Only moderately amusing, this Thelma Todd/Patsy Kelly short from Hal Roach's stable of comedy is mostly a miss, even featuring two of the funniest miss's in films. Patsy's a nuisance to Todd, holding the winning ticket for a raffle for a new car which they win by default. Patsy's nervous after hearing the befuddled announcer say "108", then indicating that he read the ticket upside down, which she holds as "801". Dropping it on the floor, she creates havoc trying to find it, and when she does, the havoc continues in her trying to get the ticket to the stage to claim the prize. Driving the winning vehicle causes total havoc on the road, first through an unfunny encounter with a motorcycle cop, then with a truck driver they accidentally run into. The truck driver starts to smash their car, thinking it belongs to somebody who also ran into him. This causes all sorts of commotion on the road, and ultimately a major traffic blockage, and finally, the winning vehicle getting away from Patsy and Thelma, leading to Thelma's closing retribution for Patsy.
Maybe funny in 1933 when there were not as many cars on the road as there are today (even though there appears to be a ton of traffic on the Los Angeles streets), this comes off as mean-spirited and violent in its attempt to garner laughs. The two girls are still very likable, and Patsy's causing of tons of problems is more out of her own brashness and clumsiness than any desire to be mean or to cause havoc. The only thing that I can see that might have been funny at the time was the concept of women drivers really causing all sorts of problems in their inability to operate machinery. So in that sense, it's more ironic than humorous, and while the feminists of today might find that offensive, the message is still made clear. It should be mentioned that not once is there a shot of a bus, but I suppose that "Beauty and the Car" might not have made much sense.
Maybe funny in 1933 when there were not as many cars on the road as there are today (even though there appears to be a ton of traffic on the Los Angeles streets), this comes off as mean-spirited and violent in its attempt to garner laughs. The two girls are still very likable, and Patsy's causing of tons of problems is more out of her own brashness and clumsiness than any desire to be mean or to cause havoc. The only thing that I can see that might have been funny at the time was the concept of women drivers really causing all sorts of problems in their inability to operate machinery. So in that sense, it's more ironic than humorous, and while the feminists of today might find that offensive, the message is still made clear. It should be mentioned that not once is there a shot of a bus, but I suppose that "Beauty and the Car" might not have made much sense.