A Slight Case of Larceny

Elaine Stewart is 110° in the shade.

Mickey Rooney is always trying to find ways to get rich quick. Despite various failures, he never gives up. At some point he goes a little too far with his schemes and gets into trouble.

Mickey Rooney's character is interested in Elaine Stewart (as would any normal male be) and the comedy continues.

Part of the plot centers around gasoline pricing wars. Something that I experienced personally in the early 1970s. There's some very interesting scenes featuring Elaine Stewart on the beach in her bathing suit. The DVD that I got from Warner Brothers allowed me to rewatch that scene about 10 times.

This is a light movie with good entertainment and excellent. I candy for the men.

We were just a teen ager when we first saw this movie in the 50`s. It was very comical as well as having some suspense elements. The plot of the movie was a reality that could happen.Mickey Rooney and Eddie Bracken did a super portrayal as post world army buddies that got into a competitive business pumping gas. This movie was filmed in an era whereas we had first started driving a car and really impressed us.As I recall the entire cast did a great job.We haven`t seen the movie in years and sure would like to see it again. Good wholesome entertainment. I appreciate your web site.

Cherokee-10

Slight is right. But somehow it doesn't matter. It's still a rather enjoyable little movie. There just isn't much going on at all here, but it's bright and brisk and agreeable. It offers up some token conflict from time to time, but it's almost as if it's envisioning an audience with heart problems - it doesn't want to do anything that might upset them or cause them undue stress.

The key here is Mickey Rooney. He is just a human dynamo; his immense self-confidence is exhilarating, contagious. He wings through each scene without a trace of doubt or indecision. His timing, his uncanny sense of pacing, his delivery, are impeccable. He is precision incarnate. It's a very, very strong, potent characterization.

Wasn't quite so impressed with Eddie Bracken. You want him to supply some legitimate resistance to Rooney's brazen scheming, some spark. He isn't necessarily a good comic match for him. Bracken is never as lovable as he's supposed to be. He doesn't complement Rooney in an ingenious enough way - the way a good, seasoned straight man really should.

Other assets would have to be the clean, crisp photography and gorgeous Elaine Stewart as Rooney's love interest. More than the curves, he admires the dollar signs in her eyes. Cute film.

Augustus 'Geechy' Cheevers (Mickey Rooney) returns from the war and goes nowhere fast. He talks Army buddy Frederick Winthrop Clopp (Eddie Bracken) into mortgaging his house to buy a small gas station. A big competitor moves in across the road and their business almost dies. That's before they find a pipeline flowing along their property.

Tapping into the pipeline is insanity. It's not the type of insanity to laugh at. Then they hire Beverly which is another form of insanity. This is dumb and dumber although Cheevers is a good talker. More than anything, he's a horrible friend. Clopp must have used up all of his nine lives. In a cartoon, Clopp should be caught in a fireball and come out completely blacken. This is a little funny although I wish Cheevers would treat Clopp better.

My friend and I must have seen this movie at least 5 times back in 53, it just struck us as hilarious. Mickey was at his best as the cocky optimist "Geechy" with his side kick Eddie Bracken as Clopp. Cheevers & Clopp open a gas station and are doing fine but competition opens up across the street, enter Elaine Stewart. A major Gas Company's gas line is under Cheevers and Clopp's station. So they decide to siphon gas from this source to battle the "gas war". This was larceny but not enough to to have a major impact on anyone but their competition. The laughs hardly ever stop as they romp through success and major failures. Rooney and Bracken play off of one another masterfully. Its a fun movie to watch!