Mademoiselle ma femme

I generally find Red Skelton films entertaining, so I poured a glass of wine and tee'd up "I Dood It" on a quiet Sunday afternoon.

Red Skelton was his usual great. I understand that Buster Keaton was his coach for some of the slapstick, and it showed. But one genius plus one genius equals some great comedy, so that was okay with me.

However, I was really blown away by three performers I didn't know very well. Eleanor Powell was a fine actress and a fantastic dancer. Check out her lasso dance near the beginning of the film. Absolutely amazing! And then later in the film comes Hazel Scott, a phenomenal jazz pianist who I'd never heard before. Then shortly thereafter we have Lena Horne in her powerful "Jericho" number. Those scenes alone make the movie worth spending a little time on.

There were a lot of musical numbers, too many in fact, and I have to admit I fast forwarded through the more tedious of them. And the plot was -- as many people have mentioned -- disjointed and illogical. But there's enough gold in this film to make it an enjoyable, although certainly not classic, movie event.

You have to be a die-hard RED SKELTON fan to approve of his slapstick performance in I DOOD IT, but some of his routines just fall flat. He and ELEANOR POWELL have to deal with a less than spectacular script in which he's mistaken for a wealthy man when he's actually a pants presser. The gags that follow are weak, for the most part, but occasionally some bright bits of humor do crop up along the way.

For comic timing, nothing beats the scene where Powell takes the sleep medicine by mistake and Skelton is unable to wake her up to either put her in a chair or on a bed. Her limber body provides a lot of chuckles as he struggles to get her off the floor. The timing by both is impeccable and it's one of the film's best routines.

Too bad her dance numbers aren't staged as well as that sequence which runs a little too long. They're serviceable, but that's about all.

Jimmy Dorsey and his orchestra play some nice tunes, best of which is "Star Eyes" sung by Bob Eberly and Helen O'Connell. An "audition" scene featuring Hazel Scott at the piano and Lena Horne as vocalist on "Jericho" is a lively routine that gives the film a much needed musical highlight.

But for both Skelton and Powell, this is one of their lesser efforts. Sam Levene, Thurston Hall, John Hodiak and Richard Ainley offer good support.

Red Skelton musical comedy that also happens to be Eleanor Powell's final leading role at MGM. Skelton plays a loser totally obsessed with an actress (Powell). He achieves every stalker's dream and becomes engaged to her because she thinks he's someone else and wants to make her ex jealous. For Skelton fans, he doesn't have any particularly memorable bits here. Most of the better stuff is ripped off from an old Buster Keaton movie. Not even Keaton's best material, either. The highlights of the movie revolve around Eleanor Powell, including a classic lasso dancing number near the beginning of the film. Her other numbers are clips from Honolulu and Born to Dance. Also some nice musical numbers from Lena Horne and Hazel Scott.

It's a watchable movie but nothing special. The comedy is especially weak. And what was with that tacked-on Nazi saboteur plot? I would suggest watching the first ten minutes or so for the Powell number and then fast-forwarding to whenever you see someone singing or dancing. The rest is nothing to bother with.

Here is a perfect little film. It's full of laughs, music and Red Skelton. I've never been a Red Skelton fan but when I saw this film on TCM I was hooked. I couldn't stop watching. Between the music, the dancing, and slapstick I can't say which one was better. The other thing is the direction. It didn't seem like it was made almost 60 years ago. The camera moment is on par with correct Hollywood. To that end, it was better than current directors do. No MTV editing but good clean shots that flow from one shot to the next without as many edits. Now that's something I would love current Hollywood try. This is a gem of a movie.

Red Skelton plays Joe Reynolds--a guy who is absolutely obsessed with the stage actress Connie Shaw (Eleanor Powell). He's so obsessed that he sees every performance of her latest play and knows it by heart. When he meets her finally, he doesn't realize that when she proposes marriage it isn't because she cares about him but because she is doing it to spite another man.

"I Dood It" is one of the weakest films that Red Skelton made for MGM and there are two huge strikes against it--and one smaller one. First, it's a remake and the original (starring Buster Keaton) is a better film--though for Keaton standards it's also a weak effort. Second, like too many of MGM's films, the studio insisted on inserting a lot of music into the film, as they really didn't seem to trust comedy. Because of this, Skelton, who could be very funny, seems like an afterthought at times. As for the smaller strike against the film, because it was made during WWII, they inserted a completely unnecessary subplot near the end about some evil-doer trying to blow things up to somehow aid the Axis. It really made no sense and was obviously tossed in at the last minute.

Note: To show how poor this movie is, the final musical number is recycled--taken from a Powell film ("Born to Dance") made seven years earlier.