Earthworm Tractors
1936 film by Ray Enright
- July 24, 1936 (1936-07-24)
Running time
Earthworm Tractors is a 1936 American comedy film directed by Ray Enright[1] and starring Joe E. Brown, June Travis and Guy Kibbee. The film is also known as A Natural Born Salesman in the United Kingdom.
The film is based on characters created by William Hazlett Upson in a series of stories that appeared in The Saturday Evening Post. The series featured Alexander Botts, an eternally optimistic self-proclaimed "natural-born salesman", and the Earthworm Tractor Company, and was inspired in part by Upson's actual work experience with the Caterpillar Tractor Company.
Plot
Alexander Botts is a bumbling, but perpetually optimistic "natural-born salesman". He is egged on by his sweetheart Sally to do great things, so he writes a letter to the Earthworm Tractor Company, and is hired as a salesman despite the fact that he knows nothing about tractors. He gets fired more than once for all the destruction he causes, but is rehired by getting orders. After Sally abandons him as a failure and marries another man, he falls in love with Mabel, daughter of the cranky and partially deaf Sam, the owner of a lumberyard who believes he does not need tractors to clear paths for his lumbermen. Botts continues to enrage Sam via various antics such as moving Sam's house with Sam in it without telling him in advance and in the process destroying most of Sam's furniture. Eventually, he proves a super salesman by selling many tractors to Sam after he cures him of his deafness, and wins Mabel's love.[2]
Cast
- Joe E. Brown as Alexander Botts
- June Travis as Mabel Johnson
- Guy Kibbee as Sam Johnson
- Dick Foran as Emmet McManus
- Carol Hughes as Sally Blair
- Gene Lockhart as George Healey
- Olin Howland as Mr. Blair
- Joseph Crehan as Mr. Henderson
- Charles C. Wilson as H.J. Russell
- William B. Davidson as Mr. Jackson
- Irving Bacon as Taxicab Driver
- Stuart Holmes as The Doctor
- Frederick Schmitt as tractor driving stunt double for Joe E. Brown
Copyright status
The failure of the original copyright holder to renew the film's copyright resulted in it falling into public domain, meaning that virtually anyone could duplicate and sell copies of the film. Many of the versions of this film available are badly edited and of extremely poor quality, having been duped from second- or third-generation copies.
References
- ^ Variety film review; July 29, 1936, page 14.
- ^ Harrison's Reports film review; July 25, 1936, page 119.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Earthworm Tractors.
- Earthworm Tractors at IMDb
- Earthworm Tractors is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive
- Earthworm Tractors at AllMovie
- Earthworm Tractors at the TCM Movie Database
- Earthworm Tractors at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
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Films directed by Ray Enright
- Tracked by the Police (1927)
- Jaws of Steel (1927)
- The Girl from Chicago (1927)
- Land of the Silver Fox (1928)
- The Little Wildcat (1928)
- Domestic Troubles (1928)
- Stolen Kisses (1929)
- Skin Deep (1929)
- Song of the West (1930)
- Golden Dawn (1930)
- Dancing Sweeties (1930)
- Scarlet Pages (1930)
- Play Girl (1932)
- The Tenderfoot (1932)
- Blondie Johnson (1933)
- Tomorrow at Seven (1933)
- The Silk Express (1933)
- Havana Widows (1933)
- I've Got Your Number (1934)
- Twenty Million Sweethearts (1934)
- The Circus Clown (1934)
- Dames (1934)
- The St. Louis Kid (1934)
- While the Patient Slept (1935)
- Traveling Saleslady (1935)
- Alibi Ike (1935)
- We're in the Money (1935)
- Miss Pacific Fleet (1935)
- Snowed Under (1935)
- Earthworm Tractors (1936)
- China Clipper (1936)
- Sing Me a Love Song (1937)
- Ready, Willing, and Able (1937)
- Slim (1937)
- The Singing Marine (1937)
- Back in Circulation (1937)
- Swing Your Lady (1938)
- Gold Diggers in Paris (1938)
- Hard to Get (1938)
- Going Places (1938)
- The Angels Wash Their Faces (1939)
- On Your Toes (1939)
- Brother Rat and a Baby (1940)
- Teddy, the Rough Rider (1940)
- An Angel from Texas (1940)
- River's End (1940)
- The Wagons Roll at Night (1941)
- Thieves Fall Out (1941)
- Bad Men of Missouri (1941)
- Law of the Tropics (1941)
- Wild Bill Hickok Rides (1942)
- The Spoilers (1942)
- Men of Texas (1942)
- Sin Town (1942)
- Good Luck, Mr. Yates (1943)
- The Iron Major (1943)
- Gung Ho! (1943)
- China Sky (1945)
- Man Alive (1945)
- One Way to Love (1946)
- Trail Street (1947)
- Albuquerque (1948)
- Coroner Creek (1948)
- Return of the Bad Men (1948)
- South of St. Louis (1949)
- Montana (1950)
- Kansas Raiders (1950)
- Flaming Feather (1952)
- The Man from Cairo (1953)
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