Milquetoast Mickey Rooney plays a sorter at an orange packing factory who can do no well in foreman William Demarest's eyes, but has caught the affections of Demarest's lovely daughter, Terry Moore. Like all of the ladies who found Jerry Lewis's bumbling characters adorable, Rooney brings out Moore's motherly instincts which just drives Demarest nuts. Then, Rooney inherits his late uncle's estate, which basically consists of a small amount of cash and his magic act. Prectictably, bad guys arrive in town in the guise of bank robbers, and it is Rooney who saves the day.
While predictable and not too intelligent, the film has some fine farcial moments typical of the comedies that Columbia was doing at this time, most notably the handful of Lucille Ball movies ("The Fuller Brush Girl" and "Her Husband's Affairs"), to name a few, and "The Fuller Brush Man" and "The Good Humor Man". Obviously made cheaply, "He's a Cockeyed Wonder" is merely OK with some funny moments involving the magic tricks, but lacks the farcial elements of several of the earlier movies I mentioned.
Rooney, on a career dive after leaving MGM with flops like "Summer Holiday" (and a critically lambasted performance as Lorenz Hart in "Words and Music"), gets to be more low key and less Andy Hardy-like than normal, and that's a good thing. He's more like the characters that Buster Keaton and occasionally Joe E. Brown got to play. Terry Moore is lovely, and Demarest is appropriately crabby. The villains are typically dumb. Rather than utilize the magic to confuse the robbers into submission, the writers utilize an old farm with skunks, barns and a well. This results in an ending missing what was expected and is a major let down.
While predictable and not too intelligent, the film has some fine farcial moments typical of the comedies that Columbia was doing at this time, most notably the handful of Lucille Ball movies ("The Fuller Brush Girl" and "Her Husband's Affairs"), to name a few, and "The Fuller Brush Man" and "The Good Humor Man". Obviously made cheaply, "He's a Cockeyed Wonder" is merely OK with some funny moments involving the magic tricks, but lacks the farcial elements of several of the earlier movies I mentioned.
Rooney, on a career dive after leaving MGM with flops like "Summer Holiday" (and a critically lambasted performance as Lorenz Hart in "Words and Music"), gets to be more low key and less Andy Hardy-like than normal, and that's a good thing. He's more like the characters that Buster Keaton and occasionally Joe E. Brown got to play. Terry Moore is lovely, and Demarest is appropriately crabby. The villains are typically dumb. Rather than utilize the magic to confuse the robbers into submission, the writers utilize an old farm with skunks, barns and a well. This results in an ending missing what was expected and is a major let down.