A Very Honorable Guy (1934) User Reviews (12)

Silly but I really liked it

[AlsExGal · 7/10 · 19 September 2010]

This humorous tale of a sub-culture of gamblers and pickpockets centers on Feet Samuels (Joe E. Brown), whose luck hasn't been so good lately. It gets even worse when the local mob boss, "The Brain" (Alan Dinehart), wants to teach a couple of welchers a lesson via the fists of his henchmen. They use Feet to find their marks, and when the police arrive, Feet winds up in jail for hitting a policeman in the confusion. The Brain offers Feet a five hundred dollar loan to help bail him out of jail. At first Feet smartly refuses, but when it is pointed out to him that the Brain might consider it an insult, he reluctantly accepts the loan. Feet has no luck raising the money he owes the Brain, and then he gets an idea when he sees a butcher delivering a side of beef for fifty dollars. With no money, no luck, and rejected by his girl Hortense (Alice White) Feet figures he has nothing to live for anyways. He decides to sell his body to science for one thousand dollars. However, he gets no takers but one - a strange doctor who is taken with the unique shape of Feet's head. Of course the doctor has no guarantee Feet won't take the money and never return, so The Brain underwrites this strange contract in which Feet is given one month to sew up his affairs and return a corpse.

Feet then repays his debt to the Brain and takes the balance to go on one last spree before he dies. Fate can be cruel, though, and suddenly Feet's gambling begins to pay off. Pretty soon Feet has run up his 500 dollars into a small fortune. This allows him to win back Hortense and begin to make wedding plans. There's just one problem. He's been having so much fun he forgot that his month is up the next day.

Alice White and Joe E. Brown were perfect together. White did seem to do better in these brassy supporting roles than as the lead in her earlier roles of 1929-1930 back when she was First National's answer to Clara Bow. You really feel that under all of that materialism - and there's a lot of it - that Hortense really does love Feet.

For a fun-filled film made just after the production code went into effect, with plenty of snappy dialogue and loaded with unique characters and atmosphere, this one really fits the bill.

ridiculous lightness

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 13 June 2022]

Feet Samuels (Joe E. Brown) has a run of bad luck and stuck with a gambling debt to the Brain. He sees himself as a very honorable guy and never breaks a promise. He gets tricked and put in jail. The Brain pays his bail and he's further in debt. He decides to sell his body to mad scientist Dr. Snitzer who likes the shape of his head. He lives his life for one last month before leaving his body to science.

It's a ridiculous premise. Joe E. Brown is trying to make it breezy fun. It's not actually funny. The tone is light or more light than the material should allow. I am intrigued mostly wondering how this is getting resolved. It needs to end with a funny gag but it's not. Maybe that's why there is the final chicken gag. Honestly, I don't get the joke but it's the same light ridiculous non-sense that permeates this movie.

Not all that funny but it is still a good little film

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 15 November 2015]

"A Very Honorable Guy" is a very dark comedy--and very little in it is all that funny. Still, despite this, it was enjoyable mostly because it was such a strange film and a welcome change of pace for Joe E. Brown.

When the film begins, 'Feet' Samuels (Brown) is having a long run of very bad luck. He owes everyone and his life is on the skids. So, because he was so honest, instead of not paying off his bets he comes up with a bizarre solution--to offer his body to any scientist who wants it IF they give him $1000 so he can settle his affairs. In a weird twist, however, suddenly the guy has amazingly good luck- --so much that his life should be terrific. But, he STILL has a contract with Dr. Snitzer--and the local gambling boss has guaranteed that the contract WILL be honored!

As I mentioned, this is very dark. But the film was enjoyable and I liked its strangeness. Worth seeing and a bit better than usual for Brown.

Cute!

[data-25 · 22 February 2001]

O.K., so this not the best Joe E. Brown vehicle. The script is weak and the laughs few. But it did have some amusing moments, such as the scene in Mindy's, when Robert Barrat pours just about every condiment into his coffee and Alan Dinehart looks on in disbelief. Or the tear gas scene. The capable cast tries hard but apart from a couple of funny scenes, they can do little with inferior material. Still, I thought it was kind of cute. Joe E. Brown fans should enjoy it.

Joe E. Brown Carries the Film Well

[RevvedReview · 7/10 · 24 June 2022]

This is the youngest I've seen Joe E Brown in a film. I am used to him being loud, obnoxoius and brash in later films, so it was great to see a wider range of his acting abilities. His acting even reminder me of Don Adams in Get Smart at times, with some of his mannerisms here.

