Genre:
Romance
Release Date: 12/22/2006
Dubbed: English
Sound: DD2
Run Time: 97 Minutes
Flags: Suitable for Children
Distributor/Studio: Alpha Video
When millionaire bachelor
John Hubbard takes a run-out powder at his own wedding,
Hubbard's vengeful fiancee
Polly Ann Young has the luckless fellow committed to an insane asylum.
Hubbard escapes with certified looney
Adolphe Menjou; together they join a carnival run by
Carole Landis.
Hubbard and
Menjou not only save
Landis from bankruptcy, but also convince
Hubbard's allegedly normal uncle
Charles Butterworth (who races fire engines as a hobby) to arrange for the carnival to be set up right next to the family mansion. Directors
Hal Roach,
Hal Roach Jr. and
Gordon M. Douglas deliberately blur the thin line between sanity and insanity throughout
Road Show. Just who's crazier: the delusional
Menjou, who takes photographs with an invisible camera, or lovestruck Indian
George E. Stone, who spends his free time chasing after carnival employee
Patsy Kelly? And are the freewheeling carney folk any goofier than the flibbertigibbet society folk?
The Charioteers, a black singing group who'd previously appeared in the Broadway production of
Hellzapoppin, act as a sort of Greek chorus, commenting on the action with several refrains of the
Hoagy Carmichael song
"Calliope Jane". The amiable wackiness of
Road Show is capped by a car-chase finale. The film was based on a novel by
Eric Hatch, who four years earlier had worked on
Roach's
Topper. Watch for several familiar comedy faces among the uncredited bit players, including
Shemp Howard of
Three Stooges fame.
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
;)
