An offshoot of the Fibber McGee and Molly radio show, Harold Peary is "Gildersleeve", a sad sack who gets into trouble now and then. In this adventure, his neighbors want to get him married off, and after the usual mis-understandings, he gets in deeper and deeper. Nancy Gates and Jane Darwell co-star, and can't seem to mind their own business. "None so Rare", sung by little tyke Freddie Mercer, first as an aria, then in jazz. he made a bunch of films in the first half of the 1940s, then seems to have disappeared; died young at age 48, but that doesn't seem to be discussed anywhere. It's ok. Gildersleeve always has a weird, creepy laugh, and spends the whole film oddly moaning and running in circles. the strange laugh really got annoying. SO much slapstick comedy...( the three stooges must have been busy that week.) it really got annoying. maybe comedy has just changed since this was made. Just a silly, quickie from RKO. Directed by Gordon Douglas; he worked with Elvis (follow that dream), Sinatra (five films!) and did the Falcon in Hollywood, an pretty good chapter in the the Falcon murders.
Review of The Great Gildersleeve
