Fuller Brush Man, The (1948, U.S.A.)

When Red Skelton was cast in this S. Sylvan Simon-directed comedy he’d already played the lead in MGM films and was nationally known on radio. Here, he plays the hapless door-to-door salesman of the title who becomes a prime suspect when one of his clients is murdered. Now, he and his girl(Janet Blair, My Sister Eileen, Tonight and Every Night) have to outwit the murderer and the cops ’til they can prove he’s innocent! If this all sounds familiar, Columbia released a similarly plotted picture just two years later, swapping another famous redhead into the lead — Lucille Ball in The Fuller Brush Girl! But this is the original.