Naive, superstitious insurance salesman Jack Oakie saves William Morris from being run over. In gratitude, Morris buys a policy, but Oakie's firm turns it down; Morris is the lawyer of gangster William 'Stage' Boyd, wants out, and tells Boyd that if anything happens to him, information will go to the police. But Morris's daughter, Jean Arthur, is in a budding romance with Oakie; when Boyd has her kidnapped, Oakie wanders over to tell him he can't do that.
It's as dumb a situation as it sounds, and that's the way that Oakie plays it: utterly and obnoxiously clueless. The performers give their roles and lines -- it's an early dialogue credit for Joseph Mankiewicz -- good readings, but the impossibly moronic way that Oakie's part is written destroys this movie for me.
With Wynne Gibson, Tom Kennedy, and director Eddie Sutherland in a bit part.
It's as dumb a situation as it sounds, and that's the way that Oakie plays it: utterly and obnoxiously clueless. The performers give their roles and lines -- it's an early dialogue credit for Joseph Mankiewicz -- good readings, but the impossibly moronic way that Oakie's part is written destroys this movie for me.
With Wynne Gibson, Tom Kennedy, and director Eddie Sutherland in a bit part.