Many people associate Jack Carson's movie character with that of a stereotypical used-car salesman: loud, pushy, not averse to bending the truth a bit when it suits his purpose--in other words, pretty much of an obnoxious boor (and a role he actually played--to perfection--in a memorable "Twilight Zone" episode). What they forget is that Carson was a skilled and vastly underrated actor, capable of far more than what was usually expected of him, and this film is a case in point. Here Carson plays a role at which he really excelled--the big, good-hearted galoot, not quite the brightest bulb in the room but with an innate decency and guilelessness that more than made up for any of his other shortcomings. Carson had the same kind of persona that Lou Costello did--a somewhat rambunctious little kid trapped in a grown-up's body--and in this film he pulls it off as effortlessly as did Costello. He plays a Good Humor driver who not only brings ice cream to the local kids, but is pretty much one of them--among other things, he belongs to their chapter of the Captain Marvel fan club. Lola Albright (whom Carson married a few years later) plays his girlfriend. The plot has Carson getting mixed up with some local gangsters, finding himself in danger of losing his job and his girl, and eventually getting his buddies in the Captain Marvel club to help save the day. The sure hand of director Lloyd Bacon, an old pro at this sort of picture, keeps things moving swiftly, and there's a bang-up finale. Carson and Albright--and, more importantly, Carson and the kids--work well together, and it's an enjoyable, and often extremely funny, example of the kind of comedy of which Jack Carson was capable. If it pops up on TV check it out, or if you see it on the video-store shelf, rent it. You won't be disappointed.
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frankfob10 May 2003
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Mister8tch15 August 2013If you enjoyed the Stooges, you will get a hoot out of the last 20 minutes or so of this film, as every possible projectile, from musical instruments, to table saws, to baseball bats and the eventual pie fight, all come into play. It is what we paid 25 cents to see way back when. Carson and Albright have great chemistry, in fact, I would say that her role was so proactive as to almost claim her as an early women's libber! The film is dotted with character actors (yes, even George Reeves, our eventual 50's Superman), which only adds to the delight. A fun, nostalgic film, which reminded me of how I spent my Saturday afternoons once upon a time!
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ksf-214 April 2019The versatile, eternal second banana Jack Carson finally gets to be lead in Good Humor Man. Biff wants to get hitched to Margie (Lola Albright) but gets caught up in some zany adventure with Bonnie (Jean Wallace). This one is kind of silly, and probably aimed at a younger audience. Biff just gets deeper and deeper in a case of mistaken identity. Good thing he has Johnny (Peter Miles) helping to clear his name. A whole lot of silly slapstick humor. moves pretty slowly. more slapstick humor. and then some slapstick humor. Directed by LLoyd Bacon. had worked with Bogart and Bette Davis. It's okay. was hoping for a more serious bit from Jack Carson, but not in this one. he was so great in Mildred Pierce. and so many others.
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dougdoepke25 July 2008I love it when human Popsicle Jack Carson goes floating down the gutter into a storm drain, only to be rescued at the last moment. The gags fly fast and furious in this cockamamie send-up of the friendly neighborhood ice-cream man. I guess some such is to be expected from scripter Frank Tashlin, who never gave up his love affair with cartoons or the comic book. The gags are nothing if not inventive, from the opening sound effect to the closing school house free-for-all. Just count how many times Carson gets to mug-up the outrageous happenings-- I doubt if there's a number big enough.
This is a Carson showcase. Too bad this wonderfully versatile performer never received the recognition his prodigious talent deserved. Here, his man-boy good-humor man never annoys, unlike, say, a Jerry Lewis, who whined his way through a number of similar roles for Tashlin. I hope Carson got extra pay for all the physical contortions Tashlin and director Bacon put him through. Speaking of stunts, the luscious Lola Albright (the real Mrs. Carson) does her share, a decade before smouldering across the TV screen as Peter Gunn's torch-singing lady love.
Note the clever touch with the plug-ugly newlyweds, a subject usually sentimentalized to a nauseating degree by Hollywood. None of that here. The bride may be a groom's nightmare, but she's an optometrist's dream. Here the screenplay had to tread lightly around the comedic potential of a near-sighted bride, still the edgy humor shines through. Still and all, I wonder how the same potential would be treated by today's no-holds-barred cinema.
