The Good Humor Man (1950)

Straight out of the style that made the "Fuller Brush" movies, this Columbia farce is top dog in what makes old fashioned comedy so much fun. It's all in a day's work for ice cream salesman Jack Carson who gets involved in more than just selling his products than he bargained for. Ringing bells make human voices impossible to understand, a kid with a speech impediment confuses him with an order, and melting ice cream bars in a furnace room create all sorts of havoc. But it's his coming to the aide of a young woman who claims that men are trying to kill her that guides the plot, literally putting him into a feel freeze, and leading to more mayhem when he does come upon a corpse and finds himself in a lot more trouble.Carson, coming off a long spell at Warner Brothers, gets his best part, and really shows off a great bag of comic tricks. Lola Albright supports Carson as his long suffering girlfriend who keeps showing up at the wring time. Carson, wearing a women's slip and covered in soot, ends up "caged" with a bunch of tough dames, and must try to square things with Albright. Frank Ferguson is very funny as a police lieutenant, while Peter Miles is lovable as Albright's younger brother. Look for a young Richard Egan as a police officer. It's a shame that Carson never got the chance to star in a sitcom; he would have been a nice contrast to the women dominated field of TV sitcoms in the 1950's, equally as funny as Gleason, Skelton, Backus and Arnaz. The ending with the villains dealing with Carson, Albright and an army of kids is absurd in its overuse of comedy but somehow works anyway.

If you enjoyed the Stooges, you will get a hoot out of the last 20 minutes or so of this film, as every possible projectile, from musical instruments, to table saws, to baseball bats and the eventual pie fight, all come into play. It is what we paid 25 cents to see way back when. Carson and Albright have great chemistry, in fact, I would say that her role was so proactive as to almost claim her as an early women's libber! The film is dotted with character actors (yes, even George Reeves, our eventual 50's Superman), which only adds to the delight. A fun, nostalgic film, which reminded me of how I spent my Saturday afternoons once upon a time!

I went into this film a little skeptical, but was intrigued by the title. This must be one of the first films with product placement. Good Humor is featured for about the first three quarters of this film. Jack Carson is his usual self in this farce about a Good Humor man whose set up by a gang of criminals. This material seemed to be written for his talent for comedy. And it's nice to have a film like this with two very attractive women in it. The film is loaded with several character actors from this era; Frank Ferguson, Arthur Space, and Pat Flaherty just to mention a few. The story and the action aren't very realistic; but the comedy is great. And there's a chase that must run ten to twelve minutes that crams in every element of a comedic chase ever seen; pies, fire extinguishers spraying, musical instruments used in a fight; and lots more. It's old but gives lots of laughs all through the story, with the big chase at the end.

I love Jack Carson in any movie I've seen him in, but I'm afraid I found this one boring, and fast-forwarded through most of it. I enjoyed the beginning, when Jack was treating the kids to ice-cream and joining in the Captain Marvel fan club, but once it got to the murder mystery it went downhill and became a mess of slapstick aimed at little children. But even kids couldn't sit through the too-long chase scenes. It needed a more clever zaniness, and I kept thinking how much better it would have been with Bob Hope and his self-depreciating humor in the lead, making clever quips.Kudos, however, to the actress playing Jack's girlfriend, who gets dunked, dragged, and knocked down incessantly and yet manages to keep one step ahead of the villains! I really felt for her when she was trying to get Jack off the rope he was swinging on, and she got dragged back and forth until she fell onto the dusty ground!