Un fou au volant

I thought I was familiar with all of Red Skelton's movies. When I saw the title come up , I assumed it was Ron Howard's Eat My Dust. While I always liked Ron , I was excited to find out this was a Red movie I had not seen. I agree 100% with another review that said a different title was needed.

Yes , as a musical, not in the upper tier , but not many are. The dance scene's brought Sally Forrest to the fore. My goodness, had never heard of her , but she dances up a storm. The same with Monica Lewis in the singing department. Dennis the Menace's father , Herbert Anderson was good in an assistant role , and Macdonald Carey was good also. When William Demarest would yell at Red , it immediately took me back to him yelling at Ernie or Chip.

All in all , was surprised how much I enjoyed it. Give it a look.

Watching Excuse My Dust I couldn't help thinking that this would have been a better vehicle for that other redheaded comedian Danny Kaye. The character of the inventor would have suited Kaye's persona far better than Red Skelton.

That being said Red did well enough with this comedy set in those Gay Nineties when he's one of many people who are starting to experiment with the horseless carriage. He might not follow through well enough with the execution, but he's definitely got the right idea as he's got prototype vacuum cleaners and garbage disposal machines as well.

But when you're courting Sally Forrest and her father William Demarest makes his living with a livery stable that causes most of Red's problems. Not to mention pretentious vamp Monica Lewis who's from St. Louis, but her year abroad has her sporting a French accent.

I have to single out MacDonald Carey who looks like he was having a ball playing Red's rival in romance and racing. All Carey had to do was grow a handlebar mustache long enough for twirling. He was doing a great Snidely Whiplash.

Excuse My Dust is a pleasant enough Red Skelton comedy. Arthur Schwartz and Dorothy Fields wrote some rather forgettable songs. Danny Kaye could have gotten in on the musical numbers.

But Skelton fans will like this.

I love Sally Forrest. Sally Forrest is known mostly for her film noir films, especially those for director Ida Lupino. But Sally Forrest was a great dancer who was born to star in lavish MGM musicals. Just didn't happen...well...almost just didn't happen. Check out MGM's Excuse My Dust, a Red Skelton musical. Red Skelton was the poor man's Bob Hope and always seemed better suited for black-and-white B-movies like "The Fuller Brush Man." As a side kick opposite Ricardo Montalban or Esther Williams he seemed like Robin Williams in Sound of Music. Excuse My Dust tries to blend wacky slap stick and colorful musical and does all right. The highlight of the film is when Red imagines Sally Forrest in modern clothes doing a very sexy jazz dance. Sally Forrest had an unusual dance style that was like tap slowed down to jazz. This costumed turn-of-the-century musical is certainly Sally's most colorful film which at least shows off her musical talents as well as her legs. (See also "Son of Sinbad" for Sally's most sexy dance segment--another Sally Forrest film in color!, and "The Strip" a black-and-white Mickey Rooney film noir cheapie that features Miss Forrest as a nightclub dancer).

Red Skelton is an inventor in a small town in Indiana in 1895, anxious to invent a working automobile. He and Sally Forrest are in love. She is the daughter of William Demarest, the owner of a livery stable. His principal rival is Macdonald Carey. It all ends with a marvelous race among competing motorists that was directed by Buster Keaton, although Roy Rowland is the credited director.

There are various anachronisms that set my teeth on edge, like the use of the word "jass" -- for early jazz music. In reality, the word can't be traced back earlier than about 1912, and then it was in reference to baseball. Likewise, Miss Forrest is given a modern dance number, shoehorned into a dream sequence. If it seems to bear a relationship to the "Girl Hunt" number from THE BAND WAGON, well, Arthur Schwartz provided the music for three songs (with Dorothy Fields writing the lyrics) and Hermes Pan did the choreography.

There are fewer typical Red Skelton comic bits, but the final race is a fine series of comic disasters. By then, however, it was a little late in the show. Although it's worth watching, it's not one of Skelton's best starring vehicles. With Raymond Walburn, Jane Darwell, and Paul Harvey.

In reviewing the so-called golden age of the MGM musical, sometimes it's instructive to bypass the big, accomplished, but pretentious famous titles (An American In Paris, The Band Wagon, On the Town, Kismet) and skip to the smaller movies produced by someone other than Arthur Freed. This 1951 tuner from the Jack Cummings unit is probably Red Skelton's best movie, which may not be saying much, but it's a very smart and pleasing little musical that doesn't wear out its welcome (it's a trim 80 minutes or so). Red's dopey slapstick is kept to a minimum (just two set pieces, at the beginning and the end), and what's in between is surprisingly gentle and well-written Americana -- in sunny Technicolor. The underrated score, by Dorothy Fields and Arthur Schwartz (who wrote another wonderful score for Broadway that year, the equally underrated "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn"), is solidly integrated into the plot, and the musical staging, by Hermes Pan, is bright and inventive. (The movie contains what may be the least plot-motivated "dream ballet" ever, but even it's quick and unpretentious.) Sally Forrest is pretty as a picture and a heck of a dancer, and Monica Lewis socks two comedy numbers across. They will help you past the dum-dum physical comedy that was Skelton's stock in trade.

It's no award-winner, nor did it do much at the box office, but it holds up much better than some of the bigger, weightier MGM titles.