There were a number of these occupation-based slapsticks produced around this time-- Fuller Brush Man (Red Skelton), Fuller Brush Girl (Lucille Ball), Kill the Umpire (Bill Bendix) et al. None, however, are any funnier than this. My one complaint-- the schoolhouse slapstick goes on too long. It's as if Tashlin can't turn off the inventive engine once its started. But knowing when to stop can be as important as knowing how to start. Nonetheless, this remains a lively and chuckle-filled 80 minutes, and a lasting tribute to that under-rated performer Jack Carson, along with the wonderfully inventive Frank Tashlin. -
debo-mills22 July 2008I love Jack Carson in any movie I've seen him in, but I'm afraid I found this one boring, and fast-forwarded through most of it. I enjoyed the beginning, when Jack was treating the kids to ice-cream and joining in the Captain Marvel fan club, but once it got to the murder mystery it went downhill and became a mess of slapstick aimed at little children. But even kids couldn't sit through the too-long chase scenes. It needed a more clever zaniness, and I kept thinking how much better it would have been with Bob Hope and his self-depreciating humor in the lead, making clever quips.
Kudos, however, to the actress playing Jack's girlfriend, who gets dunked, dragged, and knocked down incessantly and yet manages to keep one step ahead of the villains! I really felt for her when she was trying to get Jack off the rope he was swinging on, and she got dragged back and forth until she fell onto the dusty ground! -
mossgrymk15 October 2022Pretty good early 50s comedy. Jack Carson is in his element playing an everyman/working stiff/schlub (kinda surprised, actually, that the Good Humor Company allowed itself to be personified by such a clueless goof). Scenarist Frank Tashlin provides him with a generous supply of amusing throwaway lines while director Lloyd Bacon stages some nice slapstick bits, especially in the first third while Carson is making his rounds and encountering various ludicrous situations like trying to deliver unmelted ice cream to a grouchy blast furnace worker and being slapped into aural coherence by an irate woman customer whose voice is distorted via tintinitis brought on by the good humor bells. The second two thirds, as the lame plot takes over, is not as good, with the comic finale trying way too hard, plus I hate to see a fine actor like Lola Albright wasted in the bland loyal girlfriend role but, all in all, I had an ok time. B minus
PS...Superman as a pervy boss? Works for me. -
mark.waltz20 February 2017Straight out of the style that made the "Fuller Brush" movies, this Columbia farce is top dog in what makes old fashioned comedy so much fun. It's all in a day's work for ice cream salesman Jack Carson who gets involved in more than just selling his products than he bargained for. Ringing bells make human voices impossible to understand, a kid with a speech impediment confuses him with an order, and melting ice cream bars in a furnace room create all sorts of havoc. But it's his coming to the aide of a young woman who claims that men are trying to kill her that guides the plot, literally putting him into a feel freeze, and leading to more mayhem when he does come upon a corpse and finds himself in a lot more trouble.
Carson, coming off a long spell at Warner Brothers, gets his best part, and really shows off a great bag of comic tricks. Lola Albright supports Carson as his long suffering girlfriend who keeps showing up at the wring time. Carson, wearing a women's slip and covered in soot, ends up "caged" with a bunch of tough dames, and must try to square things with Albright. Frank Ferguson is very funny as a police lieutenant, while Peter Miles is lovable as Albright's younger brother. Look for a young Richard Egan as a police officer. It's a shame that Carson never got the chance to star in a sitcom; he would have been a nice contrast to the women dominated field of TV sitcoms in the 1950's, equally as funny as Gleason, Skelton, Backus and Arnaz. The ending with the villains dealing with Carson, Albright and an army of kids is absurd in its overuse of comedy but somehow works anyway. -
wes-connors4 December 2011"Good Humor" ice cream truck driver Jack Carson (as Biff Jones) finds himself accused of murder when he tries to help a sexy gangster's moll. This cartoon-like slapstick comedy is notable for blatant product placement and an interesting cast. The third of Mr. Carson's wives plays his girlfriend Lola Albright (as Margie Bellew), and future "Superman" George Reeves (as Stuart Nagle) is the rival for her affections. The film unashamedly promotes "Good Humor" ice cream and "Captain Marvel" comic books.
