When I think about watching Joe. E. Brown movies as a kid back in the Fifties, I seem to recall an affable and funny actor with the rubber face and siren-like 'Heeyyyyy' going for him. Nothing like his character Joe Grant here, who often comes across as boorish and arrogant. He might have been even more antagonistic in his follow up baseball picture, "Elmer, the Great". Maybe this wasn't lost on movie fans of the era, because by 1935's "Alibi Ike", he portrayed a baseball player who was a lot more fun to be around. Of the three films, I enjoyed that last one the best.
In this story, Joe Grant (Brown) is an inventor intent on perfecting his fire extinguisher invention consisting of a packed sphere of sodium bicarbonate aluminum sulfate. Those components for a fire retardant sound about right, but I don't know enough about them to pass judgment. When it came time to make his pitch to the money men in the latter part of the story, there's a mix-up that creates serious havoc, and you had to wonder just how clueless grown men could be who wouldn't walk over to a wastebasket full of paper and put out the fire before it went out of control. Come to think of it, the firemen who arrived were a bunch of boneheads as well; why not try turning the doorknob before using an ax on it?
Old time baseball fans will probably get a kick out of catching some of the game day stock footage from back in the day; it's too bad there weren't any recognizable players from the era. I got a kick out of Joe E. Brown's double whammy windmill wind-up, a maneuver he managed to embellish even further in "Alibi Ike". One item of interest that younger viewers watching today probably wouldn't relate to was that mustard plaster June Farnum (Lillian Bond) fixed up for him after that dump in the lake. Mustard plaster - what the heck is that? You'll have to catch the film to find out.
Well you've heard of rain delays in ball games when it gets a bit too undesirable to continue playing. The alternative in Joe Grant's case was a fire delay. If you believe that could happen, you'll get a kick out of this picture. You might also get a kick out of Joe's double entendre little comment to home-town girlfriend Sally (Evalyn Knapp) when she comes to visit him on the road. That's where my summary line above comes into play. Otherwise, what do bananas have to do with baseball?
In this story, Joe Grant (Brown) is an inventor intent on perfecting his fire extinguisher invention consisting of a packed sphere of sodium bicarbonate aluminum sulfate. Those components for a fire retardant sound about right, but I don't know enough about them to pass judgment. When it came time to make his pitch to the money men in the latter part of the story, there's a mix-up that creates serious havoc, and you had to wonder just how clueless grown men could be who wouldn't walk over to a wastebasket full of paper and put out the fire before it went out of control. Come to think of it, the firemen who arrived were a bunch of boneheads as well; why not try turning the doorknob before using an ax on it?
Old time baseball fans will probably get a kick out of catching some of the game day stock footage from back in the day; it's too bad there weren't any recognizable players from the era. I got a kick out of Joe E. Brown's double whammy windmill wind-up, a maneuver he managed to embellish even further in "Alibi Ike". One item of interest that younger viewers watching today probably wouldn't relate to was that mustard plaster June Farnum (Lillian Bond) fixed up for him after that dump in the lake. Mustard plaster - what the heck is that? You'll have to catch the film to find out.
Well you've heard of rain delays in ball games when it gets a bit too undesirable to continue playing. The alternative in Joe Grant's case was a fire delay. If you believe that could happen, you'll get a kick out of this picture. You might also get a kick out of Joe's double entendre little comment to home-town girlfriend Sally (Evalyn Knapp) when she comes to visit him on the road. That's where my summary line above comes into play. Otherwise, what do bananas have to do with baseball?