Mark Sandrich In the 30's & 40's (ROUGH CUT)
The bare beginnings of a Mark Sandrich book is featured today. Look for the list of abbreviations, if needed, from yesterday's entry below today's.
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5/20/1933 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
A veteran of the motion picture industry remarked the other day: "Some of the studios must have been seized with an attack of wisdom–they are elevating writers to the posts of supervisors."
It really does appear that there is a slow movement on foot to give the writers some belated recognition. Following the resignation of Darryl Zanuck from Warners, the studio did not appoint anyone to fill the post occupied by Zanuck. Instead, two of the best Warner writers, Robert Presnell and James Seymour, were elevated to the posts of supervisors. If a few more capable writers become supervisors, the onus attached to the word supervisor may disappear. For years supervisors have been the butt of many a cruel jibe. As a class they have been regarded as relatives in need of a fat salary–hence they were presumed to be interfering bunglers. Even the occasionally competent supervisors fell under the same stigma. When Al Boasberg was a supervisor at Radio Pictures, he once gave me a long harangue on the idiocy of supervisors, stating, in effect, that their sole mission in life was to kill every good idea proffered by the creative brains of the film industry.
But now that competent story writers are becoming supervisors, the attitude toward the supervisor is due to change. The chief complain about supervisors always was based on the fact that they knew nothing about stories. This cannot be said of the writers who take up the reins of a supervisor.
Lucien Hubbard was first a writer, then a supervisor at Warners. Today he is a successful supervisor at MGM. Other writers now filling the posts of supervisors are Louis Lighton, C. Gardner Sullivan, Benjamin Glazer and Ralph Block. Then there's also Norman Krasna, although he is barely more than a youngster. He wrote the play "Louder Please," then joined the writing staff of Columbia to be made a supervisor shortly thereafter.
There's one great thing in the favor of these ex-writer supervisors. They should know that a picture can be no better than the story on which it is built. And what is still more important, they should know a good story when they see one. Perhaps it would be more in the point to say they should know a punk story when they meet it.
....
And while I am still on the subject of good stories, it is interesting to note that the studios are turning once more to the classics for story material. Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland is to reach the screen at Paramount. Mary Pickford has abandoned her idea of making the picture with herself as the only human character, the others to be supplied by Walt Disney animated cartoons. And Columbia also has abandoned the plan to produce Eva LaGallienne's production of Alice In Wonderland. It is interesting also to learn that Edgar Norton, prominent character actor, held the screen rights to Alice and his wife acted as agent in the sale of these rights to Paramount.
At the same time there comes the persistent rumor that Frank Lloyd still will direct a new talking version of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. Lloyd should be the idea choice to direct this picture since he has proved his mastery in handling English subjects with his brilliant work on Cavalcade and Berkeley Square. The story also goes that Leslie Howard will have the starring role. That will be a great disappointment to both Fredric March and Gary Cooper at Paramount. Both stars have cherished a desire to star in A Tale of Two Cities. As far as I know, the rights to this classic novel are in the public domain.
....
Samuel Goldwyn is turning to the classics for the next two big specials which he is to produce. Androcles and the Lion will furnish the basis for the next Eddie Cantor picture. And Emil Zola's famous novel, Nana, will be given a romantic adaptation for Anna Sten's first American picture.
Then Dorothea Wieck has her heart set on starring in a screen version of Madame Bovary, the Gustav Flaubert classic. It seems that the producers or the stars or some one is learning the wisdom of turning to great classic stories when modern hot-cha fiction does not suffice.
....
Interesting, too, are the conflicting rumors about a film production of Peter Ibbetson, which was written by George du Maurier. Rumor hath it that Katharine Cornell has signed a contract with MGM to star in this production. The rumor persists despite the fact that the studio disclaims any knowledge of the deal.
But supposing that MGM has signed Miss Cornell with the promise of starring her in Peter Ibbetson? There's liable to be a catch in the promise. For Paramount has informed me that it owns the screen rights to Peter Ibbetson and that the studio has no intention of selling these rights. You see, when Brian Aherne was signed to a term contract at Paramount, one of the clauses in his contract stipulated that he should be starred in Peter Ibbetson. Although Aherne is now in London, following completion of his film debut with Marlene Dietrich in Song of Songs, he is due back at Paramount in September when plans will be completed for the film version of Peter Ibbetson.
However, it seems highly probable that Paramount and Aherne might get together on a deal with MGM and Katharine Cornell. If you recall, Aherne won his greatest fame with Miss Cornell when he played Robert Browning to her Elizabeth Barrett in the glorious stage production of "The Barretts of Wimpole Street." What could be more ideal than a picture which could unite again the talents of these two great stars?
Mark Sandrich In the 30's & 40's (ROUGH CUT)
2/20/1930 LAX Seven Keys to Baldpate
By Jerry Hoffman
What's worth doing well, is worth doing often. In 1917 George M. Cohan did it, in 1925 Douglas MacLean did it, and now comes 1930 with Richard Dix doing it best. "It" in this instance, has no other meaning than Seven Keys to Baldpate, which opened at the Orpheum Theater yesterday. Both the Cohan and MacLean versions of Earl Derr Biggers' novel and George M.'s play were silent. Richard Dix' is the first to speak right up, and as his first Radio Picture's vehicle, it promises well for Richard's career under the RKO banner.
Seven Keys to Baldpate, whether you recall it or not, is a mystery farce. It contains thrills, treated and soaked with hokum, but very pleasant to take. Dix is assigned the role of the young author who wagers he can write a novel within 24 hours in a summer resort which has been deserted for the bleak winter. He is also the young man who sneers at falling in love at first sight and in the very act of so sneering, falls.
There are crooks, reformers, murders, conspirators galore in Seven Keys to Baldpate. These are the ingredients necessary for a mystery and the treatment and direction by Reginald Barker add the elements of comedy so excellently carried out be Richard Dix and his supporting cast. A very nice cast, too, if you please. All ladies and gentlemen are they, for in the final sequence we discover that here has been a motion picture without a villain! How? Huh, I should spoil business for the Orpheum and tell you.
This is the second time Miriam Seegar has appeared opposite Richard Dix, the other being The Love Doctor. She's quite a charming little lady, with far more than average ability and quite a good deal of that mysterious equation termed personality. The entire cast is exceptionally fine, including Crauford Kent, Nella Walker, Joseph Allen, Margaret Livingston, Lucian Littlefield, DeWitt Jennings, Joseph Herbert, Alan Roscoe, Carleton Macy, Harvey Clarke and Edith Yorke.
Another one of the "Ginsberg" comedies is seen at the Orpheum this week. The new one is General Ginsberg, starring Nat Carr. It is one of the best short subjects shown about, with unusually good direction and dialogue credited to Mark Sandrich. The Orpheum also offers a Pathe Sound News, a tribute to George Washington, and an organ recital. That's a lot at that.
3/2/1930 FD Talk of Hollywood
CAST: Nat Carr, Fay Marbe, Hope Sutherland, Sherline Oliver, Ed LeSaint, Gilbert Marbe, John Troughton.
Director, Mark Sandrich;
4/6/1930 FD Off To Peoria
Nick and Tony
Mark Sandrich
8/28/1930 HDC Elizabeth Yeaman
Roberta Gale, an RKO featured player, has been assigned a part in Honeymoon Hotel, a Nick and Tony two-reel comedy which Louis Brock is producing on the RKO lot. Miss Gale has played in Shooting Straight, Leathernecking, and The Losing Game. Henry Armetta and Nick Basil co-star in the comedy under the direction of Mark Sandrich.
8/29/1930 HDC Elizabeth Yeaman
June Clyde has been added to the cast supporting Henry Armetta and Nick Basil in Moonlight and Monkey Business, the latest of the Radio Pictures Nick and Tony series. Johnny Grey has written the continuity and dialogue, and Louis Brock is producing the series with Mark Sandrich directing.
9/16/1930 HDC Elizabeth Yeaman
That popular actor, Fred Kelsey, who has convulsed us with his "dumb detective" roles, has been added to the cast of Aunt's In the Pants, the first of the Broadway Celebrity series of short comedies which Louis Brock is producing for RKO release. The picture stars Walter Catlett, and will have one of the most distinguished casts ever assembled for a two-reeler. Cissie Fitzgerald and Monte Collins also have been cast, and Mark Sandrich will direct from a story written by Johnnie Grey.
10/3/1930 HDC Elizabeth Yeaman
Trader Ginsburg is the title of the next Broadway Headliner production which Louis Brock is to make for an RKO release. Brock has assembled a most pretentious cast which will be headed by George MacFarlane in the stellar role, Gladden James, Bertram Johns and Bill Bailey. The picture will go into production at once with an all-night shooting schedule at Selig's Zoo. Mark Sandrich is slated to direct.
12/14/1930 FD Aunts In Your Pants
Mark Sandrich
2/5/1931 LAR Llewellyn Miller
Mark Sandrich
2/15/1931 FD A Little From Lots
Mark Sandrich
2/26/1931 HDC Elizabeth Yeaman
Several new contracts have been issued at Radio Pictures. Mark Sandrich just signed a year's contract under the terms of which he will direct 24 short subjects. He is now at work directing Ned Sparks in Way of All Fish.
3/13/1931 HDC Elizabeth Yeaman
Mark Sandrich has been assigned to direct Chic Sale in his first starring short comedy for Radio Pictures. "Lem Putt," the character which Chic made so famous in his book "The Specialist," will be portrayed by him on the screen. Sandrich will also direct Ned Sparks, the happy grouch, in his second comedy short for the same company.
3/19/1931 HDC Elizabeth Yeaman
Chic Sale is polishing up the story for his first comedy short to be made at Radio Pictures. No one could write for Chic so successfully as he can write for himself. These shorts are going to be given all the time and money which generally goes into a feature-length production. Lloyd French will direct the first one, supplanting Mark Sandrich, who is busy on a Ned Sparks short comedy.
