Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Sammy-Jo Cervantes There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Frances Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

bkoganbing Harry Cohn must have ponied up big to Louis B. Mayer for the services of his number one comic star Red Skelton. But the results were definitely worthwhile with The Fuller Brush Man.Back in the 40s there were 3 things sold door to door by intrepid salesmen, encyclopedias, vacuum cleaners, and those brushes from Fuller. As sleazy Don McGuire points out to Red it takes personality which Red has, but not to sell anything but laughs.Red's previous job before Fuller was a sanitation worker, but he insults Sanitation Commissioner Nicholas Joy and later is present in the house when Joy is murdered. One of Red's brushes is the weapon, but how it was used I can't say. Red was in a houseful of suspects and he looks like just the patsy for good size frame.Columbia put three of its best female contract players with Red. Janet Blair plays the girl McGuire keeps trying to steal from him. Hillary Brooke and Adele Jergens were at the murder scene, a pair of femme fatales if I ever saw one.In fact there's more than one and one obviously clichéd murderer as well. The Fuller Brush Man has two good scenes. The first is in Red's apartment where he's trying to keep Blair, Brooke, Jergens and others apart from each other and the cops. Second is a madcap chase through a warehouse with everyone else chasing Red and Janet.I hope Louis B. Mayer got enough money to offset what Columbia took in for The Fuller Brush Man. A lot of laughs, a must for Skelton fans.

vincentlynch-moonoi All those wonderful years Red Skelton spent with MGM...lots of funny gags in many of their musicals. But, MGM didn't get comedy movies. They got humor in ,usicals, but they didn't get making movies that were out-and-out comedies. This, however -- when he was lent out to Columbia -- is one of his best comedies.The plot is simple -- can the goofy guy win the girl of his dreams (Janet Blair) by becoming a successful Fuller Brush Man...even if murder enters the picture.There's a succession of funny segments, first when Red gets fired as a street cleaner after setting fire to the city park and then smashing up the commissioner's car. Then there's an extended segment where he first tries being a brush salesmen and meets a different challenge at ever door...including a (if not the) Mean Widdle Kid. In fact, fans of the old Red Skelton television shows will recognize a numbers of lines and skits that became standards for Red. During the period, Buster Keaton was often off-camera in Skelton movies, and while I found no evidence of Keaton working on this film, you'll see his influence in some of the bits. There are some great sight gags in the "chase scene" at the end of the flick.This is very much Red's picture. Janet Blair does her job here, but it's nothing special. Hillary Brooke, quite active in Abbot & Costello films, does rather nicely here. And, Arthur Space is one of those character actors whose name you probably don't know, but he does nicely here at the police detective.If you like slapstick comedy, get this one for your DVD shelf. SONY has done a decent job here in terms of the transfer to DVD.

Robert J. Maxwell Red Skelton finds a job as a door-to-door salesman while courting Janis Paige. The story turns into a murder mystery. That's about it.The script was by Frank Tashlin, who went on to direct a couple of very amusing comedies, including "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter." It's not clear who the intended audience is in this instance.I remember seeing it as a kid and laughing throughout, as I did at most of Red Skelton's movie -- and Abbot and Costello, for that matter. But I saw things then as through a glass redly, or rosily, and now that I am a man I have put away that particular child-like faculty along with my unbroken collection of Action Comics.It strikes me now as more silly than funny. Red Skelton marches down the sidewalk to appropriately pompous music, steps on a child's skate, and falls down. (The editor holds on the scene for several seconds, allowing the laughs in the audience die down.) Danny Kaye's comedies of the same period have held up much better. So have some of Red Skelton's. "A Southern Yankee" is still good for laughs.Withal, there's an endearing innocence about the production. Nobody's sense of humor was designed to exceed the age of fourteen. The gags we've seen a hundred times on television sit comes may have been relatively fresh. Skelton has a mobile face and does mime well. And the slapstick chase through a war surplus warehouse at the end is exciting enough to entertain almost everyone.It would be nice to check this out on an eleven-year-old child and see if he or she laughs or whether an abundance of sit coms and cartoons have made their sensibilities harden and their demands more challenging.

robert-temple-1 Red Skelton was one of the most famous and best-loved comedians in America from the 1940s to 1971. Everybody was always talking about him and looking forward to his TV show every week. He was a national icon. He played a lovable simple fool, in the tradition of Harry Langdon and Stan Laurel. His remarkable comic abilities were never properly captured in his films because there were never enough closeups for us to see the details of his comedic effects. For instance, in this film there is one wonderful scene where he thrusts his lower jaw out more than one could think possible and impersonates someone who wanted to help his friend by 'being a spare ashtray'. The trouble is, we get to see this only in badly lit long shots! This film was the fourth time Skelton was directed by S. Sylan Simon, who made one more film and died tragically at the age of only 41. But Simon never did justice to Skelton's special qualities, and Skelton's producers also saw him as just a useful clown. In fact, with proper handling and loving attention by an inspired director, Skelton could have achieved high art, of which he was well capable, since he was a a truly great clown. In this film, his girl friend who is a perfect foil was the lively Janet Blair, just as American as apple pie and absolutely right for 1948. The script has some great gags in it. At one point, where Skelton is being used as 'allure practice' by a siren, she says to him: 'I usually have men eating out of my hand.' Skelton replies with childlike innocence: 'I've already had my lunch.' Maybe nobody remembers any more about Fuller brush salesmen, but they used to be everywhere. There were more of them than neighbourhood cats and dogs. Yes, they really existed, and 'get in the door' was their motto, just as in this film. The Fuller Brush Company really existed too, and maybe the producer got a big product placement bonus in his pocket, or his studio did. This film was so successful, it was followed by 'The Fuller Brush Woman', starring the wacky Lucille Ball. Certainly Fuller brushes were familiar to every American, in the way that Tupperware was. This film has a spectacular closing chase sequence with some truly amazing sight gags, a few of which rival Buster Keaton's, but they are filmed so badly that much of their impact is lost. Whoever designed them was brilliant. It is a very long and very astonishing sequence which anyone interested in such things really needs to see. I found myself wishing it could all be recreated and shot properly. What was lacking from Skelton's films was the care and imagination to match his innate genius. But if you like Skelton and want to see him in top form, watch this one. The fact that it could have been so much better is something you just have to put up with. It may be corny, but it is never dull.