It's A Joke

Feature film adaptation of the Senator Claghorne character from the Fred Allen radio show, who was also the inspiration for Warner Brothers classic Foghorn Leghorn cartoons. The very, very Southern Beauregard Claghorne stays in trouble throughout, getting his wife's old lady friends drunk on 100 proof "punch" (made with the help of an admitted "brat"), worrying that his daughter is marrying an undertaker (he's got a frozen food truck, y'see), and railing against anything that might be of Yankee origin. After selling his mint patch (grown for making juleps), his wife Magnolia invests it all in her senate campaign, unaware that her husband's already sunk the money into his son-in-law-to-be's frozen food business. Claghorne decides to play Ralph Nader and run as a third party to split the vote. Some gangsters threaten to kill him if he wins, but when he finds out they're Yankees, he actually applies himself to winning, with a vengeance. The humor tends toward silliness, but it's pretty constant and most of it is actually funny, especially if you're from the South (and if you ain't, you have mah pity, suh!) Only an hour and three minutes long, but seems much shorter because it never stops moving.

Kenny Delmar brought his popular character Beauregard Claghorn and all his Southern bluster from the Fred Allen radio show to the big screen in IT?S A JOKE, SON!, released by Eagle-Lion in 1947.

Okay, listen carefully and follow the plot: an addle-brained Southern state senator running for re-election on the coattails of a carpetbagging political boss (Douglass Dumbrille) is being challenged by Magnolia Claghorn (Una Merkel), leader of a group called the Daughters of Dixie. Dumbrille forces Magnolia?s husband Beauregard to run as a third party candidate so split the opposition, I say split the opposition, but soon Beauregard Claghorn?s dander is up and he?s running, I say he?s running, like a Yankee at Bull Run. Meanwhile, just to keep things interesting because after all we DO have 63 minutes to kill, the Claghorns? lovely daughter (June Lockhart with an adorable Southern accent) is involved with some guy who runs an ice cream truck. Also worth mentioning is that Daisy, the second cutest dog in the movies after Laughing Gravy, is on loan from the Blondie pictures and proves why no actor wants to share the screen with a four-legged scene stealer.

The movie is generally pleasant, and occasionally funny when Claghorn starts boasting about the South (we?re told that he still purchases Confederate Victory Bonds, and Claghorn is trying to convince North Carolina to change its name to Upper South Carolina). Unlike the Ma & Pa Kettle films of a few years later, though, Claghorn?s film debut didn?t catch on, and there were no sequels. On the other hand, I say on the other hand, a knock-off character was more successful over at Warner Bros: Foghorn Leghorn had already made his film debut, in 1946?s WALKY TALKY HAWKY, when IT?S A JOKE, SON! was released, and the blustering rooster went on to a long and successful career.

Alpha's DVD for IT?S A JOKE, SON! is very good, from a nice, complete print.