As I watched this Jack Carson film, I couldn't help but think that it seemed very similar to many of Red Skelton's movies. This isn't a complaint...though I think Skelton might have handled this sort of material a bit better.Biff (Carson) is the Good Humor man in the film. He's a good natured doofus who never seems to actually make any money while making his rounds but this isn't what gets him into trouble. The problem is that he wanders into the middle of an apparent murder and soon cops all over town are looking for him. With the help of a bunch of kids (the WORST part of the film) he eventually manages to use a lot of slapsticky things to capture the baddies and prove himself innocent.While this was generally decent, the last portion was terrible...in fact, downright embarrassing. It seemed cheap, stupid and hollow at the end. It's a shame but it brought down the score from a 6 to a 4.

This is an obscure, uneven, and frankly cartoonish film starring the now-forgotten comedian Jack Carson. It is also one of 3 Columbia Pictures product-placement comedies of which I am familiar, the other 2 being 'The Fuller Brush Man,' with Red Skelton & 'The Fuller Brush Girl,' with Lucille Ball. Columbia might have made others but darned if I could find anything on them. I couldn't find anything specific about how these films were financed but since the Fuller Brush Company & the Good Humor (Ice Cream) Company were both viable commercial enterprises in those days, it's obvious they contributed 'plug money' to the productions in exchange for significant exposure.This film is today mostly remembered because it has numerous references to the original Capt. Marvel comic books, a fan-club, and a non-existent Capt. Marvel radio show. We are talking about the 1940's version of Capt. Marvel, today erroneously called 'Shazam' by most people, who wore a red suit with a lightning bolt emblazoned on the chest.Despite the fact that Capt. Marvel's publishers obviously contributed some of the plug-money for this film, the references to the Captain include nothing specific about the character, such as his super-strength, or ability to fly. Conspicuously absent are any mentions of Billy Batson, the 14-yr.-old boy who utters the magic word 'Shazam' in order to become the mighty Capt. Marvel.Perhaps more conspicuously, when the script calls for the Capt. Marvel fan club to utilize a recognition code word, there is no a mention of either of Capt. Marvel's two trademark catch-phrases: 'Holy Moley!' or 'Shazam!' Instead, the rather awkward 'Niatpac Levram' (Captain Marvel spelled backwards) is used.It is as if the script had been written generically, so that any hero's name could put be used to fill-in-the-blanks.Or perhaps Superman's publishers had pressurized Columbia Pictures to minimize the film's promotional value. 'The Good Humor Man' was released on June 1, 1950, while Columbia released the first chapter of the serial 'Atom Man Vs. Superman' on July 20, roughly 6 weeks later. This second (and last) Superman chapter play was reportedly the highest grossing US serial of all time.Superman's publishers, you see, had been working tirelessly to sue Capt. Marvel out of existence since 1941. The wanted a monopoly on superheroes, and sadly, in 1953, achieved their end.In a strange twist of fate, the The Good Humor Man's villain turns out to be George Reeves. Reeves wasn't in either of the Superman movie serials, but in 1951 he would accept a job playing Superman in what has become the most durable superhero TV program ever, and achieving his own tragi-comic immortality.Since the titular hero of this film is an early version of the man-boy archetype (forerunner of Seth Rogan), it's too bad the writers didn't bother to work in any references of Billy Batson's ability transform from kid to grown-up & back again. But it's characteristic of a film that is even less than uninspiring, and is in fact, barely watchable. Even the Fans of Capt. Marvel will find this a disappointment, since their hero is treated shabbily. Despite this, they will not miss the opportunity to record in on TCM, just as I could not.

