Earthworm Tractors

Alexander C. Botts - a natural born salesman - tries to sell EARTHWORM TRACTORS to a most unwilling businessman.

Based on William Hazlett Upson's short stories for the Saturday Evening Post, this very funny, fast-paced film is an excellent vehicle for Joe E. Brown. His great rubbery face registering amusement, determination or frustration, Brown propels himself from one slapstick situation to another. His goofy antics - moving his girlfriend's house without her permission is just one of them - are genuinely hilarious.

Human pepper pot Guy Kibbee is Brown's perfect foil. Eyes bulging & voice booming, he inevitably finds himself involved in Brown's more dangerous schemes. At one point, words utterly failing him, he discovers his only possible response to Brown's incredible behavior is a quick sock on the jaw.

Mention should be made of laconic Olin Howlin, shoe polish guzzling Gene Lockhart & telephone operator Rosalind Marquis, each of whom add bright moments to the film.

Alert movie mavens will spot two humorous goofs early in the film: 1) In the first scene, when rival Dick Foran parks his car in front of pretty Carol Hughes' home, the cameraman & camera are perfectly reflected in the convertible's driver side window; 2) A little later on, Joe E. Brown's white suit is mad-splattered when he tries to extricate lovely June Travis' auto from a puddle - but when he jumps in with her moments later the fabric has miraculously laundered itself.

This is a very pleasant and enjoyable comedy, with a lot of clever laughs. Perfect for one of those Saturday or Sunday afternoons when you just want to disconnect, and indulge in a little pointless old-time movie watching.

Joe E. Brown is a self-proclaimed Natural Born Salesman (it even says so on his business card), whose confidence greatly outweighs his actual sales abilities. He's the type of salesman who bumbles into jam after jam, says and does exactly the wrong things, and yet somehow stumbles into making a sale in the end.

And Guy Kibbee is his perfect foil, as the blustery, old fashioned owner of a company that needs the new-fangled Earthworm Tractors that Brown sells, in order to survive. But the irritable Kibbee loudly rejects Brown's wild sales pitches throughout the film, which just drives the stubborn and determined Brown to make even wilder pitches, in an effort to sell him the tractors. Blustery windbags were Kibbee's sweet spot as an actor,and he and Brown make a great comedy team in this film. If they had stuck together through a series of movies, they might have achieved Laurel-and-Hardy legendary status. The one small criticism that I have of this film is that the two of them don't get enough screen time together.

This is a movie made with directors and writers who knew what they were doing, and stars who were hitting their stride. I watched this film alone one afternoon, and laughed out loud at several points, which is truly the mark of a great comedy.

Or perhaps a crazy person.

No. Great comedy. Try it.

Joe E. Brown stars as the irrepressible Alexander Botts, self-proclaimed "natural born salesman." He sets out to sell a fleet of tractors to hard-boiled lumber yard owner Guy Kibbee, who most emphatically does not believe in these newfangled tractor things. But our hero does not give up quickly - partly because Kibbee's daughter keeps offering him advice and encouragement.

June Travis is just fine in the predictable but pleasant role of the attractive daughter. Kibbee is great fun to watch as the flustered businessman who is given more than one unwanted ride on Brown's machine (a piece of equipment that we today might call a bulldozer rather than a tractor).

Other familiar faces appear in supporting roles, including Gene Lockhart and Joseph Crehan as Earthworm Tractor Company employees, and Carol Hughes and Dick Foran as an old flame and old rival back in Brown's hometown.

Joe E. Brown has a unique screen presence that is possibly not for everyone, I suppose, although I always find him easy to watch. The lightweight story is very silly but moves along nicely. The action actually gets pretty wild a couple of times when Brown gets behind the controls of that big tractor.

"Earthworm Tractors" is a very good 30's-style comedy, with pleasantly silly main characters and a story designed to set up some good comic sequences. It's the kind of movie that can easily come out badly if not done with some skill, but this one is done nicely and it works.

Joe E. Brown plays Alexander Botts, a self-described born salesman and master mechanic, whose real talent is for getting in over his head. His attempts to make a big sale of tractors to grumpy, old-fashioned lumberman Johnson (Guy Kibbee) lead him into one disaster after another. Much of it is stock humor, but it is pleasantly done, and there are some particularly funny sequences of the tractor rampaging out of control. Kibbee and Brown are both good, giving deliberately exaggerated performances that work well. It's mostly a two-man show, but the rest of the cast does well when called on.

Anyone who likes comedies of the era should enjoy this film. It's very pleasant, and at times is hilarious.

I gotta say it up front that I am not a huge fan of Joe E. Brown's films. Much of the reason is that in many of his films he often plays unlikable guys--real fat-heads (such as in one of his most famous films, "Alibi Ike"). Audiences in the 1930s loved his films, but I've never had much love for them. Imagine, then, to my surprise when I saw a minor Brown outing and actually liked it! This was even more surprising, as for some odd reason Warner Brothers didn't even bother renewing the copyright on "Earthworm Tractors" and allowed it to slip into the public domain! You'd assume in a case like this that the film was a real dog!

The film begins with Brown playing a guy who wants to marry his sweetheart, though her father can't stand him. To impress the Old Man, he decides to get a salesman job--though since he is a bit daft, you know the road will be a bit bumpy to say the least! When he approaches the Earthworm Tractor Company, they do not hire him, but Brown starts working as a representative for them anyway! He certainly isn't a salesman who takes 'no' for an answer! Along the way, he meets another nice young lady who he falls in love with--but what about his other girl? And, in a case of déjà vu, the new girl's father (Guy Kibbee) also doesn't particularly like Brown---but he's also a rich guy who NEEDS a tractor--or so his daughter thinks.

The film succeeds, I think, because Brown is more likable. Sure, he's still a bit of the usual rube but this time he's NOT selfish and overconfident--at least no where nearly like many of his other films ("Fireman Save My Child" comes to mind here). In addition, the stunts are amazingly good for a 1930s comedy--and a heck of a lot better for the craptastic stunts he'd soon have in his films by the David Loew's studio--which was a major career misstep in hindsight. Likable and pleasant--while not a great comedy, there is a lot to like and it's a nice change of pace.