Series: Thelma Todd & Patsy Kelly Director: Gus Meins Producer: Hal Roach Dialogue: Photography: Francis Corby Editor: Louis McManus Sound: Warren B. Delaplain Stars: Thelma Todd, Patsy Kelly Company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Released: 14 November 1933 Length: 2 reels Production No.: A-18 Filming dates: 1933 Rating: 4/10

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Thelma and Patsy are working behind the counter as baggage girls. After a chaotic few minutes with some customers, Thelma announces that for her vacation she is going to Atlantic City to refresh herself at a nice quiet hotel. Patsy on the other hand has other ideas and tells Thelma to leave everything to her to sort out a more interesting vacation for them both. A gentleman arrives to leave his 'cat' with them but when Patsy puts his bag on the shelf a monkey suddely springs out and causes havoc all around. For some strange reason, a bellhop comes in and starts flapping his arms around before jumping over the counter. Random. The girls arrive at a beauty spot and start erecting their tent but Patsy manages to get herself all tangled up in it. Some time later the girls have miraculously got the tent up and Patsy goes off to get some wood. Spying the largest pine tree in the whole forest she takes one swing on her axe to fell the enormous tree, which brings down half the contents growing on it on top of them both, including pine cones the size of pineapples! Thelma grows increasingly annoyed with Patsy, who tells her to go and relax whist Patsy goes off to find a small tree to chop down. Which she does, until it lands on Thelma in the tent. Thelma berates Patsy for her clumsiness, which is amplified after Patsy then goes and trips over and spills the wood she has chopped up (although what she actually trips on I can't see, it just looks like she threw herself onto the ground.)

The girls get their camp fire going and Patsy breaks out the sausages to hold them over the fire on a stick to cook. After a while the girls begin choking on the smoke from the fire. As they try to move away from the smoke Patsy drops her sweetcorn and it explodes. Thelma pushes Patsy down through a chair and takes charge of the situation. She fills up a can with fresh water so she can boil it, whilst Patsy sees a wild rabbit and grabs her shotgun. She fires a shot at the poor animal that was just out minding its own business but instead fires at Thelma, resulting in the can of water being damaged. Darkness falls and the girls sit at their camp eating beans out of a tin, as the sounds of the night start making Patsy jumpy. Along comes forest ranger Don Barclay who warns them not to leave any food lying around, particularly bacon, for the bears. Thelma and Patsy retreat into their tent and have a conversation about their predicament where Thelma decides to hide her bacon underneath her pillow. As they lay down on their 'bed', the whole thing suddenly collapses. Would you believe it, but a bear then enters the tent and starts rummaging around for the bacon. The wide-eyed Thelma initially thinks it is Patsy but soon sees the reality of the bear right next to her face. She gives out a shriek before she (or rather, her stunt double) slides out of the tent. Patsy follows suit shortly after. The girls climb a conveniently placed small tree but the bear climbs up after them. Patsy does her Tarzan impersonation but the bear isn't fazed. A group of hunters arrive and see the girls and shoot at the bear to scare it, but it somehow rips the girls' dresses off, leaving their backs exposed.

Favourite bit When Thelma sees the bear and flies out of the tent sideways. It's obviously not her but it was about the only mildly funny thing about the film.

Trivia • Copyrighted November 7, 1933. • The second film in the series. • Some sources list Charlie Hall is the hunter, but this is disputed. • Just before the girls get out of their car (where their faces are pressed up against the window) Thelma starts to say something (you see her mouth clearly move) but the film cuts to the next shot. In that very next shot (around 3:25) as Patsy says 'it's great isn't it?' there is a noticable cut in the film. Two examples of poor editing in the space of about 5 seconds. • Thelma Todd, who was never one to shy away from flaunting her body on screen, is not wearing a bra throughout. The first clue is seen in this shot where her nipples are clearly seen through her top. • The interactions between the two girls throughout clearly demonstrates the female Laurel & Hardy aspect of their chemistry. It's quite obvious here. After Patsy falls to the ground with the tent and says 'oh well you can sew a button on it', Thelma looks directly at the camera with an exasperated look and lifts her hat off. Not Oliver Hardy at all, is it? • When Patsy fires the shotgun it hits the can of water that Thelma is holding. Although she only fires one shot, why does the can start spurting water from multiple directions? • In the final shot, the girls have their dresses ripped off with their backs exposed. The girl on the left looks like it could be Betty Danko, rather than Patsy Kelly. My opinion • Slow and weak. It seems so staged and so obvious that their routine is a blatant female knock-off of Laurel and Hardy. The whole thing smacks of being filmed on a sound stage and the humour feels forced and predictable, like it doesn't flow naturally.

	Thelma Todd Thelma
	Patsy Kelly Patsy
	Don Barclay Forest ranger
	Alice Belcher Ticket counter customer
	Joseph Young Customer with liquor valise
	Lyle Tayo Passerby
	Charles Lloyd Organ grinder
	Don Brodie Passerby
	Billy Bletcher Hunter
	Lillian Moore Customer
	William J. O'Brien Customer [opening shot]
	Harvey Shepard Customer enquiring about Niagara Falls
	Betty Danko Stand-in for Patsy Kelly
	UNIDENTIFIED Customer

CREDITS (click image to enlarge)

RISQUE (click any image to enlarge)

Acknowledgements: Brent Seguine (identification of Joseph Young) Scott Margolin (identification of Lyle Tayo - though I have reservations) Jesse Brisson (identification of Betty Danko, Don Brodie, Charles Lloyd, Billy Bletcher, William J. O'Brien, Harvey Shepard, Lillian Moore) This page was last updated on: 17 February 2026