Flirting with Fate

During the height of his popularity in the 1930s, comedian Joe E. Brown made a horrible business decision. While he was among Hollywood's most popular actors with Warner Brothers, he decided to accept an offer from David Lowe Productions--a tiny studio that had little to offer Brown. Why he accepted this offer is unknown to me, though what is obvious is that his career took a nosedive. I've seen most of his Lowe films and while none of them are terrible, most are clearly second-rate. "Flirting With Fate" is the last of his Lowe films.

Joe is an actor and leader of an acting troop. Oddly, they end up in Paraguay--a strange place for American actors! But, despite being very down on their luck, things look promising when they have a try-out with a top theater owner. But, unknown to Brown and his employees, the owner is the same man that Brown had insulted in the previous scene. Now instead of having jobs, they are blackballed and can't find anything in the country. When the troop does get an offer, it's back in the States and Brown thinks the only way he can get the money for plane fare is to kill himself and leave them the insurance money (by the way, folks, don't try this yourself as insurance policies do NOT pay off for suicides). Much of the rest of the film is a dark comedy where Brown tries various methods to do himself in--first with ant poison and then by picking a fight with a lion! There's quite a bit more to it than this--tune and see what happens next.

For the most part, this is an amiable little film--mostly because Brown's character is a nice fellow--even if he is a clumsy oaf. In many of his Warner Brothers films, his characters are so ego-centric that they are hard to like--but that is not the case here. The film, though, it not without its problems. It rarely is very funny plus the scenes involving him and a new friend dressing up as a bull are just embarrassingly bad. Still, the film is enjoyable and not a bad little time-passer.

By the way, what is a 'woodpussy'?

Joe E. Brown is the manager of a third-rate troupe that's traveling in Praguay. Brown offends everyone they meet: bandito Leo Carillo, theater manager Charles Judels, even the woman at the boarding house the troupe is staying.... mostly because they're broke. Somehow an offer for work comes from New York, but how are they to pay their ways? Brown has an insurance policy! After failing to kill himself several ways, he hits on the idea of having Carillo kill him. The bandito is willing when Brown writes him an IOU to be paid from the policy, but Carillo is much too busy with his lady-love, awful singer-dancer Steffi Duna, and with henchman Stanley Fields, who decides to take over.

Brown is good as always, but Frank MacDonald demonstrates real talent as a comedy director. Carillo steals the movie with his offhanded insults, and even Judels gets an interesting comic tic except when the two of them are in a cow costume or Brown is bluffing the bad guys with a bottle of nitroglycerin he thinks contains water. Beverly Roberts and Wynne Gibson are in the troupe, and Leonid Kinsky and Chris-Pin Martin try to help Brown kill himself in a show of Latin friendship.