Here Comes Elmer
Cast & Crew
Joseph Santley
Al Pearce
Dale Evans
Frank Albertson
Gloria Stuart
Wally Vernon
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
At a mid-Western radio station, after comedian Al Pearce and his troupe finish rehearsing their one-hundredth radio program for sponsor Parrot Finance Co., they learn that Horace Parrot wants them to do the broadcast from his home. Parrot tries to persuade Al to let his sister, Arline Harris, sing on the program but Al resists. During the program, a parrot used in the commercial announcements repeats derogatory remarks made by band leader Joe Maxwell about the finance company's terms. As a result, the show is cut off the air and Al and his group, most of whom are in debt to Parrot, are immediately fired. Joe wants to return to New York where his girl friend, Jean Foster, is secretary to P. J. Ellis, president of the Federal Broadcasting System. Al and his fiancée, beauty salon operator Glenda Forbes, however, want to remain where they are. During a phone conversation, Jean tells Joe that she has been trying to get a singing job with the Jan Garber band, and also advises him that a new nightclub could hire his band. Joe agrees to accept the engagement, then arranges for Al to receive a phony telegram inviting the group to appear regularly on Ellis' network, and Al reluctantly agrees to leave Glenda behind. After tricking Arline into advancing everyone's fare by promising her that she can join the band as a singer, they all head to New York. En route, Al tells a reporter that they have been engaged by FBS to do a weekly series. Mr. Postelwaite, Ellis' assistant, reads this and, in his boss's absence, arranges a welcoming party for Al and company, at which Arline informs two gossip columnists that she and Al are engaged. When Ellis returns and denies hiring Al, Joe's trick is revealed and Jean walks out on him. Meanwhile, Glenda reads about Al's engagement and goes to New York, where she and Jean try to find Al, who has disappeared. Al, who has taken a job as a vacuum cleaner salesman, is assigned to work with salesman Elmer Blurt, to whom Al bears a striking resemblance. As Al pursues his new job, Joe and the band rehearse for the new club's opening. When a new FBS sponsor announces that he is looking for artists for a variety program, Jean decides to send him an audition tape of Joe's band by tricking nightclub owner Louie Burch into thinking that the recording engineer is actually broadcasting his club's opening. Al is found in time for the broadcast and is about to perform his master of ceremonies duties when Parrot shows up to repossess the band's instruments. Jean calls Jan Garber in the nick of time, however, and he agrees to help out. During the show, Al impersonates Elmer as part of a comedy routine, and is knocked out. When he regains consciousness, he has become Elmer and wanders away to resume his selling career. He later becomes Al again after being arrested for disturbing the peace. Mistaking him for Elmer, the real Elmer's boss then asks him to find Al and collect his merchandise. At the Same time, Joe and Glenda locate Elmer and, thinking that he is Al, take him to be examined by a doctor and placed in the care of a male nurse. Believing Elmer to be Al, Arline persuades him to marry her and helps him to escape. Meanwhile, Al is telling a judge that he cannot remember anything and the charge of disturbing the peace is dismissed. Back at the radio station, the new sponsor is impressed by the audition recording and wants Al and company to start broadcasting immediately. After Arline and Elmer get married and check into a hotel, Elmer tells her that he has no knowledge of ever being Al. When Al returns to the same hotel and is greeted by Jean with news of the contract, he meets Arline at an elevator and she convinces him that they are married. Glenda, meanwhile, encounters a dazed Elmer in the hotel corridor and thinks that he is Al. After Al goes to tell Glenda about Arline, she and Arline have a fight. When Elmer wanders away again, Joe and Jean spot him on the street and, thinking that he is Al, drag him off to the radio studio, but he escapes again just as Al for the broadcast. Arline barges into the studio and demands to sing on the program. Arline is a hit as a comic singing talent, but as Al and Glenda reunite, she is stunned to discover that she is married to Elmer.
Director
Joseph Santley
Cast
Al Pearce
Dale Evans
Frank Albertson
Gloria Stuart
Wally Vernon
Nick Cochrane
Will Wright
Thurston Hall
Ben Welden
Chester Clute
Luis Alberni
Tom Kennedy
Artie Auerbach
Arlene Harris
William Comstock
"pinky" Tomlin
Wendell Niles
The Sportsmen
The King Cole Trio
Jan Garber
Eddie Gribbon
Josef Forte
Pearl Early
Jack Raymond
Minerva Urecal
Ben Erway
Harrison Greene
Maxine Doyle
Mary Kenyon
Eddie Bruce
Tom London
Constance Purdy
Ellen Lowe
Pauline Drake
Edward Earle
George Chandler
Herbert Heyes
Earle Hodgins
Sam Flint
Anne O'neal
Frank O'connor
Lynton Brent
Crew
Adele
Walter Blaufuss
Sammy Cahn
Tom Carman
Nick Cochrane
Nat King Cole
Judd Conlon
Stanley Davis
Jimmie Grier
Kenneth Holmes
Gus Kahn
Russell Kimball
J. C. Lewis Jr.
Irving Mills
Stanley Murphy
Coy Poe
Armand Schaefer
Morton Scott
Jule Styne
Bud Thackery
Charles Thompson
Pinky Tomlin
Jack Townley
Egbert Van Alstyne
Richard Van Enger
Percy Wenrich
Leonard Zurit
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Here Comes Elmer marked popular radio performer Al Pearce's first appearance as a film actor. Pearce and His Gang first appeared in the 1937 Republic film The Hit Parade, but they were featured only as one of a number of radio musical acts (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1931-40; F3.1934). According to an April 18, 1944 Hollywood Reporter news item, Republic intended to star Pearce in three more pictures in which he would play his popular radio character, "Elmer Blurt." The news item stated that the contract was in response to "exhibitor enthusiasm all over the country" for Here Comes Elmer. Although Pearce did star in several more productions for Republic, he did not play Elmer in any of the later films.
