The Fuller Brush Girl (1950)

Starring: Screwball

Directed by: Lloyd Bacon

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: Sally Elliot (Lucille Ball) loses her job as a switchboard operator and becomes a Fuller Brush Girl to try to raise money for her dream house.

Cat Burglar (Scene Stealer): Anxious to get signed on with the Fuller Brush company, Sally borrows her friend’s kit and tries to sell in her district, but she encounters one kooky situation after another. She happens upon a group of women (named Mrs. North, Mrs. South, Mrs. East and Mrs. West) playing bridge on a card table set up outside a home and hears them talking about needing their hair done. Sally offers them home permanents and the women are happy to accept. A boy named Henry (Robert Hyatt) is inside the house working with a chemistry set when there is an explosion. A Siamese cat is “catapulted” across the room (thrown into the scene by someone off screen) and lands on the window sill before jumping down and running away.

The Fuller Brush Girl - Siamese cat Screwball on windowsill between Henry Robert Hyatt and Sally Lucille Ball

The Fuller Brush Girl - Siamese cat Screwball thrown on windowsill between Henry Robert Hyatt and Sally Lucille Ball after explosion animated gif

Sally prepares the solution for the permanents but steps away from the bowl. Henry takes the bowl and adds his own chemicals to it. After placing the ladies’ hair in curlers and soaking them with the solution, Sally leaves. Shortly afterwards the curlers and hair start falling off the ladies’ heads. The Siamese cat is watching from nearby as the curlers fall to the ground and the hair uncurls.

The Fuller Brush Girl - Siamese cat Screwball

The cat runs over and starts to play with the springy curls.

The Fuller Brush Girl - Siamese cat Screwball playing with springy hair on curlers

The Fuller Brush Girl - Siamese cat Screwball playing with hair springing off curlers animated gif

The women slowly realize their hair is falling out and are shocked. One of the curlers falls onto the table and bounces around. The cat suddenly leaps up between them and causes the women to scream and run away.

The Fuller Brush Girl - Siamese cat Screwball looking up at table

The Fuller Brush Girl - Siamese cat Screwball on table scaring women playing bridge

The Fuller Brush Girl - Siamese cat Screwball jumping up on bridge table and scaring women animated gif

Behind the Scenes

The trainer on the film was none other than Frank Inn, the noted movie animal trainer who made a star of Orangey among many other cat actors. The Siamese cat featured in this film was named Screwball and The Boston Sunday Globe ran an article by Harold Hefferman on September 10, 1950, about Inn and his work with Screwball on the film. The piece even included a few pictures of Screwball on the set.

The Fuller Brush Girl - Siamese cat Screwball on top of movie camera on set article

The article quotes Inn (touted as Hollywood’s only professional trainer of cats for movie roles) as saying cats are “very baffling creatures. You can train any other animal in the world, but, doggone it, you simply have to bribe a cat!”

Inn talked about his job as a businessman, saying, “A cat is as commercial as a cash register. I’m talking about the cats who have to be trained for movie scenes, not the purring house cat which has everything handed to it on a platter. This latter type of cat, surrounded by persons and objects familiar to it, will act in an orthodox way – for a cat. But getting them to perform in unfamiliar locations is about as easy as driving a car with no gas. Some film fans think that movie stars are temperamental, but a feline thespian can cause more gray hair on a set than a makeup man’s kit. There’s nothing more irritating than the blank stare of a stubborn cat which refuses to perform until it is good and ready.

“When a million-dollar production grinds to a halt because a cat holds out its paw for an extra hunk of liver before emoting,” Inn laughed, “it can be mighty irritating.”

The Fuller Brush Girl - Siamese cat Screwball eating cold cream on set article

The article explains the scene in which the women’s curlers fall off and bounce on the floor. “And this is where Screwball comes out of his corner and into the scene – with both commercial paws swinging wildly at the skittish hair gobs,” Inn explained. “It sounds simple enough, but it took me over a month to train Screwball for jumping hair curlers. We practiced on the very set where the scene was shot. And the reason I say ‘commercial paws,’ is this. Although the animal went through the sequence without a hitch during the lengthy rehearsals, the first time we actually shot the scene he ran up to the hair and instead of swiping at it, he turned up his nose and slowly walked away. Nothing could make him perform until I remembered something very vital. Whereas before I had wrapped the hair around a tiny piece of raw meat, I had forgotten to do so for the actual shot. But Screwball hadn’t forgotten. The sequence wasn’t made until I put in the meat.”