I'm from the City

Pete Pepper (Joe Penner) is a timid weak-minded circus performer. He's scared of horses unless he's been hypnotized by his controlling manager Captain Ollie Finch (Richard Lane). The circus is coming to an end and he joins Hattie Martindale's ranch in the west. She has two granddaughters, Rosie and Marlene. Pete is to ride in the big cross country race.

Joe Penner is acting the fool. It is fine and a little bit funny. It is not a whole lot funny. It's silly. There are a couple of interesting stunts. Again, it's nothing big. This is the definition of light entertainment. It is extremely light.

Joe Penner is a champion trick rider at the circus. But only when manager Richard Lane hypnotizes him with a fossilized Egyptian acorn. Kathryn Sheldon offers Lane a thousand dollars if Penner will ride in an annual race, which gives Penner a chance to court Lorraine Krueger, Lane her sister, Kay Sutton, and for Lafe McKee to believe that Penner is his long-lost son. There's also Paul Guilfoyle as an Indian and Clarence Nash as a duck.

Penner was a comic who came from the burlesque stage. His catchphrase, "Wanna buy a duck?" somehow catapulted him into a nationwide craze and a radio show. RKO, in one of its fits of remembering that the 'R' stood for Radio, tried him out and produced several movies like this until his untimely death in 1941. They averaged pretty much like this, demonstrating Penner as a decent mechanical comic with decent timing and a limited bag of tricks.

Sorry, folks - if you have a relative who was involved in this awful flick, you should avoid my comments - because you won't be happy with my review.

This was awful in every way. The characters are hollow, the plot is hopeless, and the "comic" moments are painful.

The storyline involves winning a race and saving the ranch for Grandma. Examples of the implausible and unfunny sketches: two folks use a wolf howl as a signal, and a real wolf's howl confuses their signaling. The sheriff must

secretly check Joe for a tattoo, but he has to get Joe to take his shirt off to peek, and Joe is ticklish. Get the picture?

If you are still contemplating trying this one, I suggest you choose acupuncture using railroad spikes, instead.

This may just be another low-budget comedy from RKO, but Joe Penner had a way of getting laughs regardless of the script, the cast, or any other factor.

Other than Penner, only the Three Stooges could have carried off that "yanking the rattle snake out of the ground and making it stretch like a rubber band" routine. That's not to say that Penner's work resembles the Stooges' work (which is masterful, by the way) but Penner could do it for the length of a feature film.

When you combine Penner's trademark-gaffaws with his seemingly idiotic, yet shrewd comments (like his reply to Richard Lane's backtracking: "Well, I'm glad you finally see it your way...") you can't help but appreciate the subtle way he weaves his outlandishness with rich sly humor.

This may not be the best Penner film, but for a man who only lived 38 years, evidence of his remarkably quick rise to top billing in radio, vaudeville, shorts, and feature films is very evident in this quickie-comedy.

--D.--