Un grullo in bicicletta

While Joe E. Brown was a very popular comedian in films during the 1930s, today he's not nearly as popular. I wonder if some of it might just be the sorts of characters he often played. Too often, he played really obnoxious sorts--narcissistic jerks who thought they knew everything. "6 Day Bike Rider" is yet another one of these films...with Wilfred (Brown) being an incredible braggart. Because of this, it's hard to really care about what happens to the guy.

The film begins in the small town of Mildew. Wilfred has been dating Phyllis (Maxine Doyle) for years but takes her for granted. When a traveling show arrives and she is smitten with a guy who does tricks on his bike, Wilfred insists he can do even better....and makes a fool of himself in the process. Eventually, he behaves so badly that Phyllis breaks it off with Wilfred...and Wilfred heads to the big city to make a name for himself and win her back. His plan is to enter a team bike race. But this boob ends up getting himself arrested and cannot make the start of the race--and his new nemesis will be riding there as well and you know he MUST make that race. What's to happen to Wilfred and his big plans?

This film is at best a time-passer and not much more. In addition to making Wilfred a jerk, the film also loses a few points for the big bike race. Cheating is obvious by the baddies (and never noticed by anyone but the audience watching the film) and at one point Wilfred is also cheating by tossing bananas onto the track and another he unintentionally drugs his opponents with Chloroform! Apparently there are no judges watching the race...or they are legally blind! Add to that a few really BAD rear-projected scenes and the film certainly has a few strikes against it. Had the film made him Brown's character sympathetic and the jokes a bit funnier, it sure would have worked better.

Six Day Bike Rider is a standard Joe E. Brown comedy featuring the big mouth as a clueless braggart postal inspector who has his girl (Colleen Doyle) stolen in front of eyes by a traveling trick cyclist (Gordon Westcott). Determined to get her back he enters a marathon against his foe but runs into a lot of obstacles just trying to get to the velodrome.

As a kid I found Joe E Brown quite amusing in small doses whether in KIx commercials or supporting roles. His sad sack demeanor and trade mark yapper made him a living caricature and a very popular star in the early and mid 30s with Fireman Save my Child and Alibi Ike both baseball films that were tailor made for the former semi - professional ball player. In Six Day he does display some of his athletic prowess but he fares much better with a bat in his hand than a bike under him and and Bike Rider goes flat early.

Hysterical Joe E. Brown plays a nearsighted buffoon in a series of pratfalls, sight gags filled with goofy characters participating in improbable events that might leave you giggling at all the silliness.

Just a look at Joe E's silly mugging will make you smile.

This is the type of small-town/countrified fun we came to know and love with the "Ma and Pa Kettle" series of films and in the 60's with such fare as the "Beverly Hillbillies", "Green Acres" and "Petticoat Junction".

The difference here is that the humor is clean, innocent, charming...and old-fashioned. Which is just "hunky-dory" with me!

Joe E. Brown's type of humor here may appear dated to some, but is has a place in the history of film comedy in reflecting the sober type of fun which has sadly fallen completely by the wayside in recent years.

It's not a classic...but worth a look for all its screwball moments.

Joe E. Brown during the early Thirties starred in a successful string of films decided to appeal to the rural audiences in contrast to most of Warner Brothers films which were decidedly urban based. 6 Day Bike Rider is a very good example of the kind of film Brown did while there. Over at Fox Studios Will Rogers was doing the same kind of films.

Joe is the bumptious country lad who seems to have two left feet, but does know how to ride and race a bicycle. Trick cyclist Gordon Westcott is making some moves on Joe's girl Maxine Doyle which is doubly bad because Westcott is slightly married to Dorothy Christy. Westcott plays your very old fashioned Snidely Whiplash type villain here, he does everything but twirl his mustache.

When he thinks Westcott's run off with Doyle, Brown hears he's entered a 6 day cycling contest and he enters too with partner Frank McHugh. The rules have them entering as two man teams and the track is a roller derby type affair.

Brown who takes a pratfall as good as I've ever seen has plenty of them in this film. Lots of good sight gags during the racing sequence which is about 25 minutes long.

6 Day Bike Ride is a good introduction to the comedy of Joe E. Brown.

Vaudeville trick bicyclist Gordon Westcott steals small-town bike messenger Joe E. Brown's girl, Maxine Doyle. Brown pursues them to the city, where he hooks up with Frank McHugh, who will be taking part in a six-day bicycle race, in which Westcott will take part. So Brown joins as McHugh's partner.

Brown's vehicles had become pretty hidebound by this point, with him playing the over-confident hick who turns out to be right. The reason it works is that it flattered the rural audiences and amused the urban movie-goers. While this one hasn't aged well -- are there any working velodromes in the US besides the one in Rock Hill South Carolina? -- there is plenty of amusement throughout.

One annoying thing about the film: due to the layout of the Los Angeles Winter Garden track, where the race was filmed, it appears as if it was photographed through an anamorphic lens that was constantly being turned!