Beware of Redheads

From the 1930s-1950s, Leon Errol made a long string of shorts for RKO. However, I have noticed after watching a couple dozen that nearly all of them have the same basic plot. Leon either is a carouser who chases women and drinks heavily...and he doesn't want his wife to know. OR, his wife thinks he's carousing when he actually isn't. But either way, the plots involve Leon trying desperately to keep his wife from killing him. "Beware of Redheads" is pretty much what you'd expect from an Errol short!

When the story begins, a redhead (with black & white film, she actually appears to be a blonde) barges into his office and demands Leon give her back her compact, as she put it in his pocket when they were dancing the previous evening....when he was out carousing. But soon the wife arrives and Leon hides the blonde redhead. When the wife notices the compact, he tells her he bought it for her. Later, he promises to buy the redhead/blonde an identical compact to replace that one. All sorts of complications ensue....especially when the lady's husband becomes involved with the intrigue...as does Leon's cranky wife.

So is this any good or not? Well, that's not easy to say. Because it is so similar to Errol's other films, it certainly lacks originality and there's little in the way of suspense as there's a 'been there, done that' look to the short. It's well made but way too familiar to be a must-see.



By the way, I am NOT trying to be critical, but in many of the Errol films (this one especially), it's supposed to be very funny when Leon's wife beats him up and leaves him black and blue. But I am wondering how this would have worked had he beaten his wife black and blue in the shorts.