3/26/1931 HDC Elizabeth Yeaman
"Suffering Ned Sparks," the popular cold-pan comedian, starts work today on his newest short feature, Happy Birthday with Mark Sandrich directing. Audie McPhail, Roberta Gale, Edward Earle...also have been cast in this Radio Picture.
4/1/1931 HDC Elizabeth Yeaman
I saw Chic Sale down at Radio Pictures yesterday. He was posing, in limp suspenders, for some still pictures, and he had been doing it for hours and hours. Something over 200 stills were made of him yesterday. And now, after four weeks of story preparations and rehearsals, this comedian is starting work today on the actual shooting of his first short comedy. Charles Dow Clark, Robert McKenzie, Ben Holmes and Aileen Carlyle make up the supporting cast, and Holmes also collaborated with Chic on the story. Mark Sandrich is directing.
5/4/1931 LAR Llewellyn Miller
Mark Sandrich
5/11/1931 EE Jimmy Starr
Mark Sandrich
5/13/1931 HDC Elizabeth Yeaman
The Murray Widow is the title of the next Chic Sale short comedy which Louis Brock is producing. Sale will portray his same famous character of "Lem Putt" in this picture and Mark Sandrich will again act as director. Sandrich also collaborated on the story with Ben Holmes. Aileen Carlyle, Bud Jamison, Marcia Harris and George Ovey are other members of the cast.
6/8/1931 HDC Elizabeth Yeaman
Arline Judge, we learn at the RKO-Pictures lot, is to play the lead with Clark and McCullough in their laugh-maker, Idle Roomers. This combination, with Mark Sandrich directing, is one on which RKO is betting heavily.
6/9/1931 HDC
The skies are bright with promise for Josephine Whittell, clever actress who is remembering for her work in "No, No, Nanette" and other stage successes. Her work in Full of Nations is so superlatively pleasing to RKO-Radio Pictures that Josephine has been given the feminine lead in False Rumors with Clark and McCullough, and has decided to settle down comfortably in Hollywood. In fact, she is building a pretty home up near Ann Harding's, for she and Ann are old friends. Mark Sandrich is to direct the following cast: Eddie Dunn, Kewpie Morgan, James Finlayson and others. Louis Brock is producer.
6/20/1931 LAX Rebound
By Jerry Hoffman
The good old loyal crowd of personality worshipers were not disappointed last night. The hundreds who came to gape at those attending the premiere of Rebound in the Carthay Circle Theater were given their fill of celebrities, fashions, ceremonies–but don't those apple crates get awfully hard to sit on?
The discomfort was worth while last night; for never has Hollywood seen such a gorgeous display of floral beauty at any other opening. Charles R. Rogers out-Graumanned Grauman.
It would be difficult for any story to maintain the standard of cleverness established in the early sequences of Rebound. Through the medium of crisp, brilliant dialogue, spoken by players who immediately attract the favor of an audience. Rebound scores a very high average. This, however, is not to curse Rebound with the adjective "smart." Too many so-called smart stories have proven unutterably stupid. The screen version of Donald Ogden Stewart's play is a diverting and very entertaining light comedy.
The same qualities of easy conversation that characterized Laughter and Holiday are present in Rebound and atone greatly for those places in which this is a weaker story. This flaw is contributed mostly by changing the finish from the one seen in the play.
Sara Jaffrey couldn't get the man she loved until another girl jilted him. Then he married her on the rebound. After their wedding he began flirting (and evidently not innocently) with his former fiancé, who meanwhile had wedded eight millions and an older man. That is the basis for the tale unfolded in Rebound and it does make a comedy-drama somewhat different from the usual, domestic adventures we have been seeing.
It is really a pleasure to see a group of players in one picture so perfectly selected. Undoubtedly E.H. Griffith, who directed, is largely responsible, bearing in mind those he had in Holiday.
Photographically Rebound is pretty much a solo affair for Ina Claire. With all due respect to the brilliance of Miss Claire's performance, and also the fact that her face is by no means unpleasant to gaze upon, it seems that one or two close-ups might have been spared here and there for the others.
Hence, the impression made by Roberts Williams is so much the greater. There is one scene in which Williams practically has his back to the audience, while pleading with Miss Claire to leave her husband. Even with his shoulder blades as the physical medium for the emotion expressed vocally, Williams dominates the scene. His work throughout the picture makes certain that here is a new screen personality whom fans will welcome sincerely.
Robert Ames, who manages to be Robert Ames in any character, plays the husband. There are fine portrayals by Myrna Loy, Hale Hamilton, Leigh Allen and the dependable Hedda Hopper. Worth particular mention is Louise Closser Hale in one sequence.
Horace Jackson is responsible for the screen version of Stewart's play. The music scoring is intelligent and very pleasing.
"Chic" Sale, otherwise famous as one who concentrates, is back in the movies via a comedy called Cowslip, cleverly directed by Mark Sandrich. Georgie Stoll and his orchestra further augment the program.
Masters of ceremonies abounded throughout the Rebound premiere. Outside greeting microphones-fans and incomers, were Jimmy Gleason and Robert Armstrong. Introduction of the players was made by Lew Cody.
6/23/1931 HDC
Clark and McCullough, former famous vaudeville team, are being rushed into their second RKO-Radio Pictures short comedy under Mark Sandrich's direction. They recently finished False Roomers and are slated for a series of six pictures with only a week's rest between each one.
6/27/1931 EE Previews
The Country Seat
Chic Sale
Mark Sandrich
7/3/1931 HDC Elizabeth Yeaman
Louis Brock seems to have a genius for thinking up clever comedy titles. His latest is Scratch-As-Catch-Can, which will be the next Clarke and McCullough comedy. Mark Sandrich will direct.
7/15/1931 HDC Elizabeth Yeaman
Within another month it will be melon season in the famous Rocky Ford section of Colorado which produces those cantaloupes part excellence. I don't know whether this fact had anything to do with the title of Clark and McCullough's next comedy or not. In any event the title is Melondrama, and the story is by Bobby Clark and Mark Sandrich will direct. This is one of the series that Louis Brock is producing for Radio Pictures.
7/25/1931 LAR RETORT BRUTAL
Mark Sandrich *****
7/28/1931 HDC Elizabeth Yeaman
The title of Chic Sale's next short comedy for Radio Pictures is Cock-a-Doodle-Do. Interpret that anyway you like. But you can depend upon Chic to make something funny out of it. Aileen Carlyle will have the leading feminine role opposite him, and Mark Sandrich will again direct. I understand that when Chic's contract with this studio has expired, he will put his name to a term agreement with Warners. That's due to the success of his work in The Star Witness. Warners don't want this Comedian for short comedies, but for featured roles in full-length pictures.
9/12/1931 EH Screenographs by Harrison Carroll
Mark Sandrich
10/19/1931 LAX Louella O. Parsons
Mark Sandrich
11/5/1931 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
Casting About—Mark Sandrich finished work on A Hurry Call, the third Chic Sale comedy which he has directed.
11/11/1931 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
Casting About—The title of Chic Sales next short comedy to be produced by Louis Brock is Pop Goes the Weasel, an original story by Ben Holmes. Aileen Carlyle and Bud Jamieson are in the cast with Sale. Mark Sandrich will direct.
12/16/1931 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
"You oughtn't to wait until trouble starts before going to the dentist," admonished Mark Sandrich's a few days ago. "And also," commented Sandrich, "you oughtn't to wait until a fire starts before sending for the fire department." There's a snappy rejoinder some of us will remember for future use!
12/21/1931 EHE Jimmy Starr
Mark Sandrich
1/11/1932 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
From the way executives at Warners–First National are raving about the performance of Chic Sale in Old Man Minnick we may look to see some bigger and better efforts for his productions which will be made under a term contract just signed. In the meantime he goes back to Radio Pictures to complete his contract obligations there. His next short comedy, to be produced by Louis Brock, starts Thursday with Bud Jamieson, Billy Bletcher, Elise Cavana and Phil Dunham in the cast. Mark Sandrich will direct as usual. There's also a rumor that he will make a feature for Radio, with William S. Seiter tentatively slated to direct. Whether or not he will make a feature depends upon his contract with Warners.
2/22/1932 LAX Girl of Rio
By Jerry Hoffman
I can remember when The Dove was really a very good play. Very likely you can also recall that it did not make a bad movie in the silent days. The Dove has found voice and words–oh, so many words!–and under the title of Girl From Rio, came into the RKO-Hillstreet Theater on Saturday to spend a week. Thereby is appended a moral. If we much teach birds to talk, stick to parrots!
In short, the talkie version of what was formerly Willard Mack's play, The Dove, is not very successful. There can be no doubt that Dolores Del Rio is lovely, and surely no one should be able to play "The best caballero in all Mexico" better than Leo Carrillo. That seems perfect theory, but somehow it didn't work out in practice.
While none will dispute the fact that both Del Rio and Carrillo should know their Mexicans and their dialects, neither of them seems convincing. This is due to the presence of so much dialect and dialogue. In fact, The Dove, having learned how to talk, like most children–doesn't know when to keep quiet.
Norman Foster gives the nearest to a convincing performance. In justice to the others, it must be admitted that Herbert Brenon's direction was no help. He seemed to waver uncertainly between one desire to make an old-fashioned melodrama–and another to make a burlesque, without doing either. Stanley Fields, Lucile Gleason and Edna Murphy try, in smaller roles, to overcome the weakness of the whole affair, but they are not magicians. Elizabeth Meehan adapted Willard Mack's play.
There is a good vaudeville show in the Hillstreet, headed by Emil Boreo, and a very entertaining "Chic" Sale comedy, Ex-Rooster, which Mark Sandrich ably directed. Other acts include Billy Wells, Four Fays, Yorke and Goldie, the Vardels and the Singing Sherwoods.
