6 Day Bike Rider

This is a funny movie. It's good for kids too because it's all good natured fun. I usually don't watch movies this old, but it was on one afternoon and it had me laughing a lot. it's better than a lot of modern comedies. Give it a shot if you like silly movies. In a way it reminds me of Jim Carey movie. It's also fun to watch a movie like this from the 30's to see some of our country's history. Such as clothes worn, and cars, and just artifacts of everyday life. Some of the old fashioned slang is funny too. The star Joe E. Brown was more famous for his role in Some Like It Hot. I guess you'd say this film is filled with a lot of gags and silly situations.

Six Day Bike Rider is a standard Joe E. Brown comedy featuring the big mouth as a clueless braggart postal inspector who has his girl (Colleen Doyle) stolen in front of eyes by a traveling trick cyclist (Gordon Westcott). Determined to get her back he enters a marathon against his foe but runs into a lot of obstacles just trying to get to the velodrome.

As a kid I found Joe E Brown quite amusing in small doses whether in KIx commercials or supporting roles. His sad sack demeanor and trade mark yapper made him a living caricature and a very popular star in the early and mid 30s with Fireman Save my Child and Alibi Ike both baseball films that were tailor made for the former semi - professional ball player. In Six Day he does display some of his athletic prowess but he fares much better with a bat in his hand than a bike under him and and Bike Rider goes flat early.

Vaudeville trick bicyclist Gordon Westcott steals small-town bike messenger Joe E. Brown's girl, Maxine Doyle. Brown pursues them to the city, where he hooks up with Frank McHugh, who will be taking part in a six-day bicycle race, in which Westcott will take part. So Brown joins as McHugh's partner.

Brown's vehicles had become pretty hidebound by this point, with him playing the over-confident hick who turns out to be right. The reason it works is that it flattered the rural audiences and amused the urban movie-goers. While this one hasn't aged well -- are there any working velodromes in the US besides the one in Rock Hill South Carolina? -- there is plenty of amusement throughout.

One annoying thing about the film: due to the layout of the Los Angeles Winter Garden track, where the race was filmed, it appears as if it was photographed through an anamorphic lens that was constantly being turned!

Joe E. Brown during the early Thirties starred in a successful string of films decided to appeal to the rural audiences in contrast to most of Warner Brothers films which were decidedly urban based. 6 Day Bike Rider is a very good example of the kind of film Brown did while there. Over at Fox Studios Will Rogers was doing the same kind of films.

Joe is the bumptious country lad who seems to have two left feet, but does know how to ride and race a bicycle. Trick cyclist Gordon Westcott is making some moves on Joe's girl Maxine Doyle which is doubly bad because Westcott is slightly married to Dorothy Christy. Westcott plays your very old fashioned Snidely Whiplash type villain here, he does everything but twirl his mustache.

When he thinks Westcott's run off with Doyle, Brown hears he's entered a 6 day cycling contest and he enters too with partner Frank McHugh. The rules have them entering as two man teams and the track is a roller derby type affair.

Brown who takes a pratfall as good as I've ever seen has plenty of them in this film. Lots of good sight gags during the racing sequence which is about 25 minutes long.

6 Day Bike Ride is a good introduction to the comedy of Joe E. Brown.

Nothing is going right for simple clerk Wilfred Simpson (Joe E. Brown). Harry St. Clair has his eyes on Wilfred's girlfriend Phyllis Jenkins (Maxine Doyle). Wilfred gets the town riled up and everybody blames him for the chaos. Phyllis is frustrated. Wilfred decides to enter a 6-day bike race to compete against Harry and impress Phyllis.

In the modern sense, Wilfred is not an appealing boyfriend. He's petty and jealous and rather angry. It's the olden days and allowances must be given. I do like some of his idiocy, not all of it. He's better as an innocent. In this, he's an annoying jerk and that doesn't make him funny.