I Dood It (1943)

A pants presser (Red Skelton) at a hotel valet service has a huge crush on a Broadway star (Eleanor Powell). When her boyfriend (Richard Ainley) two times her with another woman (Patricia Dane), she marries the pants presser to get back at her boyfriend. Very loosely based on the Buster Keaton film SPITE MARRIAGE and directed by Vincente Minnelli (GIGI). Sandwiched in between two of his best films (CABIN IN THE SKY and MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS), MGM assigned Vincente Minnelli to this piece of nonsense and he brings nothing to it, how could he? Red Skelton is a polarizing comic, most people either love him or hate him. I'm rather indifferent toward him but he's totally unfunny here. Audiences seemed to like him and the movie was a hit. There are some compensations, all not involving Skelton. There's Eleanor Powell dancing, Lena Horne singing, Hazel Scott at the piano and the Jimmy Dorsey band swinging away. The film cheats by inserting two Eleanor Powell dances from previous movies: the Hawaiian tap hula from HONOLULU (1939) and the battleship finale from BORN TO DANCE (1936). How cheap can you get? With John Hodiak and Butterfly McQueen.