3/2/1932 EHE Jimmy Starr
Mark Sandrich
3/5/1932 HCN Cinemania
By Edwin Martin
Mark Sandrich
3/21/1932 LAX Nice Women
The Melon Drama
Mark Sandrich
3/21/1932 LAR Nice Women
The Melon Drama
Mark Sandrich
3/28/1932 EHE Jimmy Starr
Mark Sandrich
4/1/1932 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
Comedy production in the short subject field is taking a spurt at Radio Pictures. Yesterday Monte Collins was signed for a series of six short comedies to be made under the supervision of Louis Brock. And Mark Sandrich wins the directorial assignment on the Clark and McCullough comedy.
5/16/1932 LAR Relman Morin
Mark Sandrich
6/11/1932 LAX Louella O. Parsons
Mark Sandrich ***
6/25/1932 HCN (Hollywood Citizen-News) COMEDY MAKER TELLS TRICKS OF FUN TRADE
By James Francis Crow
In the several years that he has been directing comedies, Mark Sandrich has made literally millions of people laugh, but he is still puzzled as to just how he does it.
He can never tell, nor can any one else, just what is going to be funny and what is not when put to the ultimate audience test, Sandrich said today as he sat in a projection room at RKO-Radio Pictures studio and viewed the rushes of his latest Clark and McCullough fun offering.
"Any man who can tell how many laughs he is going to get with this gag or that gag, this scene or that scene, is worth a million dollars to a studio," said the comedy maker. He gazed soberly at a shot wherein McCullough was trying vainly to beat a stick of dynamite into a hole that was far too small.
RULES UNRELIABLE
"Of course, I have hit upon half a dozen good working rules, but they're pretty unreliable, after all. You see, so much depends on the audience. A joke that may have them out of their chairs in Milwaukee may be a dismal failure in Louisville. A gag that is good today may be bad tomorrow. Sometimes all you need is a couple of good starting laughs to put the audience in your favor. But of course you can't plant stooges in all the theaters in the country."
By this time McCullough had taken a hatchet and was whittling the dynamite down to the proper size. Sandrich inspected the scene gravely before he went on.
"I found that timing is highly important. Drop your gag right at the peak of your build-up. Ten seconds earlier, ten seconds later it may fail.
"Yes, the unexpected is usually good for a few laughs. But don't try to fool the audience. Fool the comedian. If he gets hold of the red pepper by mistake, let the audience see the label. The fans like to see the unexpected happen to somebody else.
"There seems to be a strong sadistic vein in comedy," Sandrich said, "If I have Clark there kick a hard-boiled traffic policeman in the trousers, the fans scream, just because they have been wanting to do it themselves, I guess."
Clark and McCullough, who were playing the roles of insect exterminators and who were in a mixup over the words "ants" and "aunts," had not completed spraying the rooms of the two low comedy spinsters, and the rushes inspection was over for the day. The interviewer commented that he had seen nothing "spicy" or "shady" in the film.
SHADINESS UNNECESSARY
"It isn't necessary," Sandrich said. "You think twice about those things when you consider how many youngsters are going to see your pictures. Anyway, I think you couldn't get those two fellows to go through with anything shady."
Sandrich is a young man, in his very early thirties, black-haired and vigorous. At Columbia University he studied chemistry and physics. Originally devoted to straight drama in short stories and plays, he turned to comedy, he says, chiefly because he wanted to see what it was like. He was forthwith fascinated by it.
He likes to think that he is a good workman. Consistency is his pride. He takes about three weeks to do a comedy, utilizing most of that time in story preparation.
He is worried about the future of comedy. Most of the great comedians of the day, he points out, have had their origins on the vaudeville stage, now virtually a thing of the past.
Does he laugh at his own work?
"I'm like everybody else. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't." Sandrich said, grinning.
9/16/1932 EHE Harrison Carroll
Mark Sandrich
9/17/1932 EHE Hold 'Em Jail
By W.E. Oliver
What screen scenarists described as a "swell idea," is behind Hold "Em Jail, a combination of stomach laughs and forced hysteria now screening at the Orpheum.
The burlesque is based on today's oddity of prison football teams. It has Wheeler and Woolsey, masquerading as football players, shanghaied into Bidemore penitentiary to holp them beat their traditional gridiron rivals.
And a swell idea it would have continued if RKO's Siamese twins had remained true to their own formula for producing amusement instead of becoming influenced by the Marx madness which is now infecting the screen with disassociative thought processes.
GAGS FEEBLE
As the two convicts, Wheeler and Woolsey give far less thought to building their gags than in former films. The result is much forced comedy, some of it completely mirthless, although there is enough genuine amusement in their work to satisfy spectators with hair-trigger guffaws. And there were plenty present yesterday at the theater.
More adaptable to the new comedy technic are Edna May Oliver and Edgar Kennedy, who play the prison warden, and his sister. This pair is as laughable as anything I've seen in months.
Warren Hymer, as the dumb convict, is another who does a fair chore in creating laughs.
The inevitable warden's daughter is played by Betty Grable, a personable lass. Paul Hurst and Roscoe Ates, in a brief stammering bit, are other players.
Norman Taurog directed. Tom Whelan and Lou Tipton adapted from a story by S.J. Perelman, Walter DeLeon and Mark Sandrich. A lot of fingers for such a gooseberry pie!
Hold "Em Jail is liberally garnished with laughs, some of them legitimate. For the unchoosy taste at least, it should be pleasant fare.
You'll be charmed, and thrilled by an adventure film, Islands of Peril, shown on this bill. Grand scenery of the North sea's Viking islands, stirring camera work and a very intelligent running commentary by Walter Anthony are its chief features.
If you paid money to be diverted at the Orpheum this week, however, you will be annoyed by the direct advertising of several makes of cars in the newsreel, done under the guise of entertainment.
9/21/1932 HCN Jim Crow
(EY on vacation)
....Walter Catlett and Phil Harris are being teamed by Radio for a series of Brock comedies, with Mark Sandrich, the studio's most reliable comedy craftsman, assigned to direct them.....
10/1/1932 LAR New Technique For RKO Shorts
Mark Sandrich ****
10/10/1932 HCN RADIO FILMS TO USE COMIC OPERA TECHNIQUE
Mark Sandrich *****
12/12/1932 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
Yes, after all these rumors, Wheeler and Woolsey actually have signed that contract with Radio Pictures. In fact, plans for their next picture are well under way and Mark Sandrich have been engaged to direct their next comedy for Radio Pictures. Sandrich has been successful as a director of short comedies for this company. Joe Mankiewicz is writing the story for the comedy team.
1/28/1933 FD So This is Harris
Mark Sandrich
2/11/1933 EHE TUNEFUL FILM TO BE MINUS USUAL GIRL ENSEMBLES
Mark Sandrich ****
2/16/1933 LAX Louella O. Parsons
What about Dorothy Jordan's new job? She has moved to the Radio lot to play the feminine lead in a musical comedy, a particularly pretentious one, to be directed by Mark Sandrich. Hollywood is interested because the rumor that Dorothy will one day wed Merian Cooper, Radio boss supreme, continues..
2/25/1933 LAR FEMININE BEAUTY
Mark Sandrich ***
2/28/1933 EHE Jimmy Starr
Mark Sandrich
3/3/1933 HCN Dangerously Yours
By Jim Crow
A composite dream of all the shop girls in the world has been brought to the screen by Fox Studio in Dangerously Yours, the current exhibit at Loew's State Theater.
Warner Baxter, the star, enacts herein the role of a gentlemanly diamond thief who risks disaster in his "profession" by falling in love with Miriam Jordan. She repays his devotion by attempting to betray him to the police just after he has stolen Florence Eldridge's Sunday jewelry.
So the diamond thief chloroforms her, takes her aboard his yacht, fastens a miniature anchor to her ankle to prevent her from swimming away, and thus holds her captive on moonlit cruises to sundry romantic island coves.
I submit that any other girl in the world would cheerfully sacrifice honor and virtue for such a fate. But Miss Jordan stands alone. She at last frees herself from the anchor, swims ashore and visits the police station. There her determination fails her, and she allows herself to be held for the theft of the diamonds rather than betray the man she has learned to love.
About half of this picture story is concerned with prosaic camera recordings of persons walking through doors, standing on balconies and peeking into boudoirs containing young ladies clad in lingerie. The producers have managed, however, to relieve these drab proceedings here and there with some very fair humor, part of it contributed by the suave Mr. Baxter, and part by Miss Eldridge and the droll Herbert Mundin. The interpolation of cheap dialogue, such as "that sap" and "I knew you'd fall for her," presumed to be the parlance of our best people, has not helped the picture to any appreciable extent.
A supplementary picture is director Mark Sandrich's musical novelty, So This Is Harris, presenting Phil Harris, radio crooner. The Sandrich opus is marked by intriguing camera work, broad comedy by Walter Catlett, the beauty of the chorus girls, and Harris' inability to sing.
A Mickey Mouse cartoon and a newsreel are other attractions.
3/6/1933 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
Maiden Cruise, the big musical picture scheduled at Radio Pictures studio, underwent a change of cast today. Ben Lyon, who was scheduled for the leading male role, will not be seen in the picture. He was loaned by MGM. And Dorothy Jordan, now free-lancing, also is out of the cast.
Helen Mack, little auburn-haired ingenue who was at Fox under contract for a time, has been given the feminine lead. This is the biggest break that she has had since coming to Hollywood. She both dances and sings and these talents are requirements for her role.
Although no one is definitely set for the male lead replacing Ben Lyon, there is talk about signing a young concert singer by the name of Nelson Eddy. Eddy has never made a picture. Mark Sandrich is to direct the picture and Chic Chandler will have the comedy lead. According to the schedule now mapped out, the picture is due to go before the cameras day after tomorrow.
3/9/1933 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
And still another picture started today, bank holiday notwithstanding. That was the film musical, Maiden Cruise, at Radio Pictures. This film still is lacking a leading man, but work started anyway on scenes which may be shot around a leading man. Today it seemed probable that Phil Harris would get the lead. Harris, you know, made a great success in a musical short he made for this company under the title of So This Is Harris. Mark Sandrich directed that short and he also will direct Maiden Cruise, so everything points to Harris as the lead in the latter film. Others already cast include Helen Mack, Wera Engels, Charles Ruggles, Chic Chandler, Shirley Chambers and June Brewster.
