Director: William A. Seiter
Released shortly after his affable Top Speed, Going Wild finds Joe E. Brown once again playing a wisacre who pretends to be someone he’s not, eventually culminating in a race he isn’t able to talk his way out of. The formula is again a relatively satisfying one, thanks in large part to Brown’s unlikely charisma—although the audience is behind him, they are equally happy to watch him sweat for a large part of the picture. Brown found enormous success with rural audiences in the 1930s, so it is somewhat surprising to see him cast in these urbane roles early in his sound career. Whereas films like Earthworm Tractors or The Tenderfoot cast Brown as a sort of fish-out-of-water who almost seems removed from time, in Going Wild he more closely resembles an upper class sophisticate—his rouse coming from the charismatic advantages he possesses as a fast-talking journalist. The film is hit and miss, involving everything from a horribly out of place music number (the film was initially filmed as a full-fledged musical before all but the one remaining song were cut) to a nicely imaginative medical exam sequence.
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