Maid for a Day (1936)
** (out of 4)
Real-life mother and son Grace Hayes and Peter Lind Hayes play a mother and son combo in this two-reeler. Grace is a famous Broadway star who is trying to make a comeback so she takes up a job as a maid in order to practice. Everything is going good until she gets a call from Peter informing her that he's dropped out of college so that he can hit the stage. Only those interested in seeing the mother-son team should check this Vitaphone short out because the material is quite weak and it's actually so weak that you really don't want to judge the duo too bad. I'm not sure how much better each one are but they really don't have much to work with here and especially Peter who comes across pretty badly. For some reason the film has him doing a really obnoxious laugh that is more creepy than anything else. His character really doesn't do anything that isn't annoying so I'm hoping it was the screenplay making him do this stuff and it's not part of his routine. His mother comes off a tad bit better and I must say that I was shocked to see her being a mother as she looks incredibly young and extremely good here. The music numbers aren't that memorable either but "Would You Ring the Gong on Me" is probably the stand out.