Excuse My Dust (Full Screen)

There's nothing more volatile than an idea in small-town 1895 America, especially for eager inventor Joe Belden. He's making a horseless carriage that runs on an explosive cleaning fluid called gasoline - a "gas-o-mobile." Why, it's enough to make John Q. Citizen flip his straw boater! Red Skelton portrays Joe, taking the wheel in a Technicolor musical comedy that has him wooing the daughter (Sally Forrest) of the man most threatened by Joe's invention: the local livery master (William Demarest). But there's happiness all around at the end of the road, and getting there is great fun because the horseless carriage-race finale "is a frantically funny affair...[with] a lot of old Keystone contrivances" (Bosley Crowther, The New York Times).

EXCUSE MY DUST is one of the few Red Skelton musicals in which Skelton is not obliged to share screen space with the likes of Eleanor Powell, Esther Williams or Fernando Lamas. Set in 1900, the film stars Red as zany inventor Joe Belden. Enchanted by the new-fangled horseless carriages, Belden vows to become the Henry Ford of his small community. The climax finds Joe competing in a cross-country auto race for a $5000 prize. Though light on slapstick, this closing sequences scores on the nostalgic value of the several genuine vintage autos pressed into service. Sally Forrest co-stars as Skelton's sweetheart, while MacDonald Carey plays his obnoxious rival. The songs for the most part are well-integrated into the story, save for one anachronistically modern production number (explained away as a "dream sequence" wherein Skelton imagines what life will be like in 1950!).

Car / Automobile Racing | Cars / Automobiles | Rivalry

Genre:

• Musicals & The Arts

Product Series:

• Warner Archive Collection