***SPOILERS*** Jack Carson is at his very funny best as Biff Jones the friendly man who sells Good Humor ice cream who gets himself involved in a murder that he didn't commit by trying to help a damsel in distress. Biff already got himself into trouble by rubbing a Good Humor ice-cream bar into the face of Perless Insurance investigator Stuart Nagel played the future TV Superman George Reeves where he was lucky that Superman, or Nagel, didn't end up ringing his neck.The fact that Biff's girlfriend Margie Bellew, Lola Albright, worked as Nagel's secretary and that he was always making a play for her made Biff's blood boil over. It's later after saving mysterious blond Jane Wallace, Bonnie Conroy, from a gang of hoodlums that Biff's troubles that were mild at first started to multiply! With Bonnie supposedly found dead at her house where Biff, whom the mobsters were after, was staying the night he felt that he in fact murdered her in his sleep and, in being the law abiding citizens that he is, tried to give himself up to the police. ****SPOILER**** unknown to Biff that entire incident was set up by the very much alive, in suffering an epileptic seizure, Bonnie Conroy and her three hoodlum accomplices Slick Fats & John, David Sharp Chick Collins & Eddie Parker, in order to frame Biff in a robbery, that resulted in the murder of the night watchman, that they planned to pull off at the Perless insurance office that Stuart Nagel was in charge of! It's Nagel himself who's the mastermind in robbing his own office and framing the Good Humor Man Biff Jones in committing it!Mile a minute hysterics with Biff & Margie on the run from Nagel and his gang of hoods and when it looked like the roof was going to fall on on them Margie's kid brother Johnny, Peter Miles, and his gang of Captain Marval impersonators, that seemed to be every kid in town under 12, came to their rescue! Having it out in the school next to the Captain Marvel clubhouse Johnny and his friends together with the clubs mascot Arnie the hard kicking mule made a complete mess of Negel and his gang that by the time the movie ended they were more then glad to see the police come to save them from being kicked from behind and cream pied in the face into total unconsciousness. Besides all that Nagel & Co. also got a music lesson from Johnny and his friends as well as Biff & Margie in the workings and dangers of musicale instruments that had them not wanting to hear another note of music, like Biff's Good Humor truck jingles, again for the rest of their lives!

I love it when human Popsicle Jack Carson goes floating down the gutter into a storm drain, only to be rescued at the last moment. The gags fly fast and furious in this cockamamie send-up of the friendly neighborhood ice-cream man. I guess some such is to be expected from scripter Frank Tashlin, who never gave up his love affair with cartoons or the comic book. The gags are nothing if not inventive, from the opening sound effect to the closing school house free-for-all. Just count how many times Carson gets to mug-up the outrageous happenings-- I doubt if there's a number big enough.This is a Carson showcase. Too bad this wonderfully versatile performer never received the recognition his prodigious talent deserved. Here, his man-boy good-humor man never annoys, unlike, say, a Jerry Lewis, who whined his way through a number of similar roles for Tashlin. I hope Carson got extra pay for all the physical contortions Tashlin and director Bacon put him through. Speaking of stunts, the luscious Lola Albright (the real Mrs. Carson) does her share, a decade before smouldering across the TV screen as Peter Gunn's torch-singing lady love.Note the clever touch with the plug-ugly newlyweds, a subject usually sentimentalized to a nauseating degree by Hollywood. None of that here. The bride may be a groom's nightmare, but she's an optometrist's dream. Here the screenplay had to tread lightly around the comedic potential of a near-sighted bride, still the edgy humor shines through. Still and all, I wonder how the same potential would be treated by today's no-holds-barred cinema.There were a number of these occupation-based slapsticks produced around this time-- Fuller Brush Man (Red Skelton), Fuller Brush Girl (Lucille Ball), Kill the Umpire (Bill Bendix) et al. None, however, are any funnier than this. My one complaint-- the schoolhouse slapstick goes on too long. It's as if Tashlin can't turn off the inventive engine once its started. But knowing when to stop can be as important as knowing how to start. Nonetheless, this remains a lively and chuckle-filled 80 minutes, and a lasting tribute to that under-rated performer Jack Carson, along with the wonderfully inventive Frank Tashlin.