Earthworm Tractors (Warner Bros.) (1930)

EARTHWORM TRACTORS PUBLICITY Hard Boiled Eggs And Fish Get Joe E. Brown’s Goat Guy Kibbee and Sailor Vincent Get Into Hair of Stars of *“‘Earthworm Tractors’’ The trouble occurred on “Location’’. shot away from the studio, “anything is liable to happen”, as Jurgen once said, and generally does. The picture was “Earthworm Tractors”, the First National picture, which comes to the..........scccscccceseceees Theatre OR:....s.svseseseies Joe E. Brown is the star. Tt was lunchtime. Studio box lunches were being served. Joe E. Brown and Guy Kibbee were sitting beside a swamp. They were right near a big caterpillar tractor which looked awfully sunk. Guy Kibbee started opening his lunch box. He looked at the swamp. “Izaak Walton was a clever fellow,” said Guy. Joe E. Brown didn’t seem to hear Guy. He was looking at his lunch box. “I hope there’s no hard-boiled eggs,” said Joe, but didn’t look any too optimistic. “Two of them,” said Guy sorrowfully. He took two eggs out of his box and put them on a chair. Joe E. Brown looked very downcast. Then his face fell further as a heavyweight shadow was cast over the scene. “Don’t look now, Guy,” said Brown, “but I fear that your stand-in, Sailor Vincent, is going to join us.” “Izaak Walton was a champ fisherman,” mused Mr. Kibbee. “Sailor Vincent was once boxfighting champ of the Navy. He was a great fighter, they say.” “Now he’s pun-drunk,” said Joe E. “You’re not so good yourself,” said Guy. A Matter of Doubles Sailor Vincent arrived. He was carrying two box lunches and two bottles of milk. He sandwiched himself between Joe E. Brown and Guy Kibbee by seating himself in Director Raymond Enright’s chair. “l’m gonna do some boxing,” said Mr. Vincent, looking around hopefully. Nobody gave this a tumble so he studied a minute and added, “I’m Guy’s double—why shouldn’t I eat a double lunch?” Joe E. Brown placed two eggs over on the chair where Guy Kibbee had ditched his, and looked with pity at Vincent. “Your timing is wrong, Sailor,” said Joe E. “That’s impossible,” said the sailor, “because I ain’t even got a watch on me. How’s that? And lissen—I ain’t afraid of cold commissary box lunches. I ain’t never been knocked out.” “Slightly better,” said Brown, thoughtfully. “Izaak Walton,” said Guy Kibbee, “once said that .. .” “What team did this guy Walton ever play on?” interrupted Brown. Guy looked injured and gave Joe a funny look. “He was a piscatorial genius,” explained Mr. Kibbee. “Walton could catch ’em,” continued Kibbee. “I’ll bet he could catch ’em even in a swamp like this one. At least he might catch cats. But even Izaak, if he hooked a cat, had to skin it. Ever skin a cat, Joe?” “Skin a cat?” Joe E. Brown was derisive. “That’s baby acrobatics. I could skin a cat when I was three years old. I was doing nip-ups before I was five.” “I mean cat-fish,” explained Guy, looking at Joe again. “Catfish have no scales.” Skinless Catfish Sailor Vincent had finished his four hard-boiled eggs. He was starting on one of the four that Brown and Kibbee had rejected. His mouth was full of egg. But that didn’t stop him. “Ha! Ha!” he chortled, losing a little yolk. “If cat-fish don’t have no scales, see, then how do they ever get away? Get it? A-weigh.” Guy Kibbee, in all ways, is a generous man so he pretended he didn’t hear Sailor—but he looked pained. Joe E. Brown glared at Vincent and also looked pained. When a picture’s being Hey, Hey! Joe E. Is Back! Joe E. Brown Nearly Tears Down Studio None of the war films, modern or “period” at First National caused so much destruction of sets and “props” as the non-martial film, “Earthworm Tractors”, which COMES *bOr th eiisescs csssssesssesees tose Theatre ONnad ara » with Joe E. Brown starring and Guy Kibbee, June Travis, Carol Hughes, Dick Foran and others in support. The demolishment of village streets, sets that have withstood the battering of prop cannon and the bullets of Eddie Robinson’s gangster, was accomplished by Joe when demonstrating a giant tractor. Howdy, folks, step right up and get an earful from the screen’s cavernmouthed comedian, Joe E. Brown in his newest First National mirth-riot, “Earthworm Tractors”, coming to the peagitesausutesres Theatre next Wednesday. He’s Super-salesman Alexander Botts, the hero of the famous Saturday Evening Post stories. Mat No. 210—20c But Sailor pained of all. Guy Kibbee, after a decent interval, started again. “There should be a way to evolve a_ skinless catfish,” said Guy. “That's silly, Guy,” said Brown. “That’s sillier than—than Sailor’s puns.” “Don’t get nasty, Joe,’ said Kibbee. “It’s not silly. Ever hear of cross-pollination?” Sailor, who was going through the lunch like a caterpillar tractor through a corn field, popped off again. “lve heard of Carrie Nation,” said Sailor. “She was cross. She was always mad about liquor.” He waited for the laugh. It didn’t come. So he added: “Who ain’t?” “Fair, Sailor,’ said Joe E. Brown briefly. He turns to Kibbee. “Sure I’ve heard of crosspollination. What’s that got to do with fish?” “Plenty,” said Kibee, “Catfish eggs might be artificially fertilized. Maybe we could cross ’em with mountain herring. We’d have a new fish. The catfish would shed