Joe Penner was the Pee Wee Herman of the '30s, an eccentric, childlike comedian with a special appeal to younger audiences. Like Herman, he worked across several media platforms, moving from vaudeville to radio (where he was the top comic star of 1934) to films. The inspiration for this 1938 comedy was the infamous 1929 Rose Bowl game in which a player ran 65 yards in the wrong direction to score a touchdown for the other team. To get the star there, the writers concocted a plot in which wannabe bandleader Penner is forced to go to college by his business tycoon father. Once there, he's lured into joining the football team by the president's pretty daughter (June Travis) and kept there as his teammates, including a young Jack Carson, make him look like a star player. Daddy sees through that, so Penner is left to his own devices in the big game, with hilarious results. Penner's career would be cut short by a fatal heart attack in 1941, when he was only 36, but his films and recordings preserve the work of a zany comedian at the top of his form.

By Frank Miller