At the time, the Fawcett comic book star outsold "Superman", and it's interesting to speculate on whether Mr. Reeves would have played "The Adventures of Captain Marvel" on television if the "Superman" publishers had not superseded the "Shazam!" star; Reeves sure looks the part. "Captain Marvel and the Good Humor Man" was a superior special edition comic book, which tied everything together. Young Peter Miles (as Johnny) and the "Captain Marvel Club" kids wear Marvelous clothing.
***** The Good Humor Man (3/24/50) Lloyd Bacon ~ Jack Carson, Lola Albright, George Reeves, Peter Miles -
artzau18 January 2001If you don't love Captain Marvel and Good Humor bars, you won't understand this film. It's that simple. Carson with his ex, Albright, is a lovable ice cream salesman who belongs to a local Captain Marvel club. Carson excelled in these lunk-head roles as the good guy with a heart of gold who might not be a Nobel Laurate in Nuclear Physics but is basically a kid at heart. But, even though I was in the transition from kid to teenager when I saw this film the year it came out, I knew then, as I know now, I'd always be a kid at heart. We can't make movies like this anymore. Simple people like ice cream salesman are hardly attractive role models for our present-day youngsters. We have to have martial arts superheroes, slick Wall Street Masters of the Universe, dopers or people on the edge thrust up as those worthy of interest. Catching a bunch of crooks with a Captain Marvel fan club as back-up with no sex and little violence would never make it to the screen these days. But, sports fans, it did back then and I'm very glad it did. I LOVE THIS FILM! UP WITH CARSON! UP WITH CAPTAIN MARVEL! AND, UP WITH ICE CREAM BARS!!
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SnoopyStyle1 September 2022Biff Jones (Jack Carson) is a Good Humor Ice Cream Man. He drives his truck around and has his misadventures. His girlfriend Margie is concerned about caring for her little brother. He gets caught up with gangsters and rescues a damsel. It spirals out of control as Biff and Margie go on the run.
I like his day-in-the-life job and his random encounters. It does get a bit too crazy and too ridiculous. How he's locked up with the ladies is beyond me. I like small misadventures more than the big crime wave. It's a silly little comedy. Jack Carson is fine as a comedian although I wouldn't call him anything great. He does all the comedic moves but his hulking bulk does seem more fitting for a heavy. -
flapdoodle6415 September 2016This is an obscure, uneven, and frankly cartoonish film starring the now-forgotten comedian Jack Carson. It is also one of 3 Columbia Pictures product-placement comedies of which I am familiar, the other 2 being 'The Fuller Brush Man,' with Red Skelton & 'The Fuller Brush Girl,' with Lucille Ball. Columbia might have made others but darned if I could find anything on them. I couldn't find anything specific about how these films were financed but since the Fuller Brush Company & the Good Humor (Ice Cream) Company were both viable commercial enterprises in those days, it's obvious they contributed 'plug money' to the productions in exchange for significant exposure.
This film is today mostly remembered because it has numerous references to the original Capt. Marvel comic books, a fan-club, and a non-existent Capt. Marvel radio show. We are talking about the 1940's version of Capt. Marvel, today erroneously called 'Shazam' by most people, who wore a red suit with a lightning bolt emblazoned on the chest.
Despite the fact that Capt. Marvel's publishers obviously contributed some of the plug-money for this film, the references to the Captain include nothing specific about the character, such as his super-strength, or ability to fly. Conspicuously absent are any mentions of Billy Batson, the 14-yr.-old boy who utters the magic word 'Shazam' in order to become the mighty Capt. Marvel.
Perhaps more conspicuously, when the script calls for the Capt. Marvel fan club to utilize a recognition code word, there is no a mention of either of Capt. Marvel's two trademark catch-phrases: 'Holy Moley!' or 'Shazam!' Instead, the rather awkward 'Niatpac Levram' (Captain Marvel spelled backwards) is used.
