The Ham What Am

I was very surprised to see Jay C. Flippen starring in one of these early Vitaphone musical shorts. This is because in the 1940s and 50s, Flippen made quite a name for himself as a supporting actor--and quite often this was in John Wayne films. So, he was very familiar and well liked. Little did I know that he was also a vaudeville musical star.

So was he any good here? Well, by today's standards, this is pretty bad. But, compared to most of the Vitaphone films of the day, this is actually better than average.

It begins with Flippen singing a nice little song. Then, he does a stand-up act that is somewhat reminiscent of the sort of stuff Milton Berle was doing (except with a strong Southern accent) at about the same time--but with greater success. It ends with some more singing. I think that Flippen made a very wise choice to switch to straight acting!