Prodígio de Fancaria

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.