Son of a Sailor

It was interesting to learn in Son Of A Sailor that fourteen years before I was born the US Navy was already testing drone airplanes. It wasn't called drone then, the term was robot flying. Imagine what you learn in a Joe E. Brown comedy.

As the title says, the film is set in the navy and our protagonist is the braggadocious Joe E. Brown taking his Alibi Ike character into Uncle Sam's Navy. There ain't nothing this guy can't do if you listen to him. His pal Frank McHugh listens to him intently and as they role play they provide a lot of hilarity for the rest of the crew and the movie audience.

But Brown becomes a real hero when he saves the plans for the drone airplane and the plane itself from foreign spies. The last 15 minutes or so move like an Indiana Jones feature.

Son Of A Sailor is a prime example of the comedy of Joe E. Brown and a good introduction to his work.

Top drawer Joe E. Brown in the navy comedy that one watches these days only through the graces of Turner Classic Movies. Frank McHugh's his sidekick as he swaggers his way thru boxing matches and girlfriends.

A brash & cocky seaman acts like a true SON OF A SAILOR as he stumbles from one mishap to another.

Comic Joe E. Brown literally dominates this funny little film, and that is not a bad thing. With his huge mouth and amusing body movements, Brown is a very humorous fellow to watch. He is given abundant opportunity here to display his talents. Whether successfully wooing a series of lovely ladies with only a pair of baby shoes as a prop, struggling with a spy in an open cockpit aeroplane, or finding himself stranded on a bombarded battleship, Brown always supplies plenty of laughs.

It's his costars who are given very short shrift. Frank McHugh plays the sailor stooge who idolizes Brown, but he disappears early in the proceedings (but not before a wonderfully uproarious scene in which Brown teaches him how to flirt). The very talented & tragic Thelma Todd plays a mysterious baroness, but outside of a great sequence where she attempts to keep Brown locked in her bedroom, she is shamelessly wasted. Pretty Jean Muir as an admiral's granddaughter and stalwart Johnny Mack Brown as a Navy inventor, are both merely used to move the plot along and their potential romantics is completely ignored.

Way down the cast list is Arthur Vinton, who does score nicely as a suave English butler who must use his considerable muscle to keep Joe from escaping the home of Samuel S. Hinds, who plays Miss Muir's grandfather.

Movie mavens will recognize an uncredited Ward Bond playing a suspicious cabby.

While Joe E. Brown was a very popular comedian back in the 1930s, whenever I watch his films today I notice a certain sameness in all of them. Each feature Joe as a talkative braggart whose mouth usually gets him into trouble. Frankly, because he is such a fat-headed guy in the films, it seriously harms the films--as it makes it hard to like the guy. So, whenever I watch his films, I try to take them in small doses.

This one begins on a ship in the US Navy. Joe is a seaman and once again he brags about everything. Eventually, some of his lies come back to haunt him (such as at the boxing match and officers' dinner), but like a typical Brown film he is somehow rescued by divine fate (or the kindness of strangers) and somehow succeeds by the end of the film. It's all very watchable but the screaming (his shtick) at the end while supposedly flying a plane was really, really lame.

Overall, a pleasant and watchable film but if you've seen one Brown film, you've seen just about all of them!