Director: Ray Enright
Ginger Rogers was given one of her first leading lady parts in The Tenderfoot, a programmer from First National Pictures starring the rubber-faced Joe E. Brown. He plays a hick Texan who finds his way to the big city and is duped by would-be producers who know that they have a flop on their hands. Brown is intrigued enough by show business to invest in the property, and eventually he turns it into an unlikely hit. The humor is the expected fish out of water variety (Brown is perplexed by the menu at a Jewish restaurant, he “checks” his guns at said establishment, etc.), but it’s largely successful despite the familiarity. Brown as a performer is so larger-than-life that there is an inherent amusement in watching his long cowboy strides. Rogers is largely an afterthought, although the she has a nice encounter with Brown when he discovers he’s been made a dope of and Rogers scolds him for not standing up for himself. The picture has an unforgettable moment in which, in attempting to imitate a pretentious New York greeting (“salutations!”), Brown enthusiastically shouts “ejaculations!” at a couple of unsuspecting strangers.
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