moonspinner55 The opening scenes of "The Fuller Brush Man" are hardly promising: Red Skelton, playing a ne'er-do-well who can't hold a job, hopes to impress his lady-love with his skills as a door-to-door salesman, not knowing that he's been sent to the worst neighborhood in town by his adversary, his gal's other boyfriend. Seeing charming Skelton (with his happy chatter and lilting walk) being set-up as a chump is awfully sour, and the slapstick chaos which ensues isn't funny as a result. Thankfully, writer Frank Tashlin quickly gets off this baleful track, turning the proceedings instead into a comedic murder mystery, with Red one of the suspects in the killing of his former boss. The new plot thread--while neither original nor ingenious--does allow Skelton lots of funny business as an actor, with Janet Blair the perfect counterpart to Red's unintentional hero. The wild, free-for-all finale in a warehouse has staging and stunt-work as good as anything from the silent era, if not better. No wonder this was a box-office smash in 1948--it leaves the audience with a succession of happy highs. Followed two years later by "The Fuller Brush Girl". *** from ****

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.

Ray Faiola 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.

denscul Even if your not a fan of slap stick or Skeleton's trademark corn this movie captures the best of Skelton in a great comedy. This movie launched his entry into TV and his series still ranks as one of the longest lived. Critics of the show would pan Skelton's unabashed corn, but the Fuller Brush Man was a classic comedy, done as well as your average Marx Brother's work. If you had to pick one Skeleton movie as his best, this is the one.The movie begins with Red's complete failures in life and love. Unlike many of his movies and later TV roles, this movie show Skeleton as an actor who could show the pathos of his character. As a fuller brush salesman (a common fixture in the 40's and 50's), the occupation fits perfectly with Red's character as the proverbial pesty door to door salesman. Well on his way to another failure in life, Red gets involved in a murder that seems funnier and more convincing than his previous roles as a slap stick detective. The scenes in the WWII surplus wharehouse are both funny and extraordinarily well done. No computer generated action scenes, just excellent stunt work. If you like happy and funny endings, this movie will not disappoint.