Series: ZaSu Pitts & Thelma Todd Director: Gus Meins Producer: Hal Roach Dialogue: Photography: Hap Depew Editor: Louis McManus Sound: James Greene Stars: ZaSu Pitts, Thelma Todd, Billy Gilbert, Cissy Fitzgerald Company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Released: 04 March 1933 Length: 2 reels Production No.: A-14 Filming dates: Rating: 2/10

Maids A La Mode

Available on DVD:

We begin with a room full of women in a state of undress. A group of young models are paraded on a stage by Von Smaltz (BILLY GILBERT) for his V.I.P. guests, the recently-wed Mr. & Mrs. Von Eckterhorse (BILLY ENGLE, CISSY FITZGERALD). But despite the women posing in their lingerie for the couple, the newlyweds seem more interested in one another with their infatuated exchanges as Von Smaltz tries to guide their attentions on the stage. Thelma (TODD) appears in all-white looking like a nun with ZaSu (PITTS) hidden underneath her skirt as they float across the stage on a conveyor. Von Smaltz is outraged in his usual overexaggerated manner as the couple's dog (LAUGHING GRAVY) jumps up onto the stage, followed by Mr. Von Eckterhorse. All of them get caught in the conveyor belt and make absolutely no progress in getting off the stage. Thelma is blamed for the chaos and fired on the spot as the newlywed couple leave in disgust. Von Smaltz has a conveyor-related mishap when he falls onto a pin cushion which had been left by Thelma. The girls empty out their lockers and shove all of their clothing into their suitcase which is mounted on a damaged stool, not realising it has a huge hole in the bottom of it. All the clothes fall through the hole and onto the floor. Von Smaltz has a change of heart when he sees a large package belonging to one of his clients has been left behind at the studio and so he decides to reinstate Thelma and ZaSu so that they can deliver it for him.

On the street the two girls are invited to a party by Andre (LEO WHITE), an eccentric friend of theirs. ZaSu and Thelma walk off and trip over a discarded matress on the sidewalk before becoming entangled in its broken springs. After a brief struggle (where Thelma and ZaSu alternate between themselves and their stunt doubles played by Ruth Adams and Betty Danko respectively) the girls break free and head to the party. Andre introduces the girls to the guests, one of whom picks at some loose stitching in the back of ZaSu's dress and procedes to unravel it until he has practically undressed her and falls over on the floor. After a few more introductions to the boring guests it's time for everybody to start teaming up with total strangers and begin dancing. ZaSu's dress becomes more and more ripped throughout the dance until she finally stops to attend to the issue. Thelma tells ZaSu to stand up against a curtain so that she can sew up the back of her dress from behind it without others seeing. Unfortunately Thelma sews the back of ZaSu's dress into the curtain, entangling her. If things weren't bad enough, Von Smaltz turns up to the party. The girls panic and as ZaSu tries to run away she ends up taking flight in the curtain, swinging backwards and forwards (actually BETTY DANKO). She grabs Von Smaltz in a headlock momentarily as Thelma puts on a conveniently-placed mask to hide her identity. The girls do manage to escape, as Von Smaltz has the curtain pulled out from underneath him when he stands on it. The girls head for the exit and the most pointless film released in 1933 finally ends.

Favourite bit It's a pretty sad state of affairs when the only scene from this pile of horsehit of a film is seeing an unidentified actress in her bra in the very first scene.

Trivia • Copyrighted April 24, 1933. • The 15th film in the series. • What a great start to the film with this opening scene! Unfortunately that was the only time during the film I was even remotely interested on what I was watching. My opinion • Utterly abysmal 'comedy'. The first 5 minutes of the film are absolutely awful. And it somehow manages to go downhill after that! Seriously, was there an actual point to this 20 minutes of complete waste of time and talent? One of the worst 2-reel talkies ever produced by the Hal Roach Studios.

	ZaSu Pitts ZaSu
	Thelma Todd Thelma
	Billy Gilbert Von Smaltz
	Cissy Fitzgerald Mrs. Von Eckterhorse
	Harry Bernard Cop
	Billy Engle Mrs. Von Eckterhorse's fiancee
	Estelle Etterre Model
	Kay Deslys Dolores Deslys
	Charlie Hall Party guest
	Nelson Story Pianist
	Sydney Jarvis Furniture man
	John J. Richardson Party guest
	Leo White Andre
	John Power Party guest
	Helen Dale Party guest
	Ruth Adams Thelma's stand-in
	Betty Danko ZaSu's stand-in
	Laughing Gravy Dog
	UNIDENTIFIED Model #1
	UNIDENTIFIED Model #2
	UNIDENTIFIED Model #3
	UNIDENTIFIED Model #4
	UNIDENTIFIED Model #5
	UNIDENTIFIED Model #6 [not Mary Kornman]
	UNIDENTIFIED Model #7
	UNIDENTIFIED Model #8
	UNIDENTIFIED Servant
	UNIDENTIFIED Party guest #1
	UNIDENTIFIED Party guest #2
	UNIDENTIFIED Party guest #3
	UNIDENTIFIED Drunken party guest
	UNIDENTIFIED Senor Giovanni Ferdinand
	UNIDENTIFIED Senor Giovanni Ferdinand's wife

CREDITS (click image to enlarge)

SHOT ON THE BACK LOT (click any image to enlarge)

RISQUE (click any image to enlarge)

Acknowledgements: Brent Seguine (identification of Billy Engle) Steve Wright (identification of Estelle Etterre) Jesse Brisson (identification of Nelson Story, Ruth Adams, Betty Danko, John Power, Helen Dale) This page was last updated on: 07 April 2024