Nut Guilty: A Wooden Judge is Better Than No Judge

Is it worth your time?

If you have twenty minutes and a soft spot for 1930s variety acts, sure. Go for it. But if you aren't already into Edgar Bergen or the whole ventriloquism thing, this is going to feel like a very long, very loud headache. It is definitely not for anyone who needs a coherent plot to stay awake.

Nut Guilty is basically just an excuse to let Charlie McCarthy insult people while wearing a judge’s robe. That is the whole pitch. And honestly? It works for exactly as long as you need it to before the novelty wears thin.

The courtroom setting is just a backdrop for back-and-forth bickering. It’s got that snappy, rhythmic dialogue that feels like it was written in a frantic rush. Sometimes it lands, and sometimes it just sounds like two guys shouting over each other. But Charlie is a savage. Watching a wooden dummy absolutely roast a bailiff is still funny in a weirdly timeless way.

Odd little things I noticed:

• The bailiff’s frustration looks surprisingly real. Maybe he was actually tired of the script?
• The camera lingers on Charlie’s face during close-ups in a way that feels borderline haunting.
• The courtroom extras look like they were pulled in off the street five minutes before the cameras rolled.

There is a part where the whole thing threatens to fall apart into pure noise. You can tell they were just trying to fill the runtime. It lacks the polish of a bigger production, but that is kind of the point, right? It feels like a stage show that forgot to leave the stage.

It definitely lacks the musical flow of something like The Five O'Clock Girl. It is much more aggressive and less concerned with being pretty. It is just raw, cranky humor.

I caught myself wondering if the microphone was picking up Edgar Bergen’s lips moving, but I couldn't tell. Maybe I was looking too hard. Who cares. It’s a relic, and it’s mostly harmless. 🪵⚖️