Private Snuffy Smith (1942)

Director:

Edward F. Cline

Writers:

Billy DeBeck (comic strip "Barney Google and Snuffy Smith")
John Grey (original screenplay) ...

Release Date:

16 January 1942 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance | War

Tagline:

IT;S BODACIOUS! America's favorite comic strip leaps to hilarious life on the screen...with the peskiest, sassiest varmit ever to wear cacky britches! (original poster)

Plot:

Snuffy Smith, moonshining hillbilly, grows tired of dodging revenue agents, headed by Cooper, and decides...

Plot Keywords:

Revenue Agent | Hillbilly | Snuffy Smith | Discipline | Mountain

Cast

Bud Duncan	...	Snuffy Smith, Camp Yardbird
Edgar Kennedy	...	Sgt. Ed Cooper, ex-Revenue Agent
Sarah Padden	...	Lowizie Smith
J. Farrell MacDonald	...	Gen. Rosewater
Doris Linden	...	Cindy
Jimmie Dodd	...	Pvt. Don Elbie
Andria Palmer	...	Janie (as Andraia Palmer)
Patrick McVey	...	Lloyd (as Pat McVeigh)
Frank Austin	...	Saul

Also Known As:

Snuffy Smith (UK)
Snuffy Smith, Yard Bird (USA) (original script title)
Yard Bird (USA) (alternative title)

Runtime:

67 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono | Mono (Western Electric Wide Range System)

Certification:

USA:Approved

Company:

Capitol Productions Inc.

Movie Connections:

Followed by Hillbilly Blitzkrieg (1942)

Soundtrack:

The Yard Bird Song

A not very good comedy based on a classic comic

My first comment is that really Bud Duncan's nose? I watched this not very good comedy from start to finish simply because I couldn't tell whether Duncan, who plays Snuffy Smith, had on a fake nose or not. Its huge, the type of nose that would make WC Fields jealous.

The plot is more a series of connected episodes rather than one long story. The movie begins with revenuers coming to break up Snuffy's still, and having a bad time of it. Snuffy then helps a neighbor see his girl before going off to the army. Its a Hatfield and McCoy situation that ends up bringing trouble on Snuffy who decides to join the army for the money and the uniform. Somewhere in this Snuffy's wife invents an invisible formula. Being too old and too short Snuffy can't get into the army, but all is made right when he saves a general's life and is inducted as a yard-bird. A few more things happen before we get to the main plot which has to do with a new artillery range finder.(less than half the movie is left at this point)

The movie plays more like a Hollywood Hillbilly Dress Up than anything else. The jokes, while not quite bottom of the barrel, are close. The result is not terrible, its just not interesting, or funny. It plays like a stereotypical "Poverty Row" comedy, but less funny. Then again most comedies of this sort aren't this stilted. There's something about the direction that doesn't work.

The one thing that I like is the odd comic strip feel it has at times. There are moments, mostly in the army sequences where the cheapness of the production makes the film seem like it was lifted from the comic pages. Its a nice effect, intentional or not, but its put to no use.

I can't really recommend this movie to anyone, unless you're dying to see either every comic strip movie ever made or to see one of the weirdest noses on screen. Its simply not all that good.