Once in a Lifetime
Directed by Russell Mack
Written by Seton I. Miller from the play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart
1932/USA
Universal Pictures
First viewing/YouTube
[box] George Lewis: I don’t know anything about elocution.
May Daniels: You don’t know anything about anything, George, and if what they say about the movies is true, you’ll go far.[/box]
Hollywood did not spare itself in this funny satire about the transition from silent pictures to talkies.
Vaudeville is dying with the advent of talkies and the act of George Lewis (Jack Oakie) and May Daniels (Aline MacMahon) is dying with it. May gets the bright idea of going to Hollywood and holding themselves out as elocution instructors. George is as dumb as a box of rocks and he soon becomes infatuated with Susan Walker (Sidney Fox), a wannabe actress who is his intellectual soulmate. Through sheer luck and chutzpah George takes tinsel town by storm. The fictional studio head Herman Glogauer (Gregory Ratoff), who rejected Vitaphone, is mercilessly skewered.
The play was a big hit on Broadway. I read about its creation in Moss Hart’s autobiography, Act One, and this was my first chance to see it. It really is as funny as all that despite the staginess of the production. Oakie and MacMahon are two of my favorite character actors of the period but perhaps my favorite part was Sidney Fox’s frequent recitations of the Kipling poem “Boots”. Recommended and on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pSJO03ZzUI
