Joe E. Wilson

(On Cable TV, February 2021) I find it comforting that even a few years in my exploration of Hollywood history, I still find out unusually gifted actors worth a look. The big revelation of Bright Lights is Joe E. Brown, a vaudeville comedian who reached the peak of his movie stardom in the mid-1930s. This comedy makes great use of his comedic talents, showcasing him as a small-circuit vaudevillian lured to the big city. His showcase act is a drunken heckler routine alongside his wife and stage partner. Their loving relationship is threatened when he (but not she) is brought to the big city stages and a rich heiress enters the picture. There’s an element of showbiz comedy here, but Wilson’s distinctive style (with his impossibly wide mouth) is better suited to more ridiculous moments, including a chase after a hastily mailed letter that goes from Manhattan to Milwaukee. The heckling routine is repeated three times: once as a small-town showcase, another as a Manhattan sensation and finally as a heartfelt reconciliation. Still, the best reason to watch Bright Lights is not just the very funny material, but Brown himself as a prototypical vaudevillian, instantly distinctive and funny. I’m glad I had a look, if only because Brown has entered my list of actors I should be paying attention to. (Fittingly, nearly everyone remembers one of his last performances, considering that he delivers the punchline of Some Like it Hot: “Well, nobody’s perfect.”)