The Fuller Brush Man

The Fuller Brush Man
Theatrical poster
Directed by	S. Sylvan Simon
Produced by	S. Sylvan Simon Edward Small
Written by	Devery Freeman Frank Tashlin
Based on	story by Roy Huggins
Starring	Red Skelton Janet Blair
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date	May 12, 1948 (premiere) June 1948
Running time	93 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$950,000
Box office	$3.1 million (US rentals) or $2.5 million (worldwide)

The Fuller Brush Man is a 1948 comedy film starring Red Skelton as a door-to-door salesman for the Fuller Brush Company who becomes a murder suspect.

Success doesn't exactly stare the unfortunate street cleaner Red Jones (Red Skelton) in the eye, and when he decides to propose to his sweetheart Ann Elliot (Janet Blair), who is a secretary at the Fuller Brush company, she demands that he makes something more of himself before she can accept the offer. She suggests he should follow the example of a salesman and friend of hers, Keenan Wallick (Don McGuire), who works at her company. Red gets a chance to prove himself worthy sooner than he had expected when he is fired from his job as a cleaner by his boss, Gordon Trist (Nicholas Joy), because he accidentally sets a trash can on fire in the line of duty, and smashes Trist's car window. Ann gets him a chance to show his skills as a door-to-door salesman for the Fuller Brush company, and he is teamed up with her friend Keenan. Both Ann and Red are unaware that Keenan himself had a romantic interest in Ann, and wants to get Red out of the way as soon as possible, so he can pursue Ann without competition. Keenan assigns Red a list of the hardest homes, and Red fails tremendously with his task of selling to an almost impossible potential customer. He has a comical run-in with a troublesome small boy, and a beautiful model at another home tries to seduce him.

Seeing how unsuccessful Red's sales attempts are, Keenan comes up with the idea of a bet – the winner gets to pursue Ann without interference of the other man – which he suggests to Red. The bet is that Red won't be able to sell a single brush to the households on their run. Red takes the bet, and the next household on their run is the mansion of his old boss Gordon Trist. After Red tries to hide from Gordon and the groundskeeper, Gordon recognizes Red and sends him packing, but his wife comes after Red and buys ten brushes from him.

Red returns to Anna and Keenan with high spirit, until he realizes he forgot to collect the payment money from Mrs. Trist. When Red comes back to the Trist home, he overhears a conversation between his former boss, Keenan, Gregory Cruckston (Donald Curtis) and a few other persons, as they discuss their involvement in a racketeering operation. Red is caught eavesdropping and knocked unconscious after he is brought into the house. When he comes back to life, Gordon has been murdered in the dark, and everyone present in the house is arrested by police lieutenant Quint (Arthur Space), all suspected of murder.