6 Day Bike Rider (1934) User Reviews

Brown Rides A Bicycle With Two Left Feet

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 28 July 2011]

Joe E. Brown during the early Thirties starred in a successful string of films decided to appeal to the rural audiences in contrast to most of Warner Brothers films which were decidedly urban based. 6 Day Bike Rider is a very good example of the kind of film Brown did while there. Over at Fox Studios Will Rogers was doing the same kind of films.

Joe is the bumptious country lad who seems to have two left feet, but does know how to ride and race a bicycle. Trick cyclist Gordon Westcott is making some moves on Joe's girl Maxine Doyle which is doubly bad because Westcott is slightly married to Dorothy Christy. Westcott plays your very old fashioned Snidely Whiplash type villain here, he does everything but twirl his mustache.

When he thinks Westcott's run off with Doyle, Brown hears he's entered a 6 day cycling contest and he enters too with partner Frank McHugh. The rules have them entering as two man teams and the track is a roller derby type affair.

Brown who takes a pratfall as good as I've ever seen has plenty of them in this film. Lots of good sight gags during the racing sequence which is about 25 minutes long.

6 Day Bike Ride is a good introduction to the comedy of Joe E. Brown.

Some funny moments, but this rather short film still seems a bit long

[vincentlynch-moonoi · 6/10 · 1 December 2014]

As one reviewer at the time wrote, this film is "several laps short of being the perfect comedy". And I agree. It's not bad, but even at less than 75 minutes, it seems overly long because too much time is spent at the bike race. I know, it's the point of the picture, but it still went on too long, as did the sequence in jail. And the spectator walking in front of the bikers; once was funny, maybe twice, but not over and over again.

Having said that, there's some pretty good laughs here, particularly during the bike race. Chloroform doping the bikers as they bike? Bikes slipping on banana peels. Floor boards projecting Brown up and over the other riders.

Another thing that's impressive is how realistic some of the special effects are. I didn't even know there were such bicycle races, and under these indoor conditions. So, that's all on the positive side, too.

The cast is improved over those that Joe E. Brown had just a couple of years earlier. Phyllis Jenkins does nicely enough as the potential fiancé. Frank McHugh, a fixture in Brown's films, has a better role here as his partner in the bike race. Gordon Westcott is quite good as the "bad" guy. And other character actors are recognizable -- Arthur Aylesworth, Harry Seymour, and William Granger among them.

This an okay comedy, just not a great one.

Once again, Joe E. Brown plays an obnoxious jerk.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 1 August 2016]

While Joe E. Brown was a very popular comedian in films during the 1930s, today he's not nearly as popular. I wonder if some of it might just be the sorts of characters he often played. Too often, he played really obnoxious sorts--narcissistic jerks who thought they knew everything. "6 Day Bike Rider" is yet another one of these films...with Wilfred (Brown) being an incredible braggart. Because of this, it's hard to really care about what happens to the guy.

The film begins in the small town of Mildew. Wilfred has been dating Phyllis (Maxine Doyle) for years but takes her for granted. When a traveling show arrives and she is smitten with a guy who does tricks on his bike, Wilfred insists he can do even better....and makes a fool of himself in the process. Eventually, he behaves so badly that Phyllis breaks it off with Wilfred...and Wilfred heads to the big city to make a name for himself and win her back. His plan is to enter a team bike race. But this boob ends up getting himself arrested and cannot make the start of the race--and his new nemesis will be riding there as well and you know he MUST make that race. What's to happen to Wilfred and his big plans?

This film is at best a time-passer and not much more. In addition to making Wilfred a jerk, the film also loses a few points for the big bike race. Cheating is obvious by the baddies (and never noticed by anyone but the audience watching the film) and at one point Wilfred is also cheating by tossing bananas onto the track and another he unintentionally drugs his opponents with Chloroform! Apparently there are no judges watching the race...or they are legally blind! Add to that a few really BAD rear-projected scenes and the film certainly has a few strikes against it. Had the film made him Brown's character sympathetic and the jokes a bit funnier, it sure would have worked better.

Silly Fun from Joe E. Brown

[Enrique-Sanchez-56 · 19 June 2004]

Hysterical Joe E. Brown plays a nearsighted buffoon in a series of pratfalls, sight gags filled with goofy characters participating in improbable events that might leave you giggling at all the silliness.

Just a look at Joe E's silly mugging will make you smile.

This is the type of small-town/countrified fun we came to know and love with the "Ma and Pa Kettle" series of films and in the 60's with such fare as the "Beverly Hillbillies", "Green Acres" and "Petticoat Junction".

