The Medicine Man

At the onset, this film has two huge strikes against it. First, it's a very early talkie and most films from this time suffered from very poor sound quality. And, compared to the average film of the time, it's even worse. Second, it's in the public domain—so there's no incentive for anyone to do anything to try to fix this sound problem. So, if you do try to watch it, be prepared. But, if you do it's a pretty good film.

The movie begins with a young lady and her brother living with a VERY abusive father. In fact, it's a bit shocking to see such a brutal depiction of child abuse. However, things look a bit brighter when a medicine show arrives in town, as the boss (Benny) is quite charming and might just be the young lady's ticket away from the horrid father. Tune in to see exactly what happens next.

While Jack Benny will always be remembered as a comedian, I am not really sure if I'd call this a comedy. This is not a bad thing, as the film worked pretty well as a light drama—plus in many of Benny's early films the humor is very forced. Here, however, the film is story-driven and this worked pretty well overall. So, if you are looking for a comedy—look a bit further. But if you are looking for a good movie—without laughs, then look no further.

When watching The Medicine Man with Jack Benny one has to keep in mind that at this stage of his career Benny had not yet hit on the lovable tightwad character in which his comedy was built around. He was just another old vaudeville performer trying to make it in Hollywood at a point when studios were signing them up because of some kind of stage training. Benny's career in film was never all that significant, his primary venue was radio and later television where the tightwad image was so ingrained in your mind, it was what you expected and knew how he would react in a given situation.

That is not The Medicine Man. In this film Benny is a barker for a medicine show, not a respectable profession. But for Betty Bronson and young Billy Butts, brother and sister, he represents a way to get out from a really horrible life with a cruel and repressive father.

Jack does not really cut it as a romantic figure. But that might have not been his fault. The inevitable complaint from performers is about typecasting in a particular role. What was a complaint for most was something Benny absolutely relied on later for his comedy to work. It worked so well that even looking back at films before his hit radio show, he just can't be seen in another part.

But he'd have preferred it that way.

Young Mamie Goltz (played by Betty Bronson) and her brother Buddy (Billy Butts) dream of getting away from the influence of their overly abusive and cruel father. When a medicine show comes to town and one Dr. John Harvey (Jack Benny) shows romantic interest in Mamie, she hopes even though she knows it unlikely that somehow her dream will be fulfilled.

The biggest flaw here is our story never seems credible. It's hard to believe Harvey, who our story establishes has an history of using and casting aside girls should so easily fall for Mamie and change his ways just to be with her and to help her although I guess it's not outside the realm of the plausible. Also this film often tries most unsuccessfully to be funny. It never is.

This is an odd curio of the early sound era in movie history, an attempt to mix melodrama and comedy that might have worked better on the stage than it does as a movie. Most of the interest in watching it now comes from Betty Bronson's sympathetic performance as the heroine, and from seeing Jack Benny in what seems to have been his first starring role in a feature-length movie.

The story has Bronson and a younger brother as the children of a tyrannical and abusive shopkeeper. They meet up with a traveling medicine show led by Benny's character, who then becomes involved in their family problems, while at the same time trying to keep an eye on some of his shifty associates who have a knack for getting in trouble with the law. The setup has enough of interest to make for a good story, but it doesn't ever feel as if things come together.

Some of the intended humor doesn't quite come off, and some of the behavior of the shopkeeper father is unsettling. He's a genuinely nasty character that you don't expect to see in movies of the era, and while the character serves to call attention to child abuse issues, it doesn't mesh with the parts of the movie that are supposed to be much lighter. It's hard for the comedy to work when the young heroine and her brother face such an unpleasant situation, and yet the lighter material also takes attention away from the seriousness of the issues involved. To some degree, this may just be a sign of its era, for in the early sound era it is not uncommon to see movies with awkward pacing and material that does not always fit together.

Bronson is the bright spot of the movie, although this kind of scenario does not really allow her to use her talents to the best advantage. She makes her character engaging and believable, and this gives you a reason to maintain interest in the rest of the movie. It's interesting to watch Benny, especially in comparison with his better-known performances later in his career. Here, you can see signs of the talents that eventually would make him such a wonderful entertainer, and at the same time you can see that this kind of movie is not where his strength lies.

Benny's recognizable even at this early age, however there's none of his trademark understated humor. Looks like he was intended here as a leading man; if so, he underplays perhaps to a fault. In short, the low-key no doubt worked perfectly for the comedian but not for the actor. Good thing his career converted. Then too, movie-wise, whatever spark there is comes from leading lady Bronson whose sweetness shines even as the abused daughter of brutal father Goltz who leather-straps his kids for most any misbehavior. No, this is not a comedy as the Benny name would imply. Instead he runs a traveling medicine show that comes to Bronson's small town where their mutual attraction soon develops. But what's her tyrannical father going to do since he's already picked out an over-age finance for her. That's the plot crux. Still, there're several points to note.

The character Gus, Vadim Uranoff, is a highly unusual one both in looks and behavior. As a handyman he lurks in the background agonizing over Goltz' cruelty, a strangely craggy figure too timid to interfere. Also, note that despite their suspect reputation, Benny's medicine show is made relatively law-abiding, except for the two con men who operate apart from Benny. That way the hero's shown to be morally upright despite a suspect livelihood, and thus someone qualified to identify with. Note too the surprise climax, a case where law appears to conflict with morality though the shooter is not made clear. Still, it's a surprise and a clear case of pre-Code ambiguity that would soon be disallowed by Code censors. Anyway, for fans of comedian Benny, the flick may be disappointing. Nonetheless, there are unusual compensations.