L'as du cinéma

Today as part of a Red Skelton tribute on his birthday TCM showed this among many of his other movies, and I'd like to say that even though I only tuned in in time to see only half of this movie, Merton was no disappointment! You're not exactly splitting your sides, but you are entertained and amused as long as you are watching it. Skelton makes it look so easy, but achieving what he was able to while keeping his comedy clean as a whistle is pure genius and well worth watching!

"Merton of the Movies" is a Red Skelton movie that sure lacked originality. It's based on the movie by the same name from 1924 and was already remade in 1932. Additionally, the plot bears a very strong resemblance to a Harold Lloyd film from 1932--"Movie Crazy". So, while this 1947 film is nice, it's all terribly familiar. Plus, the Lloyd film was a heck of a lot better.

Skelton plays the title character, Merton Gill--a rube from a small town that thought his path to becoming a movie star was by taking a correspondence course. So, when he wins a trip to Hollywood, he incorrectly assumes it's because of his diploma--but it's really just a publicity stunt. However, he's not deterred and tries to get work as an extra. But he's a clumsy oaf and seems to be out of place in dramas-- until his girlfriend (also an actress) convinces the studio executives to use his terrible footage and just market the films as comedies. Soon, Merton is a star but has no idea everyone is laughing at him. What's next?

This is a rather agreeable film but not much more. Skelton has done better stuff but it's a decent time-passer provided you haven't seen these other films--then it just seems a bit repetitious.

If "slapstick" is your genre here is one of the best. I saw it in 1947 or -48 shortly after its release.

I have been on the lookout for it on tape but to no avail. Hopefully it will be preserved as one of the outstanding examples of "slapstick".

Merton Gill (Red Skelton) is an usher from Tinkerton, Kansas, who yearns to be a movie actor and thinks his worthless diploma from the Budolph School of Dramatic Acting will help him realize his dream. When Merton foils a robbery - supposedly using the skills he learned from his idol, Lawrence Rupert - the fading film star's gun-toting lackeys bring Merton to Hollywood to drum up some much-needed publicity. But after a speedy photo shoot, Rupert and his underlings are through with the country bumpkin and give him a ticket back home. A resolute Merton remains in Hollywood and does his best to get a job at Mammoth Studio, where he befriends the famous Beulah Baxter's stunt double, Phyllis Montague (Virginia O'Brien). Merton proves to be a natural - if unintentional - comedian and gets a job burlesquing Lawrence Rupert. Only Merton thinks he is playing a serious part.

This poorly plotted slapstick comedy pays half-hearted homage to the silent movie days and does a particularly indifferent job of recreating Keystone-style antics in the climax. There are several funny sequences, including a scene at a men's club and another in which Beulah Baxter (Gloria Grahame) attempts to get Merton drunk - but they have little to do with movie-making.

The romantic angle is surprisingly affecting. Skelton does an adorable job with a sometimes irritatingly naive character, and the quirky Virginia O'Brien gives her character three times what it deserves.

Seeing both Stu Erwin and Red Skelton essay the role of Merton Gill in two vastly different ways makes me now more curious than ever about what Glenn Hunter's performance on stage and on the silent screen was like. Did Hunter lean more to Erwin or Skelton or did he have a unique interpretation all his own. As his 1924 film version of Merton Of The Movies is considered lost, we may never know.

We certainly can't go back to the original stage production of Merton Of The Movies for consideration either. With Glenn Hunter in the title role it ran for 392 performances during the 1923-24 season on Broadway and was written by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly. As in the Erwin version I did not see the acid wit in the script that Kaufman was noted for.

Interpretation is the key to this film, Skelton relied far more on his gift of physical comedy. Unlike the 1932 version which was set in that present era of the early talkies, this Merton Of The Movies was set in the early silent days as the play was. Skelton is Merton Gill who has a degree in theater arts from a correspondence school and armed with that heads to Hollywood to become a serious actor like his idol Leon Ames.

But the man is naturally funny as Red Skelton was in real life. He can't see it though.

Red's got two women in his life, silent era vamp played very nicely by Gloria Grahame and Virginia O'Brien of the deadpan as the girl who loves him for what he is.

Skelton is fine, but Leon Ames may have had his career role as the vain stage actor who thinks film is beneath him though he does it because he's developed a habit of eating. I think Ames borrowed a lot from John Barrymore in how he presents this character. In any event Ames looks like he's having a great old time hamming it up in a role that calls for precisely that.

Red Skelton's version of Merton Of The Movies holds up well though I prefer Stu Erwin's Make Me A Star with its glimpse of the Paramount lot of 1932 and cameos of the various stars working there at the time. It's a timeless story and could use a remake today. As I said when I reviewed Make Me A Star, I think Jim Carrey would be tremendous in the role.