Very best movie i ever watch

Good concept, poorly executed.

disgusting, overrated, pointless

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

I might get into some hot water here because the value of film adaptations from popular radio serials are held high for many. I am admittedly not familiar with the radio show to which this Castle film was based. In all honesty, I am quite convinced that it played better without the visual component. There are too many flashbacks that slog and mire the plot progression. The effect is an instability of mood throughout the film. Castle's direction is plodding and does little to compensate. There are some good moments of mobile framing and blocking/staging, however, most often Castle relies on simple short pan reframes and frontality in his staging. Not only does this strategy limit auteurship but also prevents provocative psychological portrayals of the characters. This film is carried literally and figuratively on the weight of the reputation of the titular character. The fat man has his moments - corny, quaint and digressive. That being said, his dancing number should become a contemporary viral meme - hashmark Twinkle Toes. Clown of renown, Emmett Kelly makes an appearance and the climax of the film is set around the circus grounds. You might think fun times but don't forget that impressionable Kelly hobo long face.

When I was growing up, pre-television, we used to listen to many radio shows. One of these was The Fat Man, starring J. Scott Smart. This, as with some other radio shows, was made into a movie. The casting of Smart in the title role was good, since he looked the part and the sound was identical to the radio program.In virtually every radio show, Bradford Runyan is hired to solve a crime; the film carries on the tradition. However, the radio program lasted for only a half hour, and even though there was a "time compression" effect, there was time to do significantly more in the film. As an example, Runyan asks a lady to dance, and when she accepts, he acquits himself well. That could never have worked on the radio program, to be sure.For those of us who remember the program, there's a lot of nostalgia in the film. For those who never heard the show (such as my wife), it's still okay, but probably not as valued.

The plot of the movie is fairly basic. It begins with the death of a dentist - which death turns out to be tied in with a 6-year-old armored car robbery investigation, another murder, and a circus. The Fat Man, Brad Runyon, is a private investigator hired by the dentist's nurse to investigate, since the police are satisfied that his death was an accident.The movie's humor is fairly silly - for one thing, the director went a bit overboard on using all the sight gags that they couldn't use on radio (see below), such as Brad trying to fit into a tiny car, a phone booth, and dancing (which was kind of adorable).One interesting bit of trivia about this movie - J. Scott Smart, the actor playing Brad Runyon (the titular "Fat Man") also played him in the radio serial of the same name. It was really nice to see that (unlike many actors) he really looked the part he played.In the radio serial, he didn't have the sidekick character they gave him for the movie - but the guy was pretty harmless and amusing, so it worked out pretty well (it didn't turn them into a Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin clone or anything). On the radio, what made Runyon stand out was that he was a big guy, but not the least bit sedentary.It's a movie to watch if you like the radio serial (another trivia point - the radio show was inspired by a CHAPTER TITLE from the Maltese Falcon) or if you want to see famous clown Emmett Kelley play - well - a clown. Or if you like Julie London who looks pretty stunning in a cocktail dress.

Curiosity picture mainly because it is one of Rock Hudson's earlier films. I won't bother going over the film's many faults except to note the awkward humor. For example, after the nurse was killed, I couldn't believe the joking around. Also, why was she killed in the first place? It was never explained. This bummed me out because she was very attractive even if she couldn't act. It was obvious that this supposed to the first of a series of "Fat Man" detective movies, ala the "Thin Man" movies, but fortunately we are still waiting for the second one.