''The Fuller Brush Girl'' is a 1950

slapstick Slapstick is a style of humor involving exaggerated physical activity that exceeds the boundaries of normal physical comedy. Slapstick may involve both intentional violence and violence by mishap, often resulting from inept use of props such a ...

comedy starring

Lucille Ball Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American actress, comedienne and producer. She was nominated for 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning five times, and was the recipient of several other accolades, such as the Golden ...

and directed by

Lloyd Bacon Lloyd Francis Bacon (December 4, 1889 – November 15, 1955) was an American screen, stage and vaudeville actor and film director. As a director he made films in virtually all genres, including westerns, musicals, comedies, gangster films, an ...

. Animator Frank Tashlin wrote the script. Ball plays a quirky door-to-door cosmetics saleswoman for the

Fuller Brush Company The Fuller Brush Company sells branded and private label products for personal care as well as commercial and household cleaning. It was founded in 1906 by Alfred Fuller. Consolidated Foods, now Sara Lee Corporation, acquired Fuller Brush in 19 ...

. The film also stars

Eddie Albert Edward Albert Heimberger (April 22, 1906 – May 26, 2005) was an American actor and activist. He was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor; the first nomination came in 1954 for his performance in ''Roman Holiday'', ...

and has an uncredited cameo by

Red Skelton Richard Red Skelton (July 18, 1913September 17, 1997) was an American entertainer best known for his national radio and television shows between 1937 and 1971, especially as host of the television program ''The Red Skelton Show''. He has stars ...

(who had starred in the Tashlin-scripted and

S. Sylvan Simon S. Sylvan Simon (March 9, 1910 – May 17, 1951) was an American stage/film director and producer. He directed numerous Hollywood films in the late 1930s to 1940s, and was the producer of '' Born Yesterday'' (1950). Life and work Born in Chic ...

directed ''

The Fuller Brush Man ''The Fuller Brush Man'' is a 1948 American comedy film starring Red Skelton as a door-to-door salesman for the Fuller Brush Company who becomes a murder suspect. Plot Success doesn't exactly stare the unfortunate street cleaner Red Jones (Red Sk ...

'' two years earlier). The film reunites Lucille Ball with director

, producer

and Frank Tashlin at

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

after their 1949 film '' Miss Grant Takes Richmond''.

Plot

Sally and Humphrey, who work together at the same steamship company (she as a switchboard operator, he as an office boy), wish to be able to afford monthly payments on a house they have long wanted to buy. Their boss, Harvey Simpson, unaccountably gives Humphrey a big promotion. Harvey is involved in a smuggling job which requires an oblivious patsy and it has been determined that Humphrey is it. Thrilled with this promotion, the couple are now able to go ahead and put their down-payment on the house. Sally, however, while conferring with a friend about the friend's job with

Fuller Brush The Fuller Brush Company sells branded and private label products for personal care as well as commercial and household cleaning. It was founded in 1906 by Alfred Fuller. Consolidated Foods, now Sara Lee Corporation, acquired Fuller Brush in 19 ...

, manages to accidentally destroy the switchboard and cover her boss with Fuller Brush powder; she is subsequently fired. She decides to apply for her own Fuller Brush franchise, but requires a reference from her former employer. Borrowing her friend's kit, Sally sets out to prove she would be a good saleswoman without having to obtain the reference. A series of catastrophes ensues and, when Mr. and Mrs. Simpson are each found dead, Sally becomes the prime suspect. Sally and Humphrey identify the real culprit and pursue her to her job dancing at a burlesque theater (where Sally has to take the stage as a means of disguise), and then onto a departing ocean liner. Humphrey becomes aware that he has been set up as a fall guy in a smuggling enterprise. Hilarity ensues as the pair are chased around the ship by a criminal gang trying to silence them, while they leap out a porthole into the ship's hold and then hide variously in rooms filled with leaky wine barrels, bunches of bananas, and a pair of talking parrots who nearly give them away.

Cast

as Sally Elliot *

as Humphrey Briggs * Carl Benton Reid as Mr. Christy *

Gale Robbins Gale Robbins (born Betty Gale Robbins or Betty Gale Murphy, May 7, 1921 – February 18, 1980) was an American actress and singer. Early years Born in Chicago, Illinois, although one source claims she was born in Mitchell, Indiana and her fami ...

as Ruby Rawlings *

Jeff Donnell Jean Marie "Jeff" Donnell (July 10, 1921 – April 11, 1988) was an American film and television actress. Early years Donnell was born in South Windham, Maine, to Harold and Mildred Donnell, when her father was superintendent at a boys' reform ...

as Jane Bixby *

Jerome Cowan Jerome Palmer Cowan (October 6, 1897 – January 24, 1972) was an American stage, film, and television actor. Early years Cowan was born in New York City, the son of William Cowan, a confectioner of Scottish descent, and Julia Cowan, née Palm ...

as Harvey Simpson *

John Litel John Beach Litel (December 30, 1892 – February 3, 1972) was an American film and television actor. Early life Litel was born in Albany, Wisconsin. During World War I, he enlisted in the French Army and was twice decorated for bravery. Ba ...

as Mr. Watkins * Fred Graham as Rocky Mitchell * Lee Patrick as Claire Simpson *

Arthur Space Charles Arthur Space (October 12, 1908 – January 13, 1983) was an American film, television and stage actor. He was best known as Doc Weaver, the veterinarian, in thirty-nine episodes of the CBS television series '' Lassie''. Early years Bor ...

as Insp. Rodgers * Mel Blanc as two parrots (voice only) *

Barbara Pepper Barbara Pepper (born Marion Pepper; May 31, 1915 – July 18, 1969) was an American stage, television, radio, and film actress. She is best known as the first Doris Ziffel on the sitcom '' Green Acres''. Early life and career Marion Pepper ...

as Woman Watching TV *

as Fuller Brush Man

External links

* * * * 1950 films American black-and-white films Columbia Pictures films 1950s English-language films Films directed by Lloyd Bacon 1950s comedy mystery films American slapstick comedy films Films with screenplays by Frank Tashlin American comedy mystery films Films scored by Heinz Roemheld 1950s American films {{1950s-comedy-film-stub