6 Day Bike Rider

Hysterical Joe E. Brown plays a nearsighted buffoon in a series of pratfalls, sight gags filled with goofy characters participating in improbable events that might leave you giggling at all the silliness.

Just a look at Joe E's silly mugging will make you smile.

This is the type of small-town/countrified fun we came to know and love with the "Ma and Pa Kettle" series of films and in the 60's with such fare as the "Beverly Hillbillies", "Green Acres" and "Petticoat Junction".

The difference here is that the humor is clean, innocent, charming...and old-fashioned. Which is just "hunky-dory" with me!

Joe E. Brown's type of humor here may appear dated to some, but is has a place in the history of film comedy in reflecting the sober type of fun which has sadly fallen completely by the wayside in recent years.

It's not a classic...but worth a look for all its screwball moments.

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!

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.

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.

While Joe E. Brown was a very popular comedian in films during the 1930s, today he's not nearly as popular. I wonder if some of it might just be the sorts of characters he often played. Too often, he played really obnoxious sorts--narcissistic jerks who thought they knew everything. "6 Day Bike Rider" is yet another one of these films...with Wilfred (Brown) being an incredible braggart. Because of this, it's hard to really care about what happens to the guy.

The film begins in the small town of Mildew. Wilfred has been dating Phyllis (Maxine Doyle) for years but takes her for granted. When a traveling show arrives and she is smitten with a guy who does tricks on his bike, Wilfred insists he can do even better....and makes a fool of himself in the process. Eventually, he behaves so badly that Phyllis breaks it off with Wilfred...and Wilfred heads to the big city to make a name for himself and win her back. His plan is to enter a team bike race. But this boob ends up getting himself arrested and cannot make the start of the race--and his new nemesis will be riding there as well and you know he MUST make that race. What's to happen to Wilfred and his big plans?

This film is at best a time-passer and not much more. In addition to making Wilfred a jerk, the film also loses a few points for the big bike race. Cheating is obvious by the baddies (and never noticed by anyone but the audience watching the film) and at one point Wilfred is also cheating by tossing bananas onto the track and another he unintentionally drugs his opponents with Chloroform! Apparently there are no judges watching the race...or they are legally blind! Add to that a few really BAD rear-projected scenes and the film certainly has a few strikes against it. Had the film made him Brown's character sympathetic and the jokes a bit funnier, it sure would have worked better.