its skin. Id like to cross fish.” “Ha! Ha!” snorted Sailor Vincent. “The crossest fish I ever seen was in...” New Kind of Bait Joe E. Brown joined Guy Kibbee in ignoring Sailor Vincent even more than ordinary and, in fact, interrupted him. “Guy,” said Joe sternly, “don’t go trying to kid an old kidder. Your fish theory is canard. And you know, I trust, what a canard is?” Kibbee eyed Mr. Brown with extreme suspicion. “TI do not,” he said, “ I never even heard of one. What’s more, I’ve finished everything from a backyard pond to the blue Pacific Ocean.” looked the most Sailor Vincent finished the last egg and idly glanced over at the big caterpillar tractor in the swamp. “They ain’t no fish in_ this swamp,” he said suddenly. Guy Kibbee, always fish conscious, grabbed this bait. “How do you know?” asked Kibbee innocently. “Fish like worms; don’t they?” asked Sailor. “Look out, Guy,” warned Joe E. But his friendly tip was too late. Guy had already agreed that fish, indeed, do seem to enjoy worms. “Ha! ha!” roared the ex-champ, telegraphing his punch as per usual. “If they was any fish in there, they’d have come up after that big caterpillar.” Shocked silence ensued, broken only by the unenthusiastic croak of a frog. Joe E. Brown got up hurriedly. “Guy,” he snapped to Kibbee, “you and your counterpart, Vincent, will have to eat your lunch here tomorrow with me. ’m going to get a car, drive over to the Studio, and lunch at the Green Room.” Kibbee grins knowingly. “Don’t tell us—let me guess,” he said and gestured a thick thumb toward Sailor Vincent. “I know. You don’t like hard-boiled eggs.” “Right,” agreed Brown, looking at Vincent. Then he turned and looked at Kibbee. “There's another thing I don’t like for lunch, Mr. Kibbee.” “What's that, Joe?” asked Guy. Guy. “Fish!” said Joe E. Brown. “Earthworm ‘'Tractors” is Joe E. Brown’s latest roaring comedy based on the stories by William Hazlett Upson. Others in the cast besides Kibbee, include June Travis, Dick Foran, Carol Hughes, Gene Lockhart, Olin Howland and Joseph Crehan. Swamp and Mountain Built For Joe E. Brown Comedy Huge Caterpillars Wade Through Water In **Karthworm Tractors’’ A huge synthetic swamp of several acres was constructed. Several miles of mountain trails were dug in Bronson Canyon, near Hollywood. And a half dozen powerful big track-laying caterpillar trucks, ranging from gigantic 17-ton brutes to the “smaller” three-tonners were not only used for this pre-shooting construction but figured as motorized “actors ” in the picture. Reference is to the new Joe E. Brown comedy-drama, “Earth ‘T Sell Anything’ worm Tractors”, the First National picture which comes to the sssastonsydeaaeeleaveonebe PRCALEE: Ont cccecssisvccenssdes In this picture the plot hinges upon the fact that Joe E. Brown is a tractor salesman. He specializes in the sale of “Earthworms”, a synonym for caterpillar as used in the Saturday Evening Post stories of William Hazlett Upson. Translated into weight, the total number of tractors used in the picture aggregated approximately 100,000 pounds. This value, according to Paul Smith, volunteer technical adviser on the picture, was approximately $25,000. The tractors, in the comedy, piloted by Joe E. Brown, were called upon to do some terrific work. Mountain grades of 70 per cent, arroyos such as war-time tanks must cross, and hauling through the deep and miring mud of a man-made swamp on the ranch back of the First National studio —these are but a few of the tasks assigned to these husky Dieselmotored laborers. Joe E. Brown, who always takes his own “tumbles” in any picture involving daring, consistently refusing doubles, made no exception in the matter of tractor piloting. “Pll roll my own,” said the comedy star, with determination, and so his lessons in tractoring began immediately with the start of production. Brown, taking his first lesson, was merrily driving one of the biggest machines within five minutes. One of the funniest stunts in the picture, it is declared, is the house-moving sequence. In_ this, Joe is at the wheel of a giant Earthworm while Guy Kibbee, who suffers from nervous indigestions and is a confirmed hypochondriac, is taken for a ride. It is all the funnier when the link finally breaks and Kibbee’s house is left squarely on the tracks of an oncoming train. That’s Joe E. Brown’s motto in “Harthworm Tractors”, First Na lional’s laugh-fest at thé. Mat No. 105—10e June Travis Thrilled Driving Tractor June Travis, leading woman for Joe E. Brown in the new First National comedy, “Earthworm ‘Eractors”?,-now “at. thei.sccsinas. dies. Theatre, shut off the roaring motor of a gigantic tractor. “Talk about thrills!” she exclaimed. “I’ve had them in every kind of a vehicle from an outboard motorboat to a racing airplane. But it’s nothing until you get the thrill of piloting one of these big tractors.” Yessiree, folks, that’s Alexander (Joe E. Brown) Botts telling Guy Kibbee to cool down. It’s a scene from First National’s gigantic antic of frantic fun, “Earthworm Tractors”, coming tO the..ecerereseeereeee Theatre. This film, you know, is the movie version of the famous Saturday Evening Post series by William Hazlett Upson. Mat No. 211—20c Page Twenty Three