Excellent adaptation.

Absolutely the worst movie.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

. . . as the reign began for our most beloved leader, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (aka, FDR), who came into office proclaiming his Art of the New Deal (Social Security and Regulation for the Fat Cat One Per Centers who were then destroying America's workers with their job-killing Corrupt Capitalism). Now, with Friday's swear-in for Red Commie KGB operative, the buffoon D.J. Rump as the U.S. Game Show Host-in-Chief, every American should watch MENU again in order to learn how to stuff a duck when that Blessed Day upon which Rump's goose is cooked finally arrives. It's possible, of course, that the new American Czar Vlad "Mad Dog" Putin may decide to cut his losses, and use his Puppet Rump to nuke ALL of our American and NATO military bases at 1 PM the Day After Tomorrow. As the media has been warning for months, the Racist U.S. Constitution Suicide Pact leaves NO time for anyone to conduct sanity tests, impeachment hearings, or high treason trials during the FOUR MINUTES it takes for a "Destroy America!" tweet to morph from the mind of a Megalomaniac Tool to nukes taking flight. Thanks to the Racist Electoral College (concocted by Confederate Slave Rapists to insure that they could thwart Democratic Elections whenever they wished--the Racist Party has swiped FIVE elections from the people already, while the People's Party has yet to hijack ANY election!) and an irrational minority of Red Commie Russian Red State enablers (sharing a very similar mindset with the people of Russia itself, who HAD Democracy, but preferred and chose to live under Satan's Thumb, proving that they cannot be trusted to have a nation of their own!), we ALL may be as dead at Pete Smith's duck by the time you read this. But, as they say, Mass Delusions have consequences, and we're all better off Dead than Red, anyway. So, Pete, Bottoms up, wherever you are Today!

Nick Grinde's Menu is an uproariously funny short film, focusing on a chef (Pete Smith), who is summoned by the narrator of the short (also Smith) to assist a housewife (Una Merkel) in cooking a complete duck dinner with baked apples that will be delicious and not give her husband (Luis Alberni) debilitating indigestion. The narrator talks us through several hilarious scenes between the chef and the housewife, as he teaches her to prepare the duck and the proper steps of seasoning and topping it off before it is cooked.Menu feels like a playful nudge in the sides of the cooking shows we see network Television populated with, despite being over eighty years old. Smith has an elegance and a deadpan sense of wit in the short, frequently poking fun at the ineptitude of the housewife or playing along to the chef's free-spirited cooking process throughout the short. Never is writer Thorne Smith's screenplay too condescending or mean-spirited but, much like the duck dinner, fresh and pleasant, enough to leave one with an appetite for more. At ten minutes, Menu is a fulfilling comedic appetizer.Starring: Pete Smith, Una Merkel, and Luis Alberni. Directed by: Nick Grinde.

This very slight MGM comedy short from 1933 isn't particularly funny, but it received an Oscar nomination for "Best Short Subject" that year, and it has the wonderful UNA MERKEL in her physical prime in TECHNICOLOR! (She would not appear in a color feature film until the early '50's MGM remake of "The Merry Widow" starring Lana Turner.) I'd give "Menu" a "10" if it had more of Merkel, but as it stands, it's worthy of an "8" for a Technicolor Una Merkel alone. Merkel was one of the great supporting players of the Hollywood studio era, and one of its most prolific, appearing in about three dozen feature films, primarily for MGM and Warner Brothers from 1931 to 1934. "Menu" is an early example of the three-strip Technicolor process that would not be used in feature films until 1935's "Becky Sharp" with Miriam Hopkins. Up until that point, it was reserved for short films, but usually musical shorts, unlike this simple "Pete Smith" MGM comedy short, most of which were shot in plain B&W. Una Merkel, with her strawberry blonde hair, blue eyes and pale pink complexion, was a feast for the eyes in the then "new" Technicolor process, and is the primary reason to see this film.

Menu (1933) ** (out of 4) Technicolor short from MGM has Pete Smith teaching women how to cook a duck that won't make their husbands sick. I've seen quite a few of these Smith educational shorts and while most of them are entertaining the same can't be said for this one. Even at nine minutes this thing goes on too long and none of the comedy in the film works.You can find this short playing on TCM quite often and Warner has released it on their Katharine Hepburn set. This is one of the weaker Smith shorts but they all have a certain quality.