Love Comes to Mooneyville: Andy Clyde fights the fire chief and it gets messy

If you have 18 minutes to kill and a weird soft spot for old Columbia comedy shorts, this is probably worth your time. If you can't stand loud, dusty slapstick where grown men act like toddlers, you should run far away. 🏃‍♂️

It’s basically about Andy (Andy Clyde, doing his usual flustered old man bit) who runs the local post office. He is desperately trying to win over the same lady as the local fire chief.

And when I say "win over," I mean they both just do incredibly petty things to ruin each other's lives. It has that same chaotic, low-stakes energy you find in The Beloved Bozo.

The plot is just a clothesline for gags, and honestly, some of them are pretty weak. The writing by Ewart Adamson isn't going to win any awards, even for 1936.

But some of the physical stuff still got me. There is this one bit where Andy tries to sabotaj—sorry, sabotage—the fire chief's truck, and the sheer amount of smoke that comes out is ridiculous.

You can tell the crew just had a smoke machine off-camera going absolute wild. The actors look like they are coughing for real.

Esther Howard is in this too, and she has this amazing "I am way too old for this" look on her face the entire time. She looks like she wants to go home and have a strong drink.

The Good and the Weird

• Andy Clyde's mustache seems to have its own union. It twitches so much.
• The fire engine looks like it was borrowed from a local parade and might break if it goes over 15 mph.
• A lot of screaming. Like, so much screaming for no real reason.

There is a scene near the end in the boarding house where things just devolve into people throwing random household objects. It doesn't really have a proper ending, it just sort of... stops.

Which is fine, because by minute 17, the main joke has totally run its course. If you liked the wacky, dusty antics in Mystery Mountain but wanted it with zero budget and more mailbags, give it a look.