An old theatrical term for what an accomplished character actor/actress could do onstage is "chew on the scenery". This vigorous description perfectly fits the shenanigans of Hugh Herbert in the movie DAMES, among others. Herbert spent a lifetime portraying bumptious simpletons and no one did it better, chewing the cinema scenery to ribbons. His face alone is a comedy mask; with the baggy eyes of a dullard, the potato nose of a busybody, and an agile mouth that could pout like a child or grin like a gargoyle. Reviewing this movie I am astounded at how fun it is to watch a professional idiot at work. Long, long before there was DUMB & DUMBER there was Hugh Herbert -- the dumbbell's dumbbell. Herbert's mature looniness (he never looked young in the movies) is what Jerry Lewis should have evolved to. The dignified business suit, the twinkle of dementia in his eyes, the body-wrenching double-takes, and the arms that flap and flutter and skitter like a thing alive & apart from the brain -- in cold print they seem like slapstick cliches -- as indeed they are -- but in the hands of a master clown like Herbert these mannerisms convey a startling & enthralling portrait of the dimbulb par excellance. Herbert is a comedy hallucination and as such fits perfectly with the weird musical numbers in this film staged by Busby Berkley. When all is said & done, the dancing just a trail of dust & the music just an echo, there still remains the ineffable sight of Hugh Herbert playing with his toy elephants or battling a profound case of hiccups. Herbert gives silliness a stature it has never since attained again.
