THE CLOWN

US, 1953, 91 minutes, Black and white.
Red Skelton, Jane Greer, Tim Considine, Loring Smith, Philip Ober.
Directed by Robert Z. Leonard.

The Clown is, perhaps, Red Skelton’s most unusual film. It is a remake of the Wallace Beery- Jackie Cooper drama of 1931, The Champ. Instead of a boxing context (as was used in the 1979 remake with Jon Voight, Faye Dunaway and Ricky Schroder), the area is vaudeville and its transition into television.

Red Skelton shows a great capacity for pathos as an alcoholic has-been vaudeville comic who starred in the Ziegfeld Follies. He works with his young son, very well played by Tim Considine in his first film. (Considine went on to such films as Her Twelve Men, The Private War of Major Benson, Sunrise at Campobello.)

The film shows the two working together, their popularity. There is also a flashback enabling Red Skelton to do his ballet comedy, being bossed about by a very demanding ballet mistress. There is a scene where he has to play a stooge to a comedian at an industry gathering. He also gets the opportunity to do some of his television skits including Walking Up the Stairs, The Topsy-Turvy? House. At this stage Red Skelton did have a show on television – and was to have a long career in that medium.

Jane Greer appears as the mother of Tim Considine, who had given up the boy, meets him with a chance encounter and wants to adopt him with her husband (Philip Ober). Loring Smith has a very sympathetic role as Goldie Goldenson, an agent who had fallen out with Red Skelton but wants to help him. Eagle-eyed audiences will notice Steve Forrest as the angry young man at the carnival at the opening of the film and Charles Bronson as a gambler who wins money and a watch from Red Skelton.

The film was directed by Robert Z. Leonard, a veteran of a wide range of films at MGM over many decades.

1. A different performance from Red Skelton? The comic sequences? The serious tone and the pathos?

2. A remake of The Champ? The adaptation to the world of vaudeville and television? The 1950s?

3. Black and white photography? The New York settings? The west coast? Vaudeville and performance? Carnivals? The contrast with the world of the wealthy? The musical score?

4. The title? Red Skelton’s career as a clown? His performance as Dodo Delwyn? As a character, his relationship with Dink? His story? His career, the Ziefeld Follies, the award from Ziegfeld? The altercations, especially with Goldie? His drinking? The separation from Paula? His life with Dink, his drinking, his failures? The encounter with Paula? Paula’s husband and the proposal, his taking the money? His missing out on auditions, rejection? His agreement to be the stooge, the humiliation and Dink seeing him? The act with Dink, hitting him, trying to send him away? Dink’s return, his joy? The possibility of the television show? His performance, the routines? His collapse, his death?

5. The comic sequences, at the carnival and upsetting people – and the reaction of the angry young man, his being fired? The flashback to the ballet school sequence and its slapstick? The television show, the steps, the topsy-turvy house?

6. Dink, his age, a bright young boy? His skill at performance? His devotion to his father? Their living together, the cramped circumstances? His trying to be careful about his father’s drinking? The money? Going to see Goldie, the advance? His father’s reaction? Not wanting charity? The encounter with Paula? Memories of the past? His accepting the stooge performance and Dink’s upset? Dink, the fifteen minutes with Paula, her revelation of the truth? Meeting his half-sister? His moving in, upset with his father, running away, reuniting with his father? The happiness with the television show? His grief at his father’s death?

7. Paula, her relationship with Dodo, leaving him, leaving him with Dink and her inability to cope? Her marrying Ralph, her comfortable life, in Paris, her daughter? The chance encounter with Dink at the bar, finding out who he was, the visit, her revelation? Taking him in, willing to give him up? His future security? Her husband, his concern, offering Dodo the money? Dodo’s anger with him?

8. Goldie, sympathetic agent, the fight with Dodo? Giving the money to Dink? Organising the job? His being upset about Dodo being the stooge? The television program?

9. The world of vaudeville, of carnivals, of television – and the technical aspects of the television show compared with vaudeville?

10. A serious Red Skelton film – showing his capacity for this kind of performance?