Edgar Kennedy - Rediscovered Comedies of Edgar Kennedy, Volume 5 (DVD)

Edgar Kennedy (1890-1948) was one of the greatest comic actors of Hollywood's Golden Age. He broke into Hollywood with bit parts in silent comedies, including a stint as one of the Keystone Kops. Kennedy soon came into his own at Hal Roach Studios, working both as actor and director. The Marx Brothers also appreciated his talents, giving him a memorable role as a street vendor in Duck Soup (1933). But it was at RKO that Kennedy had his longest sustained success, starring in six short subjects a year for the venerable studio between 1931 and 1948. In these he played an eternally flummoxed "average man" with a scatterbrained wife (portrayed by Florence Lake or Vivien Oakland), an overbearing mother-in-law (Dot Farley), and a good-for-nothing brother-n-law (either William Eugene or Jack Rice). This was where Kennedy perfected his signature move, "the slow burn", in which he rubbed his hand across his face and bald head in a futile attempt to control his temper. These entertaining shorts, which numbered over a hundred by the time of Kennedy's death from throat cancer in 1948, served as the template for innumerable sitcoms in the television era.

• Fish Feathers (1932)
• Wrong Direction (1933)
• Tramp Trouble (1937)
• Maid to Order (1939)
• 'Taint Legal (1940)
• Drafted in the Depot (1940)
• Two for the Money (1942)
• Duck Soup (1942)
• What, No Cigarettes? (1945)
• Wall Street Blues (1946)

• comedy