Fireman, Save My Child! (1932) User Reviews (10)

At the sound of a fire alarm

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 16 March 2015]

I have no doubt that the legendary pitcher Rube Waddell was the model for Joe E. Brown's character in Fireman Save My Child. Waddell was one of the true zanies that ever donned a baseball uniform. One of his foibles was that he loved to chase fire trucks and watch the firefighters at their job. Unlike Brown in the film Waddell was a tippler of enormous proportion. He died way too young as well of tuberculosis.

In Fireman Save My Child Brown is a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals who would leave a gang at the sound of a fire alarm. Brown can't choose between his two passions, baseball and firefighting. He also has two other passions, good girl Evelyn Knapp and bad girl Lillian Bond.

Brown in real life was one of the biggest baseball fans that ever worked in the movie capital right along with William Bendix and William Frawley. He later did two other baseball related films Elmer The Great and Alibi Ike. His son in fact became a baseball executive, most notably as the general manager of the 1960 world champion Pittsburgh Pirates. Shooting at minor league park Wrigley Field in Los Angeles for the baseball sequences must have been heaven for him.

I also have no doubt that the World Series that Brown participates in was used the World Series newsreel footage of the Yankees and Cardinals to good advantage from both 1926 and 1928. Guy Kibbee who like Connie Mack never puts on a uniform plays the Cardinal manager. As it turns out Mack also managed Rube Waddell in the major leagues for the Philadelphia Athletics with a lot more patience than Kibbee shows in this film.

Brown has that rube character of his he used in so many of his films hewn to perfection. This one is enjoyable for both fans of Joe E. Brown and the great American pasttime.

More Than A Mouthful

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 12 July 2003]

A small-town fireman and inventor with a whiz of a pitching arm suddenly finds himself signed to play for the St. Louis Cardinals.

Rubber-faced comic Joe E. Brown dominates FIREMAN, SAVE MY CHILD, a very pleasant little film which examines the adventures of a small-town rube as he deals with the machinations of big city baseball & women. Brown's good-natured grin and physical comedy never fail to bring a laugh. Whether presiding over the immolation of a sauerkraut factory, calmly creating a conflagration in the office of a powerful business executive, or coolly surmounting the pitching mound in the final inning of a World Series game, Brown is always in firm control of the humor.

Evalyn Knapp as Brown's hometown sweetheart & Lilian Bond as the gold digger out to ruin him both play their parts well. Popular character actor Guy Kibbee keeps his particular plot pot boiling as the Cardinals' harried manager. Movie mavens will recognize OUR GANG's Dickie Moore, uncredited, as a young ball fan.

The film was given fine production values, with the fire fighting & baseball sequences both entertaining & believable. The title is a Melodrama catch-phrase; there are no children to be saved from fires in this movie.

This was the first of Brown's 'Baseball Trilogy' and was followed by ELMER, THE GREAT (1933) & ALIBI IKE (1935).

Once again, Joe E. Brown plays a doofus who plays baseball

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 16 October 2007]

I just don't understand the phenomenon that was Joe E. Brown's career in the 1930s. Again and again in films he played a doofus--and often a tough to like one. In this movie he wasn't ask selfish and despicable as he was in another one of his baseball films, ELMER THE GREAT, but he nevertheless seemed to care little about disappointing his teammates or the fan. And throughout the film, his main schtick was his love of fire prevention and his rubbery face. To me, after a while, this all wore very, very thin.

Fortunately, despite my general ill feelings towards Brown's characters, the rest of the film was a very interesting time capsule, as the film is about the 1932 St. Louis Cardinals and their race to the World Series. Unfortunately, cameos by old-time athletes are not featured in the film.

Also, while you might not readily notice, this movie's plot was re-worked into the great film THE NATURAL. Think about it--a country bumpkin comes to the big leagues and becomes a star, only to be de-railed by a "bad woman" (forgetting his sweetie back at home in the process).

Overall, it's a mildly interesting time-passer and that's about it. This film sure hasn't aged well.

Take me out to the Brown game!

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 10 September 2018]

What was funny in 1932 doesn't necessarily work in 1952 let alone 1972, 1992 or 2012. Joe E. Brown says a mouthful with his huge tonsils, but very little of it is funny in this dated and unbelievable comedy that focuses more on baseball than firemen. Yes, he is a small town firemen who plays on a local baseball team, the inventor of a supposed baseball like chemical device that implodes fires into stopping. He gets distracted from his job as a fireman and girlfriend Evelyn Knapp by becoming the star pitcher (!) on the St. Louis Cardinals, ending up in the world series and somehow engaged to the opportunistic Louise Bond. Somehow this Mr. "Do It All" manages to sell his patent, win the world series and get his girl back, and if there had been more time in the script, ride a unicycle and juggle!

Brown's love of baseball (and athletics in general) is very apparent, and in real life, he was apparently quite a humble man. But you can't tell that from his movies, where his characters are often so cocky that in this film, you want the entire team to start tossing his chemical balls at him to put out his fiery ego. Blame that on the scriptwriters who exaggerate everything he does, because after a while, it becomes a little too much to take without pelting your TV with something. The funniest sequence occurs when Brown intentionally sets an office on fire then runs around in a panic trying to find his switched brief case. Brown keeps repeating the phrase, "You Said a Mouthful", which ironically was the name of a film he made the very same year. Oh, and if he's the ideal professional baseball player, then I should try out for a professional basketball center.

