Menu (1933)

I think you either liked Pete Smith or you didn’t; it’s hard to imagine there being much middle ground with his brand of humour. On the whole, I did quite enjoy some of his commentaries and if you get past the rather condescending and sexist first couple of minutes of this feature, then his narration of the cooking process of stuffed duck is lightly entertaining. It’s entirely observational, this one, so aside from a pantomime-style puff of smoke to introduce and remove the chef who’s doing the work there are no visual effects to accompany what could actually be a method of preparing an edible meal. The pudding, which appeared to be sugar, and more sugar, placed into a partially denuded apple had my arteries hardening at the very thought of it, and it also features some of the most anaemic carrots I’ve ever seen, too. It is very much of it’s time and aimed, I’d say, at a certain kind of middle class audience - but given that, it does raise a smile now and again.