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Neptune's Daughter (1949) starring Esther Williams, Ricardo Montalban, Red Skelton, Betty Garrett, Keenan Wynn

Neptune’s Daughter – Ricardo Montalban, Esther Williams, Red Skelton

Neptune’s Daughter (1949) starring Esther Williams, Ricardo Montalban, Red Skelton

Neptune’s Daughter is a laugh out loud funny romantic musical comed. Which I enjoyed immensely.   Although the movie stars the beautiful (and aquatic) Esther Williams and the dashing Ricardo Montalban (one of my favorite actors), the movie comes to life when Red Skelton is onscreen.

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Movie review of Bathing Beauty (1944) starring Red Skelton, Esther Williams, Basil Rathbone

Bathing Beauty

Movie review of Bathing Beauty (1944) starring Red Skelton, Esther Williams, Basil Rathbone

Synopsis of Bathing Beauty

In Bathing Beauty, Swim instructor Caroline Brooks (Esther Williams) angrily returns to her teaching job at a New Jersey girls school when her brand new marriage to songwriter Steve Elliott (Red Skelton) is disrupted by scheming show producer George Adams (Basil Rathbone). In order to speak with his estranged bride, Steve forces admission to the college, which has never been legally declared “all female”. To rid the campus of him, Dean Clinton places Steve on two weeks’ probation, during which time she plans to hit him with 100 demerits and mandatory expulsion. Steve also encounters heavy resistance from faculty, students and a distant Caroline, who wants their marriage annulled.

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Christmas with Red Skelton, featuring €The Cop and the Anthem and Freddie and the Yuletide Doll featuring Freddie the Freeloader

Red Skelton Christmas DVD | Freddie the Freeloader

Red Skelton’s Christmas, featuring “The Plight Before Christmas,” starring Red Skelton and Greer Garson

The title, “Red Skelton Christmas,” is both accurate and slightly misleading. Although it actually contains several Christmas episodes (and highlights from another), it also contains other Holiday segments. These include Red Skelton’s Pledge of Allegiance and a very nice Thanksgiving segment titled “The Thanksgiving Turkey”. Also, this 130-minute DVD is authorized by the Red Skelton estate.

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Freddie the Freeloader - Red Skelton's famous Hobo clown

Freddie the Freeloader – Red Skelton’s famous Hobo clown

Red Skelton’s most famous character, Freddie the Freeloader, is a happy hobo clown.  Unlike Emmett Kelly‘s Weary Willy tramp clown, Freddie the Freeloader had a perpetually upbeat personality, sure that good fortune awaited him just around the corner. He typically (depending on the need of the skit) lived in a ramshackle shack in the garbage dump, where he slept in a bathtub.  Although it was a running joke that he didn’t bathe regularly.   For instance, in several episodes of the Red Skelton Show, someone asked Freddie the Freeloader if he was alone.  Freddie the Freeloader would scratch himself, pantomiming that he had fleas, and reply that he wasn’t totally alone.

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Freddie the Freeloader (Red Skelton) singing "There's Nothing Worse than Loneliness at Christmastime"

There’s Nothing Worse than Loneliness at Christmastime

There’s Nothing Worse than Loneliness at Christmastime – [written and sung by Red Skelton, as Freddy the Freeloader, in Red Skelton’s Christmas Dinner]

There is nothing worse than loneliness at Christmastime,
When old friends forget where you are,
While your memory still lingers,
You can count upon your fingers,
Those that know the meaning of the Star.

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