''The Good Humor Man'' is a 1950

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

crime film Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

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 ...

and written by

Frank Tashlin Frank Tashlin (born Francis Fredrick von Taschlein, February 19, 1913 – May 5, 1972), also known as Tish Tash and Frank Tash, was an American animator, cartoonist, children's writer, illustrator, screenwriter, and film director. He was best kn ...

. The film revolves around a

Good Humor Good Humor is a Good Humor-Breyers brand of ice cream started in Youngstown, Ohio, US, in the early 1920s with the Good Humor bar, a chocolate-coated ice cream bar on a stick sold from ice cream trucks and retail outlets. It was a fixture in Ame ...

ice cream salesman who becomes involved in a murder. The film stars

Jack Carson John Elmer Carson (October 27, 1910 – January 2, 1963) was a Canadian-born American film actor. Carson often played the role of comedic friend in films of the 1940s and 1950s, including ''The Strawberry Blonde'' (1941) with James Cagney and ...

Lola Albright Lola Jean Albright (July 20, 1924 – March 23, 2017) was an American singer and actress, best known for playing the sultry singer Edie Hart, the girlfriend of private eye Peter Gunn, on all three seasons of the TV series ''Peter Gunn''. Early ...

Jean Wallace Jean Wallace (born Jean Walasek or Wallasek; October 12, 1923 – February 14, 1990) was an American television and film actress. Early life Wallace was born in Chicago, Illinois to John T. Walaszek and Mary A. Walaszek (''née'' Sharkey). ...

George Reeves George Reeves (born George Keefer Brewer; January 5, 1914 – June 16, 1959) was an American actor. He is best known for portraying Superman in the television series '' Adventures of Superman'' (1952–1958). His death at age 45 from a g ...

, Peter Miles and

Frank Ferguson Frank S. Ferguson (December 25, 1906 – September 12, 1978) was an American character actor with hundreds of appearances in both film and television. Background Ferguson was the younger of two children of W. Thomas Ferguson, a native Scottish ...

. The film was released on June 1, 1950, by

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 ...

Plot summary

Jack Carson plays

delivery driver Biff Jones, who gets in trouble with the law after being falsely connected with a $300,000 robbery of the cash safe at work, and an apparent murder. He is in love with a neighborhood gal, Margie Bellew, who lives with her younger brother Johnny. Biff and Margie, with the help of Johnny and all the kids from the neighborhood, absolve Biff by fighting and capturing the gangsters guilty of the crime.

Cast

as Biff Jones *

as Margie Bellew *

as Bonnie Conroy *

as Stuart Nagle * Peter Miles as Johnny Bellew *

as Inspector Quint * David Sharpe as Slick * Chick Collins as Fats * Eddie Parker as John * Pat Flaherty as Officer Rhodes * Richard Egan as Officer Daley *

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 Born ...

as Steven *

Victoria Horne Victoria Horne (November 1, 1911 – October 10, 2003) was an American character actress, appearing in 49 films (uncredited in 25 of these) during the 1940s and 1950s. Early years Horne was born on November 1, 1911, in New York City, to Ig ...

as Bride * Jack Overman as Shirtless Stoker

Reception

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' critic

Bosley Crowther Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though his ...

panned the film, writing "it does nothing to enhance the reputations of either the movies or a national confectioner's brand." Critic Craig Butler described the film as "a surprisingly engaging little slapstick flick" with a "screenplay

hat A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...

is silly and contrived". Henry MacArthur of the ''

Washington Evening Star ''The Washington Star'', previously known as the ''Washington Star-News'' and the Washington ''Evening Star'', was a daily afternoon newspaper published in Washington, D.C., between 1852 and 1981. The Sunday edition was known as the ''Sunday Star ...

'' wrote, "a plot that makes sense is not what you want when you set out to see people clouted with custard pies", and called it "one of the wildest sessions of sustained slaptick on record"... "guided at a rising pitch by director

"."Biff, Bam!", Washington Evening Star, Washington D. C., June 23, 1950, p. A-24
/ref>

References

External links

* * * * *
Captain Marvel and the Good Humor Man
' tie-in comic book American crime comedy films American black-and-white films Columbia Pictures films Films based on short fiction Films directed by Lloyd Bacon 1950s crime comedy films Films with screenplays by Frank Tashlin Films scored by Heinz Roemheld 1950 comedy films 1950 films 1950s English-language films 1950s American films Captain Marvel (DC Comics) Films about salespeople {{comedy-crime-film-stub