Here is an early example of what I call narrative folding.
"Citizen Kane" had just been released when this started filming. While they are from competing studios, there are a few references to "Kane" here, including a couple notes about the famous "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast.
The setup is pretty delicious. Red Skelton is a radio star, who plays a detective called the Fox. This by itself is a joke because the man's humor is all in his face. He is dependent on film — and later TeeVee to be successful. He is famous (in this movie) for writing complex mysteries, not for performing them.
Superficially, the story has him kidnapped by the bad guys and forced to come up with a foolproof murder idea. He does, but is able to foil the plot. Bad guys are captured. All is well. But look at how this is done.
The bad guys operate a fake spiritualist cult that sells a "radio" service to the departed. In order to keep their enterprise going, they will get a million dollars if they kill some innocent guy and get away with it. So the deal is fake radio versus real, and cleverly solved mystery versus cleverly concealed mystery.
As a sort of mirror, Red's character has two women in love with him, and they are kidnapped with him. Many of the jokes have to do with the confusion and conflict between these.
The payoff is in how Red's character foils his own plot. He literally — I am not making this up — figures out a way to talk backwards into a radio receiver.
Now I believe that this sort of construction is no accident. But I also hold that it is not an intellectual exercise either. Narrative folding comes as naturally as a sort of analogy-based equivalent of the puns on which this is based.
(Red's radio show is sponsored by a soft drink. When capturing him, the cult wants him to sell a drink in an identical bottle that contains Vitamin O. )
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.
"Citizen Kane" had just been released when this started filming. While they are from competing studios, there are a few references to "Kane" here, including a couple notes about the famous "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast.
The setup is pretty delicious. Red Skelton is a radio star, who plays a detective called the Fox. This by itself is a joke because the man's humor is all in his face. He is dependent on film — and later TeeVee to be successful. He is famous (in this movie) for writing complex mysteries, not for performing them.
Superficially, the story has him kidnapped by the bad guys and forced to come up with a foolproof murder idea. He does, but is able to foil the plot. Bad guys are captured. All is well. But look at how this is done.
The bad guys operate a fake spiritualist cult that sells a "radio" service to the departed. In order to keep their enterprise going, they will get a million dollars if they kill some innocent guy and get away with it. So the deal is fake radio versus real, and cleverly solved mystery versus cleverly concealed mystery.
As a sort of mirror, Red's character has two women in love with him, and they are kidnapped with him. Many of the jokes have to do with the confusion and conflict between these.
The payoff is in how Red's character foils his own plot. He literally — I am not making this up — figures out a way to talk backwards into a radio receiver.
Now I believe that this sort of construction is no accident. But I also hold that it is not an intellectual exercise either. Narrative folding comes as naturally as a sort of analogy-based equivalent of the puns on which this is based.
(Red's radio show is sponsored by a soft drink. When capturing him, the cult wants him to sell a drink in an identical bottle that contains Vitamin O. )
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.