Egad! Alpha Video once again has released a DVD with a practically unwatchable print! This super-cheap DVD production company specializes in public domain and other cheap to acquire films and they never, ever seem to do anything to clean up the prints. However, in this case, the sound quality is so horrid I was tempted to turn it off after the first few minutes--and the picture wasn't a lot better. In addition, while IMDb lists the running time at 70 minutes, this print was less than an hour! Some of this discrepancy can be explained because the film skips periodically and seems to have bits and pieces missing.
The only reason I didn't stop watching was because I was curious to see the sort of films that virtually killed Joe E. Brown's career. You see, after he left Warner Brothers (where he was a huge star), he signed on with a 'poverty row' studio (for David Loew Productions) that made some pretty bad films--or so I have heard. Just how bad this one? If you, too, are curious, keep reading...
Soon after the film begins, a local employee of a newspaper,'Elmer Lane (Brown), wins an essay contest for Krunchies Cereal that is announced on the radio. He's won $5000 (more than twice what an average worker made each year at that time) and Guy Kibbee convinces him to invest his money. You assume quickly Kibbee is a chiseler, as no reputable person would sign a hotel registry with 'Financier'! And, when Kibbee then tries to Kibbee sure looks like a crook....only Elmer is too gullible to notice.
Later, to clear his name, Elmer takes to the air (literally) and chases the crooks and becomes the hero. This flying sequence is handled pretty poorly--with the obvious use of a rear projected image of planes and Joe clearly NOT flying for real. While this is understandable, this is much poorer than what you'd normally see in films. Really.
Overall, the film isn't particularly funny and it's not up to the standards of his Warner Brothers films. While not terrible, it isn't all that good either--though some of this is due to the Alpha print and can't entirely be blamed on the production.
The only reason I didn't stop watching was because I was curious to see the sort of films that virtually killed Joe E. Brown's career. You see, after he left Warner Brothers (where he was a huge star), he signed on with a 'poverty row' studio (for David Loew Productions) that made some pretty bad films--or so I have heard. Just how bad this one? If you, too, are curious, keep reading...
Soon after the film begins, a local employee of a newspaper,'Elmer Lane (Brown), wins an essay contest for Krunchies Cereal that is announced on the radio. He's won $5000 (more than twice what an average worker made each year at that time) and Guy Kibbee convinces him to invest his money. You assume quickly Kibbee is a chiseler, as no reputable person would sign a hotel registry with 'Financier'! And, when Kibbee then tries to Kibbee sure looks like a crook....only Elmer is too gullible to notice.
Later, to clear his name, Elmer takes to the air (literally) and chases the crooks and becomes the hero. This flying sequence is handled pretty poorly--with the obvious use of a rear projected image of planes and Joe clearly NOT flying for real. While this is understandable, this is much poorer than what you'd normally see in films. Really.
Overall, the film isn't particularly funny and it's not up to the standards of his Warner Brothers films. While not terrible, it isn't all that good either--though some of this is due to the Alpha print and can't entirely be blamed on the production.