So You Want to Be a Detective

6.8

1948

Joe McDoakes imagines himself as a private detective on a murder case. Throughout the film, he spars verbally with narrator Art Gilmore.

Director: Richard L. Bare

Writers: Richard L. Bare

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Movie Info

Votes18

Languageen

BudgetNA

RevenueNA

Popularity2

Cast

George O'Hanlon

Joe McDoakes (a.k.a. Phillip Snarlow)

Art Gilmore

Narrator (voice)

Lila Leeds

Veronica Vacuum (uncredited)

Kit Guard

Barroom Thug (uncredited)

detective narration private detective short film

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A semi-humorous look at the various types of smokers and the methods available to them to kick the habit.

So You Want to Give Up Smoking

1942

0.0

A humorous but informative look at how an average man can remedy common vision problems.

So You Think You Need Glasses

1942

4.5

Joe McDoakes thinks he's allergic.

So You Think You're Allergic

1945

4.0

In this outing, Joe loves playing the horses and shows what you can do to improve your odds of winning.

So You Want to Play the Horses

1946

6.0

Average American Joe McDoakes searches in vain for any cure that will halt his fast-disappearing hairline.

So You Want to Keep Your Hair

1946

6.0

Joe McDoakes attempts to deal with his myriad neuroses.

So You Think You're a Nervous Wreck

1946

6.0

In this comedic short, Joe McDoakes goes through the problems and anxieties of becoming a new father.

So You're Going to Be a Father

1947

4.3

Aspiring actor Joe McDoakes blows his first part at Warner Bros. and has to settle for being a stand-in.

So You Want to Be in Pictures

1947

5.8

Joe McDoakes begins a new job as a vacuum cleaner salesman but can't seem to sell any.

So You Want to Be a Salesman

1947

5.5

In this comedic short, Joe McDoakes attempts to save his five-year marriage to Alice.

So You Want to Hold Your Wife

1947

5.7

Joe McDoakes and his wife go apartment hunting.

So You Want an Apartment

1948

5.0

In this comedic short, Joe McDoakes experiences the pitfalls of gambling.

So You Want to Be a Gambler

1948

4.7

In this comedic short, Joe McDoakes is evicted from his apartment and decides to build his own home. As the project progresses, his dream house turns into a nightmare.

So You Want to Build a House

1948

4.5

Joe McDoakes imagines himself as a private detective on a murder case. Throughout the film, he spars verbally with narrator Art Gilmore.

So You Want to Be a Detective

1948

6.8

Joe McDoakes becomes enmeshed in a corrupt political election.

So You Want to Be in Politics

1948

0.0

Joe McDoakes and his wife love to participate in radio show contests, but something seems to interfere every time they are lucky enough to be chosen as participants.

So You Want to Be on the Radio

1948

5.7

Joe McDoakes does NOT want to be a baby sitter.

So You Want to Be a Baby Sitter

1949

0.0

Joe McDoakes takes advice on how to be more likeable from his only friend Homer Hotbox

So You Want to Be Popular

1949

0.0

Joe wants to be a muscle man.

So You Want to Be a Muscle Man

1949

0.0

Joe's in-laws come over, and they suck.

So You're Having In-Law Trouble

1949

0.0

Joe comes up with a complicated scheme to bilk his dead uncle out of an inheritance.

So You Want to Get Rich Quick

1949

0.0

Joe and Alice McDoakes are planning on throwing a party, but Joe mixes up his list of creditors with the list of names Alice gave him to invite. The creditors have a much better time than Joe does.

So You Want to Throw a Party

1950

4.0

Joe McDoakes pleads "not guilty" to a traffic violation but is convicted anyway. Handling this setback in his usual manner, the two-dollar fine quickly pyramids to a 10-year jail sentence.

So You Think You're Not Guilty

1950

5.8

Fed up with Joe's indifference toward her, Alice McDoakes takes her troubles to a marriage counselor. None of the courses of action she is advised to take have any impact on Joe, until she is advised to create the impression that she has left Joe for another man.

So You Want to Hold Your Husband

1950

0.0

Joe plans on moving but needs tips on how.

So You Want to Move

1950

0.0

A satiric look at doctors and hospitals through the eyes of Joe McDoakes.

