Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin'

Fast-talking salesman gets roped into foot-racing for a cash strapped town, and in the process, meets the town's colorful characters including a lovely blonde.

It's a low-budget musical with a sprightly cast. O'Connor earns his money with an array of acrobatics, including two energetic dance numbers. He also pairs up nicely with the sparkling Edwards, while their extended waltz up the street remains winsomely charming. In my book, these are the movie highlights. Reviewer Faiola, however, is right—the comedy aspects don't work well, even with such under-used characters as Kilbride and Main. Also, the climactic foot race comes across as more labored than amusing. Clearly, director Sherman is more at home with six-guns and horses than comedic timing.

Speaking of horses, I don't know the origin of the Francis series, but there's a strong similarity between O'Connor and Jasper in this movie, and O'Connor and Francis, the talking mule, of that later series. In fact, this film also looks like a springboard for the Ma & Pa Kettle series that kicked off the following year. None of this would be surprising since the cast is so superior to the production. Frankly, the budget looks like it doesn't exceed 50-bucks, resulting in one of the most visually unattractive movies on record. Too bad glossy MGM didn't get the material first.

Anyway, the movie has its musical moments, but is mainly a practice round for an under-served cast.