Hot Spot (1932) User Reviews

Ben Blue Ain't No Stan Laurel

[boblipton · 5/10 · 31 May 2020]

The Taxi Boys have a rough day when Harry Woofs mistakes Ben Blue's ineptness for an affair with wife Muriel Evans.

There were ten shorts in this Hal Roach series, with lots of auto gags under specialist director Del Lord., assisted here by H. Bruce Humberstone. Unfortunately, while Billy Gilbert was a skilled and funny comic actor, Ben Blue's abilities have often mystified me. Here they're cast in a comedy that could have been intended for Laurel & Hardy, and while there's nothing particularly wrong with it, the combination of old routines *like "Can you let me have two tens for a five?) and Blue's erratically fey character got on my nerves.

Dated comedy short

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 20 January 2017]

HOT SPOT is a straightforward comedy short starring the Taxi Boys, who were another comic team from Laurel and Hardy producer Hal Roach. I'd never heard of them before watching this and it comes as no real surprise having just watched the production, as they don't really have anything distinctive about them to set them apart from the other comic actors of the era.

As you'd expect, this brief effort is based in and around a taxi and involves various slapstick scenes and pitfalls as the main characters interact with various passengers, including a glamorous woman. This feature is amiable enough but not particularly funny when compared to the comic greats of the genre. Billy Gilbert, a familiar face from the era, co-stars. The version I watched clocked in at just under ten minutes.