Originally hearing with deep disappointment that the many exciting sounding titles on the label could only be brought on the US exclusive website,I was thrilled to recently discover that Amazon UK had put up a good number of titles from the Warner Archive label onto its own site,which would give the opportunity for non-US citizens such as myself to take a look at the "burred" titles being dug up by the label.
With being keen on choosing an intro title to the label that was at a mid-level price,I was pleased to stumble upon a 1931 Comedy going at a surprisingly cheap price on Amazon UK,which would hopefully allow me to enter the Archive world at its Pre-Code Comedy best.
The plot:
Attending an air show where inventors display their inventions in the hope of attracting people willing to invest in "the world of tomorrow",slick businessman Sport Wardell hears about a creation that is getting laughed out of the building.
Pushing aside all of the other businessmen howling with laughter,Wardell discovers that the cause of their laughter is a aero-copter invented by Emil "Rusty" Krouse.Taken by Rusty's nervous and overly excited manner about his creation,Sport decides to take a roll of the dice by investing money in Emil's "mad" invention,and also promises to find more people who will be happy to invest in the project.
A few days later:
Struggleing to get any fellow businessmen interested in investing,and also finding questions of "loan repayment" starting to be asked for the cash he has put into Krouse's invention,Wardell begins to remember a waitress (named Pansy Potts) who he met near by the air show,who said that she would pay good money to anyone that agreed to get married to her.
View on the film:
Along with showing an ahead of its time slickness in riffing pop culture icons, (from Sport making Pansy believe that she will soon be getting married to Clark Gabel thanks to him showing a pic of her new "husband",to Potts calling Rusty Scarface!) the screenplay by A.P. Younger,Robert E. Hopkins,lyric writer Dorothy Fields and co- writer/director Charles Reisner , (based upon the stage musical by Lew Brown,Buddy G. DeSylva,Ray Henderson and John Mcgowan) strikes a terrific balance of free-falling,delightful Screwball moments, (such as Rusty messing everything up on his first meeting with Wardell,to Rusty almost falling out of a window when attempting to escape from Pansy's wedding night plans) with a real sense of "World Fair" wonderment which was going on at the time.
With the writers also cleverly making sure,that no matter how many times he messes up,the centre of the movie stays on Rusty getting his invention to work,which leads to the viewer rooting for Rusty to set his aero-copter into the air right to the end.
Directing 2 songs for the movie,Busby Berkly gives an early preview of what he was to become famous for in a few years time,with each of Berkly ultra-stylised showing immense precision,with a particular highlight being Berkly creating multiple spinning circles,just by having the extremely talented dancers move what looks to be pieces of wood in different directions.
Whilst Berkly goes full flow for his distinctive moments,the directing by Charles F Riesner initially appears surprisingly detached,with Resner shooting a good amount of the films opening from wide shoots,which make the film feel very "stagey" and also leads to the film not fulling being able to pull the viewer into the story.
Shortly after the films first 30 minutes,a noticeable amount of skin and double entoundras begin to get exposed,which thankfully leads to Riesner waking up from his slumber and delivering an ending,that whilst funny is also pretty nailbitting.
Reconising the sound of Rusty's voice,I quickly began to relies that the person who was bringing Rusty to life here,was also the actor who would bring The Cowardly Lion rawing to life in The Wizard of Oz.Showing in his debut performance that he had a real sharpness with slap-stick, (with a great highlight being Rusty trying to get away from Potts at every turn) Bert Lahr also gives Rusty a big heart,with his interest in his invention being a success changing from just wanting it to work for himself,to Lahr showing Rusty desperately trying to make Sport's roll of the dice on him pay off.
Working in a wonderful double team with Lahr,Charlotte Greenwood (who beat Lahr to the world of Oz by having a large role in the L.Frank Baum co-written play The Tik-Tok Man of Oz) impressively keeps Pansy from becoming a grating character,by showing Potts to be someone who is offbeat,but also keen in ending her search of finding Mr.Right,so that she and Mr.Right can go on flying high adventures together in life.
With being keen on choosing an intro title to the label that was at a mid-level price,I was pleased to stumble upon a 1931 Comedy going at a surprisingly cheap price on Amazon UK,which would hopefully allow me to enter the Archive world at its Pre-Code Comedy best.
The plot:
Attending an air show where inventors display their inventions in the hope of attracting people willing to invest in "the world of tomorrow",slick businessman Sport Wardell hears about a creation that is getting laughed out of the building.
Pushing aside all of the other businessmen howling with laughter,Wardell discovers that the cause of their laughter is a aero-copter invented by Emil "Rusty" Krouse.Taken by Rusty's nervous and overly excited manner about his creation,Sport decides to take a roll of the dice by investing money in Emil's "mad" invention,and also promises to find more people who will be happy to invest in the project.
A few days later:
Struggleing to get any fellow businessmen interested in investing,and also finding questions of "loan repayment" starting to be asked for the cash he has put into Krouse's invention,Wardell begins to remember a waitress (named Pansy Potts) who he met near by the air show,who said that she would pay good money to anyone that agreed to get married to her.
View on the film:
Along with showing an ahead of its time slickness in riffing pop culture icons, (from Sport making Pansy believe that she will soon be getting married to Clark Gabel thanks to him showing a pic of her new "husband",to Potts calling Rusty Scarface!) the screenplay by A.P. Younger,Robert E. Hopkins,lyric writer Dorothy Fields and co- writer/director Charles Reisner , (based upon the stage musical by Lew Brown,Buddy G. DeSylva,Ray Henderson and John Mcgowan) strikes a terrific balance of free-falling,delightful Screwball moments, (such as Rusty messing everything up on his first meeting with Wardell,to Rusty almost falling out of a window when attempting to escape from Pansy's wedding night plans) with a real sense of "World Fair" wonderment which was going on at the time.
With the writers also cleverly making sure,that no matter how many times he messes up,the centre of the movie stays on Rusty getting his invention to work,which leads to the viewer rooting for Rusty to set his aero-copter into the air right to the end.
Directing 2 songs for the movie,Busby Berkly gives an early preview of what he was to become famous for in a few years time,with each of Berkly ultra-stylised showing immense precision,with a particular highlight being Berkly creating multiple spinning circles,just by having the extremely talented dancers move what looks to be pieces of wood in different directions.
Whilst Berkly goes full flow for his distinctive moments,the directing by Charles F Riesner initially appears surprisingly detached,with Resner shooting a good amount of the films opening from wide shoots,which make the film feel very "stagey" and also leads to the film not fulling being able to pull the viewer into the story.
Shortly after the films first 30 minutes,a noticeable amount of skin and double entoundras begin to get exposed,which thankfully leads to Riesner waking up from his slumber and delivering an ending,that whilst funny is also pretty nailbitting.
Reconising the sound of Rusty's voice,I quickly began to relies that the person who was bringing Rusty to life here,was also the actor who would bring The Cowardly Lion rawing to life in The Wizard of Oz.Showing in his debut performance that he had a real sharpness with slap-stick, (with a great highlight being Rusty trying to get away from Potts at every turn) Bert Lahr also gives Rusty a big heart,with his interest in his invention being a success changing from just wanting it to work for himself,to Lahr showing Rusty desperately trying to make Sport's roll of the dice on him pay off.
Working in a wonderful double team with Lahr,Charlotte Greenwood (who beat Lahr to the world of Oz by having a large role in the L.Frank Baum co-written play The Tik-Tok Man of Oz) impressively keeps Pansy from becoming a grating character,by showing Potts to be someone who is offbeat,but also keen in ending her search of finding Mr.Right,so that she and Mr.Right can go on flying high adventures together in life.