Gildersleeve's Bad Day

This time it's jury duty for The Great Gildersleeve and he's chosen as foreman in GILDERSLEEVE'S BAD DAY. Harold Peary uses his radio characterization of the foolish man to great effect, making the most of a script that puts him into amusing but absurd situations, very few of which have anything to do with reality.

He's the lone holdout finding a man "not guilty" of a murder rap when all the evidence proves that he is indeed guilty. DOUGLAS FOWLEY is the criminal whose friends send Gildersleeve a note threatening the worst unless he votes not guilty. Gildy never receives the note and when he does vote "not guilty", Leroy and Aunt Emma and the rest of his gang figure he's cheating the law. A lot of misunderstandings occur, in goofy fashion, before he gets things straightened out with Judge Hooker.

Highly amusing entry if you can forgive the lack of logic, good for a few laughs with another amusing turn from HAROLD PEARY in the title role and JANE DARWELL, NANCY GATES, CHARLES ARNT and FREDDIE MERCER repeating their supporting cast roles in the first Gildersleeve film.

Second in RKO's short-lived Great Gildersleeve series based on the popular radio show. This time Gildersleeve is a juror in the trial of a bank robber. Through no fault of his own, Gildersleeve comes under suspicion of taking a bribe. Harold Peary is very enjoyable as the pompous Gildersleeve. His objecting to the prosecuting attorney during the trial is a hoot. Pretty Nancy Gates appears to have aged five years since the last film (it's actually been less than one). This is her last appearance in the series. It's also the last appearance of Jane Darwell's Aunt Emma. Lillian Randolph returns as Birdie the maid. She's always fun. A very nice supporting cast in this one, including Charles Arnt, Douglas Fowley, Alan Carney, and Grant Withers. Richard LeGrand is a treat as drug store owner Mr. Peavy, a role LeGrand also played on the radio program. A funny entry in the series. It moves quickly and barely clocks in at an hour. A nice time-passer on a lazy afternoon.

One of Gildy's best. The mix of characters is artfully coordinated by underrated director Douglas. As a blustery juror in a criminal case, Gildy is suspected of bribery in exonerating the defendant. After all, there is the offer to him of a thousand dollars from the criminal gang if the jury votes "not guilty". This puts him in a bad way with his arch-adversary, Judge Hooker. No doubt about it—it's a baaad day for our small town hero. Meanwhile, Margie has to figure out which swain to go to the dance with, while LeRoy and Birdie look on at the hijinks in amusing fashion.

I love the touch with the little guy walking under the sawhorse plank instead of around it. It's touches like this that lift a programmer from the merely routine. Then there's Peary's patented array of bottom-of-the-well sound effects. That humorless laugh and rich baritone are among the most distinctive in all moviedom. Anyhow, it's a lively 60-minutes of amusing mix-up, thanks in large part to the versatile supervision of Director Douglas.

(In passing—I just saw 1957's dead serious "12 Angry Men". Catch some of the similarities in jury room plot line. It's coincidence, I would assume, but interesting, nevertheless.)

In the second movie version of the NBC radio show, Harold Peary is on jury duty against a yegg caught with soup -- that's a safecracker carrying nitroglycerin. Peary thinks thinks that the evidence is circumstantial and holds out for 'Not Guilty', to everyone's annoyance. He doesn't know he has received a letter offering him $1000 if he does so.

Fans of Old Time Radio may comment more knowingly about whether this was how the radio show proceeded, but the general silliness and presence of innumerable catchphrases make it a marker of its time. Just as we can now figure what week a tweet was posted by its memes, catchphrases might have equally evanescent existences, sure to convulse fans of the show and meaningless to outsiders, like Richard LeGrand's mild "Well, I wouldn't say that." The radio cast is eked out with performers like Jane Darwell. The directing duties are managed by Gordon Douglas, and the director of photography is Jack McKenzie. Both are competent, neither inspiring, and the series was popular enough for RKO to make two more. Someone took the 'Radio' in 'Radio-Keith-Orpheum' seriously.

Certainly popular radio shows were a source of material for the ravenous movie studios, but they rarely were made into A pictures. That can be deduced from the humor here of Peary wandering around town in his underwear.

Apparently Harold Peary was a big hit on the radio during that time with this Gildersleeve character; on the screen he comes across as an agreeable personality (apart from that obnoxious fake laugh), but certainly not strong enough to hold the screen as the only lead - he probably would serve better as part of an ensemble. "Gildersleeve's Bad Day", about him getting called on jury duty and inadvertently bribed, doesn't have many laughs, but it's harmless enough. ** out of 4.