About artistic problems in Paris! The long-term film career of James Stewart Hollywood stars of the 1930s-60s began in 1934, with a cameo role in the musical short film of the not too famous director Ralph Staub "Art Trouble""Art problems">
Two brothers - Jack ("James Stewart") and Joe Barton ("Don Tomkins") at the request of their parents to go to Paris to study the wisdom of the profession of "artist". However, the guys themselves do not attract this prospect at all and they hire two failed painters (Harry Gribbon and Shemp Howard) to go to Paris instead. The painters, of course, agree, not imagining how this trip will end for them.
Especially much about this short film somehow and do not want to write, because the main reason for viewing it has already been announced above. From the point of view of the script - nothing outstanding here, although funny moments in "Art Trouble" sometimes come across (for example, it is worth remembering the episode with the picture, where "three pigs" after a woman sits on them, turn into ham!) .
The directorship of Ralph Staub and the cinematography of Edwin B. DuPar can be characterized by only one epithet - "amateur" . The cast also doesn't stand out much. The title roles here are placed Harry Gribbon and Shemp Howard, playing comic painters. Admittedly, sometimes their duet, of course, amused - but it is not that they demonstrated something extraordinary in the frame.
As for the rest of the cast, here he is remembered by several features. First, the actors who played the French were not very convincing in imitating the French accent. Secondly, the parents of James Stewart and Don Tomkins spoke with a British accent (at least it seemed like that).
Well, and thirdly, the rest of the actors, unlike the leading comic duo, were too theatrical - this was true even of Stewart, although this is not surprising, given that he came directly from Broadway, where he played at the time.
However, this is not critical in his respect - after all, at that time the 25-year-old debutant was only taking the "first steps" in a big movie, and his best roles were still ahead! By the way, Stewart himself, despite the lack of mention of his name in the credits, it will not be difficult to find in this short film - he appears in the frame somewhere from the second to the fifth minute and pronounces a certain number of replicas in the frame.
In conclusion, it can be stated that "Art Trouble" is nothing more than an ordinary (albeit slightly funny) short film, of which many have been shot around the world and at all times. Today, the work of Ralph Staub has only "archive" value and will be interesting only to fans of James Stewart, who wanted to know where exactly he began his career in film.
5 out of 10