The Big Show-Off

Apart from Wally Cox, I have a hard time imagining an actor LESS likely to be able to convincingly play a professional wrestler than Arthur Lake. Lake played Dagwood Bumstead in a long series of Blondie movies in the 1930s-1950s.....and Dagwood was a decidedly non-macho guy...but here he is in a film where he's pretending to be a wrestling he-man!!

Sandy (Lake) is a mild-mannered pianist who is occasionally picked on by the emcee of the club where they both work. June (Dale Evans) is a lovely singer at the club and Sandy is secretly smitten with her. However, when he sees her at a wrestling match, he realizes she loves burly he-men like The Devil, a bad-boy masked wrestler. Their boss (Lionel Stander) decides to help and tells June that Sandy IS The Devil....but it's a secret! What's Sandy to do....go with this ruse or tell her the truth?

This film requires a bit of suspension of belief...that's for sure! But the story is cute and made me smile...silly as it is. And, for a cheap B-movie, "The Big Show-Off" is terrific...one of the better B films you can find.