It is as if the script had been written generically, so that any hero's name could put be used to fill-in-the-blanks.
Or perhaps Superman's publishers had pressurized Columbia Pictures to minimize the film's promotional value. 'The Good Humor Man' was released on June 1, 1950, while Columbia released the first chapter of the serial 'Atom Man Vs. Superman' on July 20, roughly 6 weeks later. This second (and last) Superman chapter play was reportedly the highest grossing US serial of all time.
Superman's publishers, you see, had been working tirelessly to sue Capt. Marvel out of existence since 1941. The wanted a monopoly on superheroes, and sadly, in 1953, achieved their end.
In a strange twist of fate, the The Good Humor Man's villain turns out to be George Reeves. Reeves wasn't in either of the Superman movie serials, but in 1951 he would accept a job playing Superman in what has become the most durable superhero TV program ever, and achieving his own tragi-comic immortality.
Since the titular hero of this film is an early version of the man-boy archetype (forerunner of Seth Rogan), it's too bad the writers didn't bother to work in any references of Billy Batson's ability transform from kid to grown-up & back again. But it's characteristic of a film that is even less than uninspiring, and is in fact, barely watchable. Even the Fans of Capt. Marvel will find this a disappointment, since their hero is treated shabbily. Despite this, they will not miss the opportunity to record in on TCM, just as I could not. -
abimilech-113 January 2007I saw this movie several times on broadcast television during the 1960's. The opening scene of the stuck bells remains a truly classic moment, as are the references to the comic book fan club. There is a finely crafted mystery in the film. Carson's character is boyish and charming and appropriately dim-witted but lovable. The jackass adds a wonderful measure of fun.
This film really needs to be printed on DVD for it is a great film, funnier than anything Abbott and Costello ever did. They just don't make good clean films like this anymore.
By the way.. Good Times Video did release a VHS version of this classic film. apparently, fairly highly sought after as the lowest priced via Amazon.Com was $51.00 as of 2-6-07
David Wilson -
rmax30482321 September 2016Do they still make Good Humor ice cream, with those bells and the toasted almonds that I usually couldn't afford? Yum. There's a simulacrum that cruises around these New Mexico neighborhoods in the summer but it always plays La Cucaracha.
I didn't sit through this beyond the first forty-five minute and maybe it gets better, turns into more amusing fare. It could hardly get worse for an adult.
Don't make the mistake of confusing this with one of Red Skelton's better works during the same period. Skelton was a better comedian than Jack Carson. Some of the scenes in Skelton's movies, like "A Southern Yankee", were positively surreal. Buster Keaton was working as one of the gag writers.
This film is aimed at younger sensibilities, those who read Captain Marvel comic books and who think it's funny when ice cream is smashed without adumbration into someone's face. Gee. Look at the chocolate running in streams down his cheeks.
But, as I say, it may improve as the story unfolds. I doubt it. -
styner-219 March 2006I wholeheartedly endorse the previous reviewer's comments (q.v.), having seen "The Good Humor Man" at about the same time and at the same age. One interesting aspect has to do with the Captain Marvel "product placement." (The kids, customers of Carson's character who help him in the denouement, are members of the CM fan club). Shortly after the film was released, the Captain Marvel comics and other products disappeared when the copyright holders finally succumbed to a suit brought by DC Comics alleging too many resemblances between Captain M and that sissy Superman! That may be the reason that no video of this movie seems to be available through normal commercial sources.
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As I watched this Jack Carson film, I couldn't help but think that it seemed very similar to many of Red Skelton's movies. This isn't a complaint...though I think Skelton might have handled this sort of material a bit better.
Biff (Carson) is the Good Humor man in the film. He's a good natured doofus who never seems to actually make any money while making his rounds but this isn't what gets him into trouble. The problem is that he wanders into the middle of an apparent murder and soon cops all over town are looking for him. With the help of a bunch of kids (the WORST part of the film) he eventually manages to use a lot of slapsticky things to capture the baddies and prove himself innocent.