So You're Going to Have an Operation

1950

0.0

Joe MacDoakes' next-door neighbor, Marvin, comes over to help him fix his lawn-sprinkling system, but they get the pipes crossed with the gas-line and almost asphyxiate themselves.

So You Want to Be a Handyman

1951

0.0

Joe McDoakes and his wife Alice attend a western movie and George soon has himself in the movie shown on the screen as Jump-Along Skip-Along McGur

So You Want to Be a Cowboy

1951

0.0

Joe McDoakes, ever obliging and always helpful, volunteers to hang the new wallpaper for his wife.

So You Want to Be a Paper Hanger

1951

0.0

In need of a new vehicle, Joe goes to the Cagey Car Company lot to get a used car,... with predictable results.

So You Want to Buy a Used Car

1951

0.0

"I never knew what happiness was till I got married—and then it was too late," Joe recalls, flashing back to bachelor days and his courtship with Alice.

So You Want to Be a Bachelor

1951

0.0

In this comedic short, Joe McDoakes decides he should become a plumber.

So You Want to Be a Plumber

1951

3.0

Joe uses his "contacts" to buy a new oven as cheaply as possible.

So You Want to Get It Wholesale

1952

0.0

Believing he has only a month to live, average guy Joe McDoakes decides to live life to the fullest in the time he has left.

So You Want to Enjoy Life

1952

2.0

Joe has to find a way to go to a convention.

So You Want to Go to a Convention

1952

0.0

When a wristwatch intended for a office contest winner gets mixed up and confused with the one Joe McDoakes purchased for his wife, Joe once again finds himself on the short end.

So You Never Tell a Lie

1952

6.0

Joe McDoakes' dimwit neighbor Marvin becomes a dentist, and manages to convince poor Joe to let him become Marvin's first patient.

So You're Going to the Dentist

1952

0.0

It's a dangerous hypnotic suggestion when a psychiatrist tells married couple Joe and Alice McDoakes to switch points of view during a session.

So You Want to Wear the Pants

1952

5.0

Joe McDoakes can't find a job as a bassoonist, so he pawns his instrument.

So You Want to Be a Musician

1953

0.0

Joe and Alice buy a television set and, due to some excuse, or another, the neighbors begin to drop in, stay to watch television, and raid their refrigerator.

So You Want a Television Set

1953

6.0

Despite the fact that during the war, Joe McDoake's dog Dusty did everything wrong including giving information to the enemy, Joe brings him home with him.

So You Love Your Dog

1953

0.0

Average working man Joe McDoakes tries desperate measures to cure his chronic insomnia.

So You Think You Can't Sleep

1953

5.0

Thinking he may inherit a million dollars from his dying grandmother, Joe McDoakes finds himself the target of murderously greedy family members.

So You Want to Be an Heir

1953

0.0

Joe starts having trouble with an obnoxious neighbor.

So You're Having Neighbor Trouble

1954

0.0

Joe McDoakes, determined to be his own boss in this Joe McDoakes Comedy entry, opens up a new restaurant. Complaining customers and a sanitation inspector who closes the restaurant are just some of Joe's problems.

So You Want to Be Your Own Boss

1954

0.0

In this Joe McDoakes Comedy, Alice insists they go to a night club, although Joe is both tired and broke.

So You Want to Go to a Nightclub

1954

0.0

Joe and Alice decide to rent a room in their house to their neighbor Marvin, who says he is a potato broker.

So You're Taking in a Roomer

1954

0.0

Do-gooder Joe McDoakes is the guest on the "Know Your Relatives" TV show where, to his chagrin, many of his black sheep relations reveal the skeletons in the family closet.

So You Want to Know Your Relatives

1954

0.0

When his wife Alice questions Joe as to whether his insurance policy is paid up, he begins to see a plot to murder him in everything she does.

So You Don't Trust Your Wife

1955

5.0

Joe thinks he's back in the gladiator days, and finds himself sentenced to be thrown to the Coliseum lions after breaking a string while playing the lyre for King Nero.

So You Want to Be a Gladiator

1955

5.0

Joe and Homer are both on a jury trying an accident case involving their boss and a gangster. Interference from both sides makes their task difficult.

