Joe E. Brown had been many things, an all-round entertainer from circus bufoon to broadway hoofer to radio actor. But his days as a major Hollywood star were slowing down in 1935, and it's pictures like Bright Lights that prove it.
This has to be the most basic of all show biz stories. The weary tale of the small time vaudeville couple that's broken up because only one is headed for the big time. When said big time is reached, a sacrifice of it must be taken to get back to the temporarily seperated partner. There must be dozens of films with this chestnut for a heart.
Though Joe seems up to all that's asked of him, his eccentric dancing, his acrobatic spills, and required acting, he's got really bad material, especially in what's shown as snappy comebacks and witty gags that cause gales hilarity from crowds around him. It's almost like a bunch of nonsequiturs, and affirmations of the previous lines, delivered in the style of an actual gag would be just as good as the real thing.
He sings a song at a party about a mouse that surely must have been intended for a Shirley Temple performance. For her it would be adorable, for Joe, it's just embarrassing to watch. His good fellow-one of the boys interaction with a troupe of tumblers was inept, he seemed to not have any real gag material with them at all, so it comes off like this wouldn't be good enough for a Vitaphone act.
All in all, this is the kind of thing that reduced Joe E. Brown to a B-studio has been with only kid appeal. Perhaps there were other lines, other gags that maybe were to be in this. It seems almost scrubbed into squeaky cleanness. Maybe it's stuff like this that cause some afficianadoes to separate films by their "code" and precode" issuance.
Review of Bright Lights
