Excuse My Dust

Excuse My DustThere's nothing more volatile than an idea in small town 1895 America, especially for eager inventor Joe Belden. He's making a horseless carriage that runs on an explosive cleaning fluid called gasoline a "gas o mobile." Why, it's enough to make John Q. Citizen flip his straw boater! Red Skelton portrays Joe, taking the wheel in a Technicolor musical comedy that has him wooing the daughter (Sally Forrest) of the man most threatened by Joe's invention:

the movie has an authenticity befitting this most authentic of American heroes

When deported Chicago mobster Cesare Celli (Vittorio De Sica) is kidnapped by five amateur thieves (including Welch

The prize: the starring role in a big movie musical

"It isn't exactly fun to work in bitter cold and be sloshing through mud all day

an ex-Marine who leaves violence behind to move to a small New England resort island with his new family

but it all comes romantically right at the end

Ricardo Montalban ("TV 's "Fantasy Island

Broadway's Gwen Marlowe and Ernest Lane are sweethearts

the ruthless Roman proconsul of Spain

Brendan leads them to war

a magazine writer whose boss approves of Ben because he lives in a cramped Manhattan apartment instead of "the slums of tomorrow": the 'burbs

When the men's clothes are stolen