The Fuller Brush Man (1948)

Director:

S. Sylvan Simon

Writers:

Roy Huggins (story)
Frank Tashlin (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

June 1948 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Crime | Romance

Tagline:

Based Upon a SATURDAY EVENING POST Story by Roy Huggins (original poster)

Plot:

Poor Red Jones gets fired from every job he tries. His fiancée gives him one last chance to make good when he becomes a Fuller Brush man...

Plot Keywords:

Suspect | Fuller Brush | Sweetheart | Warehouse | Fuller Brush Man

Cast

Red Skelton	...	Red Jones
Janet Blair	...	Ann Elliot
Don McGuire	...	Keenan Wallick
Hillary Brooke	...	Mildred Trist
Adele Jergens	...	Miss Sharmley
Ross Ford	...	Freddie Trist
Trudy Marshall	...	Sara Franzen
Nicholas Joy	...	Commissioner Gordon Trist
Donald Curtis	...	Gregory Cruckston
Arthur Space	...	Police Lt. Quint

Also Known As:

That Mad Mr. Jones (UK)

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (certificate #12881) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Finland:K-12 | Sweden:15

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

A major part of the movie involves a murder and a disappearing dagger. Red Skelton's character discovers someone has made the dagger by soaking the handle of one of his brushes in hot water and reshaping it. When the handle is put back into hot water it returns to its original shape. After trying numerous ways to make this look realistic with special effects the producers finally went to a plastics company and had them actually develop a "memory plastic". It was such a big story that it was in an article covered in "Life" magazine.

Quotes:

Keenan Wallick: [as he sees Ann kissing Red, who he thinks is a murderer] Arrest that man!
Lt. Quint: Why, is there a law against it?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Remington Steele: Blue Blooded Steele (#3.5)" (1984)

Frantic screwball with the Tashlin touch...

The opening scenes of "The Fuller Brush Man" are hardly promising: Red Skelton, playing a ne'er-do-well who can't hold a job, hopes to impress his lady-love with his skills as a door-to-door salesman, not knowing that he's been sent to the worst neighborhood in town by his adversary, his gal's other boyfriend. Seeing charming Skelton (with his happy chatter and lilting walk) being set-up as a chump is awfully sour, and the slapstick chaos which ensues isn't funny as a result. Thankfully, writer Frank Tashlin quickly gets off this baleful track, turning the proceedings instead into a comedic murder mystery, with Red one of the suspects in the killing of his former boss. The new plot thread--while neither original nor ingenious--does allow Skelton lots of funny business as an actor, with Janet Blair the perfect counterpart to Red's unintentional hero. The wild, free-for-all finale in a warehouse has staging and stunt-work as good as anything from the silent era, if not better. No wonder this was a box-office smash in 1948--it leaves the audience with a succession of happy highs. Followed two years later by "The Fuller Brush Girl". *** from ****