Wonderful character development!

One of the worst movies I've ever seen

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

In Vincente Minnelli's third film MGM gave him the disparate talents of Eleanor Powell and Red Skelton to work with. The result was I Dood It and while Powell's career was only a few more films, Red's got going into high gear after this went into release.Powell is a Broadway star and Red is a love struck fan who has seen 65 performances of her in some Civil War drama from the same seat. Of course the players have noticed him and he's always a well dressed man about town. But that's because he has the pick of suits to wear as he works for Sam Levene as a hotel valet and he borrows his customer's clothing for a night out. I won't say more but Red was treading into Bob Hope territory here as the schnook who always wound up with the girl. In this case a glamorous dancing star like Eleanor Powell. There's hope for all of us and a lot of Hope for Red as well in this film. Coming for specialty numbers are jazz pianist Hazel Scott and the great Lena Horne. Not to mention Jimmy Dorsey's Orchestra with singers Helen O'Connell and Bob Eberly who were at the height of their popularity when I Dood It came out. Thurston Hall plays Powell's producer, Richard Ainley her insufferable leading man and John Hodiak in one of his earliest films was a Nazi spy and saboteur. Well this was 1943 and film audiences were reminded those Nazis were everywhere.Red's fans and Eleanor's fans will get their money's worth with I Dood It.

If you adore Red Skelton... If you adore Eleanor Powell... If you adore Swing music and ballads... If you enjoy just kicking back and letting the experience take hold...,This is a terrific movie to enjoy with a bowl of popcorn. It's especially good when it's on TCM because there are no nasty cuts or commercials.It's fluff, make no mistake. No Tarantino gore, no Stone conspiracies, no angst... just pure fun watching some of the best talent Hollywood ever had.Lena Horne, Hazel Scott, Jimmy Dorsey, Bob Eberly, Helen O'Connell for the music. Eleanor Powell's magnificent dancing, Red Skelton's brilliant slapstick and his heart-felt sweetness. Then there's the rest of the cast - Thurston Hall, Sam Levene, John Hodiak, and Richard Ainley as Larry West, for whom this would be his last picture.The plot has its nuttier moments, none of it meant to be taken seriously. It has plenty of eye-appeal in the costumes (magnificent gowns) created by Irene Sharaff, inarguably one of the greats in the history of design. There are jewels to glitter and shine and, if they were fakes, they were great fakes.The plot gives Red Skelton plenty of opportunity to do what he did best. Just check out the "beard" scene - you'll know what I mean.OK, so it ain't "Gone With The Wind," or "Of Human Bondage," but it's not supposed to be, even with the Civil War play going on.One of the funniest parts for me was the sound effects guy doing the "hoofbeats" with the coconut shells, even though YOU know that the sound was being made by a Foley guy in post production. But it's a sound made within a picture by someone outside a picture... ahhh, now I'm confusing myself, and probably you, poor reader.Leave your troubles behind. Tune out the kids, the phone, the interruptions, the beds can be made later. Have fun!

I have this notion that the thirties was a great pressure cooker for movies, during which time all sorts of experiments were tried. Out of that period came the genres we know today, plus the great invention of Noir, uniquely American.So I've been watching lots of 30s movies, not because they are good or particularly enjoyable. But because you can see the genotype of today's movies, which is to say I can see the origins of how we all dream and mostly imagine.Now here is an anomaly, a 30s movie made in the 40s. I can only imagine that it was to feed the war-starved theaters. It is a remake and "borrows" musical numbers from a couple films that really were made in the 30s.It is a spliced picture, three movies combined, something that was common in the 30's.One movie is a stage show. Simple and straightforward. Lots of variety here.A second movie is a comedic fold: a movie where all the players are involved in some way in a play (different than the earlier mentioned performances and more like "Gone with the Wind"). Lots of physical humor here. Red Skelton's technique was to perform a comedic motion (like rolling his eyes after getting bonked) in an exaggerated fashion and then abruptly stop before it finished and look at the audience with a big grin. It was humor about humor, a not very sophisticated but an effective fold that would grow into what we have today (and call irony).The third movie has a wartime saboteur. Because the "fold," the notion of the play within the play, is explicit here, the explosion is to blow up the theater (and somehow simultaneously threaten the nation by mechanisms unexplained).Its a mess, these three parts not integrated in any way.Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

Here is a perfect little film. It's full of laughs, music and Red Skelton. I've never been a Red Skelton fan but when I saw this film on TCM I was hooked. I couldn't stop watching. Between the music, the dancing, and slapstick I can't say which one was better. The other thing is the direction. It didn't seem like it was made almost 60 years ago. The camera moment is on par with correct Hollywood. To that end, it was better than current directors do. No MTV editing but good clean shots that flow from one shot to the next without as many edits. Now that's something I would love current Hollywood try. This is a gem of a movie.