The New York Times Movie Review

6 Day Bike Rider (1934)

November 3, 1934

Invoking the Gag Rule.

Published: November 3, 1934

For those who would derive unalloyed joy from the spectacle of Joe E. Brown shedding coat, shirt and trousers while pedaling giddily in a racing velodrome, "6-Day Bike Rider" is recommended. The others may find the new offering at the Rialto several laps short of being the perfect comedy.

First National has waived the gag rule in this treatment of long-term cycling. The casual onlooker will discover that the studio has not forgotten the historic efficacy, as a laugh-producing instrument, of the cast-off banana peel, of the tumble into a mud puddle, of the whirlwind ride through traffic and of the fall through a trap drum. Each of these old reliables, and others of more or less recent vintage, have been spliced into the film.

Still, Mr. Brown has his wide public, as attested by the merry spasms of yesterday's audience, and this following should be pleased to learn that their hero once again is the cavernous-mouthed country boy who makes good in the big city. This time he rises from station agent in sub-rural Mildew to Frank McHugh's team-mate in a six-day bicycle race.

Before Mr. Brown is draped with the floral horseshoe of victory, his life-line is crossed by a dastardly rival (Gordon Westcott) and embroidered by a romance (with Maxine Doyle being decidedly offhand as the romantic interest). But he manages, also, to ride as hectic a race as Madison Square Garden has never seen, what with loose floor boards, chloroform, getting his directions mixed and having coffee squirted in his face. But that's the way Mr. Brown does things, and you can take it or leave it.

6-DAY BIKE RIDER, written and adapted by Earl Baldwin; directed by Lloyd Bacon;
a First National production. At the Rialto.

Wilfred Simpson . . . . . Joe E. Brown
Phyllis Jenkins . . . . . Maxine Doyle
Clinton Hemmings . . . . . Frank McHugh
Harry St. Clair . . . . . Gordon Westcott
Colonel Jenkins . . . . . Arthur Aylesworth
Mrs. Jenkins . . . . . Lottie Williams
Mrs. St. Clair . . . . . Dorothy Christy
Radio announcer . . . . . Harry Seymour
Uncle Ezra . . . . . Lloyd Neal
Pop O'Hara . . . . . William Granger

6-Day Bike Rider Poster from www.moviegoods.com