The Fuller Brush Girl (1950)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Lloyd Bacon

Writer:

Frank Tashlin (writer)

Release Date:

15 September 1950 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

THE FULLER BRUSH GIRL HAS SOMETHING THE FULLER BRUSH MAN DIDN'T HAVE! (original print ad - all caps)

Plot:

Scatterbrained Sally Elliott gets a job as a Fuller brush girl and, as expected, her attempts at selling cosmetics door-to-door are disastrous...

Plot Keywords:

Cosmetics | Parrot | Switchboard | Bananas | Smuggling

Cast

Lucille Ball	...	Sally Elliot
Eddie Albert	...	Humphrey Briggs
Carl Benton Reid	...	Mr. Christy
Gale Robbins	...	Ruby Rawlings
Jeff Donnell	...	Jane Bixby
Jerome Cowan	...	Harvey Simpson
John Litel	...	Mr. Watkins
Fred Graham	...	Rocky Mitchell
Lee Patrick	...	Claire Simpson
Arthur Space	...	Insp. Rodgers

Also Known As:

Affairs of Sally (UK)

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:S | Sweden:Btl

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Humphrey is climbing down the mattress springs, you can see the wire holding him up.

Quotes:

Sally Elliot: It only took you a year to finish that correspondence course.
Humphrey Briggs: Yeah, but that was a six month course.

Movie Connections:

Featured in 100 Years of Comedy (1997) (V)

Soundtrack:

Put the Blame on Mame

Wonderfully Funny Find!

Once and a while you're lucky enough to see a film for the very first time that you never heard of before that you simply end up loving. Such is "The Fuller Brush Girl". Costarring Lucille Ball and Eddie Albert, this is one very funny film. It was written by the late/great Frank Tashlin and plays out like a live action cartoon. And no wonder. Tashlin is one of the all-time greats in the field of animated cartoons. While not as prolific as Tex Avery, his cartoons are among some of the best ever made. It was once said that Frank Tashlin directed cartoons like films and made films like cartoons. "The Fuller Brush Girl" is a perfect example. While directed by Lloyd Bacon, the real soul of the movie is Tashlin, who basically comes up with inventive gag after great inventive gag. And all of them are worked out in live action to perfection. Tex Avery once said that it was funnier if something was done in live action. And he was right! Had this been an actual cartoon, it wouldn't have been as satisfying. Ball is her usual hilarious self and Albert is at his best here as her fiancé'. So if you think you've seen every 1940s-50s comedy worth seeing and have yet to see "The Fuller Brush Girl" , then you really have something to look forward to! As they say, don't miss it! Enjoy!