Sat 2 Dec 2017
A Movie Review by Walter Albert: WILD MONEY (1937).
Posted by Steve under Films: Comedy/Musicals , Reviews[9] Comments
WILD MONEY. Paramount, 1937. Edward Everett Horton, Louise Campbell, Lynne Overman, Lucien Littlefield, Esther Dale, Porter Hall, Benny Baker. Based on a story by Paul Gallico. Director: Louis King. Shown at Cinevent 26, Columbus OH, May 1994.
The surprise “B” hit of the convention was Wild Money. Edward Everett Horton, on of my all-time favorite character actors, was the star. He played a stuffy accountant for a big-city newspaper, who, while vacationing with his cousin (Esther Dale) and her husband (Lucien Littlefield), is charged with reporting on the “breaking story” of the kidnapping of one of America’s wealthiest men.
Horton, Dale and Littlefield make a delightful team, and there’s not a wasted frame in this comic crime film. Horton even gets the girl (Louise Campbell) and kisses her in the final shot.
What films such as this demonstrate is that a well-crafted small movie is a safer bet than a larger-budgeted film with pretensions beyond its capabilities. But that’s another fatality of the demise of the studio system where the “A” crew could be used on the “B” film, giving it a professional sturdiness that has disappeared in the era of out-of-sight budgets.
BONUS: Wild Money‘s Lucien Littlefield, a supporting actor whose career began in silent films, was even more delightful in the Joe E. Brown comedy, The Gladiator (credits below). Here he plays mild-mannered Professor Donner who’s discovered a formula that increases strength in animals and, as he discovers when Brown is unexpectedly administered a dose, humans as well.
Brown was both touching and funny in the title role and although the film rushed through the final sequences to a pre-ordained conclusion, it was most enjoyable.
THE GLADIATOR. Columbia Pictures, 1938. Joe E. Brown , June Travis, Man Mountain Dean, Dickie Moore, Lucien Littlefield. Based on the novel by Philip Wylie. Director: Edward Sedgwick.
December 2nd, 2017 at 10:08 pm
Agree about GLADITOR, and I look forward to the Horton film.
The B film was often a delight in the day, quality production and old and new talent, plus screenwriters and other production staff of note.
December 3rd, 2017 at 9:03 am
Sometimes in Hollywood they gave the stars a day off and tuned the movie over to the character actors… generally with pleasing results.
December 3rd, 2017 at 3:39 pm
The 1937, Joe E. Brown vehicle “The Gladiator” is adapted from the book of the same title by Philip Wylie. Who also worked on the screenplays for “Isle of Lost Souls” and “When Worlds Collide”. But, this novel is thought to be a major influence on the young Siegel and Shuster in their creation of Superman.
December 3rd, 2017 at 3:58 pm
True enough. It makes for a very strange connection between Joe E. Brown and Superman, but there you go.
December 3rd, 2017 at 6:43 pm
I once wrote a letter to Philip Wylie about another matter and in his reply he mentioned Gladiator and the idea that his novel inspired Superman was something about which he seemed to be not convinced.
December 3rd, 2017 at 7:35 pm
If you are doubtful also, Randy, you may be right to be. As far as I have discovered, and I have just looked, no one has ever confirmed the connection as an absolute fact.
December 3rd, 2017 at 9:33 pm
That time period had many “supermen” characters. Clark “Doc” Savage was another influence. It was more timing than any one character.
December 3rd, 2017 at 9:36 pm
As I recall, Steve, someone was writing a book about Wylie for the Twayne United States Authors series and had written to Wylie for confirmation of this as fact. I think Wylie had heard the theory before, and he seemed to think this was confirmation that he was a significant author. There are a couple of other books by Wylie, including THE SAVAGE GENTLEMAN, that a friend of mine thought had some links to pulp heroes like Doc Savage.
December 6th, 2017 at 3:50 pm
Wylie was widely read, and Siegel and Shuster both named GLADIATOR as an influence. The SAVAGE GENTLEMAN tie is almost a certainty if you have read the story, and as it was serialised in ARGOSY where Dent often sold notable similar stories like GENIUS JONES, it is hard to imagine Dent did not read the story.