JoeDoakes
Senior HTF Member
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While we await Warner Home Video's 10 Disc Joe E. Brown Signature Collection, TCM is proceeding with, what has become, its annual Birthday tribute featuring many of his starring role films from the early 1930s. The schedule is as follows: 6:30 AM On With The Show (1929) 8:15 AM Top Speed (1930) 9:30 AM Going Wild (1931) 10:45 AM Local Boy Makes Good (1931) 12:00 PM Sit Tight (1931) 1:30 PM 6 Day Bike Rider (1934) 2:45 PM Very Honorable Guy, A (1934) 4:00 PM Polo Joe (1936) 5:15 PM Sons O' Guns (1936) 6:45 PM When's Your Birthday? (1937) Brown's film career began with him playing a rather impish figure seemingly derived from burlesque comedy, but gradually moved to him playing boastful, somewhat naive characters from small town America. With the change of his character, the films themselves changed and the rather strong precode elements of Eleven Men and a Girl and Top Speed were eliminated in favor of more wholesome vehicles. These films often spotlighted Brown's remarkable athletic abilities (in Sit Tight, while running from a pursuer, he leaps over three four foot high examinination tables in a row -- you can see him do it; it's not a stuntman). Up until 1937, Joe E. Brown was a contract star at First National/Warner Brothers. In 1937, he signed with an independent producer and it sunk his career. With regard to the TCM schedule, Local Boy Makes Good marked his move away from his early persona. Top Speed was given three out of four stars by Leonard Maltin who said, “Big mouth bond clerk and pal [Jack] Whiting pose as millionaires at a fancy hotel to impress a couple of rich cuties. One of Brown’s best vehicles, a funny musical comedy . . . with zippy production numbers, some racy gags and a wild speedboat finale.” I don't have any specific informationt, but it must have provided some of the inspiration for Some Like it Hot. A Very Honorable Guy was based on a Damon Runyon story. When's Your Birthday? was Brown's first post-First National film. In terms of DVD, many of Bown's supporting roles are available (A Midsummer Nights's Dream, Show Boat, Some Like it Hot, Comdey of Terrors) from major studios. The worst covered period in his career are his starring Columbia films from the late 1930s and early 1940s. Perhaps Sony's MOD program will release some of these. VCI and Alpha have released Brown's post-First National, pre-Columbia films on pressed DVD. Warner archive has released Alibi Ike (one of his baseball triology), The Tenderfoot, Eleven Men and a Girl. and Sit Tight. I am sure that Signature Collection is around the corner. So, check out TCM Thursday.
