"Menu" is a color Oscar-nominated short from MGM and Pete Smith. Smith was a man in charge of the publicity department and narrated a ton of short films where he talks in a humorous manner. Some love this...I mostly find Smith's comments annoying. Fortunately, "Menu" is better than most of the Pete Smith Specialties.
The short is unusual in that all the actors are familiar faces, though you may not know the actors' names. The husband is played by Franklin Pangborn, his wife is Una Merkel and the magical chef is played by Luis Alberni. All three are wonderful character actors....and apart from one funny comment by Merkel, the three say nothing and all the dialog is spoken by Smith. To me, this is a major problem with this film...you have three wonderful and often funny actors and Smith consigns them to do nothing but pantomime...which is typical of his films but which wastes their fine talents. And, because of this, ANYONE could have played their roles!
The story is simple. The new wife is a god-awful cook and a magical chef appears with a puff of smoke and shows her how to make a duck dinner. The instructions are generally easy to follow--so a viewer could replicated what they see on the screen. But times needed to cook the duck and side dish of baked apples are pretty vague.
There are a few mildly funny moments but it's a film that could have been hilarious but isn't. We never get to see Pangborn with his usual snippy reactions, nor Alberni ham it up like we expect and Merkel, a funny lady, only gets one line. Watchable but nothing more.