| Uncle Joe | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by |
|
| Screenplay by | Al Weeks |
| Based on | Story by Glenn Rohrbach |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Harry Neumann |
| Music by | Marvin Hatley (songs) |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Monogram Pictures |
Release date | October 18, 1941 |
Running time | 51 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Uncle Joe is a 1941 American film directed by Howard M. Railsback and Raymond E. Swartley.
When big city girl Clare Day starts seeing a modernistic artist of whom her father disapproves, she is sent to visit her mother's brother Joe in rural "Baysville", Iowa. The four boys who live next door to Uncle Joe remember Clare as a skinny little girl and are shocked by how grown-up she has become. Eagerly, they all vie for her attention. Uncle Joe himself is stuck in a romance of the past and fails to hear that his sweetheart Julia Jordan is going to lose her house if she can't pay the mortgage. Clare and Bill, one of the four fellows next door, construct a means to save the day.
| John Maxwell | Radio announcer |
| Frank O'Connor | Limericks judge |
| Lynton Brent | Limericks judge |
Uncle Joe was the 13th of 14 features that starred or co-starred the screen team of Slim Summerville and Zasu Pitts. They had no scenes together in their first film, the silent version of All Quiet on the Western Front , and supporting roles in the next three films, but were starred in their fifth feature, 1932's The Unexpected Father, with their names and faces on the poster indicating their above-the-title status. Over the following 16 months in 1932–1934, they starred in five additional features for Universal and one more, also in 1934, for RKO. During the next seven years they continued steadily appearing in separate features and were reteamed for their final three films, including Uncle Joe, in 1941.
Gale Storm began her screen career at the age of 18 with minor roles in two 1940 films. The following year she appeared in seven features, including Uncle Joe. With the exception of 1944, she was seen in films released every year through 1952, for a total of 35 features, moving at that point to television as the sitcom star of My Little Margie in 1952 and The Gale Storm Show in 1956.
Uncle Joe was her eighth feature and she received third billing, behind Slim Summerville and Zasu Pitts. Fifteen years later, she was reteamed with Zasu Pitts for the 126-episode 1956–1960 run of The Gale Storm Show in which she played an ocean liner cruise director, with Pitts as the ship's manicurist who is continually talked into becoming the reluctant participant in her adventures and accomplice in her schemes to outwit the ship's irritable captain. [1]
Josephine Owaissa Cottle, known professionally as Gale Storm, was an American actress and singer. After a film career from 1940 to 1952, she starred in two popular television programs of the 1950s, My Little Margie and The Gale Storm Show. Six of her songs were top ten hits. Storm's greatest recording success was a cover version of "I Hear You Knockin'," which hit No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1955.
Richard Ewing Powell was an American actor, singer, musician, producer, director, and studio head. Though he came to stardom as a musical comedy performer, he showed versatility and successfully transformed into a hardboiled leading man, starring in projects of a more dramatic nature. He was the first actor to portray private detective Philip Marlowe on screen.
ZaSu Pitts was an American actress whose career spanned nearly five decades, starring in many silent film dramas, including Erich von Stroheim's 1924 epic Greed, and comedies, before transitioning successfully to mostly comedy roles with the advent of sound films. She also appeared on numerous radio shows and, later, made her mark on television. She was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 at 6554 Hollywood Blvd.
Walter Andrew Brennan was an American actor and singer. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performances in Come and Get It (1936), Kentucky (1938) and The Westerner (1940), making him one of only three male actors to win three Academy Awards, and the only male or female actor to win three awards in the supporting actor category. Brennan was also nominated for his performance in Sergeant York (1941). Other noteworthy performances were in To Have and Have Not (1944), My Darling Clementine (1946), Red River (1948) and Rio Bravo (1959).
The Lane Sisters were a family of American singers and actresses. The sisters were Leota Lane, Lola Lane, Rosemary Lane and Priscilla Lane.
Allen Curtis Jenkins was an American character actor, voice actor and singer who worked on stage, film, and television. He may be best known to baby-boomer audiences as the voice of Officer Charlie Dibble in the Hanna-Barbera TV cartoon series Top Cat (1961–62).
Rochelle Hudson was an American film actress from the 1930s through the 1960s. Hudson was a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1931.
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is a 1938 American musical comedy film directed by Allan Dwan, and written by Don Ettlinger, Karl Tunberg, Ben Markson and William M. Conselman, the third adaptation of Kate Douglas Wiggin's 1903 novel of the same name.
Slim Summerville was an American film actor and director best known for his work in comedies.
Victor Potel was an American film character actor who began in the silent era and appeared in more than 430 films in his 38-year career.
Rafaela Ottiano was an Italian-American actress. She was best known for her role as Grusinskaya's maid Suzette in Grand Hotel (1932) and as Russian Rita in She Done Him Wrong (1933).
Hal Roach's Streamliners are a series of featurette comedy films created by Hal Roach that are longer than a short subject and shorter than a feature film, not exceeding 50 minutes in length. Twenty of the 29 features that Roach produced for United Artists were in the streamliner format. They usually consisted of five 10-minute reels.
Meet the Baron is a 1933 American pre-Code comedy film starring Jack Pearl, Jimmy Durante, Edna May Oliver, ZaSu Pitts, Ted Healy and His Stooges. The title of the film refers to Pearl's character of Baron Munchhausen, which he made famous on his radio show.
Love Is News is a 1937 American romantic comedy film starring Tyrone Power, Loretta Young, and Don Ameche. The movie was directed by Tay Garnett and was the first film for which Power had top billing. The picture was remade in 1947 as That Wonderful Urge, with Power again and Gene Tierney.
Cora Susan Collins is an American former child actress who appeared in films during the Golden Years of Hollywood, and although she did not make the transition to adult star, and her career in Hollywood ran a brief 13-year tenure, she appeared in 47 films.
Their Big Moment is a 1934 American mystery film directed by James Cruze, from a screenplay by Arthur Caesar and Marion Dix. The film starred ZaSu Pitts and Slim Summerville. It is based on the 1933 West End play Afterwards by Walter C. Hackett which had run for more than two hundred performances in London. While most of the Pitts-Summerville teamings were comedies, this was a serious drama in which they merely played comic-relief characters; their star billing was thus misleading.
Miss Polly is a 1941 American comedy film produced as part of Hal Roach's Streamliners series. It was directed by Fred Guiol, written by Eugene Conrad and Edward E. Seabrook and stars ZaSu Pitts, Slim Summerville, Kathleen Howard, Brenda Forbes, Elyse Knox and Richard Clayton. The film was released on November 14, 1941 by United Artists.
The Fast Set is a 1924 American silent comedy-drama film directed by William C. deMille and starring Betty Compson. The film is based on the 1923 Broadway play, Spring Cleaning, by Frederick Lonsdale.
Lazybones is a 1925 American silent romantic drama film produced and directed by Frank Borzage and starring Madge Bellamy, Buck Jones, and Zasu Pitts. It opened in New York City on September 22, 1924, and received wider distribution by Fox Film Corporation during 1925.
The Unexpected Father is a 1932 American comedy film directed by Thornton Freeland and starring Slim Summerville, Zasu Pitts, and Cora Sue Collins.
