{"id":43742,"date":"2014-09-16T06:00:15","date_gmt":"2014-09-16T10:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=43742"},"modified":"2015-01-13T01:13:17","modified_gmt":"2015-01-13T06:13:17","slug":"guest-draft-watch-birdie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=43742","title":{"rendered":"Watch the Birdie: Red Skelton’s a Slapstick Shutterbug"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WATCH<\/a>Rusty Cammeron (Red Skelton<\/a>) works at his family\u2019s camera shop, but business isn\u2019t going too swimmingly. The bank is coming after them for money they owe, so when a customer comes in and tells Rusty there\u2019s money in taking pictures of famous people and selling them, Rusty convinces the customer to leave his camera so he can use it to go out and try to get some shots. Rusty tries getting footage of Lucia Coraline\u2019s (Arlene Dahl<\/a>) yacht being christened, but only succeeds in taking an unplanned swim. Lucia rescues him, but the borrowed camera is at the bottom of the lake.<\/p>\n

Lucia has a soft spot for Rusty and after hearing his financial woes, she sends some of her employees to his store the next day to buy enough stuff for him to pay off everything he owes.\u00a0 She also hires him to come shoot footage of the groundbreaking ceremony at the Lucky Vista Housing Project, which she\u2019s an investor in. Rusty\u2019s attempts to film the ceremony are a complete disaster, but he does unwittingly end up getting footage of Lucia\u2019s manager, Grantland Farns (Leon Ames<\/a>), making plans to sabotage the housing project.<\/p>\n

When Rusty screens the footage, the audio and the footage don\u2019t match up, but Grantland wants that footage back before he can get it straightened out. He sends beauty pageant contestant Miss Lucky Vista (Ann Miller<\/a>) to seduce him and get the film back, and despite her best efforts, Rusty doesn\u2019t fall for her. But Lucia does catch them together and assumes the worst. By now, Rusty and Lucia have fallen in love, so the whole incident is very upsetting to both of them, but they both straighten everything out to reveal the truth about Grandland.<\/p>\n

\"WATCH<\/a>Watch the Birdie<\/a>, released by MGM in 1950,\u00a0is basically a very loose remake of Buster Keaton\u2019s 1928 silent comedy The Cameraman<\/a>. The overall plots aren\u2019t particularly similar, but a number of sequences are lifted straight out of The Cameraman. While Watch the Birdie never even comes close to touching the genius that is The Cameraman, it is good for some laughs. I loved beginning exchange between Rusty and a kid who came into his store and I got a kick out of Red Skelton narrating the opening credits. But, unfortunately, it was all downhill from there. It\u2019s not terrible, it\u2019s just not as good as it could have been.<\/p>\n

