Fireman, Save My Child!

Joe E. Brown plays a small town inventor and fireman, who creates a small bomb which puts out fires. The story involves his efforts to patent it; baseball provides the means by which he earns the money to do so. It is a typical Brown comedy - a fairly involved plot, romance in the form of Evelyn Knapp and plenty of action sequences, mainly involving fire. (The opening sequence contains a fire at the local Sauerkraut Factory, which indicates the elaborate production values contained in the film.) There are problems with the film, I think, displayed in the also typical Joe E. Brown swagger and bragadoccio, (which can be very annoying) and the character's involvement with con men and a femme fatale, who take him for a good deal of his savings. This twist is strangely unresolved at the film's end. And it is frustrating to the viewer in that one wonders how anyone could be so uncaring as to ignore the fact that he's supposed to pitch in the seventh game of the World Series. It's well worth watching, though, as a well produced film with some great sequences, not typical fare for 1932.

Fireman, Save My Child (1932)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

First film in Warner's trilogy of baseball films with Joe E. Brown. In this one Brown plays a star pitcher who also just happens to be a fireman. Even with the World Series on the line he can't help but put being a fireman at number one. I've seen the last film in this trilogy and really enjoyed it so that's why I was so disappointed in this one. Brown is his usual self, which brings a few laughs but overall he isn't nearly as wild and out of control as normal. The supporting cast are deadly dull and really don't add any laughs so it's pretty much Brown trying to do everything on his own. You get the mean blonde subplot, which is pretty dull as well. Directed by Lloyd Bacon.

I have no doubt that the legendary pitcher Rube Waddell was the model for Joe E. Brown's character in Fireman Save My Child. Waddell was one of the true zanies that ever donned a baseball uniform. One of his foibles was that he loved to chase fire trucks and watch the firefighters at their job. Unlike Brown in the film Waddell was a tippler of enormous proportion. He died way too young as well of tuberculosis.

In Fireman Save My Child Brown is a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals who would leave a gang at the sound of a fire alarm. Brown can't choose between his two passions, baseball and firefighting. He also has two other passions, good girl Evelyn Knapp and bad girl Lillian Bond.

Brown in real life was one of the biggest baseball fans that ever worked in the movie capital right along with William Bendix and William Frawley. He later did two other baseball related films Elmer The Great and Alibi Ike. His son in fact became a baseball executive, most notably as the general manager of the 1960 world champion Pittsburgh Pirates. Shooting at minor league park Wrigley Field in Los Angeles for the baseball sequences must have been heaven for him.

I also have no doubt that the World Series that Brown participates in was used the World Series newsreel footage of the Yankees and Cardinals to good advantage from both 1926 and 1928. Guy Kibbee who like Connie Mack never puts on a uniform plays the Cardinal manager. As it turns out Mack also managed Rube Waddell in the major leagues for the Philadelphia Athletics with a lot more patience than Kibbee shows in this film.

Brown has that rube character of his he used in so many of his films hewn to perfection. This one is enjoyable for both fans of Joe E. Brown and the great American pasttime.

Joe Grant (Joe E. Brown) is a small town inventor, a fireman and a baseball player. He puts it all together by inventing a fire extinguishing ball. He's trying to earn money pitching in the big game when the fire alarm is sounded. He drops everything to fight the fire. He gets called to the big leagues, but he is still more interested in other things. He is spending all his money on his invention. He has his small town girl Sally Toby. Big city gal June Farnum is nothing but trouble.

It's a light comedy. It's mildly amusing. Joe E. Brown is likeable enough and has some fun light moments. Instead of being seduced by June, I would like the villain to be an evil male rival. It's just that he shouldn't have eyes on another girl if he is truly in love with Sally. It's not an appealing side of his character.

I just don't understand the phenomenon that was Joe E. Brown's career in the 1930s. Again and again in films he played a doofus--and often a tough to like one. In this movie he wasn't ask selfish and despicable as he was in another one of his baseball films, ELMER THE GREAT, but he nevertheless seemed to care little about disappointing his teammates or the fan. And throughout the film, his main schtick was his love of fire prevention and his rubbery face. To me, after a while, this all wore very, very thin.

Fortunately, despite my general ill feelings towards Brown's characters, the rest of the film was a very interesting time capsule, as the film is about the 1932 St. Louis Cardinals and their race to the World Series. Unfortunately, cameos by old-time athletes are not featured in the film.

Also, while you might not readily notice, this movie's plot was re-worked into the great film THE NATURAL. Think about it--a country bumpkin comes to the big leagues and becomes a star, only to be de-railed by a "bad woman" (forgetting his sweetie back at home in the process).

Overall, it's a mildly interesting time-passer and that's about it. This film sure hasn't aged well.