Everybody's Doing It

Bruce Keene and girlfriend Penny Wilton work in the advertising department in the Beyers cereal company. They come up with a 30 week promotion with a $100k first prize and $200k in total. The game is solving a weekly rebus puzzle. Bruce returns to the bottle and gets lost in the fame of the successful contest.

The movie needs to show more of the puzzles. People have fun with that. I remember TV shows that do that type of guessing game. I liked those. The premise is pretty stupid like Bruce is the only one in the world who could create those puzzles. A better premise would be somebody stealing the puzzles before they are published. It's all a little silly and non-sensical. The comedy isn't good. This isn't good.

As a rule, I am an aficionado of this kind of movie. That is, the B Comedy Mystery. This movie should have been good of it's kind. It had a good cast and a clever idea for a plot. The elements were there for a good B movie, but it just does not deliver. Another commenter has stated that it was bad writing and directing and I suspect that he is right. I think part of the problem is that this movie tried to be all things to all people and it came up short instead. It was a comedy-mystery, sort of. It was a goof ball comedy in spots, sort of. It was a comment on the social mores of its time, sort of. It tried to do everything and it just went nowhere. I rated it a 3 because it had a place here and there which raised your hopes that it was going to be a watchable movie.

Okay, this is picture ain't much, but it does have a few things that make it worth peeking in. First, the always-charming Sally Eilers, teamed here with likable Preston Foster. Second, a really healthy supply of supporting players including Cecil Kellaway, Guinn Williams, Lorraine Krueger, Fuzzy Knight, Richard Lane, John Kelly, Jack Carson, James Flavin, Frank Thomas Sr., Willie Best, and the always delightful upholder of the law Fred Kelsey. William Brisbane is gosh-awful as Cecil Kellway's son. The part would have been much better played by Grady Sutton. And truly hilarious is an ongoing slapfest between Bobby Barber (you know - the little bald man who made bizarre appearances on THE ABBOTT AND COSTELLO SHOW) and Ron Rondell. These two, with Stooge-like precision, are constantly assaulting each other and director Christy Cabanne really times their bit superbly. Again, it's a razor-thin scenario but these players have so much appeal and Cabanne keeps the pace up so it almost plays like a two or three-reeler.

In the late 1930s, picture puzzles were a national craze. "Everybody's Doing It" was one of those movies that cashes in on topical issues such as picture puzzles but loses its entire relevancy outside of the context of the times.

In summary form, this movie suffers from bad writing and lame lines, poor direction, bad acting, and bad editing.

The major point of this film is that artists were able to create puzzles out of a combination of pictures, letters, and symbols that when put together, formed a word or a short sentence. But rather than involve the audience in the solution, we are only treated to short glimpses of some of the puzzles from time to time and not brought into the plot as a participant.

The major storyline is that an alcoholic artist comes up with a very good idea that will help sell cereal and that he fails to deliver the final batch of puzzles that will finalize the contest. He goes on a bender, gets waylaid by a health nut hired on by his fiancé, and then ultimately gets kidnapped by the same health nut. The story sort of makes sense but only if the viewer makes allowances. There is the unnecessary complication of racketeers who sell the answers to the puzzles and rampant slapping and punching that would have worked well with the Three Stooges and sound effects but in the end gets annoying.

It is tough to single out whose acting should be singled out as deserving of mention. I guess it would have to be Lorraine Krueger since she not only spoke lines but also tap danced. Preston Foster is a real disappointment.

Some of the transitions between scenes do nothing to suggest continuity was sought after by the director. Sounds were a problem in that many of the scenes are difficult to understand and obviously were not retaken.

On the whole, there is not much to recommend. Better than, by a hair, "Plan 9 From Outer Space."