I'm not a big Red Skelton fan.Warranted I wasn't born until 1965 and didn't even know of him until the late seventies well after his heyday - I eventually watched a few of his movies as an adult and noted that he was mainly a comedic actor and mostly starred in movies involving slapstick type humor and gags. I did find some of them funny and the co-stars were equally as funny. This movie though with him in a serious role just doesn't wash. Besides the awful writing , his name is Dodo and his son is Dink ? Who wrote this a two year old?. I don't understand why some people could give kudos to the acting. Fair at best - most times wooden. The actors seems to be sleepwalking at times. Skelton as the alcoholic father battling inner demons does a decent job but his part is so badly written that he can't really stretch his acting chops- sometimes he seems to wish he was someplace else. Jane Greers' character I disliked as she just shows up 13 yrs later and says I'm your Mom ,come live with me, Who cares that I dumped you off when you were a newborn, I'm married into money now so that makes it better - yeah right b/s.
Her husband is a jerk too, he slaps money down in front of Dodo for 15 minutes with Dink. Of course Dodo takes it and Dink is off to their room. When she says I'm your Mom , his reaction is so ridiculous ,Don't you think he would have been a bit suspicious or even mad , his reaction is more a "Ok and now I'm leaving". Later in the movie Dodo decides to send his kid away to live with his biological mother thinking it would be a better life for him- the kid loves him greatly so how do the writers handle having Dodo do this- BADLY in my opinion- they do the "I need to hate my kid so bad that he'll want to go scene". So Dodo not only maliciously tells his kid how much he hates him and what a nuisance he is , he also hits the kid hard across the face knocking him down. awful scene -basically saying i cant tell you how much i love you and how this is killing me to force you to go ,no i have to tell you i hate you out of the blue and also beat on you to make you hate me when i really love you. I HATE SCENES LIKE THAT!. Then of course the obligatory "I hit my kid ,im a bad person and punch the wall scene". I hated every scene with Jane Greer and her spoiled brat daughter and her stuck up husband. The ending is abrupt with Dodo of course dying after a performance in his comedy show and Dink simply says "Dodo's dead over and over " Of course now he calls Jane Greer mother when he didn't even know her for the first 13 yrs of his life and in the movie he only knows her a few weeks. The mother and her husband walk Dink down the hall-fade to black. Very poor ending to me and lousy writing. I'm sure it didn't do Skeltons' career any good to stray away from what he did best ,comedy.
Her husband is a jerk too, he slaps money down in front of Dodo for 15 minutes with Dink. Of course Dodo takes it and Dink is off to their room. When she says I'm your Mom , his reaction is so ridiculous ,Don't you think he would have been a bit suspicious or even mad , his reaction is more a "Ok and now I'm leaving". Later in the movie Dodo decides to send his kid away to live with his biological mother thinking it would be a better life for him- the kid loves him greatly so how do the writers handle having Dodo do this- BADLY in my opinion- they do the "I need to hate my kid so bad that he'll want to go scene". So Dodo not only maliciously tells his kid how much he hates him and what a nuisance he is , he also hits the kid hard across the face knocking him down. awful scene -basically saying i cant tell you how much i love you and how this is killing me to force you to go ,no i have to tell you i hate you out of the blue and also beat on you to make you hate me when i really love you. I HATE SCENES LIKE THAT!. Then of course the obligatory "I hit my kid ,im a bad person and punch the wall scene". I hated every scene with Jane Greer and her spoiled brat daughter and her stuck up husband. The ending is abrupt with Dodo of course dying after a performance in his comedy show and Dink simply says "Dodo's dead over and over " Of course now he calls Jane Greer mother when he didn't even know her for the first 13 yrs of his life and in the movie he only knows her a few weeks. The mother and her husband walk Dink down the hall-fade to black. Very poor ending to me and lousy writing. I'm sure it didn't do Skeltons' career any good to stray away from what he did best ,comedy.