While this was generally decent, the last portion was terrible...in fact, downright embarrassing. It seemed cheap, stupid and hollow at the end. It's a shame but it brought down the score from a 6 to a 4. -
Jack Carson at his best and Lola Albright thrown in for the femm fatel. I saw the movie in 1950 with my Dad. I was 8 at the time and remembered it well. I purchased a mint 16mm original 25 years ago, but have since sold it. I have never seen it on tv once nor do I have a VHS copy! What a shame when TCM and AMC could easily have it and show it on ocasion. Even Showtime dug up the old Boston Blackie Movies w/ Chester Morris, so I know this film exists in someones vault. Until then, we old film buffs will have to sit thru the same old fims on tv!
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rickdumesnil-5520315 April 2019One of the worst comedies i have yet to see. the story line was mediocre,,,the actors bland.....and what was suppose to have you in stitches..barely had a grin from me. and i love to laugh. jack carson was not in his element and i like miss albright way better as a sultry lounge singer. im glad i didnt pay money to see this trash at the theatres
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Bronco4613 December 2011I went into this film a little skeptical, but was intrigued by the title. This must be one of the first films with product placement. Good Humor is featured for about the first three quarters of this film. Jack Carson is his usual self in this farce about a Good Humor man whose set up by a gang of criminals. This material seemed to be written for his talent for comedy. And it's nice to have a film like this with two very attractive women in it. The film is loaded with several character actors from this era; Frank Ferguson, Arthur Space, and Pat Flaherty just to mention a few. The story and the action aren't very realistic; but the comedy is great. And there's a chase that must run ten to twelve minutes that crams in every element of a comedic chase ever seen; pies, fire extinguishers spraying, musical instruments used in a fight; and lots more. It's old but gives lots of laughs all through the story, with the big chase at the end.
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Good Humor man Biff Jones(Jack Carson) seems like a big kid himself, sometimes taking part in activities relating to the Captain Marvel club, in the ramshackle clubhouse, next to the school. This is truly a feast of comedy, mainly of the physical sort. It's also a murder and theft mystery. In fact, there are 2 murder mysteries, plus a twice disappearing body! Quite a lot happening in 80 min.! I was never bored, and I'm sure kids won't be. The first half features humor, without the complication of murder mysteries. Jack (or his dummy) almost floats down a storm drain after he was stuffed in his truck freezer, by some bad guys, then rescued by police, who had a hankering for a Good Humor. His stiff ice-encased body falls over into the water from a nearby gushing decapitated hydrant, hit by a car. Then, his body is swept toward a storm drain, being pulled out at the last second. He creates havoc in the police station when he is recovering, letting loose mega- sneezes that shatter windows, blow the petals off a bouquet, or scatter the desk papers all over. .....In another incident, a furnace stoker wants a good humor. But every time, it melts before Jack can deliver it. Finally, he puts a bit of dry ice in his hat, along with the good humor. It almost works, but we see the melted ice cream and chocolate running down his face. ........Jack is sometimes accompanied by his secretary girlfriend Margie(Lola Albright), or briefly, by another blond: Bonnie(Jean Wallace), who pulls him into her life, then is apparently strangled, perhaps by Jack, in his sleep(But, see later). Her body vanished twice, with a later explanation. I wish they had used 2 actresses who didn't look so much alike, as I was confused for a while.......The last 20 min. is a non-stop barrage of hilarious slapstick events, as the bad guys chase Jack and Margie around in the playground, then inside the school, having misadventures with the musical instruments. Eventually, the Captain Marvel gang are alerted and come on bicycles, in soap box cars, and even in a bathtub on wheels, pulled by a mule! It's like The Little Rascals returned! The kids use a variety of physical aids, including an endless supply of cream pies, to subdue the villains, ending in pandemonium. Even the mule makes a contribution........Unless you are averse to slapstick, and murder mysteries, or B&W films, be sure to check this out at YouTube
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***SPOILERS*** Jack Carson is at his very funny best as Biff Jones the friendly man who sells Good Humor ice cream who gets himself involved in a murder that he didn't commit by trying to help a damsel in distress. Biff already got himself into trouble by rubbing a Good Humor ice-cream bar into the face of Perless Insurance investigator Stuart Nagel played the future TV Superman George Reeves where he was lucky that Superman, or Nagel, didn't end up ringing his neck.
