)
Hold That Monkey (1950)

Interestingly, Gus and Dick had appeared in two 1941 films together before they were teamed by Columbia, Universal’s Hellzapoppin (1941) and MGM’s The Penalty.

Highly recommended for more info about Schilling & Lane and the other Columbia comedy shorts: the book The Columbia Comedy Shorts by Ted Okuda with Edward Watz (McFarland).