The Fuller Brush Man (1948)

Simply Perfect

Absolutely Brilliant!

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

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.

I saw this on TV in the 60s when Red's weekly show brought us such wonderful laughs and memories. For me, there was only one other TV funny man besides him (the great one-Jackie Gleason). So TV comedies made an impact on me and my sensibilities.But the one Skeleton MOVIE which I have always remembered was this movie and the remarkably fun-filled finale in the war surplus warehouse! I finally watched it again on TV again after soooo many years. And by golly, the memory of all of the gags all came back to me and I enjoyed it even more this time. I am sure that the endless gags and funny sequences were copied by scores of comedies.These are the types of movies, with their innocent fun and optimism which helped to form my personality and character for the rest of my life.Oh woe to the current generation who never had these movies in their consciousness. I consider myself extremely fortunate to be a product of these wholesome movies.Thank you, Red, wherever you are. You were very special to me, indeed.

The movies has Red Skelton playing an accident prone person who tries to succeed as a Fuller Brush Man. His girlfriend is at the breaking point from his employment failures and gives him another chance. There is another Fuller Brush man salesman who is Red's rival for the girl's affections. The movie has many sight gags and funny events happening to Red as he attempts to sell the brushes to potential customers. Red has a run in with the local sanitation director and damages his car. He is later unknowingly sent to the sanitation director's home where a murder later occurs and Red becomes the prime murder suspect. Red is trailed by the police and the other people who were present at the murder scene. A slapstick chase ensues as Red and his girlfriend are pursued by thugs who are attempting to retrieve the murder weapon. After a rather frenzied chase inside a warehouse area, the authorities are called in and arrest the actual murderer (who Red actually pointed out at the initial murder scene). There are quite a few laughs in the movie, although I thought the final chase scene had some redundant and somewhat lame action sequences. There is also a funny sequence when Red is at his home and then keeps getting guests arriving who were at the murder scene and he has to keep juggling the arrivals around. I thought that the storyline ended without the other cast of characters a bit too early and didn't include the other suspects at the end of the film.

THE FULLER BRUSH MAN is, hands-down, Red Skelton's best film. The script is tight and packed solid with one liners. The supporting cast, especially Janet Blair and Don McGuire, are very personable (McGuire in a greasy sort of way, of course!). The scenario is perfectly balanced between the first half wherein Red tries to make something of himself and the second half after which a murder is committed in the home of the sanitation commissioner who fired Skelton. Like Sylvan Simon's WHISTLING pictures, there is an extended set-piece - this time in Red's apartment. But unlike the MGM comedies (poor MGM, they tried at comedy) the cutting, camera-work and staging are more fluid. And funnier. BUT all this is but a build-up to one of the great chase finales in pictures. And here is where co-scenarist Frank Tashlin really shows his stuff. The chase is a raucous knockabout affair with the gangsters, all played by top stunt players such as Dave Sharpe and Bud Wolfe, bounce and tumble like the Keystone Kops. And what really sells the chase is Heinz Roemheld's dizzy, pizzicato scoring. It is perfectly punctuated and wraps the entire finale up into a three-ring circus act. It is very interesting to compare the chase finale in FULLER BRUSH MAN to the chase finale in THE YELLOW CAB MAN. The latter sequence was scored by MGM cartoon music maestro Scott Bradley. But for some unconscionable reason, Bradley's music was completely dropped from the finale. Talked about a scotched opportunity. Never mind. See THE FULLER BRUSH MAN. It's Red's best.