The difference here is that the humor is clean, innocent, charming...and old-fashioned. Which is just "hunky-dory" with me!

Joe E. Brown's type of humor here may appear dated to some, but is has a place in the history of film comedy in reflecting the sober type of fun which has sadly fallen completely by the wayside in recent years.

It's not a classic...but worth a look for all its screwball moments.

Funny movie

[usdonovan · 7/10 · 28 July 2010]

This is a funny movie. It's good for kids too because it's all good natured fun. I usually don't watch movies this old, but it was on one afternoon and it had me laughing a lot. it's better than a lot of modern comedies. Give it a shot if you like silly movies. In a way it reminds me of Jim Carey movie. It's also fun to watch a movie like this from the 30's to see some of our country's history. Such as clothes worn, and cars, and just artifacts of everyday life. Some of the old fashioned slang is funny too. The star Joe E. Brown was more famous for his role in Some Like It Hot. I guess you'd say this film is filled with a lot of gags and silly situations.

All I Want To Do Is... Bicycle!

[DarthBill · 6/10 · 26 April 2017]

Plot in a nutshell: Joe E. Brown plays Wilfred Simpson, a small town clerk with big dreams, a big mouth and a big ego. A surprisingly childish and immature man - for the sake of comedy of course - Wilfred gets mad when he thinks his girlfriend Phyllis Jenkins (or fiancé as he insists on calling her - played by Maxine Doyle) is being stolen from him by hotshot trick cyclist Harry St. Clair (Gordon Westscott). When Wilfred's bad behavior (including but not limited to hissing at Harry, who already has a wife, when he's performing on stage) gets to be too much an alienated Phyllis takes off, seemingly to Harry and to the big city. Wilfred, whose only real skill is being a capable biker himself, decides the only way to win her back is to enter an epic 6 day bike race with a partner he picks up along the way. Old school hilarity ensues.

An okay old school black & white/sepia tone comedy that'll never be seen as a classic, I recorded this off TCM out of curiosity. It was an okay early morning viewing with a few genuinely amusing if not exactly laugh out loud funny gags, most of them during the race.

How much one enjoys the film probably depends on how much tolerance one has for Wilfred, the classic unsympathetic comedy protagonist played by Brown. At times Wilfred is somewhat redeemed by Brown's go for broke energy, but at other times you just want someone to slap him and tell him to grow up a little as he sometimes feel more aggressive and bullying than the actual antagonist. Such is the life and lot of the unsympathetic comedy protagonist.

Still, the film offers clean, inoffensive humor and in this day and age where almost every gag or every other gag has some innuendo going on that is a nice change of pace.

Little to crack-up about in Bike Rider

[st-shot · 5/10 · 25 August 2010]

Six Day Bike Rider is a standard Joe E. Brown comedy featuring the big mouth as a clueless braggart postal inspector who has his girl (Colleen Doyle) stolen in front of eyes by a traveling trick cyclist (Gordon Westcott). Determined to get her back he enters a marathon against his foe but runs into a lot of obstacles just trying to get to the velodrome.

As a kid I found Joe E Brown quite amusing in small doses whether in KIx commercials or supporting roles. His sad sack demeanor and trade mark yapper made him a living caricature and a very popular star in the early and mid 30s with Fireman Save my Child and Alibi Ike both baseball films that were tailor made for the former semi - professional ball player. In Six Day he does display some of his athletic prowess but he fares much better with a bat in his hand than a bike under him and and Bike Rider goes flat early.

Dated cornball humour

[jamesrupert2014 · 5/10 · 27 March 2017]

Some of the slapstick comedies from the 30's date well and find new fans every generation (the best of the Marx Brothers movies are good examples), others, like "6 Day Bike Rider" don't. I remember my father guffawing at the memory of the guy with the peanuts trying to cross the track, but when I saw the film, it was just the standard exaggerated double-take shtick that was so popular at the time. Joe E. Brown plays a somewhat obnoxious bike rider who, though a series of predictable but improbable situations, end up riding in one of the gruelling 6-day races that were popular in the early part of the 20th century. Despite being the hero, Brown seems to be more of a jerk than is the villainous smoothie who is trying to make time with his gal; nevertheless, he wins the race (after further predictable but improbable situations). I watched the film more to see the footage of the old velodrome and the vintage (by my standards) 'fixies' ridden by the racers in the background scenes and stock footage. Overall: possibly fun for those nostalgic for goofy, inoffensive physical comedies but neither funny enough nor clever enough to stand the test of time.