Director: Roy Rowland
Red Skelton had already been transitioning into television by the time Excuse My Dust was released and the film makes a good argument why that might have been a medium better suited to his talents. That’s not to say that he gives a poor performance in Excuse My Dust—he’s perfectly serviceable as the predictably overlooked eccentric—but it ignores most of his comic talents. Whereas The Yellow Cab Man treated Skelton as a first-rate, progressive comedian, using innovative sets and glimpses of surrealism to aid the comedy, this nostalgic bore affords him very few memorable lines. Fortunately, the talented Sally Forrest is on hand as the love interest, and in one set piece she delivers a particularly erotic dance brilliantly choreographed by Hermes Pan (set during another man’s fantasy in which he imagines a future in which women’s clothes weight less). Good as Forrest is, however, she’s nearly overshadowed by the delightful Monica Lewis. If her numbers are less memorable, her enthusiasm and charisma as a performer is outstanding, contrasting with Forrest’s heroine as the more risque, modern woman. Buster Keaton was again on hand to help Skelton with some of the comedic scenes, but other than a moderately amusing race at the end of the picture the laughs are few and far between.
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