Joe E. Brown is Calvin Jones, the cowboy who arrives in New York from Texas with $20,000 he hopes to use to become a financial success. Fresh off a train, he proves adept at out-thinking those anxious to part him from his money
But he loses that good business since when he’s talked into bailing out a theatrical company because he’s taken with its pretty secretary (Ginger Rogers in an early role as Ruth Weston). When the company’s next show proves a flop and Jones’ attempts to offer advice are rebuffed, Weston talks him into standing up for himself.
He does so by buying out his partners. Then he somehow stumbles into success by staging a Western melodrama in Shakespearean costumes with Weston as the female lead.
That makes him the target of racketeers, who kidnap Weston and demand a king’s ransom for her release. Jones promptly dons his 10-gallon hat, straps on his six-guns and heads off to rescue her.
Review:
With his big smile and sudden outbursts of enthusiasm — he shouts out “ejaculations” here as he greets folks at a hotel — Brown was a major comedy star in the mid-30s, though it’s difficult to understand why watching this film.
It’s a flip on the typical tenderfoot saga. Rather than an Easterner going West and being completely unprepared to deal with frontier life, Brown plays the naive Westerner who finds himself marked as easy prey by shady Eastern businessmen.
It adds up to lots of silliness, but it’s not all that funny.
The film’s only redeeming quality is a chance to see Rogers before she became a bonafide star. She made her feature film debut two years earlier and would be paired with Fred Astaire for the first time the following year in “Flying Down to Rio.”
Directed by:
Ray Enright
Cast:
Joe E. Brown … Calvin Jones
Ginger Rogers … Ruth Weston
Lew Cody … Joe Lehman
Vivien Oakland … Miss Martin
Robert Greig … Mack
Ralph Ince … Dolan
Marion Byron … Kitty
Spencer Charters … Oscar
Douglas Gerrard … Stage director
Runtime: 70 min.
Memorable lines:
Stage employee: “How’d you like the show?”
Critic: “It smells out loud.”
Stage employee: “I guess you didn’t like it.”
Critic: “Didn’t like it? There’s an ambulance outside right now waiting to take home the customers that stayed for the last act.”
Calvin Jones, greeting people in a hotel: “Ejaculations.”
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