The fact that Biff's girlfriend Margie Bellew, Lola Albright, worked as Nagel's secretary and that he was always making a play for her made Biff's blood boil over. It's later after saving mysterious blond Jane Wallace, Bonnie Conroy, from a gang of hoodlums that Biff's troubles that were mild at first started to multiply! With Bonnie supposedly found dead at her house where Biff, whom the mobsters were after, was staying the night he felt that he in fact murdered her in his sleep and, in being the law abiding citizens that he is, tried to give himself up to the police.
****SPOILER**** unknown to Biff that entire incident was set up by the very much alive, in suffering an epileptic seizure, Bonnie Conroy and her three hoodlum accomplices Slick Fats & John, David Sharp Chick Collins & Eddie Parker, in order to frame Biff in a robbery, that resulted in the murder of the night watchman, that they planned to pull off at the Perless insurance office that Stuart Nagel was in charge of! It's Nagel himself who's the mastermind in robbing his own office and framing the Good Humor Man Biff Jones in committing it!
Mile a minute hysterics with Biff & Margie on the run from Nagel and his gang of hoods and when it looked like the roof was going to fall on on them Margie's kid brother Johnny, Peter Miles, and his gang of Captain Marval impersonators, that seemed to be every kid in town under 12, came to their rescue!
Having it out in the school next to the Captain Marvel clubhouse Johnny and his friends together with the clubs mascot Arnie the hard kicking mule made a complete mess of Negel and his gang that by the time the movie ended they were more then glad to see the police come to save them from being kicked from behind and cream pied in the face into total unconsciousness. Besides all that Nagel & Co. also got a music lesson from Johnny and his friends as well as Biff & Margie in the workings and dangers of musicale instruments that had them not wanting to hear another note of music, like Biff's Good Humor truck jingles, again for the rest of their lives! -
lemmondwp15 December 2010Back when I saw this movie on TV, I was not having an otherwise happy childhood, and had undiagnosed Attention Deficit (not the hyper kind), so my recollections are so flawed I won't waste your time with them. What I recall now is only as a very happy dream. I may have seen most of this movie twice, on TV, in the 1960s. I have always wanted to see it again. It makes me sad that when I mention it to younger friends, all they know of is some horror movie by the same name. Some day I hope I can afford one of those VHS tapes going for so much online.
What? I have to come up with ten lines of text about a movie I last saw over 35 years ago? All I can possibly do is write "spoilers. ... Okay, I've checked the box for "Spoiler alert."
What I recall mostly is the last minutes of the movie, when a horde of kids fills the screen, on bicycles, scooters, pedal-powered cars and such, all racing to save their friend the ice cream truck driver. Of course I remember the buzz saw in the swimming pool, and was too young to think of how much sense that did not make. I loved the one-sided pie fight, especially because it said "Power to the kids!" at a time when I felt very powerless in my life.
I found this movie healing and invigorating, and I still miss it. -
Although this is not my forte, it will appeal to lovers and slapstick comedy, and it is very well done. One sight gag after another adds to the Three Stooges-type comedic quality of this film and the sequences are all done well.
We must give credit where credit is due. This film is a marvelous example of slapstick comedy, and would appeal to young people of today if it was in color and reprocessed so that it was technologically modern. After all the effort put into films from this era, it's a shame no one thinks to make them technologically on par with modern day fare.
All in all, this one's a winner. -
Kirpianuscus26 July 2021Jack Carson and Peter Miles. And a lot of crazy slapstick humor. It seems enough for see this mix of film noir, comedy, absurd story, child soul, Captain Marvel, a not very smart cop, ice cream and Jean Wallance as Bonnie. Yes, after more than half of century old, it seems naive. But useful for remind the dream about generosity of a presume vendor, offering free icecream to his young friends. And, sure, do not ignore the hard working donkey.