A chef helps a housewife cook a duck dinner that will not give her husband indigestion.A chef helps a housewife cook a duck dinner that will not give her husband indigestion.A chef helps a housewife cook a duck dinner that will not give her husband indigestion.
- Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 1 nomination total
Photos
Pete Smith
- Narrator
- (voice)
Luis Alberni
- The Master Chef
- (uncredited)
Una Merkel
- Mrs. Omsk
- (uncredited)
Franklin Pangborn
- John Xavier Omsk
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaA very rare Pete Smith short in which one of the characters actually speaks. Una Merkel delivers one line, to which Smith replies, "Hey, I do all the talking around here!" And from then on, she's silent.
- GoofsWhen Mrs. Omsk knocks her mixing bowl off the kitchen table, it lands intact. Later when the narrator is "cleaning up" the kitchen for the chef, the bowl is now shattered.
Featured review
A fulfilling comedic appetizer
Nick Grinde's Menu is an uproariously funny short film, focusing on a chef (Pete Smith), who is summoned by the narrator of the short (also Smith) to assist a housewife (Una Merkel) in cooking a complete duck dinner with baked apples that will be delicious and not give her husband (Luis Alberni) debilitating indigestion. The narrator talks us through several hilarious scenes between the chef and the housewife, as he teaches her to prepare the duck and the proper steps of seasoning and topping it off before it is cooked.
Menu feels like a playful nudge in the sides of the cooking shows we see network Television populated with, despite being over eighty years old. Smith has an elegance and a deadpan sense of wit in the short, frequently poking fun at the ineptitude of the housewife or playing along to the chef's free-spirited cooking process throughout the short. Never is writer Thorne Smith's screenplay too condescending or mean-spirited but, much like the duck dinner, fresh and pleasant, enough to leave one with an appetite for more. At ten minutes, Menu is a fulfilling comedic appetizer.
Starring: Pete Smith, Una Merkel, and Luis Alberni. Directed by: Nick Grinde.
Menu feels like a playful nudge in the sides of the cooking shows we see network Television populated with, despite being over eighty years old. Smith has an elegance and a deadpan sense of wit in the short, frequently poking fun at the ineptitude of the housewife or playing along to the chef's free-spirited cooking process throughout the short. Never is writer Thorne Smith's screenplay too condescending or mean-spirited but, much like the duck dinner, fresh and pleasant, enough to leave one with an appetite for more. At ten minutes, Menu is a fulfilling comedic appetizer.
Starring: Pete Smith, Una Merkel, and Luis Alberni. Directed by: Nick Grinde.
helpful•21
- StevePulaski
- Nov 25, 2014
Details
- Runtime10 minutes
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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