The Good Humor Man is a 1950 American slapstick action comedy film directed by Lloyd Bacon and written by Frank Tashlin. The plot concerns a Good Humor ice cream salesman who becomes involved in a murder. The film stars Jack Carson, Lola Albright, Jean Wallace, George Reeves, Peter Miles and Frank Ferguson. It was released on June 1, 1950, by Columbia Pictures.
Producer S. Sylvan Simon, writer Frank Tashlin and cinematographer Lester White had been involved with the production of The Fuller Brush Man (1948), another Columbia Pictures slapstick comedy with a brand name in its title.
Contents
Plot
Good Humor delivery driver Biff Jones is in trouble with the law after being falsely connected with a $300,000 robbery of the cash safe at work and an apparent murder. He is in love with neighborhood gal Margie Bellew, who lives with her younger brother Johnny. Biff and Margie, with the help of Johnny and all of the neighborhood kids, absolve Biff by fighting and capturing the gangsters who committed the crimes.
Cast
Jack Carson as Biff Jones
Lola Albright as Margie Bellew
Jean Wallace as Bonnie Conroy
George Reeves as Stuart Nagle
Peter Miles as Johnny Bellew
Frank Ferguson as Inspector Quint
David Sharpe as Slick
Chick Collins as Fats
Eddie Parker as John
Pat Flaherty as Officer Rhodes
Richard Egan as Officer Daley
Arthur Space as Steven
Victoria Horne as Bride
Jack Overman as Shirtless Stoker
Reception
In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Bosley Crowther wrote: "Perhaps, in a rush of generosity we might dignify this little film by calling it simply an endeavor at slapstick comedy. That would be putting it kindly. for it does follow more or less the lines of a sadistic comic adventure laid down by Mack Sennett years ago. ... But slapstick implies a bright tradition. Let's not call it anything."
Critic Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times compared Jack Carson's performance to that of Red Skelton in The Fuller Brush Man: "Skelton, it seems to me, has the edge on Carson when it comes to this kind of anything-goes comedy. While Red may be thick-skinned, he constantly demonstrates that he can take it and, with the unquenchable instinct of the do-gooder, bobs up smiling for more. Carson, on the other hand, is thick-skinned, period. ... In his ponderous, wise-cracking way, he gets around."