3/11/1933 LAX The Great Jasper
Hocus Pocus
Clark and McCullough
Mark Sandrich
3/21/1933 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
Greta Nissen and Wera Engels are both Teutonic types, although Greta is blond and Wera is very brunet. However, since Wera cancelled her term contract with Radio Pictures and withdrew from the cast of Maiden Cruise, Greta Nissen has been signed to fill the role. This picture has been in the process of casting for a long time, and three of the most important roles underwent changes of cast. It seems to be set now with Mark Sandrich directing.
3/27/1933 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
Mark Sandrich has signed a new term contract to direct for Radio Pictures. It is the eighth consecutive contract he has had with this company. At present he is directing Maiden Cruise and his contract stipulates that he is to direct both features and short subjects.
5/27/1933 HCN Reviews of Previews
By James Francis Crow
Melody Cruise
Mark Sandrich
6/5/1933 LAX Louella O. Parsons
Mark Sandrich ***
6/24/1933 LAR Melody Cruise
Mark Sandrich
7/2/1933 LAX Director Host to Film's Cast
Mark Sandrich ****
8/13/1933 LAX Reine Davies
Mark Sandrich
9/23/1933 HCN Reviews of Previews
By James Francis Crow
Aggie Appleby, Maker of Men
Mark Sandrich
10/19/1933 FD Aggie Appleby, Maker of Men
RKO 73 minutes
Founded on a basic plot that takes a while to get started but eventually builds up very nicely. This is very satisfactory entertainment. Wynne Gibson as Aggie Appleby, the moll of a tough guy, William Gargan, is left without a home when her friend lands in jail for beating up cops. She moves in on a timid lad, Charlie Farrell, member of an aristocratic upstate family who has come to the big town to make good on his own and in due course make a he-man out of him. They are in love, but Aggie realizes they are mismated, so after having turned Charlie into a man she delivers him over to the fiancee of his set, Betty Furness. And Aggie returns to her pardoned tough guy—whom she proceeds to convert into something of a "sissy" after the fashion of gentleman Charlie. There is dandy work by the entire cast, and good directorial handling.
Cast: Charles Farrell, Wynne Gibson, William Gargan, ZaSu Pitts, Betty Furness, Blanche Friderici.
Director, Mark Sandrich; Author, Joseph O. Kesselring; Adaptors, Humphrey Pearson, Edward Kaufman; Cameraman, J. Roy Hunt; Recording engineer, Bert S. Hodges; Editor, Basil Wrangell.
Direction, Fine. Photography, Fine.
11/16/1933 EHE Jimmy Starr
Mark Sandrich
1/24/1934 FD Hips, Hips, Hooray
RKO 68 Mins.
About the best and cleanest of the Wheeler-Woolsey series. Plenty laughs and action plus musical trimmings.
Latest of the Wheeler and Woolsey fun fests is first-rate entertainment for the mass audience. It is free of the risque burlesque gags that dotted some of their previous efforts, and consequently is more acceptable as family amusement. The musical side of the picture, though not on a lavish scale, is of good quality and contains one song that will surely be a hit. For story basis, Wheeler and Woolsey, as a couple of pitchmen selling flavored lipsticks, pose as big business men and merge with Thelma Todd's classy beauty parlor after Wheeler has been attracted by Dorothy Lee, who works in the place. One of the male executives, rebuffed by Dot, who knows he is double-crossing the shop in favor of a rival establishment, sets out to expose the two lads and then frames it for Thelma to lose a cross-country auto race in which she has entered a car for publicity results, but Wheeler and Woolsey stumble on the plot and save the day in a fast and amusing finish. Ruth Etting sings a nice number at the start of the picture.
CAST: Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Ruth Etting, Thelma Todd, Dorothy Lee, George Meeker, James Burtis, Matt Briggs, Spencer Charters.
Director, Mark Sandrich; Authors, Harry Ruby, Bert Kalmar, Edward Kaufman; Music and Lyrics, Harry Ruby, Bert Kalmar; Dances, Dave Gould; Cameraman, David Abel; Recording Engineer, P.J. Faulkner Jr; Editor, Basil Wrangell.
Direction, Lively. Photography, A-1.
1/25/1934 IDN Hips, Hips, Hooray
By Eleanor Barnes
Wheeler-and-Woolseyites—that vast group of fans who like these comedians whether they are selling Florida real estate, or European diplomacy—can get plenty of Wheeler and Woolsey at RKO-Hill-street today in Hips, Hips, Hooray.
Their fun runs true to form. While their gags are old and their wisecracks bewhiskered, the actual story seems to have more to it than most of their plots.
COSMETICS BUSINESS
They are in the cosmetics business, if you please, street peddlers of flavored lipstick—who meet up with Dorothy Lee, a vivacious young lady who can demonstrate it satisfactorily.
Their problem is to find an office, which is solved by the scenarist, even though it takes a cross-country road race, a flock of detectives and a host of pretty girls to work it out.
Thelma Todd, who is the best advertisement the cosmetic business has in the piece, turns in an amusing performance in her inimitable way, while the lovely Ruth Etting sings in the best Etting manner one of her most enticing songs. No chance is lost by the company–directed by Mark Sandrich–to keep the humor at a high pitch. Kalmar and Ruby wrote the music, story and lyrics. This picture abounds with beauteous chorines.
HILARIOUS SEQUENCE
There is one hilarious sequence in Hips, Hips, Hooray where Wheeler and Woolsey commandeer one of the racing cars and whoop it up across country. It has the exciting elements that characterize Mack Sennett chases in speed, novelty and entertainment.
Several short subjects, a newsreel and other features are offered on this RKO Hillstreet program.
1/25/1934 LAX Hips, Hips, Hooray
By Marquis Busby
It sounds like a swell title for a Minsky burlesque show, but Hips, Hips, Hooray is the new Wheeler and Woolsey comedy, at the RKO-Hillstreet Theater this week. At that, the picture is well named. I don't know about the hooray, but I'm positive about the hips.
Somehow Messrs. Wheeler and Woolsey never seem to have mediocre pictures. They are either top notch, or they are, well, something less than mediocre. Hips, Hips Hooray is one of their best in a long time. There are any number of hilarious moments, and if you don't feel like laughing, you can look at Thelma Todd and Thelma's very shapely ankles. That's a nice way to spend an afternoon, or evening.
The plot needn't worry you very much, but the two boys are in the beauty parlor business this time. They have invented a lipstick with all the popular flavors. Peach for your girl friend and lemon for your mother-in-law. Thelma Todd and Dorothy Lee are the partners in the business. There is a coast-to-coast auto race, with Wheeler and Woolsey doing some pretty mad driving, and two detectives hot in pursuit. A Kansas cyclone doesn't do much to help the race, but they win anyhow—by cutting across country.
The most amusing and the most nonsensical of all the sequences is a scene in a pool hall, where the two detectives do things that would make a billiard champion turn green with envy. Runner-up in the laugh-getting contest is the little ballet number, with Wheeler and Woolsey, Thelma Todd and Dorothy Lee cutting fancy capers.
Wheeler and Woolsey are both excellent, but there aren't many opportunities for the supporting cast. Thelma Todd is lovely, of course, but I wonder if she doesn't get tired acting as sparring partner for comedians. Dorothy Lee and Bert Wheeler are heard to nice effect in a lively musical number, and Ruth Etting sings one song. I kept thinking that she would show up again, but she must have had another appointment.
Among others in the cast are George Meeker, Mat Briggs, James Burtis, Spencer Charters and Oliver Webb.
Mark Sandrich turns in a very clever job of directing and displays an unusually keen sense of comedy technique. The story is accredited to Bert Kalmar and Edward Kaufman.
An Edgar Kennedy comedy, a Medbury Travelogue and the Pathe News complete the bill.
1/25/1934 EHE Hips, Hips, Hooray
By W.E. Oliver
Those whose risible are tuned to the amusing nonsense of Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey will find enough laughter in Hips, Hips Hooray, to keep them entertained during the screening of the film.
Their new picture, now screening at the RKO, introduces them in a setting of cosmetics with later complications of a chase from detectives, getting them mixed up in a transcontinent auto which they win by means of a series of amazing "gags," some of them ingenious, and some downright silly.
FILM IS SO-SO
This so-spirit marks the picture as a whole. It has bright moments. It has its boring moments. The Wheeler and Woolsey fans, however, keep laughter going to the end.
Besides the two comics, Thelma Todd and Dorothy Lee have important parts in the cosmetic setting. They provide a pleasant visual foil for the insanities of the starred team.
Ruth Etting sings some new songs on the radio for the story. She is still my favorite woman crooner. George Meeker adds villainy to the film. Mat Briggs, James Burtis, Spencer Charters and Oliver Webb complete the cast. Mark Sandrich directed.
EFFECTS ARE GOOD
Some fine photographic effects and several technical screen illusions intrigue the interest. The settings are opulent and well populated with nudish girls whenever possible.
A good newsreel, a wild Edgar Kennedy comedy, an interesting Soglow animated cartoon and a very inane Medbury travelogue complete the bill.
If you are looking for laughter and can laugh at anything, I suggest you put the RKO on your calling list this week.
Francis Lederer, in A Man of Two Worlds, is next.
2/21/1934 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
Mark Sandrich
3/25/1934 LAX SARI MARITZA FETED ON BIRTHDAY
Mark Sandrich
4/16/1934 EHE Jimmy Starr
Mark Sandrich grabbed off a directional plum when Pandro Berman, headman of RKO, assigned him the megaphone on The Gay Divorcee, starring Fred (fancy dancer) Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
5/3/1934 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
If acting talent counts for as much as it should, then The Gay Divorcee should emerge as a most amusing picture. Edward Everett Horton today was signed by Radio Pictures for one of the featured roles in this picture which will be a musical. Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and Thelma Todd were previously announced for the cast. Mark Sandrich will direct and production will be started in about two weeks.
gdh
5/20/1933 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
A veteran of the motion picture industry remarked the other day: "Some of the studios must have been seized with an attack of wisdom–they are elevating writers to the posts of supervisors."
