Old Dude, Old Movies - "The Fuller Brush Girl"

Monday was the 107th anniversary of Eddie Albert's birth. This movie stars Albert and Lucille Ball (just prior to her star turn in "I Love Lucy".

I've always liked Albert's work on television and in movies. In movies like "The Longest Day", "Bombadier", "The Wagons Roll At Night" and "Out Of The Fog. Ball was in movies like "The Long, Long Trailer", "Fancy Pants", "Meet The People" and "That's Right, You're Wrong".  Both actors were key contributors in many movies, but never seemed to get that breakthrough role (even in a character/supporting role) that solidified a Hollywood career.

"The Fuller Brush Girl" is typical of that era's comedies. Earnest, young leads. Hope for settling down as a married couple. The chase for domestic bliss leading that couple into a difficult, compromising position. Menace just one step behind the leads.

Albert (as "Humphrey") and Ball (as "Sally") are a young couple hoping to get married and purchase their dream suburban tract home. The house is available, but the couple doesn't have enough cash. They work at the same place, a shipping company, where neither makes a lot of money. A manager at the company was just fired, so Sally thinks her Humphrey is good enough to move up from the mail room to management. If he gets this chance, Humphrey will earn enough to close the gap & enable the couple to buy the house.

Like most comedies, misunderstandings put our happy couple on the run from one absurd situation to another. There's murder, embezzlement, hair loss, and mistaken identity. Most of the movie is extended chase scenes, creatively designed and executed.

My guess about the hindrance of Albert's movie career is his earnestness on-screen. He almost seemed too eager in this role, too chipper. The role was written for that level of energy, but you couldn't see a Cary Grant playing this role in this manner.

Ball is deft in a precursor role to the more slapstick parts of her TV career. She was strikingly beautiful, to be sure, but she wasn't afraid to make the physical humor parts work. It was a big risk for one who still aspired at that time for a long career in film.