I think the tone is fine in the beginning, you can do comedies with down-on-their-luck characters. It's all about how they respond and get out of their situations. What lowers my enjoyment for this movie is the second half where the whole plot turns absurd. Characters start making decisions that no sane human would make, and the tone shifts greatly from the first half where the characters were more grounded.

Also, great use of names, Feet Samuels, "the brain", etc. They were likely trying to mock gangster names but 90 years later all the names sound fun and cool to me.

This one barely made a "7" for me

[vincentlynch-moonoi · 7/10 · 9 December 2014]

Perhaps a bit darker than the typical Joe E. Brown comedy. Here, Brown plays a down-and-out gambler who decides to sell his body to get out of gambling debt and make a clean slate of it. Of course, just before he has to knock himself off to collect from a doctor (who is also courting his girl friend), his luck changes and he is suddenly in the dough. He gets out of the deal through a fairly clever plot twist near the end of the film...one at least I didn't see coming.

This is very much Joe E. Brown's film. I can't say much for his girlfriend in the film -- it was about this time that a scandal ruined her career. It was interesting to see "thug" Harold Huber here; a classic character actor who was sadly totally typecast.

Although it's a clever concept, the plot is thin. More could have been done with it. Maybe it was just that First National was the poor sister to Warner Brothers. It's okay, and not too long. The print shown on TCM seemed to have a faulty soundtrack, both in terms of some distortion and some places where the moving lips didn't perfectly match the words. Nevertheless, it's fun to watch Joe E. Brown in a Damon Runyon story.

Damon Runyon Hoods

[boblipton · 7/10 · 4 August 2023]

Gambler Joe E. Brown is having a terrible run of bad luck. He's broke, he owes Alan Dinehart $500, and his girl, Alice White, has thrown him over for rich doctor Robert Barrat. Being a very honorable guy, he decides to sell his body to science, but the only taker is Barrat, who gives him a grand with the body collectable in four weeks, underwritten by Dinehart, who is touched by Brown's honesty. Then something terrible happens. His luck turns, and he has a lot of money and Miss White. He offers Barrat his money back and a handsome profit, but Barrat tells Dinehart Brown wants to welsh.

It's the second movie adapted from Damon Runyon. Runyon was born out of wedlock, and by the 1910s he was one of the premiere sportswriters, and writers about Broadway, with Walter Winchell and Ed Sullivan his leg men. With the institution of the Production Code, his comic hoods speaking ridiculous English became an acceptable way of portraying gangsters without making them outright villains. He died in 1946 at the age of 66.

Make it 7.5!

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 24 November 2015]

Earl Baldwin's screenplay of this Damon Runyon tale preserves much of the inimitable flavor of the original – as well as the clever way in which the plot works out! Although he does not have as many humorous opportunities as usual, Joe E. Brown fits well into the title role. The accent is on plot rather than repartee, but director Lloyd Bacon keeps it moving briskly along, assisted by good camera-work by Ira Morgan.

Sets and costumes, alas, are on the drab side, but admittedly this does certainly suit the movie's overall tone and atmosphere.

Among the supporting cast, it's a thrill to see my favorite songwriters, namely Harry Warren and Al Dubin, playing themselves, although it's mighty strange to find Paul Hurst (who usually has a major role in the action) as a guest in the party scene.

A very odd film, saved by Toodles.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 30 December 2020]

I enjoy Joe E. Brown's antics even if he's rather dated in his style of comedy and pretty much the same character in all the films he made at Warner Brothers from 1929 to 1936 and RKO Radio, Columbia and Republic afterwards. He had heart added to his familiar persona for the color remake of "Show Boat" and stole the end of "Some Like It Hot" with the final line that 1959 audiences didn't see coming. But for this comedy (where Damon Runyeon was one of the screenwriters), he ended up with a rather macabre plot that gives a big "Huh?" on top of his trademark yowel.

His character is a good honest man but has gone a little bit bonkers by getting himself involved with gangsters after going into debt gambling. His fiancee Alice White starts seeing other men on the side because of this sudden change so Brown decides to pay off his debts in the quickest way he can figure out, by selling his body to science. The hitch is that the wacky scientist wants his body in one months time so Brown must think of a clever way of bumping himself off without destroying his cranium which is all the doctor basically wants him for.

Now if that isn't a "Huh?" type plot, I don't know what is. There are a lot of very funny moments, particularly an incident with a can of tear gas going back and forth while Brown and White are exploring the other colors of their relationship while they are in the back of a armored truck being driven by the stereotypically dumb mobsters. Veteran vaudeville performer Irene Franklin steals every moment she's on screen as White's outrageous mother Toodles. Otherwise, this film is just a very questionable entry in the list of Warner Brothers 1930's programmers.