It really does appear that there is a slow movement on foot to give the writers some belated recognition. Following the resignation of Darryl Zanuck from Warners, the studio did not appoint anyone to fill the post occupied by Zanuck. Instead, two of the best Warner writers, Robert Presnell and James Seymour, were elevated to the posts of supervisors. If a few more capable writers become supervisors, the onus attached to the word supervisor may disappear. For years supervisors have been the butt of many a cruel jibe. As a class they have been regarded as relatives in need of a fat salary–hence they were presumed to be interfering bunglers. Even the occasionally competent supervisors fell under the same stigma. When Al Boasberg was a supervisor at Radio Pictures, he once gave me a long harangue on the idiocy of supervisors, stating, in effect, that their sole mission in life was to kill every good idea proffered by the creative brains of the film industry.
But now that competent story writers are becoming supervisors, the attitude toward the supervisor is due to change. The chief complain about supervisors always was based on the fact that they knew nothing about stories. This cannot be said of the writers who take up the reins of a supervisor.
Lucien Hubbard was first a writer, then a supervisor at Warners. Today he is a successful supervisor at MGM. Other writers now filling the posts of supervisors are Louis Lighton, C. Gardner Sullivan, Benjamin Glazer and Ralph Block. Then there's also Norman Krasna, although he is barely more than a youngster. He wrote the play "Louder Please," then joined the writing staff of Columbia to be made a supervisor shortly thereafter.
There's one great thing in the favor of these ex-writer supervisors. They should know that a picture can be no better than the story on which it is built. And what is still more important, they should know a good story when they see one. Perhaps it would be more in the point to say they should know a punk story when they meet it.
....
And while I am still on the subject of good stories, it is interesting to note that the studios are turning once more to the classics for story material. Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland is to reach the screen at Paramount. Mary Pickford has abandoned her idea of making the picture with herself as the only human character, the others to be supplied by Walt Disney animated cartoons. And Columbia also has abandoned the plan to produce Eva LaGallienne's production of Alice In Wonderland. It is interesting also to learn that Edgar Norton, prominent character actor, held the screen rights to Alice and his wife acted as agent in the sale of these rights to Paramount.
At the same time there comes the persistent rumor that Frank Lloyd still will direct a new talking version of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. Lloyd should be the idea choice to direct this picture since he has proved his mastery in handling English subjects with his brilliant work on Cavalcade and Berkeley Square. The story also goes that Leslie Howard will have the starring role. That will be a great disappointment to both Fredric March and Gary Cooper at Paramount. Both stars have cherished a desire to star in A Tale of Two Cities. As far as I know, the rights to this classic novel are in the public domain.
....
Samuel Goldwyn is turning to the classics for the next two big specials which he is to produce. Androcles and the Lion will furnish the basis for the next Eddie Cantor picture. And Emil Zola's famous novel, Nana, will be given a romantic adaptation for Anna Sten's first American picture.
Then Dorothea Wieck has her heart set on starring in a screen version of Madame Bovary, the Gustav Flaubert classic. It seems that the producers or the stars or some one is learning the wisdom of turning to great classic stories when modern hot-cha fiction does not suffice.
....
Interesting, too, are the conflicting rumors about a film production of Peter Ibbetson, which was written by George du Maurier. Rumor hath it that Katharine Cornell has signed a contract with MGM to star in this production. The rumor persists despite the fact that the studio disclaims any knowledge of the deal.
But supposing that MGM has signed Miss Cornell with the promise of starring her in Peter Ibbetson? There's liable to be a catch in the promise. For Paramount has informed me that it owns the screen rights to Peter Ibbetson and that the studio has no intention of selling these rights. You see, when Brian Aherne was signed to a term contract at Paramount, one of the clauses in his contract stipulated that he should be starred in Peter Ibbetson. Although Aherne is now in London, following completion of his film debut with Marlene Dietrich in Song of Songs, he is due back at Paramount in September when plans will be completed for the film version of Peter Ibbetson.
However, it seems highly probable that Paramount and Aherne might get together on a deal with MGM and Katharine Cornell. If you recall, Aherne won his greatest fame with Miss Cornell when he played Robert Browning to her Elizabeth Barrett in the glorious stage production of "The Barretts of Wimpole Street." What could be more ideal than a picture which could unite again the talents of these two great stars?
Mark Sandrich In the 30's & 40's (ROUGH CUT)
2/20/1930 LAX Seven Keys to Baldpate
By Jerry Hoffman
What's worth doing well, is worth doing often. In 1917 George M. Cohan did it, in 1925 Douglas MacLean did it, and now comes 1930 with Richard Dix doing it best. "It" in this instance, has no other meaning than Seven Keys to Baldpate, which opened at the Orpheum Theater yesterday. Both the Cohan and MacLean versions of Earl Derr Biggers' novel and George M.'s play were silent. Richard Dix' is the first to speak right up, and as his first Radio Picture's vehicle, it promises well for Richard's career under the RKO banner.
Seven Keys to Baldpate, whether you recall it or not, is a mystery farce. It contains thrills, treated and soaked with hokum, but very pleasant to take. Dix is assigned the role of the young author who wagers he can write a novel within 24 hours in a summer resort which has been deserted for the bleak winter. He is also the young man who sneers at falling in love at first sight and in the very act of so sneering, falls.
There are crooks, reformers, murders, conspirators galore in Seven Keys to Baldpate. These are the ingredients necessary for a mystery and the treatment and direction by Reginald Barker add the elements of comedy so excellently carried out be Richard Dix and his supporting cast. A very nice cast, too, if you please. All ladies and gentlemen are they, for in the final sequence we discover that here has been a motion picture without a villain! How? Huh, I should spoil business for the Orpheum and tell you.
This is the second time Miriam Seegar has appeared opposite Richard Dix, the other being The Love Doctor. She's quite a charming little lady, with far more than average ability and quite a good deal of that mysterious equation termed personality. The entire cast is exceptionally fine, including Crauford Kent, Nella Walker, Joseph Allen, Margaret Livingston, Lucian Littlefield, DeWitt Jennings, Joseph Herbert, Alan Roscoe, Carleton Macy, Harvey Clarke and Edith Yorke.
Another one of the "Ginsberg" comedies is seen at the Orpheum this week. The new one is General Ginsberg, starring Nat Carr. It is one of the best short subjects shown about, with unusually good direction and dialogue credited to Mark Sandrich. The Orpheum also offers a Pathe Sound News, a tribute to George Washington, and an organ recital. That's a lot at that.
3/2/1930 FD Talk of Hollywood
CAST: Nat Carr, Fay Marbe, Hope Sutherland, Sherline Oliver, Ed LeSaint, Gilbert Marbe, John Troughton.
Director, Mark Sandrich;
4/6/1930 FD Off To Peoria
Nick and Tony
Mark Sandrich
8/28/1930 HDC Elizabeth Yeaman
Roberta Gale, an RKO featured player, has been assigned a part in Honeymoon Hotel, a Nick and Tony two-reel comedy which Louis Brock is producing on the RKO lot. Miss Gale has played in Shooting Straight, Leathernecking, and The Losing Game. Henry Armetta and Nick Basil co-star in the comedy under the direction of Mark Sandrich.
8/29/1930 HDC Elizabeth Yeaman
June Clyde has been added to the cast supporting Henry Armetta and Nick Basil in Moonlight and Monkey Business, the latest of the Radio Pictures Nick and Tony series. Johnny Grey has written the continuity and dialogue, and Louis Brock is producing the series with Mark Sandrich directing.
9/16/1930 HDC Elizabeth Yeaman
That popular actor, Fred Kelsey, who has convulsed us with his "dumb detective" roles, has been added to the cast of Aunt's In the Pants, the first of the Broadway Celebrity series of short comedies which Louis Brock is producing for RKO release. The picture stars Walter Catlett, and will have one of the most distinguished casts ever assembled for a two-reeler. Cissie Fitzgerald and Monte Collins also have been cast, and Mark Sandrich will direct from a story written by Johnnie Grey.
10/3/1930 HDC Elizabeth Yeaman
Trader Ginsburg is the title of the next Broadway Headliner production which Louis Brock is to make for an RKO release. Brock has assembled a most pretentious cast which will be headed by George MacFarlane in the stellar role, Gladden James, Bertram Johns and Bill Bailey. The picture will go into production at once with an all-night shooting schedule at Selig's Zoo. Mark Sandrich is slated to direct.
12/14/1930 FD Aunts In Your Pants
Mark Sandrich
2/5/1931 LAR Llewellyn Miller
Mark Sandrich
2/15/1931 FD A Little From Lots
Mark Sandrich
2/26/1931 HDC Elizabeth Yeaman
Several new contracts have been issued at Radio Pictures. Mark Sandrich just signed a year's contract under the terms of which he will direct 24 short subjects. He is now at work directing Ned Sparks in Way of All Fish.
3/13/1931 HDC Elizabeth Yeaman
Mark Sandrich has been assigned to direct Chic Sale in his first starring short comedy for Radio Pictures. "Lem Putt," the character which Chic made so famous in his book "The Specialist," will be portrayed by him on the screen. Sandrich will also direct Ned Sparks, the happy grouch, in his second comedy short for the same company.
3/19/1931 HDC Elizabeth Yeaman
Chic Sale is polishing up the story for his first comedy short to be made at Radio Pictures. No one could write for Chic so successfully as he can write for himself. These shorts are going to be given all the time and money which generally goes into a feature-length production. Lloyd French will direct the first one, supplanting Mark Sandrich, who is busy on a Ned Sparks short comedy.
3/26/1931 HDC Elizabeth Yeaman
"Suffering Ned Sparks," the popular cold-pan comedian, starts work today on his newest short feature, Happy Birthday with Mark Sandrich directing. Audie McPhail, Roberta Gale, Edward Earle...also have been cast in this Radio Picture.
