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.
[Sailing through the moonlight, sailing on the bay]
Poor you, I’m sorry you’re not me
For you will never know what loving you can be
Poor you, you’ll never know your charms
You’ll never feel your warmth, you’re never in your arms
“How About You?” is a popular song composed by Burton Lane, with lyrics by Ralph Freed. It was introduced in the 1941 film Babes on Broadway by Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney.
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.
A life on the ocean wave,
A-home on the rolling deep!
Where the scater’d waters rave,
And the winds their revels keep.
Like an eagle caged I pine
On this dull, unchanging shore.
Oh give me the flashing brine,
The spray and the tempest’s roar.
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
The movie I Dood It! is a musical comedy, dealing with a romance between two unlikely people – stage star Constance Connie Show (played by Eleanor Powell), and pants presser at a hotel Joe Renolds (played by Red Skelton), with lots of comedy and musical numbers in-between.
