Menu | |
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Directed by | Nick Grinde |
Written by | Thorne Smith |
Produced by | Pete Smith |
Narrated by | Pete Smith |
Music by | William Axt |
Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date |
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Running time | 10 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Menu is a 1933 American pre-Code short comedy film directed by Nick Grinde, produced by Pete Smith, and filmed in Technicolor. The film was nominated for an Academy Award at the 6th Academy Awards in 1933 for Best Short Subject (Novelty). [1] [2] This could be considered a "prequel" to the MGM short film Penny Wisdom (1937), also produced by Pete Smith.
The scene opens with John Xavier Omsk drinking some bicarbonate of soda in the privacy of his office. Pete Smith, as the narrator, diagnoses John's stomach trouble as a "simple case of bad cooking." As the scene transitions to Mrs. Omsk in a disheveled kitchen, Smith's diagnosis is offered confirmation. Frustrated with her attempts to follow a cookbook on "How to Stuff a Duck", Mrs. Omsk throws down the book and beats the frozen duck, which surprisingly quacks each time it's struck.
Smith decides to help the inept Mrs. Omsk by conjuring up Bizetti, a Master Chef, to show her how to cook. Unable to work in such messy surroundings, Bizetti accepts Smith's offer to tidy up by reversing the scene back to the spotless, organized kitchen before Mrs. Omsk's culinary attempts. Smith's uncanny film-editing magic of replacing the old frozen duck with a better one surprises Mrs. Omsk and excites Bizetti, who cleans the duck, stuffs it and sews it up. As the duck cooks in the oven, Bizetti shows Mrs. Omsk how to fix her husband's favorite dessert, baked apples.
Smith then causes Bizetti to disappear, leaving Mrs. Omsk alone again in the kitchen and all prepared to satisfy her husband with an appetizing meal.
Robert Adolph Wilton Morley CBE was an English actor who enjoyed a lengthy career in both Britain and the United States. He was frequently cast as a pompous English gentleman representing the Establishment, often in supporting roles. In 1939 he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of King Louis XVI in Marie Antoinette.
Heston Marc Blumenthal is an English celebrity chef, TV personality and food writer. His restaurants include the Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire, a three-Michelin-star restaurant that was named the world's best by the World's 50 Best Restaurants in 2005.
Edward Santree Brophy was an American character actor and comedian, as well as an assistant director and second unit director during the 1920s. Small of build, balding, and raucous-voiced, he frequently portrayed dumb cops and gangsters, both serious and comic.
Michael George Murphy is an American film, television and stage actor. He often plays unethical or morally ambiguous characters in positions of authority, including politicians, executives, administrators, clerics, doctors, law enforcement agents, and lawyers. He is also known for his frequent collaborations with director Robert Altman, having appeared in twelve films, TV series and miniseries directed by Altman from 1963 to 2004, including the title role in the acclaimed, Emmy Award-winning HBO miniseries Tanner '88. He had roles in the films M*A*S*H (1970), Brewster McCloud (1970), What's Up, Doc? (1972), Phase IV (1974), Nashville (1975), The Front (1976), An Unmarried Woman (1978), The Class of Miss MacMichael (1978), Manhattan (1979), Strange Behavior (1981), The Year of Living Dangerously (1983), Cloak & Dagger (1984), Salvador (1986), Shocker (1989), Batman Returns (1992), Magnolia (1999), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), Away from Her (2007), and Fall (2014), among others.
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Luis Alberni was a Spanish-born American character actor of stage and films.
John Ryan Kinney was an American animator, director and producer of animated shorts. Kinney is the older brother of fellow Disney animator Dick Kinney.
Bessie Kate Johnson was an English actress who appeared on stage from 1894 and on screen from the 1930s to the 1950s.
Peter Schmidt, Americanized to Pete Smith, was a film producer based in Hollywood, California. He is best known for the Pete Smith Specialties, a long-running series of general-interest short films, ranging from human-interest stories to sports subjects. Best remembered are the comedies, exaggerating common pet peeves and household problems, with Smith offering pointed commentary in his distinctive, nasal tenor.
Moto was a molecular gastronomy restaurant in the Fulton River District of Chicago, Illinois known for creating "high-tech" dishes which incorporate elements such as carbonated fruit, edible paper, lasers, and liquid nitrogen for freezing food.
How to Sleep is a short comedy film written by and starring humorist Robert Benchley. Filmed and released by MGM in 1935, it features Benchley as a narrator as well as film subject, discussing four parts of sleep—causes, methods, avoiding sleep, and waking up.
James Patton "Jack" King was an American animator and short film director best known for his work at Walt Disney Productions.
Vera Lewis was an American film and stage actress, beginning in the silent film era. She appeared in more than 180 films from 1915 to 1947. She was married to actor Ralph Lewis.
Ruth Donnelly was an American film and stage actress.
Penny Wisdom is a 1937 American short comedy film directed by David Miller and produced by Pete Smith. In 1938, the film won an Oscar at the 10th Academy Awards for Best Short Subject (Color).
Quicker'n a Wink is a 1940 American short documentary film in the Pete Smith Specialities series about stroboscopic photography and the work of Doc Edgerton, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The film was written by Buddy Adler and directed by George Sidney. In 1941, it won an Oscar for Best Short Subject (One-Reel) at the 13th Academy Awards.
Strikes and Spares is a 1934 American short sports film directed by Felix E. Feist and starring Pete Smith and Andy Varipapa. In 1934, it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Novelty) at the 7th Academy Awards.
Romance of Radium is a 1937 American short film directed by Jacques Tourneur, and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. A brief history of the chemical element, it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Subject (One-Reel) at the 10th Academy Awards.