There's a lot to be said for making people laugh. Did you know that that's all some people have? It isn't much, but it's better than nothing in this cockeyed caravan.
Paul White & Marie Bryant [scrungly unit] (Bli Blip)—tell me these guys aren't charming and silly?? Paul is so sweet and goofy here and Marie Bryant—an accomplished dancer and choreographer in her own right who assisted Gene Kelly and trained Vera-Ellen—also getsin to the scrungly action!
Eric Blore (Shall We Dance, The Lady Eve)—fucking hilarious character actor and weird little guy par excellence, with a prolific career and exquisite comic timing, who specialized in playing butlers and valets (usually eccentric, dryly ironic, or subtly contemptuous ones). he provided memorable comic relief in five of fred and ginger's movies, often alongside the inimitable edward everett horton, and appeared in the preston sturges classics the lady eve and sullivan's travels. he also voiced mr. toad in disney's adaptation of the wind in the willows. it's hard to know what to say about this goofy lil guy besides he's so fucking funny...watch him in action! [videos under the cut]
This is round 2 of the contest. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. If you're confused on what a scrungle is, or any of the rules of the contest, click here.
[additional submitted propaganda + scrungly videos under the cut]
Paul White & Marie Bryant:
Bonus Marie Bryant with Scatman Crothers:
Eric Blore:
ok i just have to say some more about my weird friend eric blore. like any truly great character actor, he's a master of sketching out a fully fleshed unhinged little character in an extremely brief amount of screen time. and look at his scrungly little grins, do they not have a distinct possumlike quality?? wouldn't he seem fully in his element popping up from behind a dumpster as you walked through a random alley and saying something like "oh exCUSE me sir but have you any camembert"? or maybe taking the seat directly next to you in a near-empty subway car and telling you about the scale model of budapest he's building out of toothpaste? i want him to follow me around and do strange comedy bits. i want to study him in a lab. i want to clone him and flood the world with eric blores.
The yin to Edward Everett Horton's yang. He doesn't think of himself as a scrungly little guy he sees himself as the perfect butler, or waiter, or dance teacher. But fate destined him to be the scrungly little guy to Fred Astaire's effortlessly smooth charmer. If he doesn't win this, he should go to be butler in chief to the shadow realm, probably slipping on the stairs as he goes.
When I watched the Jeeves and Wooster series (1990–1993) with Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry, I often thought back to the movie It's Love I'm After (1937) with Leslie Howard and Eric Blore, their coming together is pleasantly surprising.
