Tirando o Pé da Lama

"Earthworm Tractors" is a very good 30's-style comedy, with pleasantly silly main characters and a story designed to set up some good comic sequences. It's the kind of movie that can easily come out badly if not done with some skill, but this one is done nicely and it works.

Joe E. Brown plays Alexander Botts, a self-described born salesman and master mechanic, whose real talent is for getting in over his head. His attempts to make a big sale of tractors to grumpy, old-fashioned lumberman Johnson (Guy Kibbee) lead him into one disaster after another. Much of it is stock humor, but it is pleasantly done, and there are some particularly funny sequences of the tractor rampaging out of control. Kibbee and Brown are both good, giving deliberately exaggerated performances that work well. It's mostly a two-man show, but the rest of the cast does well when called on.

Anyone who likes comedies of the era should enjoy this film. It's very pleasant, and at times is hilarious.

This exceptionally noisy comedy is an absolute must for all Joe E. Brown and mechanical tractor fans. Others may find Mr Brown's determined camera-hogging heavy going, though it must be admitted that all the other major male players (with the notable exception of Dick Foran) try to steal scenes too by constantly shouting at the top of their voices.

Although June Travis is pretty enough, the girls get hardly a look-in.

Of course there are also several spectacularly staged accidents to keep our eyes riveted on Mr Brown. And it must be admitted, director Enright keeps the plot moving along at a commendably rapid pace.

Earthworm Tractors is the name of the product that Joe E. Brown is hired to sell. Of course it would be helpful if he actually knew the product. But things like lack of knowledge stopped the bragadocious Brown before in this or any other film.

Brown gets assigned a territory where his biggest potential customer is the cranky, cantankerous Guy Kibbee who is a wee bit deaf. Kibbee owns the biggest lumber company in the area and it's a big commission at stake. His daughter June Travis is pulling for Joe, but Kibbee is a hard sell.

This is one of Joe E. Brown's best comedies for Warner Brothers in the 30s. Two really great scenes are in this showing Brown's comedic ability to great advantage. The first is Brown moving the Kibbee/Travis house with them inside. The second is Brown and Kibbee on a wild rollercoaster like ride on the tractor over a mountain which is being dynamited. I guarantee the laughs will be many.

Earthworm Tractors still holds up well from the Depression 30s and still has a lot of laughs. A must for Joe E. Brown fans.

Joe E. Brown stars as the irrepressible Alexander Botts, self-proclaimed "natural born salesman." He sets out to sell a fleet of tractors to hard-boiled lumber yard owner Guy Kibbee, who most emphatically does not believe in these newfangled tractor things. But our hero does not give up quickly - partly because Kibbee's daughter keeps offering him advice and encouragement.

June Travis is just fine in the predictable but pleasant role of the attractive daughter. Kibbee is great fun to watch as the flustered businessman who is given more than one unwanted ride on Brown's machine (a piece of equipment that we today might call a bulldozer rather than a tractor).

Other familiar faces appear in supporting roles, including Gene Lockhart and Joseph Crehan as Earthworm Tractor Company employees, and Carol Hughes and Dick Foran as an old flame and old rival back in Brown's hometown.

Joe E. Brown has a unique screen presence that is possibly not for everyone, I suppose, although I always find him easy to watch. The lightweight story is very silly but moves along nicely. The action actually gets pretty wild a couple of times when Brown gets behind the controls of that big tractor.

I gotta say it up front that I am not a huge fan of Joe E. Brown's films. Much of the reason is that in many of his films he often plays unlikable guys--real fat-heads (such as in one of his most famous films, "Alibi Ike"). Audiences in the 1930s loved his films, but I've never had much love for them. Imagine, then, to my surprise when I saw a minor Brown outing and actually liked it! This was even more surprising, as for some odd reason Warner Brothers didn't even bother renewing the copyright on "Earthworm Tractors" and allowed it to slip into the public domain! You'd assume in a case like this that the film was a real dog!

The film begins with Brown playing a guy who wants to marry his sweetheart, though her father can't stand him. To impress the Old Man, he decides to get a salesman job--though since he is a bit daft, you know the road will be a bit bumpy to say the least! When he approaches the Earthworm Tractor Company, they do not hire him, but Brown starts working as a representative for them anyway! He certainly isn't a salesman who takes 'no' for an answer! Along the way, he meets another nice young lady who he falls in love with--but what about his other girl? And, in a case of déjà vu, the new girl's father (Guy Kibbee) also doesn't particularly like Brown---but he's also a rich guy who NEEDS a tractor--or so his daughter thinks.

The film succeeds, I think, because Brown is more likable. Sure, he's still a bit of the usual rube but this time he's NOT selfish and overconfident--at least no where nearly like many of his other films ("Fireman Save My Child" comes to mind here). In addition, the stunts are amazingly good for a 1930s comedy--and a heck of a lot better for the craptastic stunts he'd soon have in his films by the David Loew's studio--which was a major career misstep in hindsight. Likable and pleasant--while not a great comedy, there is a lot to like and it's a nice change of pace.