Mediocre pre-Code fare

[gbill-74877 · 6/10 · 27 September 2022]

"If at first you don't succeed, suck eggs."

Joe E. Brown isn't the most magnetic guy in the world, but he has a certain flair in this film, like when he tosses his hat over his shoulder and it lands perfectly onto a hat rack. He plays a man nicknamed "Feet" who possesses a load of scruples but no money, and in a rather contrived way comes to owe a gangster ("The Brain") $500, payable in a month or else. Gotta love those names, right? He comes up with the brilliant idea of selling his body to science for $1000, then living it up until he has to kill himself to fulfill his end of the bargain. Naturally he starts getting incredibly lucky, winning all his bets (even accidental ones), winning the lottery, etc., the exact opposite of the cold streak he was on earlier. In the excitement of suddenly being obscenely wealthy, he somehow forgets (!) his promise.

This is an interesting variation on the theme of a rags to riches tale which was common during the Depression. Filmgoers could empathize with "rags" and dream of sudden "riches," when all their troubles would be gone. The film has amusing little things from 1930's, like that punchboard grid that cost a nickel to stick a pin through in the hopes of winning a $10 box of chocolate, and dialogue like one gangster exhorting another to drive faster by saying ("Travel boy, travel - we gotta lose 'em!"). Unfortunately, it's also loaded with plot holes and ridiculous character motivations. Maybe it's intention as a light comedy was to not take itself seriously, but it comes across as too silly, especially in its second half.

To be honest, I actually came for Alice White, who plays Hortense, Feet's girlfriend. I wish she had gotten more scenes, but she lights up the ones she's in. The film was released in May of 1934 and is thus pre-Code (enforcement began July 1), but you wouldn't know it. There's an allusion to breakfast after a night Hortense and another man spent together, as well as her and some other showgirls kicking their legs, but it's all pretty tame stuff. Overall, it's not a horrible way to spend 62 minutes, but just ends up being mediocre on all fronts.

Food For Thought

[sambase-38773 · 8/10 · 14 August 2023]

Most Joe E. Brown movies don't make you think, they just make you laugh. Typically, there's not much to think about. So you eat your popcorn and you laugh. But this one has food for thought. So while you're eating your popcorn, and laughing, you can think about what you're seeing. And what you're seeing is quite shocking. Because this movie is about suicide. At least partly, anyway. It's also about luck. I can talk about luck because I've had lots of luck, most of it bad. In fact, most of it was so bad that if I told you about it it would probably make you cry. And that is not my intention.

Joe E. Brown brings some subtlety to his acting in this movie and that's unusual for Joe E. Brown. Normally, his acting hits you over the head. And if you don't get knocked unconscious then you laugh. So this one is quite interesting from that standpoint.

Remember I said this movie is about luck? It sure is. It's about a guy going from bad luck to good luck. That's the best way to go, from bad luck to good luck. You don't want to go from good luck to bad luck. That's a mean and sad road to follow. So always go the other direction if you can.

To sum up. I would rate this movie #2 on my list of Joe E. Brown movies. I enjoyed it quite a bit. And, who knows, it might even bring me some good luck. By the way, #1 on my Joe E. Brown list is "Bright Lights".

A Very Forgettable Movie

[Schlockmeister · 17 January 2003]

The general impression I have of this movie is that it has a good cast but they are undercut by a script that seems wooden. As actors they either flew through this one without a second thought about it or they knew going in that the script was weak.

But they script has fun moments, enough to make this movie watchable, but it certainaly won't be one you will add to your list of favorites.

Some minor trivia on this movie, in the scene that shows a gossip column mention of Feet's attempt to sell his body to science, the by-line is by "Waldo Witchem", a sly take-off on real-life columnist Walter Winchell, who was a good friend of Damon Runyan, the man whos story this movie is based on. Winchell's name is mentioned in a few movies based on Runyon's stories. Alice White, who plays love interest Hortense was fresh from a major sex scandal that threatened her career. This movie was a come back attempt.

The story, as is the script is light. Feet Samuels is an honest man who loves to gamble. He ends of owing local mob boss, "The Brain" money and decides to sell his body to science to pay off his debt and also to impress his girl with material things. A mad doctor takes him up on the deal and in a month, Feet is to take a pill to end his life. Right after he makes the deal, his luck changes tremendously and he find himself in the predicament of going back on his word to the doctor and also the mob boss who underwrote his deal.

Again, this movie won't show up on any favorites list, but there are worse ways to waste an hour than by watching this.