Broadminded

... which is about 20 or 30 minutes, but at 65 minutes it just outstays its welcome and the jokes drag on for too long.

Wealthy Mabel Robinson has a "Baby Party" where everyone invited must show up dressed as a baby. Naturally the baby bottles all have liquor in them, and prohibition is still in force. When things get rowdy the cops show up and arrest everybody, but Jack Hackett and Ossie Simpson (Joe E. Brown) manage to evade arrest. Still, Jack's father isn't amused as the next morning the scandal makes headlines in the New York papers and names Jack as Mabel's fiance. Jack's father orders Jack to never see Mabel again and to take an extended trip somewhere until the scandal is forgotten. Dad tells Jack's cousin Ossie to go with Jack to make sure he stays out of trouble, not realizing that Ossie is a bigger partier than Jack could ever be and falsely believing that Ossie is a sober young man.

The pair go to Pasadena, and Ossie falls for Penny (Marjorie White) and Jack falls for Connie (Ona Munson), who is a girl of whom Jack's dad heartily approves. But Mabel finds Jack in Pasadena, is angry about being thrown over, and is threatening to show her love letters to Connie and break up Jack's (new) marriage plans. Also, on the road, Ossie has managed to anger a hot blooded South American (Bela Lugosi???) who is also very jealous of his girlfriend (Thelma Todd), an actress.

Originally a play by songwriting team Kalmar and Ruby, this might have also been a musical that had its songs removed because of musical films going out of fashion for the moviegoing public after they had been ubiquitous - and not very good - during 1929 and 1930. That may be why the material seems so stretched out. It's interesting seeing Bela Lugosi playing a hot blooded Latin lover, and coupled with Thelma Todd of all people. Ona Munson, who played Belle Watling in Gone With the Wind, is unrecognizable here. Marjorie White was a unique spritely comedienne, but her life was cut short due to an auto accident in 1935. She was featured in the first Three Stooges short in 1934 which actually was a musical short.

This one was painful to get through, and I say that as somebody who very much appreciates the humor of Joe E. Brown.

Harry Ruby and Bert Kalmar, who would work on three Marx Bros. films, including "Animal Crackers" the play of which was out the year before this film, are the authors of 'Broadminded'.

It's clear to me that this film is the Warner Bros. idea of how to cash in with a cheapie madcap story.

Thelma Todd is as wonderful as ever. She was a fine actress who always managed to do a fine job even with the sorriest material.

Grayce Hampton who played what should have been Margaret Dumont's role is flat and unfunny. The male lead, played by William Collier Jr., looks like a peeled potato, and yet he's a lady killer. He picks up every good looking woman he sees. But he's lumpy and wimpish. He's a very poor choice for the role. I think he's supposed to be Zeppo Marx playing the love interest, but he's not even that good.

Ona Munson is pretty good as the female lead, but she's not given anything to do.

Joe E. Brown who is the putative star does what he does. He mugs unmercifully throughout, and he makes the most out of his circus clown mouth, and he makes a tremendous number of unwarranted sounds. I grew up in the last years of his really active career, and I thought he was great until I was about seven, when that wore off, and from then on I found him to be darn near intolerable.

But even if were someone else playing the part, it would still be a (in my opinion of course) dull and completely predictable film.

There is absolutely zero witty repartee in this film. There's no singing, no dancing, no harp or piano or guitar playing.

Bela Lugosi does steal the greasepaint mustache that Groucho put on, but now it's in the form of extenders for Lugosi's sideburns.

Lugosi pretty much mugs his way through this film along with the rest, but he looks as though he's playing along because he's being paid. And he's never convincing. He's always Bela Lugosi gone slumming. Not that he was bad, but I'd say that he was skirting it.

I'm glad I had a chance to see this film, I've been hungering for it for several decades now, and it's often presented in movie books as practically a tour de force performance for him.

It isn't.

I did not keep a copy of the film, although I've got many Lugosi films in my library. I just don't think I'll ever want to sit through it again. As it was, it took me two days to get through it.

I gave it a five rating because my tastes aren't universal, and Lugosi and Todd fans should certainly see it.

The star of this movie is listed as Joe E. Brown, the big-mouthed (literally) comedian who looks as if he could eat a hamburger in one bite. However, stealing the scene whenever he is present, is Bela Lugosi, in a change-of-pace role considering he starred in "Dracula" earlier that year (1931). Here, Bela (a native Hungarian) is a hot-tempered South American (Pancho). When Joe E. Brown (Simpson) accidentally spurts some ink on Bela's dessert at a diner, Bela goes into a maniacal rage. So naturally, their two paths keep crossing. Later Joe E. Brown has a fender-bender with Bela's car... Bela winds up driving off with Brown's car in tow! Bela has some wonderful opportunities to show his comedic abilities. When his girlfriend asks Bela to explain a mix-up to Joe E. Brown (Simpson), Bela goes: "To Simpson-- never!" and opens his mouth wide in a mugging imitation of Joe E. Brown. A must-see movie for Bela Lugosi fans who only consider him a horror actor.

This is a very odd film. First, although it's billed as a "Joe E. Brown" film, he is definitely the second banana in this film. Instead, William Collier Jr. and his love life are front and center and Brown just tags along for comic relief. So, if you like Brown, then you might be disappointed he isn't the main focus of the film. My own personal taste is decidedly anti-Brown, so I didn't mind this very much. Also, another odd bit of casting involves having Bela Lugosi play a supporting role as well--as a South American named "Pedro". I don't know about you, but when I see and hear Lugosi, I DON'T think "maybe he's Hispanic"! But regardless of this odd casting, Bela is surprisingly funny in his role as a hot-headed foil for Brown's antics.

So apart from odd casting, what are we left with in the film? Well, as a comedy, it isn't particularly funny most of the time. As a romance, it only works slightly better. No, in the end we are left with a movie that is a definite time-passer--not particularly offensive but not at all memorable except for the scenes with Lugosi.

By the way, it is worth watching just the first few minutes just to say you've seen something DIFFERENT. It's a really creepy and somewhat disturbing sequence where a bunch of rich knuckleheads have a "baby party" where they all come dressed like little kids. Seeing Joe E. Brown in a stroller and drinking booze from a baby bottle just seemed really, really creepy--like they're all at a very sick and creepy "adult" party. YECCH!! I wonder if Sigmund Freud ever saw this film? It was made in 1931 and he didn't die until 1939, so it is possible!!

I recorded this movie to see Buster Collier, who appears in a photo in one of my silent movie star books. I learned that he had dated Constance Talmadge for awhile, and was interested in hearing his voice, to see how close the one I had silently supplied for him was. It wasn't. I was very pleasantly surprised to see Thelma Todd's name in the cast, and she was very good, as she has been in everything in which I've seen her. It's easy to see why she was in such demand.

All through the picture, I kept picturing Jim Carrey in Joe. E. Brown's role. They are both terribly cloying.

I couldn't get over Lugosi's Romanian accent being put across as "South American." All in all,though, it was worth seeing, and only an hour long, but I deleted it from my DVR once I had seen it. I wouldn't sit through it twice. It was a passable time killer.