Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Connianatu How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

jacobs-greenwood Directed by Jack Donohue, this slightly above average comedy features Red Skelton in the title role. Though I'm not a big fan of this comedian's mugging and frequently goofy on-screen persona, I have to admit that this film's story (by Devery Freeman, who co- wrote the screenplay) kept me interested, if not laughing, until its end. Perhaps the fact that the cast is filled with several recognizable and competent character actors like Walter Slezak, Edward Arnold, James Gleason, Paul Harvey, Guy (Herbert) Anderson, and even Polly Moran (in her last film) had something to do with it. Charles Lane also appears, uncredited, as a casualty company executive who denies Skelton's character coverage for being a bad risk.Skelton plays 'Red' Pirdy, an accident prone inventor who meets Ellen Goodrich (Gloria DeHaven), an insurance adjuster for the Yellow Cab Co. after he'd been hit by Mickey Corkins's (James Gleason) cab. Naturally, Ellen tries to get the victim to unwittingly sign a document absolving her company from any responsibility for the accident. She visits him at his apartment which is rigged with inventions he's created per his lifelong study of, and expertise in, safety.Red, more than aware of his 'reckless' tendency, is all too willing to sign the paper until an ambulance chasing lawyer Martin Creavy (Arnold), whose name is alternately mispronounced Greedy and/or Creepy, stops him. Ellen wonders how Creavy always seems to arrive at her claimant conferences, during the course of which Red inadvertently demonstrates his elastic glass invention. Ellen is then able to get Red to sign the document by promising a demonstration of his invention to her cab company's owner, Mr. Hendricks.Creavy, who had backed out of Red's apartment with an idea, is then seen in the Yellow Cab Co. office of Willis Tomlin (Anderson), who's been being bribed by Creavy for giving inside information to the lawyer about claimants' cases. Creavy, who'd instantly realized the value of Red's elastic glass, tells Tomlin that he must sabotage the demonstration to Mr. Hendricks (because he needs time to "unlock" the secret formula from Red's brain). Tomlin switches Red's elastic glass windshield for a regular one so that when Red throws a baseball at Mr. Hendricks (Harvey), sitting behind it, the owner is beaned. Ellen, who's demoted to the "Lost & Found" department, and Mickey sympathize with Red before convincing him to become an employee of the company in order to get another chance to demonstrate his invention.A scene which should be funnier than it is follows: it begins with Mickey mentoring Red on the fine art of cab driving and ends with Red totaling Mickey's cab. Moran plays the mother of the bride who, along with the groom become oblivious, kissing passengers in the back of the ill-fated cab. However, somehow, Red becomes a full fledged member of the cab company.Meanwhile, Creavy has one of his men (John Butler) fake an accident by throwing himself in front of Red's cab in hopes of gaining leverage over him. Creavy also schemes to learn the secret of Red's invention by utilizing phony Dr. Byron Dokstedder (Slezak) to hypnotize it out of him.Though neither of these plans work, fortunately for Creavy (and for no other reason than to foreshadow a later event and introduce a place for it to occur), Red and Ellen go to a home show. Once there, Red recognizes the man who he'd hit with his cab when he buys a refrigeration product from "Dr." Dokstedder, and "smells a skunk".Later, one of Creavy's heavies, Hugo (Jay Flippen), takes a fare during which he bops Red on the head; a unique dream sequence follows. When Red awakes, he finds himself being held captive by Dokstedder & Hugo, but successfully escapes his own apartment by using his own inventions.Ever since being hypnotized by Dokstedder, Red conveniently hears the Doctor's voice in his head, which leads him to later suspect that he's killed Tomlin, who was about to double cross Creavy by spilling the beans about the unsuccessful invention demonstration.However, the fact that Red's pitcher made of elastic glass was used as the murder weapon, and that Creavy somehow knew it had water in it, eventually works its way from Red's subconscious to help him figure out what's going on. Events lead Red, recaptured by Creavy and company (which now includes another heavy played by John Indrisano), as well as Ellen & Corkins back to the home show after hours for a crazy, slapstick ending including a convoy of taxicabs, large balloons with bows & arrows ... and, of course, another demonstration of Red's elastic glass windshield to Mr. Hendricks, with predictable results.

Robert J. Maxwell Red Skelton is a cab driver who is accident prone. He has a girl friend of sorts, Gloria DeHaven, and some buddies at the Yellow Cab Company in Los Angeles, including James Gleason. A cabal of bad guys -- Edward Arnold, Walter Slezak, and assorted hoods with names like "Gimpy" -- find out that Skelton has invented an invaluable substance, elastic glass, for use in automobile windows. The villains first con Red, then drug him, then chase him through a vast display of "modern homes" and appliances.I laughed all the way through this when I was a kid, cheering and clapping along with the others. It strikes me as silly at times, now that I'm older and have much more sophisticated tastes. (Now I find Lady Gaga funny.) However, there's no argument about it's being a successful farce. The climax has a whirling carousel of a modern house going berserk -- before "Strangers on a Train" -- throwing bad guys this way and that. Slezak plays an evil doctor who tries to hide his hypodermic syringe full of truth serum in a toaster. The toaster tips over and ejects its contents point first, hitting Slezak in the buns. If you don't find that amusing, you should not watch this.Red is his usual gibbering self. DeHaven is pouty and pretty. We don't usually associate Edward Arnold with comedy and, in fact, he plays his familiar evil self here, only slightly over the top, gruff, blustering, phonily affable. Slezak is quite good. He was in a number of comic roles and was almost always effective in them.

vincentlynch-moonoi It's often been said that MGM didn't "get" comedy. And with the scripts they would hand Red, again and again they proved that to be true. They could put really funny things in their forte -- musicals. But it was rare they really understood what makes a great comedy.For a change, here they got it right. I've always thought this to be the best of the Red Skelton comedy films, and my sister would have agreed when she was about 7 years old and we watched this on television. She was in absolute hysterics!But there's more to this film than slapstick (although that's what my sister remembers). Red always had the ability to play pathos, and he does here as the accident-prone inventor of unbreakable glass, which he tries to sell to the Yellow Cab Company, hoping that they will make unbreakable windshields. Of course, with Red being accident prone, his demonstration of his invention is a disaster. It's one mishap after another. But the bad guys are always at hand trying to take advantage. There's Edward Arnold (once a leading man himself), here reduced to a con-man shyster lawyer (but he's so good at it!). Then there's his accomplice -- Walter Slezak, as a crocked psychiatrist...and he leads Red into a fantasy sequence that's genuinely clever, original, and very funny. And then there's the hilarious finale at the Home Show. But what also works in this film is Red's sympathetic performance, silly little bits, and his romantic interest with Gloria DeHaven, who does quite nicely here. And then there's character actors James Gleason and Jay C. Flippen. Yes, MGM got it right this time, and gave Red one of his best roles. One for the DVD shelf! If you only buy one Red Skelton movie on DVD...this is the one!

raskimono Skelton was never as popular as the other leading comics of his day including Hope, Crooner/Comic Crosby, Danny Kaye, Abbott and Costello for a while and many others but his movies made money as this one did too. The concept of this movie is not original but congenial and in an era of remakes would a nice, tidy vehicle for a Ben Stiller type. Watching Skelton convincingly bungle and bumble his way through scene after scene is a complete hoot. The jokes come naturally and to me, he is better at delivering these jokes than Bob Hope ever was. The mad cap finale is generally fun in this warm two hander with Gloria de haven. And direction is generally snappy and on point as our cab driver causes obvious hijinks in this on the nose but funny tale.