Customer Reviews

I Dood It [VHS]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

...it is not a completec lassically great film. Although it is very high entertainment. Eleanor Powell does a fantastic scene opener with the Jimmy Dorsey Band and background singers as a lasso-ing tap dancing cowgirl. This scene will leave one begging for more as it is daring, fast, and ahead of it's time. Red Skelton plays her admirer and soon finds himself marrying her. It's all silly fluff, but it never hurts to watch it and laugh and be entertained.

...all of this type of dvd are available on the Warner Bros Archive website for $19.95 or so (currently on sale for $14.95). Check it out

I really like most of Red Skelton's pictures (The Fuller Brush Man is my favorite) and I have never seen Eleanor Powell be anything less than spectacular, but I couldn't really get into this picture. It is good, and well worth watching, but it is not the best that either star produced. Many of Eleanor's routines are recycled (including the "battleship" dance which is lifted intact from "Born to Dance") and Red didn't seem to be trying. I got the feeling that they needed to put out a picture and this is what they came up with. Funny, yes, worth watching, yes, wonderful and great, sadly no. It is far superior to any comedy that has been put out in recent years but it still lacking something that keeps it from being top-notch.

I sure wish I could see this movie on my big screen tv !!! I dont have VHS and wouldnt watch it if I did! This and other movies from MGM were released 12 to 14 years ago and need to be re=mastered on DVD NOW !!!

This movie has lots to enjoy - great wartime entertainment by some of the big names in music at that time, good if recycled comedy, and great dancing by Eleanor Powell. However, its main problem is all of what I just mentioned. It can never seem to figure out if it is a romantic comedy, a musical, or a movie about wartime sabotage. It's probably about 3.5/5, but I rounded it up to 4 because it does grow on you.

The comedy is mainly recycled from Buster Keaton's last silent film, "Spite Marriage", and in fact Buster was a gag writer on this film and most of Red's other movies for MGM. Here Red Skelton plays Joe Reynolds, reprising Buster's part as a worker in a laundry enamored with stage actress Constance Shaw (Eleanor Powell). He manages to show up at the same places Shaw shows up at by borrowing his customers' formal attire. Just like in the original, the leading lady is jealous of her leading man because he is romancing someone else - a potential backer for a show. Shaw marries Joe without knowing or caring what he does for a living, and there is the repeat of the "putting the unconscious bride to bed" scene that there was in Spite Marriage. When the day after the wedding she learns he does not in fact own gold mines but is a "pants presser" the newlyweds separate, at least for awhile. The situation in which Joe plays the hero here has to do with a plan to blow up a munitions storehouse next door to the theater where Constance Shaw is working. "Spite Marriage" had seafaring bootlegging gangsters as villains, which, of course, would have made no sense in 1943.

There are some great numbers by Powell if you are a fan of her dancing - I am. The disappointing part is that a couple of the numbers are lifted from other films. The finale is lifted from 1936's "Born To Dance" and there is another number that was shot for the film "Honolulu". Part of the reason for this is that the lasso number towards the beginning of the film was so difficult that Miss Powell knocked herself unconscious while performing it, and thus other numbers were substituted for the originals planned.

Finally there are some great musical numbers by the Dorseys and "Jericho" performed by Lena Horne.

My husband loved this old movie. Good comedy never grows old or stale. Unlike the "humor" in today's movies - which really is more like 10 year old boys' bathroom humor - this movie really was funny and made you happy.

this is a wonderful MGM musical with Eleanor Powell and Red Skelton in a staring role. she really acts up a storm, for a change (most of the time she just dances smiles and walks around...no life in her at all). he plays a pants presser and goes after a broadway show star who then comes on to him and scares the fool out of him..but this is Red Skelton and he has more foolin around to do than ever. really funny and the music is by Cole Porter and Count Basie and just for the sake of name dropping it is directed by non other than Vincente Minnelli. that's really tops.

Typical musical from MGM in its heyday.
Like others of its ilk,the plot was forgotten as soon as you
left the cinema.What stayed in the mind was highly professional performances by talented artists of the time,
in this instance Eleanor Powell,without doubt the best female
tap dancer in the movies,with her great original routines.
Also on hand musically,is Lena Horne,the piano playing of Hazel
Scott, plus Jimmy Dorsey's band and vocalists putting across
a great rendition of Star Eyes. Red Skelton who played the male
lead was -because of his buffoonery- not everyone's cup of tea''
nevertheless he was popular.The movie is worth getting for the
musical sequences..

I was really surprised when I saw I DOOD IT for the first time a few years ago in VHS format. Not only it was a very poor light comedy before Red Skelton starred in BATHING BEAUTY. It also looked as if Vincente Minnelli was very busy preparing the brilliant MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS and had no time at all to dedicate to this grade B Jack Cummings production. Minnelli was a member of the Arthur Freed Unity and was borrowed to the Cummings Unity in 1943 (not 1968, please, Amazon must correct the release date) but didn`t take much care of his job. And what was worst and unforgivable in an MGM musical: the production numbers of Eleanor Powell were recicled from old Jack Cummings films, like BORN TO DANCE (1936) and HONOLULU (1939), both of them well remembered for all the fans of Eleanor rutines, spectacular yes, but already seen! So, this must be one of the worst MGM musicals, at least the cheapest, for nobody worked in new dances for Eleanor, who was in fact saying goodbye to MGM (and the movies in general). The fans of Red Skelton could probably enjoy his shenanigans, but all those admire Powell and Minnelli could be very, very dissapointed with this black and white musical from MGM studios, far away from that great tradition everybody loves and admires, me in the first place.

Silly flick, only redeeming quality is the Dorsey Orchestra! The arrangements are excellent.