Skip to content
Watch the Birdie (1950) starring Red Skelton, Arlene Dahl, Ann Miller

Watch the Birdie [Red Skelton]

  • by

Watch the Birdie (1950) starring Red Skelton, Arlene Dahl, Ann Miller

Buy from Amazon.com In Watch The Birdie, Red Skelton plays his normal lovable klutz (Rusty Cammeron), who runs a camera shop with him father (also played by Red Skelton, using his Newton J. Numbskull character) — and his grandfather (also played by Red, in a variation on his San Fernando Red Character). However, between the three of them, the store is nearly bankrupt, owing over $1,100 (a large sum in 1950).

Watch the Birdie [Red Skelton]
Son of Paleface, starring Bob Hope, Jane Russell, Roy Rogers

Son of Paleface

  • by

Son of Paleface (1952) starring Bob Hope, Jane Russell, Roy Rogers

Movie review of Son of Paleface.  Bob Hope‘s sequel to Paleface, again co-starring Jane Russell – as the son of the original Paleface, doing a screwball comedy set in the old American West.  It’s vintage Bob Hope, and that’s saying quite a bit.   A very funny movie, and well worth watching.

Son of Paleface
Excuse My Dust (1951) starring Red Skelton, Sally Forrest, MacDonald Carey, William Demarest

Excuse My Dust [Red Skelton]

  • by

Excuse My Dust  (1951) starring Red Skelton, Sally Forrest, MacDonald Carey, William Demarest

Buy from Amazon.com Excuse My Dust is a musical vehicle for Red Skelton, set in 1895, that deals with the issues of progress and the resistance to it.   It stars  Red Skelton as Joe Belden, a young inventor who’s determined to build a “horseless carriage”.  This complicates things, since he’s in love with Liz Bullitt (Sally Forrest), whose father (played by  William Demarest, best remembered for his role of Uncle Charlie on  My Three Sons) runs the local livery stable, and sees the €œhorseless carriage € as a threat to his livelihood.

Excuse My Dust [Red Skelton]

Whistling in Brooklyn [Red Skelton]

  • by

Whistling in Brooklyn (1943) starring Red Skelton, Ann Rutherford, Rags Ragland

Movie review of Red Skelton’s third, and final, appearance as Wally Benton, aka. The Fox, a radio personality and amateur detective. In this installment, The Fox is still trying to marry his fiancee. But he’s on the run from the police after being blamed for the murders of the mysterious “Constant Reader”. Danger and comedy in equal parts, with an appearance by the Brooklyn Dodgers as well!

Whistling in Brooklyn [Red Skelton]

Merton of the Movies

  • by

Movie review of Merton of the Movies (1947), starring Red Skelton, Virginia O’Brien

Merton of the Movies is set in the silent movie era of Hollywood. Red Skelton plays the part of Gil Merton, a naive, movie-struck young man. He’s given a chance to be a star…. But he doesn’t realize it. A very funny, and sweet, Red Skelton movie co-starring Virginia O’Brien.

Merton of the Movies

Whistling in Dixie

  • by
 Red Skelton in a publicity photo for Whistling in Dixie, with the lovely Diana Lewis and Ann Rutherford

Whistling in Dixie (1942) starring Red Skelton, Ann Rutherford, Rags Ragland

Whistling in Dixie is the sequel to the popular Whistling in the Dark.  Red Skelton again plays the role of Wally Benton, €˜aka. The Fox. He’s a radio detective, who simply wants to take off two weeks of vacation so he can get married. To his long-suffering fiancee Carol Lambert (played by Ann Rutherford).   Wally pretends to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown in order to twist his radio sponsor’s arm in order to get that vacation. Only to have Carol change their plans when she’s contacted by Ellamae (Diana Lewis), her sorority sister from Georgia, U.S.A. Ellamae’s boyfriend appears to have been murdered.   Carol convinces Wally to go down to Georgia to get married, and Wally complies. Only to get involved in the unraveling mystery.

Whistling in Dixie

A Southern Yankee

  • by

Movie review of A Southern Yankee (1948) starring Red Skelton, Arlene Dahl, Brian Donlevy

Buy from Amazon.com  A Southern Yankee is a very funny movie, set at the tail end of the American Civil War. Red Skelton plays the role of Aubrey Filmore, an inept bellboy at a Northern hotel. He manages to catch €œthe Grey Spider €, a very famous (and dangerous) Southern spy.  

A Southern Yankee

Whistling in the Dark

  • by

Whistling in the Dark  (1941) starring Red Skelton, Conrad Veidt, Ann Rutherford, Eve Arden, Rags Ragland

 Whistling in the Dark was  Red Skelton‘s first starring role. It gave him the opportunity to strut his comedic muscles.   The movie begins with the meeting an odd cult, Silver Haven.  “We part in radiant contentment,” is their recurring phrase.  Silver Haven is quickly revealed as a  scheme to bilk gullible people out of their money.

Whistling in the Dark

The Yellow Cab Man [Red Skelton]

  • by

The Yellow Cab Man (1950) starring Red Skelton, Gloria DeHaven, Walter Slezak

 The Yellow Cab Man begins with a very funny title sequence. The accident-prone “Red” Pirdy, portrayed by Red Skelton, falls down stairs and ends up in the hospital. He confides to the audience, “You know this is the best cast I’ve ever been in”. With the various cast members having “signed” his cast.   The film proper begins with character actor Charles Lane, an agent for an insurance company, turning Red down for insurance …. Since he’s accident prone.

The Yellow Cab Man [Red Skelton]

The Fuller Brush Man [Red Skelton]

  • by

The Fuller Brush Man (1948), starring Red Skelton, Janet Blair

In a nutshell, The Fuller Brush Man is one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen.   Red Skelton is at his finest, both in verbal comedy as well as in physical slapstick galore.   The basic plot has Red Skelton playing the part of Red Jones, a well-meaning young man … Who keeps getting fired from every job he’s ever held within three weeks.   The girl he loves, Ann Elliot (played by Janet Blair) refuses his marriage proposal. Until he matures enough to be able to provide for a family.   Red decides to emulate his rival for Ann’s love by becoming a door-to-door salesman for the Fuller Brush company.   Unfortunately, this leads him to be the witness to a murder, with the police and gangsters following him … And why are the bad people interested in one of his hairbrushes?

The Fuller Brush Man [Red Skelton]
Exit mobile version