Guest blogger Angela Petteys runs the blog<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>The Hollywood Revue<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/em>and is a classic film enthusiast from Detroit. To keep up with the latest from The Hollywood Revue, please join her on<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>Facebook<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lots of laughs develop when klutzy cameraman Red Skelton comes to the aid of heiress Arlene Dahl in Watch the Birdie. Guest writer Angela Petteys reviews the 1950 MGM comedy, which also stars Ann Miller.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9693,"featured_media":43792,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1358,5584,5588],"coauthors":[5336],"class_list":["post-43742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-articles","tag-1950s-movies","tag-comedy-movies","tag-movie-reviews"],"yoast_head":"\nWatch the Birdie: Red Skelton's a Slapstick Shutterbug - MovieFanFare<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Watch the Birdie, the 1950 MGM comedy starring Red Skelton, Arlene Dahl and Ann Miller, is reviewed on the classic movie blog.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=43742\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Watch the Birdie: Red Skelton's a Slapstick Shutterbug - MovieFanFare\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Watch the Birdie, the 1950 MGM comedy starring Red Skelton, Arlene Dahl and Ann Miller, is reviewed on the classic movie blog.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=43742\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"MovieFanFare\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/Movies-Unlimited\/88679322377\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-09-16T10:00:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-01-13T06:13:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/WATCH-THE-BIRDIE-3.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"199\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Angela Petteys\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Angela Petteys\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=43742#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=43742\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Angela Petteys\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/dbda18626c7ab125875028391b2ef263\"},\"headline\":\"Watch the Birdie: Red Skelton’s a Slapstick Shutterbug\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-09-16T10:00:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-01-13T06:13:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=43742\"},\"wordCount\":452,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=43742#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/09\\\/WATCH-THE-BIRDIE-3.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"1950s Movies\",\"Comedy Movies\",\"Movie Reviews\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Movie Articles\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=43742#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=43742\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=43742\",\"name\":\"Watch the Birdie: Red Skelton's a Slapstick Shutterbug - MovieFanFare\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=43742#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=43742#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/09\\\/WATCH-THE-BIRDIE-3.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-09-16T10:00:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-01-13T06:13:17+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/dbda18626c7ab125875028391b2ef263\"},\"description\":\"Watch the Birdie, the 1950 MGM comedy starring Red Skelton, Arlene Dahl and Ann Miller, is reviewed on the classic movie blog.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=43742#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=43742\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=43742#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/09\\\/WATCH-THE-BIRDIE-3.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/09\\\/WATCH-THE-BIRDIE-3.jpg\",\"width\":300,\"height\":199},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=43742#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Watch the Birdie: Red Skelton’s a Slapstick Shutterbug\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"MovieFanFare\",\"description\":\"Movie Articles, Movie Reviews, New DVD Releases\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/dbda18626c7ab125875028391b2ef263\",\"name\":\"Angela Petteys\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/95288985a6cc079306680e4ab6585d880a81f17537b3bfe8f80b55e4b62d63d0?s=96&d=mm&r=g9286055f11cd937e68da87753b66a27b\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/95288985a6cc079306680e4ab6585d880a81f17537b3bfe8f80b55e4b62d63d0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/95288985a6cc079306680e4ab6585d880a81f17537b3bfe8f80b55e4b62d63d0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Angela Petteys\"},\"description\":\"Angela Petteys runs the blog The Hollywood Revue and is a classic film enthusiast from Detroit.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/hollywoodrevue.wordpress.com\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/edward-frebowitz\"],\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com?author_name\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Watch the Birdie: Red Skelton's a Slapstick Shutterbug - MovieFanFare","description":"Watch the Birdie, the 1950 MGM comedy starring Red Skelton, Arlene Dahl and Ann Miller, is reviewed on the classic movie blog.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=43742","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Watch the Birdie: Red Skelton's a Slapstick Shutterbug - MovieFanFare","og_description":"Watch the Birdie, the 1950 MGM comedy starring Red Skelton, Arlene Dahl and Ann Miller, is reviewed on the classic movie blog.","og_url":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=43742","og_site_name":"MovieFanFare","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/Movies-Unlimited\/88679322377","article_published_time":"2014-09-16T10:00:15+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-01-13T06:13:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":300,"height":199,"url":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/WATCH-THE-BIRDIE-3.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Angela Petteys","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Angela Petteys","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=43742#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=43742"},"author":{"name":"Angela Petteys","@id":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/#\/schema\/person\/dbda18626c7ab125875028391b2ef263"},"headline":"Watch the Birdie: Red Skelton’s a Slapstick Shutterbug","datePublished":"2014-09-16T10:00:15+00:00","dateModified":"2015-01-13T06:13:17+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=43742"},"wordCount":452,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=43742#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/WATCH-THE-BIRDIE-3.jpg","keywords":["1950s Movies","Comedy Movies","Movie Reviews"],"articleSection":["Movie Articles"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=43742#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=43742","url":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=43742","name":"Watch the Birdie: Red Skelton's a Slapstick Shutterbug - MovieFanFare","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=43742#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=43742#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/WATCH-THE-BIRDIE-3.jpg","datePublished":"2014-09-16T10:00:15+00:00","dateModified":"2015-01-13T06:13:17+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/#\/schema\/person\/dbda18626c7ab125875028391b2ef263"},"description":"Watch the Birdie, the 1950 MGM comedy starring Red Skelton, Arlene Dahl and Ann Miller, is reviewed on the classic movie blog.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=43742#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=43742"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=43742#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/WATCH-THE-BIRDIE-3.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/WATCH-THE-BIRDIE-3.jpg","width":300,"height":199},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=43742#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Watch the Birdie: Red Skelton’s a Slapstick Shutterbug"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/#website","url":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/","name":"MovieFanFare","description":"Movie Articles, Movie Reviews, New DVD Releases","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/#\/schema\/person\/dbda18626c7ab125875028391b2ef263","name":"Angela Petteys","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/95288985a6cc079306680e4ab6585d880a81f17537b3bfe8f80b55e4b62d63d0?s=96&d=mm&r=g9286055f11cd937e68da87753b66a27b","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/95288985a6cc079306680e4ab6585d880a81f17537b3bfe8f80b55e4b62d63d0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/95288985a6cc079306680e4ab6585d880a81f17537b3bfe8f80b55e4b62d63d0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Angela Petteys"},"description":"Angela Petteys runs the blog The Hollywood Revue and is a classic film enthusiast from Detroit.","sameAs":["http:\/\/hollywoodrevue.wordpress.com\/","https:\/\/x.com\/edward-frebowitz"],"url":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com?author_name"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9693"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43742"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=43742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}