Shut My Big Mouth (1942)

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

"Daphne, you're leading again!" Oh, sorry, wrong movie. But Joe E. Brown gets the dresses, padded bras and corsets in this western spoof where he dresses as a woman in order not to be killed by a bandit out to kill him because he has been named the new marshal. Jack Lemmon must have watched a few of the movies where Brown dressed in drag because many of his mannerisms in "Some Like It Hot" were emulated by what Brown did in these films.Brown even gets to do an acrobatic dance with the bandit who has insisted that Brown (as "Henrietta") be companion to the daughter of the kidnapped saloon owner is is awaiting ransom on. Adele Mara is the pretty heroine, with Fritz Feld as Brown's assistant who pretends to be Brown's "husband".You won't be surprised to learn that Brown does not make a very convincing woman, but neither did Milton Berle, Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Ray Bolger or Bert Wheeler. At one point, he even makes himself resemble Harpo Marx. The result is funny whether it works or not because in a Joe E. Brown film, reality isn't expected, just loads of gags.

After the first couple of minutes of this flick, I was enthusiastically anticipating the rest of it. Then, I could sense the increasing let-down. After a restrainedly-humorous beginning, there followed a rapidly-deteriorating, juvenile set of circumstances, including Brown dressed in women's clothes, and other events which featured people behaving like they just wouldn't behave. All well and good, I guess, if seen only for the purpose of entertainment. But if you expect the least bit of rationality, you're probably not gonna find much here.

Joe E. Brown made some fine comedies in the early 1930s at Warners. By the end of the decade, he had slipped by making some cheap independent features for David Loew and then making some equally cheap outings for Columbia. Directed by Abbott and Costello regular Charles Barton, this Columbia B film is just another in an endless parade of western spoofs. Brown is teamed with the underrated Fritz Feld, but there is no chemistry between them. At times, Feld is forced to take the role of Brown's straight man and he is quite uncomfortable in this capacity. Brown spends a fair share of screen time in drag; Bert Wheeler is more effective in this type of comedy. There are some interesting glimpses of young Lloyd Bridges and Forrest Tucker in supporting roles. All in all, pretty disappointing.