Private Snuffy Smith

The characters from this are from the comic strip "Barney Google and Snuffy Smith" by Billy DeBeck. And, like most films based on strips, this one is bad….no, horrible is more like it! In fact, it may just be the most horrible film of the 1940s. Yes, it's THAT bad.

Snuffy Smith and his very stereotypical hick friends are the stars of this monstrosity. While they might look and sound a lot like the original characters, this is NOT a plus. They come off as grotesque and terribly offensive. It's hard to believe, but the folks make those from "Li'l Abner" seem like Shakespearian actors by comparison. Lots of moonshine, hick humor and the like wears incredibly thin after only a few minutes. In many ways, it is reminiscent in style to the 1980 horror "Popeye" but, and I NEVER thought I'd ever say this, the horrible "Popeye" is a better film. "Private Snuffy Smith" simply has horrible writing, horribly broad characters and not even a single entertaining moment in this rotten movie. The only things of minor interest are seeing Edgar Kennedy and Jimmy Dodd (later of "The Mickey Mouse Club" fame), but they, too, are simply terrible. The film is so bad that I can clearly understand how it was able to slip into the public domain! No one would want to claim ownership over this mess. Even Ed Wood would have been ashamed to put his name on it!

Monogram's well calculated hillbilly comic strip / army antics comedy from 1942 must have made zillions at the box office, given it's time and themes. Hilarious actors Bud Duncan and wife Sarah Padden playing tiny Snuffy Smith and his huge wife Lowzie make a very funny on screen sight. I have to say I watched this under protest; but within 10 minutes found myself laughing at my own prejudice: this is a well made and very entertaining 40s crowd pleaser ...and transfer that into huge crowds watching either in bumpkin Bijous or Army cinemas and the roof would have lifted an many occasions during this farce well connected with its intended audience. The dialog alone spoken in some sort of contrived hillbilly pilgrim Shakespeare is suitably mangled and hilarious. The cheap production adds to the hick locales and tent city of the army; the comic book look and action suit the antics perfectly. I really liked this deliberately silly film and found it a real surprise. Filmed with a real eye for being as crazy as possible with a cast matched (in the credits) to the comic book...well it all is a treat...and "filmed" just around the corner from Dogpatch, I am sure, they would have known Li'l Abner, Daisy Mae, the Beverly Hillbillies and even both Hatfields and MacCoys. Bud Duncan, veteran of over 120 silent comedies is a perfectly diminutive and crafty WC Fields which adds to the film. What a surprise! Republic Pictures must have been soooo jealous of Monogram scoring this bullseye! Remember these silly films were made to entertain wartime audiences sitting in huge theaters, not clever new century us in alone in our DVD caves...so allow that notion in your viewing of these old films...and have fun..that's what they are made for!

My first comment is that really Bud Duncan's nose? I watched this not very good comedy from start to finish simply because I couldn't tell whether Duncan, who plays Snuffy Smith, had on a fake nose or not. Its huge, the type of nose that would make WC Fields jealous.

The plot is more a series of connected episodes rather than one long story. The movie begins with revenuers coming to break up Snuffy's still, and having a bad time of it. Snuffy then helps a neighbor see his girl before going off to the army. Its a Hatfield and McCoy situation that ends up bringing trouble on Snuffy who decides to join the army for the money and the uniform. Somewhere in this Snuffy's wife invents an invisible formula. Being too old and too short Snuffy can't get into the army, but all is made right when he saves a general's life and is inducted as a yard-bird. A few more things happen before we get to the main plot which has to do with a new artillery range finder.(less than half the movie is left at this point)

The movie plays more like a Hollywood Hillbilly Dress Up than anything else. The jokes, while not quite bottom of the barrel, are close. The result is not terrible, its just not interesting, or funny. It plays like a stereotypical "Poverty Row" comedy, but less funny. Then again most comedies of this sort aren't this stilted. There's something about the direction that doesn't work.

The one thing that I like is the odd comic strip feel it has at times. There are moments, mostly in the army sequences where the cheapness of the production makes the film seem like it was lifted from the comic pages. Its a nice effect, intentional or not, but its put to no use.

I can't really recommend this movie to anyone, unless you're dying to see either every comic strip movie ever made or to see one of the weirdest noses on screen. Its simply not all that good.