ABCs at the Movies: The Doubles Round!

[Meryl]

   

[MaineWriter]

==comment==from IMDb

Cornball social-consciousness flick, enjoyable with a good deal of compensating for changing conventions. Interesting for a late appearance by fading silents star Richard Barthelmess, and celebrated for the immortal Bette Davis line, `Ah'd love tuh kiss yuh, but ah jus' washed muh hair,' considered immensely titillating in 1932.

[memento]

Fields is a dentist whose daughter is threatening to run away with her boyfriend. He eventually has to lock her up in an upstairs room, above his dental office, where she proceeds to stamp her feet, causing chunks of the plaster ceiling to fall as Fields attempts to treat one of his patients. There are a number of very funny moments as various patients come to the office, particularly when Fields proceeds to drill without any pain killer. With one of his women patients, he engages in a virtual wrestling match as he attempts to extract a painful tooth. Some of his comments are quite salty and it's clear that the studio deleted some of it.

There is also a very funny sequence on the golf course, where Fields has opportunities to utilize elements of the famous golf routine he developed for the Ziegfeld Follies.

[Meryl]

[MaineWriter]

==comment==

I saw this my senior year in HS during "Survey of the Cinema." I was, shall we say, freaked out? My daughter, who has more movie fortitude than I do, just bought the DVD yesterday. Even now, I have a hard time watching this.

[dot-matrix]

from IMDb
Berlin's plushest, most expensive hotel is the setting where in the words of Dr. Otternschlag "People come, people go. Nothing ever happens.". The doctor is usually drunk so he missed the fact that Baron von Geigern is broke and trying to steal eccentric dancer Grusinskaya's pearls. He ends up stealing her heart instead. Powerful German businessman Preysing brow beats Kringelein, one of his company's lowly bookkeepers but it is the terminally ill Kringelein who holds all the cards in the end. Meanwhile, the Baron also steals the heart of Preysing's mistress, Flaemmchen, but she doesn't end up with either one of them in the end... Written by Gary Jackson {[email protected]}

[Meryl]

[Fran]

[dot-matrix]

Considered an early Disney treasure actually produced by Walt Disney himself and directed by Burt Gillett

[MaineWriter]

==comment==

This clever and offbeat musical short opens with the Board of Regents of Knowmore College in tears. It seems that none of the students are passing and they fear the funding being provided by their wealthy families will dry up. One gentleman announces he has taken the liberty of inviting a certain Professor Vallee to join the staff and try to get things back on track. So in comes the Professor, with his revolutionary learning methods - namely making the lessons rhyme and setting them to music. This gives Rudy a chance to sing several little ditties in front of a classroom full of aging juvenile delinquents. The first day is rather discouraging but presently a title card flashes on the screen announcing `The Professor's methods of memorizing, get results that are surprising.' Indeed the students are more attractive, attentive, witty, better dressed and even the classroom itself has gone from drab to a shimmering art deco laboratory. Although not credited, Mae Questel, with her thick Bronx accent, is very much in evidence as a dumb coed, snapping her chewing gum and learning her lessons. She is prominently featured at the end of the film with a talking skeleton.

Rudy Vallee comes across as a likable comedian who is `in on the joke.' He is easy going and good natured - traits he often brought to comedy roles throughout his long career. Knowmore College has long been enough of a favorite of this reviewer to warrant keeping a 16mm print around for occasional viewing. Typical of Paramount short subjects, Knowmore College boasts excellent production values and is a treat for anyone who enjoys this type of musical farce.