Dumb Dicks (1931) Review - Gloriously Stupid Slapstick

If you have twenty minutes to spare and love watching grown men act like complete blockheads, Dumb Dicks is absolutely worth a quick look today. But if you hate loud, dusty old slapstick where logic goes completely out the window, you will probably want to run far away. 🕵️‍♂️

The plot is basically nothing. Benny Rubin and Harry Gribbon play two absolutely hopeless private detectivs who decide the best way to catch bank robbers is by... dressing up as swamis.

Yes, swamis. Turbans, fake crystal balls, the whole ridiculous package. 🔮

I honestly laughed out loud when Benny Rubin tries to do a "mystic" voice and it just sounds like he's choking on a grape. It's so incredibly stupid, but somehow it actually works.

It reminds me a bit of the goofy, chaotic energy in Red Hot Rivals, though this one feels a bit cheaper. You can tell they shot this in about two days on a set that was probably left over from a completely different movie.

There's this one guy, Heinie Conklin, who shows up with a mustache that looks like it was drawn on with a piece of charcoal. He doesn't even have lines for half his screen time, he just stands there and glares. 🤨

The bank robbers themselves are incredibly polite for criminals. They just sort of stand around and let these two clearly fake mystics poke around thier hideout.

I noticed the camera wobbles slightly in one shot when Rubin bumps into a table. They didn't even bother to re-take it, which I love!

That's the real charm of these old shorts, though. It’s got that raw, "we need to finish this before lunch" energy that you just don't see anymore.

If you've ever sat through Partners Again, you know how these fast-paced buddy comedies go, but this one is way more unhinged.

The best part? The chaotic ending where everything falls apart and people start throwing random objects at each other.

Here are some weird little things I wrote down while watching:

• The turbans are definitely just bath towels wrapped around thier heads.
• A guy gets hit with a vase and the sound effect is delayed by a whole second. 💥
• The bank robber boss has a giant face that takes up the whole screen during close-ups.

Is it a masterpiece? Absolutely not.

But it made me smile, and sometimes that's all you really need from a dusty old film reel.