Such a frustrating disappointment

Fresh and Exciting

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Red Skelton (Wally Benton), Ann Rutherford (Carol Lambert), Rags Ragland (Chester), Ray Collins (Kendall), Jean Rogers (Jean Pringle), Henry O'Neill (Inspector Holcomb), Sam Levene (Creeper), William Frawley (Detective Ramsey), Steven Geray (Whitey), Howard Freeman (Steve Conlan), Arthur Space (Detective MacKenzie), Robert Emmett O'Connor (Detective Leo Finnigan), Tom Dillon (Beavers manager), Emmett Vogan (radio producer), John Wald (radio announcer), Morris Ankrum (news editor), Edgar Dearing (desk sergeant), Grant Withers, Jack Mulhall, Bert Moorhouse, Charles Jordan, Jack Carrington, Sammy Blum (reporters), James Warren (sound man), Robert Winkler, Rudy Wissler, Buddy Gorman, Larry Harris (newsboys), Harry Strang (Gumbatz), Harry Tyler (gateman), Frank J. Scannell (Joe), Fred Toones (fan), Ray Teal (traded Beaver), Anthony Caruso, Charles Sullivan, Elliott Sullivan, Dutch Hendrian (henchmen), Dewey Robinson (Beavers trainer), Gil Perkins, William Haade (police sergeants), Lee Phelps (police dispatcher), Harvey Parry (worman), Garry Owen (taxi-driver with record), Mike Mazurki (helpful thug), Howard M. Mitchell (officer), George Magrill (Brooklyn fan), Mitchell Lewis (bearded spectator), Donald Kerr (taxi-driver), Sheldon Jett (suspicious man), Sam Hayes (baseball announcer), Billy Engle (balloon vendor), Eddie Dunn (coffee cop), Charles Dorety (drunk), Clancy Cooper (Officer Slocum), Billy Bletcher (announcer), Chet Brandenburg (painter), William Bishop (psychiatrist), Leo Durocher (himself), Loretta Rush, Lillian Yarbo, Dorothy Wilson, Sue Moore (women), and The Brooklyn Dodgers Director: S. SYLVAN SIMON. Screenplay: Nat Perrin. Additional dialogue: Wilkie C. Mahoney. Photography: Lester White. Film editor: Ben Lewis. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons and Jack Martin Smith. Set decorators: Edwin B. Willis and Mildred Griffiths. Stunts: Gil Perkins. Costumes designed by Irene. Special effects: Warren Newcombe. Music: George Bassman. Assistant director: Al Raboch. Sound recording: John Dullam. Producer: George Haight. Copyright 24 September 1943 by Loew's, Inc. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Picture. New York opening at Loew's State: 23 March 1944. U.S. release: December 1943. Australian release: 13 September 1945 (sic). 9 reels. 7,825 feet. 87 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Mistakenly identified as a serial killer, a radio sleuth (accompanied by his fiancée, his self-appointed press agent, and a nosy girl reporter) is pursued by both the police and the real criminals.NOTES: Third and final entry in Red Skelton's Whistling series.COMMENT: Although it's the weakest of the Whistling movies, there's a high-flying sequence in this entry that I'll never forget. Red and his comrades are hanging from a grid at the top of an elevator shaft. They hang from each other's legs and then swing this human pendulum in an effort to land themselves on the floor below. Great stunt-work, very effectively handled! Unfortunately, the rest of the film doesn't reach this standard, though it has its moments of fun and suspense. The huge cast line-up helps.The chief fault is Wilkie Mahoney's inane additional dialogue which lacks the sparkle and wit he brought to Whistling in Dixie. The players do what they can with the talky screenplay and director Simon piles on the pace, but their efforts are often unsuccessful.

