Fast Company | |
---|---|
Directed by | A. Edward Sutherland |
Written by | Walton Butterfield Patrick Kearney Joseph L. Mankiewicz Florence Ryerson |
Based on | Elmer The Great 1928 play by George M. Cohan Ring Lardner |
Starring | Jack Oakie Evelyn Brent |
Cinematography | Edward Cronjager |
Edited by | Jane Loring |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 70 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Fast Company is a 1929 American Pre-Code sports comedy film directed by A. Edward Sutherland and starring Jack Oakie and Evelyn Brent. [1] It is based upon the 1928 play Elmer the Great by George M. Cohan and Ring Lardner. According to the Internet Movie Database, the UCLA Film and Television Archive has reels 1, 2, and 3 of this film, with reel 4 having disintegrated in 1990.
Egomaniacal baseball slugger Elmer Kane is not only good, he enjoys telling everybody how good he is. A professional scout, Bert Wade, takes an interest in Elmer, who in turn takes an interest in Evelyn Corey, an attractive actress.
Wade cons the ballplayer into thinking the actress is falling for him, which inspires a home run from Elmer to win the big game.
Joseph Leo Mankiewicz was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Mankiewicz had a long Hollywood career, and won both the Academy Award for Best Director and the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in consecutive years for A Letter to Three Wives (1949) and All About Eve (1950), the latter of which was nominated for 14 Academy Awards and won six.
Evelyn Brent was an American film and stage actress.
Jack Oakie was an American actor, starring mostly in films, but also working on stage, radio and television. He portrayed Napaloni in Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940), receiving a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Merrily We Live is a 1938 American comedy film directed by Norman Z. McLeod and written by Eddie Moran and Jack Jevne. It stars Constance Bennett and Brian Aherne and features Ann Dvorak, Bonita Granville, Billie Burke, Tom Brown, Alan Mowbray, Clarence Kolb, and Patsy Kelly. The film was produced by Hal Roach for Hal Roach Studios, and was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Helen Kane was an American singer and actress. Her signature song was "I Wanna Be Loved by You" (1928), featured in the 1928 stage musical Good Boy. The song was written for Good Boy by the songwriting team Kalmar and Ruby. Kane's voice and appearance were thought to be a source for Fleischer Studios animators when creating Betty Boop. Kane attempted to sue the studio for claims of stealing her signature "boop-oop-a-doop" style, but the judge decided that the proof of this was insufficient, thus dismissing the case. Fleischer Studios later admitted that Kane had been the inspiration for Betty Boop.
Introducing Dorothy Dandridge is a 1999 American biographical drama television film directed by Martha Coolidge and written by Shonda Rhimes and Scott Abbott, based on the 1991 biography Dorothy Dandridge by Earl Mills. Filmed over a span of a few weeks in early 1998, the film stars Halle Berry as actress and singer Dorothy Dandridge and premiered on HBO on August 21, 1999. The original music score was composed by Elmer Bernstein, who had known Dandridge and Otto Preminger.
Jean Ann Ewers, known professionally as Eve Brent and Jean Lewis, was an American actress who portrayed Jane in Tarzan's Fight for Life.
The Stolen Jools is a 1931 American pre-Code comedy short produced by the Masquers Club of Hollywood, featuring many cameo appearances by film stars of the day. The stars appeared in the film, distributed by Paramount Pictures, to raise funds for the National Vaudeville Artists Tuberculosis Sanitarium. The UCLA Film and Television Archive entry for this film says—as do the credits—that the film was co-sponsored by Chesterfield cigarettes to support the "fine work" of the NVA sanitarium.
Chinatown Nights, also known as Tong War, is a 1929 film starring Wallace Beery and begun as a silent film then finished as an all-talking sound one via dubbing. Directed by William A. Wellman and released by Paramount Pictures, Chinatown Nights also stars Florence Vidor, former wife of director King Vidor, who did not dub her own voice and quit the movie business immediately afterward, preferring not to work in sound films; her voice in Chinatown Nights was supplied by actress Nella Walker. The supporting cast includes Warner Oland as a Chinese gangster and Jack Oakie as a stuttering reporter. The movie was based upon the story "Tong War" by Samuel Ornitz.
Hit the Deck is a 1930 American pre-Code musical film directed by Luther Reed and starring Jack Oakie and Polly Walker, with Technicolor sequences. It was based on the 1927 musical Hit the Deck, which was itself based on the 1922 play Shore Leave by Hubert Osborne. It was one of the most expensive productions of RKO Radio Pictures up to that time, and one of the most expensive productions of 1930. This version faithfully reproduced the stage version of the musical.
Broadway Love is a 1918 American silent romance film directed by Ida May Park and starring Dorothy Phillips, William Stowell, and Lon Chaney. It was written by Ida May Park, based on the novelette by W. Carey Wonderly.
Paramount on Parade is a 1930 all-star American pre-Code revue released by Paramount Pictures, directed by several directors including Edmund Goulding, Dorothy Arzner, Ernst Lubitsch, Rowland V. Lee, A. Edward Sutherland, Lothar Mendes, Otto Brower, Edwin H. Knopf, Frank Tuttle, and Victor Schertzinger—all supervised by the production supervisor, singer, actress, and songwriter Elsie Janis.
Elmer, the Great is a 1933 American pre-Code comedy film directed by Mervyn LeRoy, starring Joe E. Brown and Patricia Ellis.
Close Harmony (1929) is an American Pre-Code comedy-drama musical film released by Paramount Pictures.
Why Bring That Up? is a 1929 American pre-Code musical film directed by George Abbott and starring minstrel show comedians Charles Mack and George Moran, as blackface team Two Black Crows.
Darkened Rooms is a 1929 American pre-Code mystery film directed by Louis J. Gasnier and starring Evelyn Brent. It was an early talking picture. This film is preserved at the Library of Congress. The film tried to cash in on the interest in spiritualism caused by the then-popular Harry Houdini, but critics felt the film couldn't quite decide whether it was debunking the supernatural, or embracing it.
The Man I Love (1929) is a part-talking sound film from Paramount Pictures produced in parallel silent and sound versions. This film survives in a copy sold to television in the 1950s. The film stars Richard Arlen. Some sources refer to this as Arlen's first sound film, but he co-starred Nancy Carroll in Dorothy Arzner's Manhattan Cocktail (1928), another part-talking picture released by Paramount.
Once in a Lifetime is a 1932 American pre-Code comedy film based on Once in a Lifetime by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. The film was produced and distributed by Universal Pictures, directed by Russell Mack and stars Jack Oakie, Sidney Fox and Aline MacMahon.
John Darrow was an American actor of the late silent and early talking film eras. He is the uncle of actress Barbara Darrow.
Sweetie is a 1929 American pre-Code musical film directed by Frank Tuttle, written by George Marion Jr. and Lloyd Corrigan, and starring Nancy Carroll, Helen Kane, Jack Oakie, William Austin, Stuart Erwin, and Wallace MacDonald. It was released on November 2, 1929, by Paramount Pictures.