The Chief

Ed Wynn is listed in the cast as Ed Wynn "The Perfect Fool" and that's because he first gained fame on stage from a show with that title. In 1932 he became an overnight sensation with his radio show 'The Fire Chief' and this film is an attempt by MGM to make some money off Wynn's success. But taking his show to film was not a success, either at the box office or as a movie. It's all wheezy stuff now. Wynn does his dithery, silly shtick as the turn-of-the-century doofus "hero" of a local fire department who is co-opted by political wheeler dealers trying to make him an alderman. Oddly, the film ends with Wynn dropping any pretense of playing his character and instead doing his radio show: explaining into a microphone what happens with the remainder of the story and characters. The film has shades of a Harold Lloyd feature, but without the laughs. And Wynn is an acquired taste, seeing as he's both physically repulsive and cartoonish in voice and manner. But fans of Wynn and/or Golden Age of Radio buffs may find it of interest.

The frantic energy of Ed Wynn which went over so well on radio and in vaudeville for some reason did not come over well on the big screen. His son Keenan Wynn would achieve film success as a character actor before his old man did. It would be over 20 years more Ed Wynn would be seen live on film.

What he needed most was decent direction by a director who was versed in comedy who could have dialed down his perfect fool character to make it work. He did not get that in The Chief, his fire engine was going pedal to the metal.

For those who do not know the reason Ed Wynn was cast as the fire chief or in this case son of the fire chief was his well known radio persona. Wynn was for decades on radio sponsored by Texaco and he was known as the Texaco fire chief on the air. Like here on film, for his studio audiences Wynn would come out in a fire chief's hat and tell a lot of awful jokes in rapid succession like he was running to a fire. The jokes were bad, but the delivery was hilarious.

In this film Wynn is the son of a late fire chief on the Bowery back at the turn of the last century. A pair of political rivals try to use him for political purposes when they run and/or oppose his candidacy for alderman. God has a special providence for fools and the perfect fool comes out on top.

Walt Disney utilized him best. He was the voice of The Mad Hatter in his animated Alice In Wonderland film in 1950 and that was perfect casting. Later on if you want to see him with good direction in a live film, try watching his last film, The Gnomemobile. And he was quite the good dramatic actor in his last years, see him in Marjorie Morningstar and his Oscar nominated performance in The Diary Of Anne Frank.

But The Chief is strictly for Wynn's legion of fans and nostalgia lovers.

It's the gay 90's on The Bowery. Henry Summers aka The Perfect Fool (Ed Wynn) is a bumbling idiot. During a 4th of July celebration for his late hero fire chief father, he causes nothing but chaos. His bumbling causes him to get fired. He happens to save a woman and becomes a media darling. His former boss hires him back and threatens to run him against corrupt politician Paul Clayton. Clayton turns him, but Dixie Dean (Dorothy Mackaill) manipulates him back.

Ed Wynn is obviously a vaudevillian comedian. He is playing the loud fool who falls into success. I can see what he's doing and I can see it working better on stage. On the big screen, there is something a little off-putting about the character or Ed playing him. I want to like this for his obvious skills, but an hour of him does grate on one's nerves.

... MGM really didn't get comedy at all, especially during the early 30s when he was tied to that studio.

Ed Wynn was more well known from his stage performances as well as his radio show than he was for his early film performances as a comedian. In later years he turned his hand to dramatic roles and was very good in them, but here I am just turning my criticism to his performance in this film, and his schtick is abysmal as translated to the big screen.

Like some other comedians of the period, Mr. Wynn favored attiring himself in a comical fashion and molding his character as an exaggeration of the norm. Because filmed performances are more intimate than the stage, characterizations of this sort can tend to be out of place.

The film is based on a character he created especially for radio - that of the son of a heroic and deceased fire chief. In the film he also gains fame as a hero (through no fault of his own) and is persuaded to stand for election as an Alderman. Of course, there is a lot of skullduggery to dodge as politicians here are presented as being crooked.

Mr. Wynn is aided in his endeavors by Charles 'Chic' Sale who plays his Uncle Joe, an aged and deaf street-sweeper; Dorothy Mackaill as scenery; Effie Ellsler as the quintessential mother; C. Henry Gordon and William 'Stage' Boyd as scheming politicians; George Givot as a Greek Clothing Merchant who is an expert in Malapropisms; Nat Pendleton as a henchman who is easily softened, and there is a brief appearance by a young Mickey Rooney.