4/1/1931 HDC Elizabeth Yeaman
I saw Chic Sale down at Radio Pictures yesterday. He was posing, in limp suspenders, for some still pictures, and he had been doing it for hours and hours. Something over 200 stills were made of him yesterday. And now, after four weeks of story preparations and rehearsals, this comedian is starting work today on the actual shooting of his first short comedy. Charles Dow Clark, Robert McKenzie, Ben Holmes and Aileen Carlyle make up the supporting cast, and Holmes also collaborated with Chic on the story. Mark Sandrich is directing.
5/4/1931 LAR Llewellyn Miller
Mark Sandrich
5/11/1931 EE Jimmy Starr
Mark Sandrich
5/13/1931 HDC Elizabeth Yeaman
The Murray Widow is the title of the next Chic Sale short comedy which Louis Brock is producing. Sale will portray his same famous character of "Lem Putt" in this picture and Mark Sandrich will again act as director. Sandrich also collaborated on the story with Ben Holmes. Aileen Carlyle, Bud Jamison, Marcia Harris and George Ovey are other members of the cast.
6/8/1931 HDC Elizabeth Yeaman
Arline Judge, we learn at the RKO-Pictures lot, is to play the lead with Clark and McCullough in their laugh-maker, Idle Roomers. This combination, with Mark Sandrich directing, is one on which RKO is betting heavily.
6/9/1931 HDC
The skies are bright with promise for Josephine Whittell, clever actress who is remembering for her work in "No, No, Nanette" and other stage successes. Her work in Full of Nations is so superlatively pleasing to RKO-Radio Pictures that Josephine has been given the feminine lead in False Rumors with Clark and McCullough, and has decided to settle down comfortably in Hollywood. In fact, she is building a pretty home up near Ann Harding's, for she and Ann are old friends. Mark Sandrich is to direct the following cast: Eddie Dunn, Kewpie Morgan, James Finlayson and others. Louis Brock is producer.
6/20/1931 LAX Rebound
By Jerry Hoffman
The good old loyal crowd of personality worshipers were not disappointed last night. The hundreds who came to gape at those attending the premiere of Rebound in the Carthay Circle Theater were given their fill of celebrities, fashions, ceremonies–but don't those apple crates get awfully hard to sit on?
The discomfort was worth while last night; for never has Hollywood seen such a gorgeous display of floral beauty at any other opening. Charles R. Rogers out-Graumanned Grauman.
It would be difficult for any story to maintain the standard of cleverness established in the early sequences of Rebound. Through the medium of crisp, brilliant dialogue, spoken by players who immediately attract the favor of an audience. Rebound scores a very high average. This, however, is not to curse Rebound with the adjective "smart." Too many so-called smart stories have proven unutterably stupid. The screen version of Donald Ogden Stewart's play is a diverting and very entertaining light comedy.
The same qualities of easy conversation that characterized Laughter and Holiday are present in Rebound and atone greatly for those places in which this is a weaker story. This flaw is contributed mostly by changing the finish from the one seen in the play.
Sara Jaffrey couldn't get the man she loved until another girl jilted him. Then he married her on the rebound. After their wedding he began flirting (and evidently not innocently) with his former fiancé, who meanwhile had wedded eight millions and an older man. That is the basis for the tale unfolded in Rebound and it does make a comedy-drama somewhat different from the usual, domestic adventures we have been seeing.
It is really a pleasure to see a group of players in one picture so perfectly selected. Undoubtedly E.H. Griffith, who directed, is largely responsible, bearing in mind those he had in Holiday.
Photographically Rebound is pretty much a solo affair for Ina Claire. With all due respect to the brilliance of Miss Claire's performance, and also the fact that her face is by no means unpleasant to gaze upon, it seems that one or two close-ups might have been spared here and there for the others.
Hence, the impression made by Roberts Williams is so much the greater. There is one scene in which Williams practically has his back to the audience, while pleading with Miss Claire to leave her husband. Even with his shoulder blades as the physical medium for the emotion expressed vocally, Williams dominates the scene. His work throughout the picture makes certain that here is a new screen personality whom fans will welcome sincerely.
Robert Ames, who manages to be Robert Ames in any character, plays the husband. There are fine portrayals by Myrna Loy, Hale Hamilton, Leigh Allen and the dependable Hedda Hopper. Worth particular mention is Louise Closser Hale in one sequence.
Horace Jackson is responsible for the screen version of Stewart's play. The music scoring is intelligent and very pleasing.
"Chic" Sale, otherwise famous as one who concentrates, is back in the movies via a comedy called Cowslip, cleverly directed by Mark Sandrich. Georgie Stoll and his orchestra further augment the program.
Masters of ceremonies abounded throughout the Rebound premiere. Outside greeting microphones-fans and incomers, were Jimmy Gleason and Robert Armstrong. Introduction of the players was made by Lew Cody.
6/23/1931 HDC
Clark and McCullough, former famous vaudeville team, are being rushed into their second RKO-Radio Pictures short comedy under Mark Sandrich's direction. They recently finished False Roomers and are slated for a series of six pictures with only a week's rest between each one.
6/27/1931 EE Previews
The Country Seat
Chic Sale
Mark Sandrich
7/3/1931 HDC Elizabeth Yeaman
Louis Brock seems to have a genius for thinking up clever comedy titles. His latest is Scratch-As-Catch-Can, which will be the next Clarke and McCullough comedy. Mark Sandrich will direct.
7/15/1931 HDC Elizabeth Yeaman
Within another month it will be melon season in the famous Rocky Ford section of Colorado which produces those cantaloupes part excellence. I don't know whether this fact had anything to do with the title of Clark and McCullough's next comedy or not. In any event the title is Melondrama, and the story is by Bobby Clark and Mark Sandrich will direct. This is one of the series that Louis Brock is producing for Radio Pictures.
7/25/1931 LAR RETORT BRUTAL
Mark Sandrich *****
7/28/1931 HDC Elizabeth Yeaman
The title of Chic Sale's next short comedy for Radio Pictures is Cock-a-Doodle-Do. Interpret that anyway you like. But you can depend upon Chic to make something funny out of it. Aileen Carlyle will have the leading feminine role opposite him, and Mark Sandrich will again direct. I understand that when Chic's contract with this studio has expired, he will put his name to a term agreement with Warners. That's due to the success of his work in The Star Witness. Warners don't want this Comedian for short comedies, but for featured roles in full-length pictures.
9/12/1931 EH Screenographs by Harrison Carroll
Mark Sandrich
10/19/1931 LAX Louella O. Parsons
Mark Sandrich
11/5/1931 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
Casting About—Mark Sandrich finished work on A Hurry Call, the third Chic Sale comedy which he has directed.
11/11/1931 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
Casting About—The title of Chic Sales next short comedy to be produced by Louis Brock is Pop Goes the Weasel, an original story by Ben Holmes. Aileen Carlyle and Bud Jamieson are in the cast with Sale. Mark Sandrich will direct.
12/16/1931 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
"You oughtn't to wait until trouble starts before going to the dentist," admonished Mark Sandrich's a few days ago. "And also," commented Sandrich, "you oughtn't to wait until a fire starts before sending for the fire department." There's a snappy rejoinder some of us will remember for future use!
12/21/1931 EHE Jimmy Starr
Mark Sandrich
1/11/1932 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
From the way executives at Warners–First National are raving about the performance of Chic Sale in Old Man Minnick we may look to see some bigger and better efforts for his productions which will be made under a term contract just signed. In the meantime he goes back to Radio Pictures to complete his contract obligations there. His next short comedy, to be produced by Louis Brock, starts Thursday with Bud Jamieson, Billy Bletcher, Elise Cavana and Phil Dunham in the cast. Mark Sandrich will direct as usual. There's also a rumor that he will make a feature for Radio, with William S. Seiter tentatively slated to direct. Whether or not he will make a feature depends upon his contract with Warners.
2/22/1932 LAX Girl of Rio
By Jerry Hoffman
I can remember when The Dove was really a very good play. Very likely you can also recall that it did not make a bad movie in the silent days. The Dove has found voice and words–oh, so many words!–and under the title of Girl From Rio, came into the RKO-Hillstreet Theater on Saturday to spend a week. Thereby is appended a moral. If we much teach birds to talk, stick to parrots!
In short, the talkie version of what was formerly Willard Mack's play, The Dove, is not very successful. There can be no doubt that Dolores Del Rio is lovely, and surely no one should be able to play "The best caballero in all Mexico" better than Leo Carrillo. That seems perfect theory, but somehow it didn't work out in practice.
While none will dispute the fact that both Del Rio and Carrillo should know their Mexicans and their dialects, neither of them seems convincing. This is due to the presence of so much dialect and dialogue. In fact, The Dove, having learned how to talk, like most children–doesn't know when to keep quiet.
Norman Foster gives the nearest to a convincing performance. In justice to the others, it must be admitted that Herbert Brenon's direction was no help. He seemed to waver uncertainly between one desire to make an old-fashioned melodrama–and another to make a burlesque, without doing either. Stanley Fields, Lucile Gleason and Edna Murphy try, in smaller roles, to overcome the weakness of the whole affair, but they are not magicians. Elizabeth Meehan adapted Willard Mack's play.
There is a good vaudeville show in the Hillstreet, headed by Emil Boreo, and a very entertaining "Chic" Sale comedy, Ex-Rooster, which Mark Sandrich ably directed. Other acts include Billy Wells, Four Fays, Yorke and Goldie, the Vardels and the Singing Sherwoods.
3/2/1932 EHE Jimmy Starr
Mark Sandrich
3/5/1932 HCN Cinemania
By Edwin Martin
Mark Sandrich
3/21/1932 LAX Nice Women
The Melon Drama
Mark Sandrich
3/21/1932 LAR Nice Women
The Melon Drama
Mark Sandrich
3/28/1932 EHE Jimmy Starr
Mark Sandrich
4/1/1932 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
Comedy production in the short subject field is taking a spurt at Radio Pictures. Yesterday Monte Collins was signed for a series of six short comedies to be made under the supervision of Louis Brock. And Mark Sandrich wins the directorial assignment on the Clark and McCullough comedy.
