BOOTLEG FILES 895: “Spook to Me” (1945 comedy short starring Andy Clyde and Dudley Dickerson).
LAST SEEN: On the Internet Archive.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: It fell through the cracks.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely.
If any star of Hollywood’s Golden Age was in need of a revived public interest, it would be Andy Clyde. With a career spanning from the Mack Sennett silent comedies to the 1960s sitcoms, Clyde was a welcome presence both as a star and a supporting character – usually playing a doddering, slightly cranky but mostly endearing elderly chap.
From 1934 through 1956, Clyde starred in 78 two-reel comedies produced by Columbia Pictures. He had the second longest series of the Columbia shorts, bested only in longevity by the Three Stooges. But unlike the zany trio, Clyde’s shorts never took root in the television rerun or home entertainment cultures, and outside of die-hard film addicts his work at Columbia is mostly forgotten today.
The 1945 short “Spook to Me” might not represent the best of Clyde’s Columbia output, but it is an amusing “scare comedy” involving chases in a supposedly haunted house. It is also notable for giving a larger-than-usual role to Columbia contract player Dudley Dickerson, who is best remembered today for his small scene-stealing parts in Three Stooges shorts, usually as a befuddled cook and a frightened janitor or porter. In this film, Dickerson’s character has a name (Sam) and considerable dialogue, ultimately working as an equal partner with Clyde as they unravel the mystery of a haunted house and nearly get killed in the process.
“Spook to Me” finds Clyde as the scoutmaster for a troop of rambunctious boys organized in a pack called The Bloodhounds. He organizes a camping trip next to an abandoned house that is supposedly haunted. But just as they are settling down for the night, the boys spot flashing lights inside the allegedly vacant property. Clyde goes to investigate and is joined at the front door by Dickerson’s Sam, a chauffeur whose car disappears into the house when he was fixing a flat tire.
Clyde and Dickerson investigate the house, at which point “Spook to Me” begins to feel like any number of comedy films where the funnymen run around scared in a dark, creepy place – and not unlike most of those other films, the spooks of the house are quickly revealed to be gangsters using the empty property as a hideout.
Still, “Spook to Me” is a charming distraction thanks to Clyde and Dickerson, who make the most of the too-familiar material with energetic performances. There are also a few offbeat gags, including one involving the mounted head of a weird animal with a canine face and batwing-style ears – incredibly, it bites Clyde’s nose. More fun comes later when Clyde stumbles on the crooks’ den and finds their stacks of counterfeiting money. Mistaking it for the real thing, he begins to divide it up for himself – “This is for a new car, this is for income tax…” – and then generously shares it with the crooks when they enter the room, not realizing his discovery is their creation.
Director and screenwriter Harry Edwards, working from a story by Edward Bernds, fashions a fast-moving and wonderfully silly story, and the film is far more progressive than the Three Stooges films by giving the African American Dickerson an equal standing with Clyde as they bumble their way through the haunted house. The film also offered a rare screen appearance by Violet Barlow, a stage and nightclub performer who is briefly seen as Clyde’s wife – according to film writer Paul Castiglia, Barlowe appeared in 400 USO shows during World War II and emceed at the Hollywood Canteen.
“Spook to Me” can be seen in an unauthorized upload to the Internet Archive. For those interested in Andy Clyde’s work, I would recommend James L. Neibaur’s book “The Andy Clyde Columbia Comedies,” which can be found at this Amazon link.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: While this weekly column acknowledges the presence of rare film and television productions through the so-called collector-to-collector market, this should not be seen as encouraging or condoning the unauthorized duplication and distribution of copyright-protected material, either through DVDs or Blu-ray discs or through postings on Internet video sites.
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