So You Want to Be on a Jury

1955

0.0

Alice visits Mr. Agony with her latest problem with Joe. They had given Junior a toy railroad for a Christmas present, and Joe had taken it over and become obsessed to the point he has built a railroad empire using all of his time, energy and money. When Alice's mother comes to dinner, Joe even has a rigged-up train serving as the dumb waiter. Mr. Agony helps Alice to solve her problem.

So You Want a Model Railroad

1955

0.0

Joe McDoakes is employed as the seventh vice-president in a firm that only makes promotions from the employee ranks.

So You Want to Be a V.P.

1955

8.5

Joe McDoakes is a shy, rookie motorcycle cop.

So You Want to Be a Policeman

1955

0.0

When he gets to his office after a usual morning of nagging by his wife, Alice, Joe McDoakes starts to daydream about what life would be like married to the beautiful office blonde.

So You Think the Grass Is Greener

1956

0.0

In this comedic short, Joe and Alice McDoakes each wish their looks were better.

So You Want to Be Pretty

1956

1.7

Alice neglects her housework because she is enthralled with the long-haired piano player, Gregor Flatorsharpsky, next door. Joe buys a piano, and the accompanying free lessons, and sets out to impress Alice. Alice is vastly unimpressed.

So You Want to Play the Piano

1956

4.0

Joe McDoakes' wife Alice wants to return to work to add income to the household. Joe would rather she stay at home to tend to domestic duties. When Alice threatens to return to her old job, a reluctant Joe agrees to her request to get her a job at his office. How will this work out?

So Your Wife Wants to Work

1956

7.0

58 movies in this collection

Reviews

talisencrw

This short film, an extra from my blu of 'The Treasure of the Sierra Madre' is one of the better Richard Bare-directed 'Joe McDoakes' comedic shorts. Like Leonard Maltin states in his introduction to ...

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So You Want to Be a Detective

Share This Page

Movie Info

Cast

George O'Hanlon

Art Gilmore

Lila Leeds

Kit Guard

Where to Watch

Where to Watch

Series & Gallery

Series & Gallery

So You Want to Give Up Smoking

So You Think You Need Glasses

So You Think You're Allergic

So You Want to Play the Horses

So You Want to Keep Your Hair

So You Think You're a Nervous Wreck

So You're Going to Be a Father

So You Want to Be in Pictures

So You Want to Be a Salesman

So You Want to Hold Your Wife

So You Want an Apartment

So You Want to Be a Gambler

So You Want to Build a House

So You Want to Be a Detective

So You Want to Be in Politics

So You Want to Be on the Radio

So You Want to Be a Baby Sitter

So You Want to Be Popular

So You Want to Be a Muscle Man

So You're Having In-Law Trouble

So You Want to Get Rich Quick

So You Want to Throw a Party

So You Think You're Not Guilty

So You Want to Hold Your Husband

So You Want to Move

So You're Going to Have an Operation

So You Want to Be a Handyman

So You Want to Be a Cowboy

So You Want to Be a Paper Hanger

So You Want to Buy a Used Car

So You Want to Be a Bachelor

So You Want to Be a Plumber

So You Want to Get It Wholesale

So You Want to Enjoy Life

So You Want to Go to a Convention

So You Never Tell a Lie

So You're Going to the Dentist

So You Want to Wear the Pants

So You Want to Be a Musician

So You Want a Television Set

So You Love Your Dog

So You Think You Can't Sleep

So You Want to Be an Heir

So You're Having Neighbor Trouble

So You Want to Be Your Own Boss

So You Want to Go to a Nightclub

So You're Taking in a Roomer

So You Want to Know Your Relatives

So You Don't Trust Your Wife

So You Want to Be a Gladiator

So You Want to Be on a Jury

So You Want a Model Railroad

So You Want to Be a V.P.

So You Want to Be a Policeman

So You Think the Grass Is Greener

So You Want to Be Pretty

So You Want to Play the Piano

So Your Wife Wants to Work

Reviews

Similar Movies

Motor Tour

Strange Days

The Science of Sleep

Beverly Hills Cop III

True Romance

Get the Latest Updates