5/16/1932 LAR Relman Morin
Mark Sandrich
6/11/1932 LAX Louella O. Parsons
Mark Sandrich ***
6/25/1932 HCN (Hollywood Citizen-News) COMEDY MAKER TELLS TRICKS OF FUN TRADE
By James Francis Crow
In the several years that he has been directing comedies, Mark Sandrich has made literally millions of people laugh, but he is still puzzled as to just how he does it.
He can never tell, nor can any one else, just what is going to be funny and what is not when put to the ultimate audience test, Sandrich said today as he sat in a projection room at RKO-Radio Pictures studio and viewed the rushes of his latest Clark and McCullough fun offering.
"Any man who can tell how many laughs he is going to get with this gag or that gag, this scene or that scene, is worth a million dollars to a studio," said the comedy maker. He gazed soberly at a shot wherein McCullough was trying vainly to beat a stick of dynamite into a hole that was far too small.
RULES UNRELIABLE
"Of course, I have hit upon half a dozen good working rules, but they're pretty unreliable, after all. You see, so much depends on the audience. A joke that may have them out of their chairs in Milwaukee may be a dismal failure in Louisville. A gag that is good today may be bad tomorrow. Sometimes all you need is a couple of good starting laughs to put the audience in your favor. But of course you can't plant stooges in all the theaters in the country."
By this time McCullough had taken a hatchet and was whittling the dynamite down to the proper size. Sandrich inspected the scene gravely before he went on.
"I found that timing is highly important. Drop your gag right at the peak of your build-up. Ten seconds earlier, ten seconds later it may fail.
"Yes, the unexpected is usually good for a few laughs. But don't try to fool the audience. Fool the comedian. If he gets hold of the red pepper by mistake, let the audience see the label. The fans like to see the unexpected happen to somebody else.
"There seems to be a strong sadistic vein in comedy," Sandrich said, "If I have Clark there kick a hard-boiled traffic policeman in the trousers, the fans scream, just because they have been wanting to do it themselves, I guess."
Clark and McCullough, who were playing the roles of insect exterminators and who were in a mixup over the words "ants" and "aunts," had not completed spraying the rooms of the two low comedy spinsters, and the rushes inspection was over for the day. The interviewer commented that he had seen nothing "spicy" or "shady" in the film.
SHADINESS UNNECESSARY
"It isn't necessary," Sandrich said. "You think twice about those things when you consider how many youngsters are going to see your pictures. Anyway, I think you couldn't get those two fellows to go through with anything shady."
Sandrich is a young man, in his very early thirties, black-haired and vigorous. At Columbia University he studied chemistry and physics. Originally devoted to straight drama in short stories and plays, he turned to comedy, he says, chiefly because he wanted to see what it was like. He was forthwith fascinated by it.
He likes to think that he is a good workman. Consistency is his pride. He takes about three weeks to do a comedy, utilizing most of that time in story preparation.
He is worried about the future of comedy. Most of the great comedians of the day, he points out, have had their origins on the vaudeville stage, now virtually a thing of the past.
Does he laugh at his own work?
"I'm like everybody else. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't." Sandrich said, grinning.
9/16/1932 EHE Harrison Carroll
Mark Sandrich
9/17/1932 EHE Hold 'Em Jail
By W.E. Oliver
What screen scenarists described as a "swell idea," is behind Hold "Em Jail, a combination of stomach laughs and forced hysteria now screening at the Orpheum.
The burlesque is based on today's oddity of prison football teams. It has Wheeler and Woolsey, masquerading as football players, shanghaied into Bidemore penitentiary to holp them beat their traditional gridiron rivals.
And a swell idea it would have continued if RKO's Siamese twins had remained true to their own formula for producing amusement instead of becoming influenced by the Marx madness which is now infecting the screen with disassociative thought processes.
GAGS FEEBLE
As the two convicts, Wheeler and Woolsey give far less thought to building their gags than in former films. The result is much forced comedy, some of it completely mirthless, although there is enough genuine amusement in their work to satisfy spectators with hair-trigger guffaws. And there were plenty present yesterday at the theater.
More adaptable to the new comedy technic are Edna May Oliver and Edgar Kennedy, who play the prison warden, and his sister. This pair is as laughable as anything I've seen in months.
Warren Hymer, as the dumb convict, is another who does a fair chore in creating laughs.
The inevitable warden's daughter is played by Betty Grable, a personable lass. Paul Hurst and Roscoe Ates, in a brief stammering bit, are other players.
Norman Taurog directed. Tom Whelan and Lou Tipton adapted from a story by S.J. Perelman, Walter DeLeon and Mark Sandrich. A lot of fingers for such a gooseberry pie!
Hold "Em Jail is liberally garnished with laughs, some of them legitimate. For the unchoosy taste at least, it should be pleasant fare.
You'll be charmed, and thrilled by an adventure film, Islands of Peril, shown on this bill. Grand scenery of the North sea's Viking islands, stirring camera work and a very intelligent running commentary by Walter Anthony are its chief features.
If you paid money to be diverted at the Orpheum this week, however, you will be annoyed by the direct advertising of several makes of cars in the newsreel, done under the guise of entertainment.
9/21/1932 HCN Jim Crow
(EY on vacation)
....Walter Catlett and Phil Harris are being teamed by Radio for a series of Brock comedies, with Mark Sandrich, the studio's most reliable comedy craftsman, assigned to direct them.....
10/1/1932 LAR New Technique For RKO Shorts
Mark Sandrich ****
10/10/1932 HCN RADIO FILMS TO USE COMIC OPERA TECHNIQUE
Mark Sandrich *****
12/12/1932 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
Yes, after all these rumors, Wheeler and Woolsey actually have signed that contract with Radio Pictures. In fact, plans for their next picture are well under way and Mark Sandrich have been engaged to direct their next comedy for Radio Pictures. Sandrich has been successful as a director of short comedies for this company. Joe Mankiewicz is writing the story for the comedy team.
1/28/1933 FD So This is Harris
Mark Sandrich
2/11/1933 EHE TUNEFUL FILM TO BE MINUS USUAL GIRL ENSEMBLES
Mark Sandrich ****
2/16/1933 LAX Louella O. Parsons
What about Dorothy Jordan's new job? She has moved to the Radio lot to play the feminine lead in a musical comedy, a particularly pretentious one, to be directed by Mark Sandrich. Hollywood is interested because the rumor that Dorothy will one day wed Merian Cooper, Radio boss supreme, continues..
2/25/1933 LAR FEMININE BEAUTY
Mark Sandrich ***
2/28/1933 EHE Jimmy Starr
Mark Sandrich
3/3/1933 HCN Dangerously Yours
By Jim Crow
A composite dream of all the shop girls in the world has been brought to the screen by Fox Studio in Dangerously Yours, the current exhibit at Loew's State Theater.
Warner Baxter, the star, enacts herein the role of a gentlemanly diamond thief who risks disaster in his "profession" by falling in love with Miriam Jordan. She repays his devotion by attempting to betray him to the police just after he has stolen Florence Eldridge's Sunday jewelry.
So the diamond thief chloroforms her, takes her aboard his yacht, fastens a miniature anchor to her ankle to prevent her from swimming away, and thus holds her captive on moonlit cruises to sundry romantic island coves.
I submit that any other girl in the world would cheerfully sacrifice honor and virtue for such a fate. But Miss Jordan stands alone. She at last frees herself from the anchor, swims ashore and visits the police station. There her determination fails her, and she allows herself to be held for the theft of the diamonds rather than betray the man she has learned to love.
About half of this picture story is concerned with prosaic camera recordings of persons walking through doors, standing on balconies and peeking into boudoirs containing young ladies clad in lingerie. The producers have managed, however, to relieve these drab proceedings here and there with some very fair humor, part of it contributed by the suave Mr. Baxter, and part by Miss Eldridge and the droll Herbert Mundin. The interpolation of cheap dialogue, such as "that sap" and "I knew you'd fall for her," presumed to be the parlance of our best people, has not helped the picture to any appreciable extent.
A supplementary picture is director Mark Sandrich's musical novelty, So This Is Harris, presenting Phil Harris, radio crooner. The Sandrich opus is marked by intriguing camera work, broad comedy by Walter Catlett, the beauty of the chorus girls, and Harris' inability to sing.
A Mickey Mouse cartoon and a newsreel are other attractions.
3/6/1933 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
Maiden Cruise, the big musical picture scheduled at Radio Pictures studio, underwent a change of cast today. Ben Lyon, who was scheduled for the leading male role, will not be seen in the picture. He was loaned by MGM. And Dorothy Jordan, now free-lancing, also is out of the cast.
Helen Mack, little auburn-haired ingenue who was at Fox under contract for a time, has been given the feminine lead. This is the biggest break that she has had since coming to Hollywood. She both dances and sings and these talents are requirements for her role.
Although no one is definitely set for the male lead replacing Ben Lyon, there is talk about signing a young concert singer by the name of Nelson Eddy. Eddy has never made a picture. Mark Sandrich is to direct the picture and Chic Chandler will have the comedy lead. According to the schedule now mapped out, the picture is due to go before the cameras day after tomorrow.
3/9/1933 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
And still another picture started today, bank holiday notwithstanding. That was the film musical, Maiden Cruise, at Radio Pictures. This film still is lacking a leading man, but work started anyway on scenes which may be shot around a leading man. Today it seemed probable that Phil Harris would get the lead. Harris, you know, made a great success in a musical short he made for this company under the title of So This Is Harris. Mark Sandrich directed that short and he also will direct Maiden Cruise, so everything points to Harris as the lead in the latter film. Others already cast include Helen Mack, Wera Engels, Charles Ruggles, Chic Chandler, Shirley Chambers and June Brewster.
