Frank Tashlin's The Good Humor Man, 1950, directed by Lloyd Bacon

The Good Humor Man was one of an American trilogy that Frank Tashlin  wrote and Lloyd Bacon directed in 1949 and 1950, along with Kill the Umpire and Miss Grant takes Richmond.  I have written about Tashlin previously  (March 26, 2016; April 11, 2014; Oct. 22, 2015) and it's clear that these three films were elegantly written but routinely directed by journeyman Lloyd Bacon, who had been directing since the 20's.  Tashlin, a former animator, decided he had to direct in order to see that his screenplays were properly handled, just as Billy Wilder and Preston Sturges had already done. The Good Humor Man has many Tashlin elements, including comic books, children-to-the-rescue, baseball references  and cops-and-robbers played for drama as well as humor.  Jack Carson plays a Good Humor man who stumbles into a robbery and, along with Lola Albright, whose sexual-harassing boss is the leader of the criminal gang, and a bunch of kids from the Captain Marvel club of which Carson is a member, they manage to chase the crooks into a school, which is pretty much destroyed in the fighting,  The crooks are finally subdued as the kids come to the rescue with baseballs, baseball bats and pie-throwing.  The build-up to the finale is slow and the final battle is marred somewhat by speeded up motion, obvious stunt doubles and exaggerated movement, all things that Tashlin would use to better and more subtle effect in the films he directed.

Jack Carson, who was better as a supporting player in such films as Raoul Walsh's The Strawberry Blond, 1941, where James Cagney played a Biff, Carson's name in The Good Humor Man, and Lola Albright, later the girlfriend of Peter Gunn in the 1958 to 1961 TV show, play an effective team, subduing the bad guys by working together, something more common in films of this period than today.  And there is considerable sexual confusion, as Carson "spends the night" with bad girl Bonnie Conroy while wearing one of her dresses (so the robbers can use his uniform and truck to sneak into a payroll office) and later interrupts a honeymoon night by posing as the husband (he's trying to find out what happened in the house where he stayed the night).  Carson is unsure whether he belongs more with Lola Albright or with the kids in the comic book club, ending up with both.