There is a lot to laugh at in this farce where Joe E. Brown plays a novice reporter who wants to make it to the top of his profession and ends up investigating the attempted assassination of European royalty and falls in love with a princess (Helen Mack) enroute. He has a rival (Paul Kelly) who goes way out of his way to prevent Brown from getting the scoop, mainly out of jealousy that Brown, being the nephew of the newspaper owner, has much more all the chance of getting the big stories even though Kelly is probably the better reporter. Ending up in Europe, he meets Mack (posing as a commoner) and ends up coming closer to getting the scoop.
I laughed about half a dozen times hysterically, first in the steamship sequence where Brown, kept in the brig, has to deal with rough seas, and keeps being ghost with seawater coming through the portholes. It goes on for several minutes with the set rocking back and forth, causing my stomach to rock back and forth with hysterical giggles. The conclusion of the scene is the frosting on the cake. He has another scene briefly in disguise in a wheelchair that also had me doubling over in laughter. The chase sequence at the end has several great twists, like something you'd see in a Marx Brothers movie, and one of the great comic chase sequences in film history. It's too bad that the film isn't consistently enjoyable, having many moments that drag the film down. But Brown is always fun to watch, and when he's allowed to let loose, it's fabulous.
I laughed about half a dozen times hysterically, first in the steamship sequence where Brown, kept in the brig, has to deal with rough seas, and keeps being ghost with seawater coming through the portholes. It goes on for several minutes with the set rocking back and forth, causing my stomach to rock back and forth with hysterical giggles. The conclusion of the scene is the frosting on the cake. He has another scene briefly in disguise in a wheelchair that also had me doubling over in laughter. The chase sequence at the end has several great twists, like something you'd see in a Marx Brothers movie, and one of the great comic chase sequences in film history. It's too bad that the film isn't consistently enjoyable, having many moments that drag the film down. But Brown is always fun to watch, and when he's allowed to let loose, it's fabulous.