3/11/1933 LAX The Great Jasper
Hocus Pocus
Clark and McCullough
Mark Sandrich
3/21/1933 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
Greta Nissen and Wera Engels are both Teutonic types, although Greta is blond and Wera is very brunet. However, since Wera cancelled her term contract with Radio Pictures and withdrew from the cast of Maiden Cruise, Greta Nissen has been signed to fill the role. This picture has been in the process of casting for a long time, and three of the most important roles underwent changes of cast. It seems to be set now with Mark Sandrich directing.
3/27/1933 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
Mark Sandrich has signed a new term contract to direct for Radio Pictures. It is the eighth consecutive contract he has had with this company. At present he is directing Maiden Cruise and his contract stipulates that he is to direct both features and short subjects.
5/27/1933 HCN Reviews of Previews
By James Francis Crow
Melody Cruise
Mark Sandrich
6/5/1933 LAX Louella O. Parsons
Mark Sandrich ***
6/24/1933 LAR Melody Cruise
Mark Sandrich
7/2/1933 LAX Director Host to Film's Cast
Mark Sandrich ****
8/13/1933 LAX Reine Davies
Mark Sandrich
9/23/1933 HCN Reviews of Previews
By James Francis Crow
Aggie Appleby, Maker of Men
Mark Sandrich
10/19/1933 FD Aggie Appleby, Maker of Men
RKO 73 minutes
Founded on a basic plot that takes a while to get started but eventually builds up very nicely. This is very satisfactory entertainment. Wynne Gibson as Aggie Appleby, the moll of a tough guy, William Gargan, is left without a home when her friend lands in jail for beating up cops. She moves in on a timid lad, Charlie Farrell, member of an aristocratic upstate family who has come to the big town to make good on his own and in due course make a he-man out of him. They are in love, but Aggie realizes they are mismated, so after having turned Charlie into a man she delivers him over to the fiancee of his set, Betty Furness. And Aggie returns to her pardoned tough guy—whom she proceeds to convert into something of a "sissy" after the fashion of gentleman Charlie. There is dandy work by the entire cast, and good directorial handling.
Cast: Charles Farrell, Wynne Gibson, William Gargan, ZaSu Pitts, Betty Furness, Blanche Friderici.
Director, Mark Sandrich; Author, Joseph O. Kesselring; Adaptors, Humphrey Pearson, Edward Kaufman; Cameraman, J. Roy Hunt; Recording engineer, Bert S. Hodges; Editor, Basil Wrangell.
Direction, Fine. Photography, Fine.
11/16/1933 EHE Jimmy Starr
Mark Sandrich
1/24/1934 FD Hips, Hips, Hooray
RKO 68 Mins.
About the best and cleanest of the Wheeler-Woolsey series. Plenty laughs and action plus musical trimmings.
Latest of the Wheeler and Woolsey fun fests is first-rate entertainment for the mass audience. It is free of the risque burlesque gags that dotted some of their previous efforts, and consequently is more acceptable as family amusement. The musical side of the picture, though not on a lavish scale, is of good quality and contains one song that will surely be a hit. For story basis, Wheeler and Woolsey, as a couple of pitchmen selling flavored lipsticks, pose as big business men and merge with Thelma Todd's classy beauty parlor after Wheeler has been attracted by Dorothy Lee, who works in the place. One of the male executives, rebuffed by Dot, who knows he is double-crossing the shop in favor of a rival establishment, sets out to expose the two lads and then frames it for Thelma to lose a cross-country auto race in which she has entered a car for publicity results, but Wheeler and Woolsey stumble on the plot and save the day in a fast and amusing finish. Ruth Etting sings a nice number at the start of the picture.
CAST: Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Ruth Etting, Thelma Todd, Dorothy Lee, George Meeker, James Burtis, Matt Briggs, Spencer Charters.
Director, Mark Sandrich; Authors, Harry Ruby, Bert Kalmar, Edward Kaufman; Music and Lyrics, Harry Ruby, Bert Kalmar; Dances, Dave Gould; Cameraman, David Abel; Recording Engineer, P.J. Faulkner Jr; Editor, Basil Wrangell.
Direction, Lively. Photography, A-1.
1/25/1934 IDN Hips, Hips, Hooray
By Eleanor Barnes
Wheeler-and-Woolseyites—that vast group of fans who like these comedians whether they are selling Florida real estate, or European diplomacy—can get plenty of Wheeler and Woolsey at RKO-Hill-street today in Hips, Hips, Hooray.
Their fun runs true to form. While their gags are old and their wisecracks bewhiskered, the actual story seems to have more to it than most of their plots.
COSMETICS BUSINESS
They are in the cosmetics business, if you please, street peddlers of flavored lipstick—who meet up with Dorothy Lee, a vivacious young lady who can demonstrate it satisfactorily.
Their problem is to find an office, which is solved by the scenarist, even though it takes a cross-country road race, a flock of detectives and a host of pretty girls to work it out.
Thelma Todd, who is the best advertisement the cosmetic business has in the piece, turns in an amusing performance in her inimitable way, while the lovely Ruth Etting sings in the best Etting manner one of her most enticing songs. No chance is lost by the company–directed by Mark Sandrich–to keep the humor at a high pitch. Kalmar and Ruby wrote the music, story and lyrics. This picture abounds with beauteous chorines.
HILARIOUS SEQUENCE
There is one hilarious sequence in Hips, Hips, Hooray where Wheeler and Woolsey commandeer one of the racing cars and whoop it up across country. It has the exciting elements that characterize Mack Sennett chases in speed, novelty and entertainment.
Several short subjects, a newsreel and other features are offered on this RKO Hillstreet program.
1/25/1934 LAX Hips, Hips, Hooray
By Marquis Busby
It sounds like a swell title for a Minsky burlesque show, but Hips, Hips, Hooray is the new Wheeler and Woolsey comedy, at the RKO-Hillstreet Theater this week. At that, the picture is well named. I don't know about the hooray, but I'm positive about the hips.
Somehow Messrs. Wheeler and Woolsey never seem to have mediocre pictures. They are either top notch, or they are, well, something less than mediocre. Hips, Hips Hooray is one of their best in a long time. There are any number of hilarious moments, and if you don't feel like laughing, you can look at Thelma Todd and Thelma's very shapely ankles. That's a nice way to spend an afternoon, or evening.
The plot needn't worry you very much, but the two boys are in the beauty parlor business this time. They have invented a lipstick with all the popular flavors. Peach for your girl friend and lemon for your mother-in-law. Thelma Todd and Dorothy Lee are the partners in the business. There is a coast-to-coast auto race, with Wheeler and Woolsey doing some pretty mad driving, and two detectives hot in pursuit. A Kansas cyclone doesn't do much to help the race, but they win anyhow—by cutting across country.
The most amusing and the most nonsensical of all the sequences is a scene in a pool hall, where the two detectives do things that would make a billiard champion turn green with envy. Runner-up in the laugh-getting contest is the little ballet number, with Wheeler and Woolsey, Thelma Todd and Dorothy Lee cutting fancy capers.
Wheeler and Woolsey are both excellent, but there aren't many opportunities for the supporting cast. Thelma Todd is lovely, of course, but I wonder if she doesn't get tired acting as sparring partner for comedians. Dorothy Lee and Bert Wheeler are heard to nice effect in a lively musical number, and Ruth Etting sings one song. I kept thinking that she would show up again, but she must have had another appointment.
Among others in the cast are George Meeker, Mat Briggs, James Burtis, Spencer Charters and Oliver Webb.
Mark Sandrich turns in a very clever job of directing and displays an unusually keen sense of comedy technique. The story is accredited to Bert Kalmar and Edward Kaufman.
An Edgar Kennedy comedy, a Medbury Travelogue and the Pathe News complete the bill.
1/25/1934 EHE Hips, Hips, Hooray
By W.E. Oliver
Those whose risible are tuned to the amusing nonsense of Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey will find enough laughter in Hips, Hips Hooray, to keep them entertained during the screening of the film.
Their new picture, now screening at the RKO, introduces them in a setting of cosmetics with later complications of a chase from detectives, getting them mixed up in a transcontinent auto which they win by means of a series of amazing "gags," some of them ingenious, and some downright silly.
FILM IS SO-SO
This so-spirit marks the picture as a whole. It has bright moments. It has its boring moments. The Wheeler and Woolsey fans, however, keep laughter going to the end.
Besides the two comics, Thelma Todd and Dorothy Lee have important parts in the cosmetic setting. They provide a pleasant visual foil for the insanities of the starred team.
Ruth Etting sings some new songs on the radio for the story. She is still my favorite woman crooner. George Meeker adds villainy to the film. Mat Briggs, James Burtis, Spencer Charters and Oliver Webb complete the cast. Mark Sandrich directed.
EFFECTS ARE GOOD
Some fine photographic effects and several technical screen illusions intrigue the interest. The settings are opulent and well populated with nudish girls whenever possible.
A good newsreel, a wild Edgar Kennedy comedy, an interesting Soglow animated cartoon and a very inane Medbury travelogue complete the bill.
If you are looking for laughter and can laugh at anything, I suggest you put the RKO on your calling list this week.
Francis Lederer, in A Man of Two Worlds, is next.
2/21/1934 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
Mark Sandrich
3/25/1934 LAX SARI MARITZA FETED ON BIRTHDAY
Mark Sandrich
4/16/1934 EHE Jimmy Starr
Mark Sandrich grabbed off a directional plum when Pandro Berman, headman of RKO, assigned him the megaphone on The Gay Divorcee, starring Fred (fancy dancer) Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
5/3/1934 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
If acting talent counts for as much as it should, then The Gay Divorcee should emerge as a most amusing picture. Edward Everett Horton today was signed by Radio Pictures for one of the featured roles in this picture which will be a musical. Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and Thelma Todd were previously announced for the cast. Mark Sandrich will direct and production will be started in about two weeks.
Labels: Al Boasberg, Darryl Zanuck, Mary Pickford, Walt Disney
posted by GDH at 8:53 AM
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