An enjoyable trifle, this is a fast-paced comedy in which Red Skelton is a radio performer pursued by the police as the suspect in a series of murders. His chauffeur is Rags Ragland, and they're accompanied by Red's fiancée, Ann Rutherford, and an inquiring report, Jean Rogers.What it lacks in sophistication it makes up for in energy. Three scenes in particular stand out. In one, the four hang from the top of an empty elevator shaft -- each by the other's heels -- and swing back and forth to reach an empty door. It's fairly tense for a comedy and the producers must have used professional acrobats.In another, Skelton poses as the pitcher for a bearded baseball team who happen to be playing the Brooklyn Dodgers. In 1943, the Dodgers seemed ordained by the God of baseball never to win a series and were a national joke, referred to as "dem Bums." That was before they moved to Los Angeles and began wearing sandals, Hawaiian shirts, and shades on the playing field. Many, or maybe most, attempts at humor on the sports field flop as anticlimactic, but this one is kind of amusing. Leo Durocher and the rest of the team make an appearance.The last outstanding scene involves a farcical fight aboard a deserted ship and makes good use of nautical props.Zippy stuff. Better than some of Skelton's other movies, especially his later ones.

Whistling in Brooklyn was the last of three films that Red Skelton did as Wally 'The Fox' Benton, radio criminologist who keeps getting drawn into these real life mysteries via his reputation. Why he didn't just say that he was just an actor playing a role would have saved him a whole lot of trouble. Then again we wouldn't Skelton's Fox films, made at MGM, and they're pretty funny.Among other things he never quite gets around to is marrying gal pal Ann Rutherford. If another Fox film had been done I'm sure they'll have not done the deed yet again.There are some murders going on in Brooklyn, the last one being that of a police detective and after each one someone sends the Brooklyn Standard (Eagle) a note as to where the body is and signs it 'Constant Reader'. At the same time Skelton and his lunkhead man Friday Rag Ragland whom he picked up from the last Fox movie Whistling in Dixie decide that he ought to give out with the publicity stunt that Skelton is really the Constant Reader. That sets up one long chase where Skelton, Ragland, Rutherford, and snoopy reporter Jean Rogers get to solve it all literally on the fly.Whistling in Brooklyn is a fast paced comedy that is nice and personal for me and for the aging fans of the former Brooklyn Dodgers. There is an extended sequence where Skelton has escaped from both cops and bad guys and has disguised himself as a member of the semi-pro team the Beavers who are playing an exhibition with the Dodgers and they all wear beards. There was a team called the House of David where the players were just like that, they all looked like Hassidic Jews. It was their gimmick and they were an attraction.MGM did some location work in Brooklyn and such Dodgers as manager Leo Durocher and players like Arky Vaughn, Joe Medwick, Mickey Owen, Billy Herman and Dolph Camilli played themselves. Skelton disguised himself as the Beavers pitcher and took his place on the mound against these guys and retired the side after hitting the first three batters. You've got to see how he does it.Later on when he's up pitcher Bobo Newsom administers some chin music to Skelton at the plate. Newsom was almost as natural born a performer as Durocher who with this film started hanging around with show business types the rest of his life. Newsom had some right-handed sidearm delivery as you'll see. Those shots of the Brooklyn Dodgers and Ebbets Field are definite treasures that any baseball fan must see.To tell the truth, the plot is kind of dopey, but the laughs are real enough. For Skelton and baseball fans, a must.

This is the third and funniest of Red Skelton's "Whistling" movies about the murderous misadventures of Wally Benton, actor, who plays most of the roles on radio's mystery show, "The Fox". It is a breakneck farce. Skelton and a horde of comedians race their ways through a tale about how Wally is mistaken for a suspected serial murderer when all he wants to do is go on his honeymoon with Anne Rutherford -- and who could blame him? S. Sylvan Simon, one of MGM's terrific B talents, directed. His specialty was high speed farce and he pulls things off here at a terrific pace. Simon is largely forgotten. He had just produced the movie version of BORN YESTERDAY when he died suddenly at age 41 in 1951. He directed Skelton in four of his movies and knew how to get a good comic performance out of that talented clown.Skelton had a successful career in the movies, simultaneously with his radio and television gigs from the late 1930s through the mid-50s. His movies are unfamiliar to most people because his contract called for extra fees to him when his movies played on television! Fortunately, they play fairly often now on Turner Classic movies. Do yourself a favor and see this one.