The Good Fellows on AllMovie

For reasons unknown, Paramount Pictures decided to dust off the 1926 George S. Kaufman-Herman Mankiewicz stage comedy The Good Fellows for its 1942-43 release schedule. Cecil Kellaway plays Jim Hilton, a small-town family man who neglects his wife and kids, preferring the company of his lodge brothers. He spends so much time with and money on "The Good Fellows" that he's soon hopelessly in debt. An unexpected third-act financial windfall saves the day, but Hilton shows few signs of mending his ways by fadeout time. The film might have seemed fresher had not the premise been done to death in the previous decade by Laurel & Hardy, Charley Chase and other 2-reel comedians.