What was funny in 1932 doesn't necessarily work in 1952 let alone 1972, 1992 or 2012. Joe E. Brown says a mouthful with his huge tonsils, but very little of it is funny in this dated and unbelievable comedy that focuses more on baseball than firemen. Yes, he is a small town firemen who plays on a local baseball team, the inventor of a supposed baseball like chemical device that implodes fires into stopping. He gets distracted from his job as a fireman and girlfriend Evelyn Knapp by becoming the star pitcher (!) on the St. Louis Cardinals, ending up in the world series and somehow engaged to the opportunistic Louise Bond. Somehow this Mr. "Do It All" manages to sell his patent, win the world series and get his girl back, and if there had been more time in the script, ride a unicycle and juggle!
Brown's love of baseball (and athletics in general) is very apparent, and in real life, he was apparently quite a humble man. But you can't tell that from his movies, where his characters are often so cocky that in this film, you want the entire team to start tossing his chemical balls at him to put out his fiery ego. Blame that on the scriptwriters who exaggerate everything he does, because after a while, it becomes a little too much to take without pelting your TV with something. The funniest sequence occurs when Brown intentionally sets an office on fire then runs around in a panic trying to find his switched brief case. Brown keeps repeating the phrase, "You Said a Mouthful", which ironically was the name of a film he made the very same year. Oh, and if he's the ideal professional baseball player, then I should try out for a professional basketball center.
Brown's love of baseball (and athletics in general) is very apparent, and in real life, he was apparently quite a humble man. But you can't tell that from his movies, where his characters are often so cocky that in this film, you want the entire team to start tossing his chemical balls at him to put out his fiery ego. Blame that on the scriptwriters who exaggerate everything he does, because after a while, it becomes a little too much to take without pelting your TV with something. The funniest sequence occurs when Brown intentionally sets an office on fire then runs around in a panic trying to find his switched brief case. Brown keeps repeating the phrase, "You Said a Mouthful", which ironically was the name of a film he made the very same year. Oh, and if he's the ideal professional baseball player, then I should try out for a professional basketball center.