Mr. Doodle Kicks Off

Apparently, America went through Joe Penner Mania for a year or two in the late 1930's, with people imitating his catch phrase and distinctive laugh all over the place. I'd read about this phenomenon, but had never actually seen or heard Penner until I saw a surprisingly intriguing movie called New Faces of 1937, in which Penner played a supporting role. He seemed pleasant and entertaining enough, so I decided to watch him as the featured player in this film.

It's easy to understand how his star quickly faded.

I would describe Penner's comedy style as Jerry Lewis without the subtlety. (Yes, I actually wrote those words.) Jerry Lewis, in his early films, specialized in the lovable loser who makes you cheer when he gets the girl. In this film, Penner plays an un-lovable loser who makes you wrinkle your forehead in puzzlement when he gets the girl. His character is selfish and egotistical when things are going his way, then petulant and withdrawn when they aren't. His loud, grating, anything-for-a-laugh comedy style grows old when he's carrying the movie by himself and is in almost literally every scene.

It doesn't help that this wasn't a very good film. I'm sure the producers thought, "We have the great Joe Penner! We don't need a good script or anything resembling a believable plot." I like to keep track of movie quotes for IMDb, but there was not a single memorable quote in this movie. Try it yourself, if you dare: Watch the entire movie and see if there is a single line, or set of lines, worth memorializing on this web site.

So now I get it. In 1937, Americans thought, "This guy seems pretty funny, in short bursts on the radio." But by 1938, they probably thought, "Whoa! Too much." And thus ended Pennermania. And unlike Elvis, Penner's premature death at a young age, a few years later, did nothing to boost his career.

If this movie is on television, and you are sick in bed, and your internet is down, and no one else is home, and you have nothing else to do -- try reading a book.

I didn't have much hope for this at the beginning. Imagine Jerry Lewis at his most inane and infantile, and you have Joe Penner. But after I got used to Penner's style, it became more enjoyable. It also helps to see this as a farce, for example, the tunnel play on the football field.

I mostly watched this movie to see June Travis, who is quite lovely and very personable. It's too bad she didn't rise above B-movie material, but her low-key, good-natured style made her a good female lead in these low-budget films. In bigger movies, she probably would have been a sister or a best friend.

Joe Penner was amongst the stellar personalities of 1930s American radio, but so were Ben Bernie, Gabriel Heatter, or Phil Baker. Fame is fleeting, and often leaves none but the slightest traces for the future to uncover.

Penner's vaudeville beginnings brought him to radio and movies, at first doing Vitaphone acts, and quickly moving into secondary parts and then leads in B-grade feature comedies. In short, he followed the standard trajectory of American entertainment careers of the time.

The thing about Penner is that he had a very shallow bag of tricks, a few catchphrases that were exploited far more than they were worth, like "YUH WANNA BUY A DUCK?" and "YEEW NASTY MANN!" It would seem not to bother his uncritical fan base, and RKO just put him on the movie conveyer belt and they put out this collection of retreaded college football clichés.

He's given the ridiculous name of Doodle Bugs, a dim witted son of a big business man who is obsessed with his college football playing days.

Doodle only wants to lead his crummy swing band, playing in an empty restaurant his father bankrolls until he decides Doodle must instead follow in his cleated footsteps.

He's obviously in no shape for any sort of athletics, and though Penner was only 34 here, he could pass for ten years older. Doesn't matter, as everything and every body in it are one dimensional, uninteresting props. A strange lack of energy goes throughout, and nothing needs much of an explanation or backstory, like Joe suddenly going into a Ruth St. Denis routine every time he hears "Pop Goes The Weasel", which ends in a big kick. And outside of such a gimmick being right out of one of the Three Stooges' best films, you'd have to be a houseplant not to see that a big game will be saved by the timely appearance of the provocative ditty sometime soon in the film.

Joe could be funny, and a few good laughs were had by myself from some of the Vitaphone shorts, but By 1938 it seems like he doesn't have anything but to do as the scenes are required to and talk in a his weird, fluctuating outbursts.

So it's not a great film, but not terrible. If you want terrible, Penner's next, and final starring picture, "Millionaire Playboy" (1940) is very much that.

Jimmie "Doodle" Bug (Joe Penner) is a good-natured bumbling entertainer with limited skills and less appeal. His rich father stops paying the club where he sings to an empty room. He is forced by his father to attend the old alma mater Taylor Tech where his father was the football star. The son of his father's rival, Larry Weldon, is now the school's top football player. His father wants him to be the star and he's willing to pay for it. All the boys have a crush on Janice Martin.

The premise would never work. His father needs to bribe or sabotage every opponent or lots of both. Football is simply never going to work unless they discover Doodle has an unique skill. Here's my silly outlandish pitch. Coat him in a special long-lasting oil which makes him impossible to tackle. The physical comedy would be promising and maybe it would save this football premise. When he starts doing well, none of that feels right and the movie loses me completely.