Some Laughs

[Michael_Elliott · 27 February 2008]

Fireman, Save My Child (1932)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

First film in Warner's trilogy of baseball films with Joe E. Brown. In this one Brown plays a star pitcher who also just happens to be a fireman. Even with the World Series on the line he can't help but put being a fireman at number one. I've seen the last film in this trilogy and really enjoyed it so that's why I was so disappointed in this one. Brown is his usual self, which brings a few laughs but overall he isn't nearly as wild and out of control as normal. The supporting cast are deadly dull and really don't add any laughs so it's pretty much Brown trying to do everything on his own. You get the mean blonde subplot, which is pretty dull as well. Directed by Lloyd Bacon.

Joe E. Brown as small town fireman cum big league pitcher

[jpickerel · 6/10 · 26 September 2007]

Joe E. Brown plays a small town inventor and fireman, who creates a small bomb which puts out fires. The story involves his efforts to patent it; baseball provides the means by which he earns the money to do so. It is a typical Brown comedy - a fairly involved plot, romance in the form of Evelyn Knapp and plenty of action sequences, mainly involving fire. (The opening sequence contains a fire at the local Sauerkraut Factory, which indicates the elaborate production values contained in the film.) There are problems with the film, I think, displayed in the also typical Joe E. Brown swagger and bragadoccio, (which can be very annoying) and the character's involvement with con men and a femme fatale, who take him for a good deal of his savings. This twist is strangely unresolved at the film's end. And it is frustrating to the viewer in that one wonders how anyone could be so uncaring as to ignore the fact that he's supposed to pitch in the seventh game of the World Series. It's well worth watching, though, as a well produced film with some great sequences, not typical fare for 1932.

For Joe E. Fans

[GManfred · 6 March 2012]

Joe E. Brown could be a very funny guy, but you had to appreciate his particular brand of humor. He got a lot of mileage out of playing cocksure hayseeds, which he does here. There are always some visual jokes but normally you had to keep your eye on him and listen for his mid-western cornball replies, which varied in the degree of jocularity.

But this was the early 1930's, and this type of comedy would not work on today's audiences. Most of the situations take too long to develop and his sense of humor is too droll for modern times, in the same way you could not make, for instance, "Mr. Hulot's Holiday" nowadays. Modern moviegoers would rather see Adam Sandler or Jim Carrey.

"Fireman, Save My Child" is worth seeing if you can remember Joe E. Brown and savor his goofy, good-natured style. There are some good, funny moments embedded in a forgettable tale about a fireman-inventor who plays baseball. But if you don't remember him you might as well forget this picture.

Joe E. Brown comedy

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 1 August 2023]

Joe Grant (Joe E. Brown) is a small town inventor, a fireman and a baseball player. He puts it all together by inventing a fire extinguishing ball. He's trying to earn money pitching in the big game when the fire alarm is sounded. He drops everything to fight the fire. He gets called to the big leagues, but he is still more interested in other things. He is spending all his money on his invention. He has his small town girl Sally Toby. Big city gal June Farnum is nothing but trouble.

It's a light comedy. It's mildly amusing. Joe E. Brown is likeable enough and has some fun light moments. Instead of being seduced by June, I would like the villain to be an evil male rival. It's just that he shouldn't have eyes on another girl if he is truly in love with Sally. It's not an appealing side of his character.

Strike 2!

[vincentlynch-moonoi · 6/10 · 21 April 2012]

Joe E. Lewis, a wonderful comic actor, made 3 baseball pictures. The best, by far, was "Alibi Ike". The other 2, including this one, pale in comparison.

I guess the plot sort of works -- a hick town firefighter happens to be an outstanding baseball player, but he spends so much time inventing a fire extinguisher that he nearly ruins his baseball career...and his engagement! There are some funny moments here, but like many early 1930s movies, the script is not well thought out. This one is okay for Joe E. Brown fans, but everyone else will probably be disappointed. But, check out "Alibi Ike"; it's a gem.

"That's right, I remember. You always liked to peel your own banana".

[classicsoncall · 5/10 · 7 July 2016]

When I think about watching Joe. E. Brown movies as a kid back in the Fifties, I seem to recall an affable and funny actor with the rubber face and siren-like 'Heeyyyyy' going for him. Nothing like his character Joe Grant here, who often comes across as boorish and arrogant. He might have been even more antagonistic in his follow up baseball picture, "Elmer, the Great". Maybe this wasn't lost on movie fans of the era, because by 1935's "Alibi Ike", he portrayed a baseball player who was a lot more fun to be around. Of the three films, I enjoyed that last one the best.

In this story, Joe Grant (Brown) is an inventor intent on perfecting his fire extinguisher invention consisting of a packed sphere of sodium bicarbonate aluminum sulfate. Those components for a fire retardant sound about right, but I don't know enough about them to pass judgment. When it came time to make his pitch to the money men in the latter part of the story, there's a mix-up that creates serious havoc, and you had to wonder just how clueless grown men could be who wouldn't walk over to a wastebasket full of paper and put out the fire before it went out of control. Come to think of it, the firemen who arrived were a bunch of boneheads as well; why not try turning the doorknob before using an ax on it?

Old time baseball fans will probably get a kick out of catching some of the game day stock footage from back in the day; it's too bad there weren't any recognizable players from the era. I got a kick out of Joe E. Brown's double whammy windmill wind-up, a maneuver he managed to embellish even further in "Alibi Ike". One item of interest that younger viewers watching today probably wouldn't relate to was that mustard plaster June Farnum (Lillian Bond) fixed up for him after that dump in the lake. Mustard plaster - what the heck is that? You'll have to catch the film to find out.

Well you've heard of rain delays in ball games when it gets a bit too undesirable to continue playing. The alternative in Joe Grant's case was a fire delay. If you believe that could happen, you'll get a kick out of this picture. You might also get a kick out of Joe's double entendre little comment to home-town girlfriend Sally (Evalyn Knapp) when she comes to visit him on the road. That's where my summary line above comes into play. Otherwise, what do bananas have to do with baseball?