Fireman, Save My Child!

Joe E. Brown could be a very funny guy, but you had to appreciate his particular brand of humor. He got a lot of mileage out of playing cocksure hayseeds, which he does here. There are always some visual jokes but normally you had to keep your eye on him and listen for his mid-western cornball replies, which varied in the degree of jocularity.

But this was the early 1930's, and this type of comedy would not work on today's audiences. Most of the situations take too long to develop and his sense of humor is too droll for modern times, in the same way you could not make, for instance, "Mr. Hulot's Holiday" nowadays. Modern moviegoers would rather see Adam Sandler or Jim Carrey.

"Fireman, Save My Child" is worth seeing if you can remember Joe E. Brown and savor his goofy, good-natured style. There are some good, funny moments embedded in a forgettable tale about a fireman-inventor who plays baseball. But if you don't remember him you might as well forget this picture.

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.

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.

A small-town fireman and inventor with a whiz of a pitching arm suddenly finds himself signed to play for the St. Louis Cardinals.

Rubber-faced comic Joe E. Brown dominates FIREMAN, SAVE MY CHILD, a very pleasant little film which examines the adventures of a small-town rube as he deals with the machinations of big city baseball & women. Brown's good-natured grin and physical comedy never fail to bring a laugh. Whether presiding over the immolation of a sauerkraut factory, calmly creating a conflagration in the office of a powerful business executive, or coolly surmounting the pitching mound in the final inning of a World Series game, Brown is always in firm control of the humor.

Evalyn Knapp as Brown's hometown sweetheart & Lilian Bond as the gold digger out to ruin him both play their parts well. Popular character actor Guy Kibbee keeps his particular plot pot boiling as the Cardinals' harried manager. Movie mavens will recognize OUR GANG's Dickie Moore, uncredited, as a young ball fan.

The film was given fine production values, with the fire fighting & baseball sequences both entertaining & believable. The title is a Melodrama catch-phrase; there are no children to be saved from fires in this movie.

This was the first of Brown's 'Baseball Trilogy' and was followed by ELMER, THE GREAT (1933) & ALIBI IKE (1935).