Gift of Gab

This lost film has been found. I was able to get my hands on a bootleg VHS of this flick. I'm a big fan of the Universal horror movies of the 30s. It was a treat to see this comedy that is directed by Karl "Mummy" Freund, starring Gloria "Invisible Man" Stuart, and cameos by Lugosi and Karloff. The story kind of jumps all over the place. And I'm guessing that radio comedy bits weren't done on sets with actors in costumes. Also we hear multiple versions of "I ain't gonna sin no more". Otherwise good fun.

As a movie, this story staggers all over itself. It's a pretty mundane rags-to-riches-to somewhere in the middle story. The acting isn't real crisp, the plot is choppy at times, and the comedy is just not very funny.

The movie is redeemed, however, by the presence of many live musical performances of stars from the '30s. Many of these performances are of immense historical proportions in terms of music. Lots of people will want to see this because of the presence of Bela Legosi and Boris Karloff on screen together, but their participation in the movie is very short and rather disappointing.

If you're looking for an entertaining movie it's probably best to skip this one. If you have some interest in stars of the '30s, it's one you should catch.

Blowhard Philip Gabney becomes a smash radio announcer, until he is canned from the station for a fake broadcast and tries to resume his on air status by attempting a dangerous stunt. Very weak on plot development, but obviously this was done by Universal to promote various radio, vaudeville, and singing stars of the day. Many of the segments from the movie to be done for a radio listening audience seem more suited to a visual mode. Of note, this is the second movie to team Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, even though they don't appear on screen at the same time and are in for a few seconds. Rating, 3 of 10.

I watched this film for two reasons. The first was Ruth Etting. A favorite of mine since I heard her great Columbia LP at a faculty member's home at college. Disappointing here as she sings one awful song and a bit of a reprise and then goodbye. Bummer. The other reason was to see Douglas Fowley a good friend of my Dad's when they were young men. (I think Fowley was at my folk's wedding in 1933 a year before this film. Seeing him as a young man before he adopted his trademark pencil mustache made me see my Dad at that age. Otherwise, Gloria Stuart was lovely, Ethel Waters was fine singing a dull song and it was Alex Woollcott who surprised me. Who knew he was so soft spoken? I always thought of him bellowing as did Monty Wooley in The Man Who Came to Dinner. On the other hand, Edmund Lowe was repulsive as the fast talking con man. Yuch. Watching this once will be quite enough.

Well, months after knowing this was on my YouTube "Liked Videos" list, I finally watched this there as this was another early film appearance of Ethel Waters, here singing "I Ain't Gonna Sin No More". This also marked the only movie appearance of the Beale Street Boys. The sing with both Ethel and by themselves on this song and they also appear a few more times throughout the narrative. I enjoyed them very much. Also of note is a mystery sketch which featured two of the movie's studio's (Universal) biggest stars at the time-horror icons Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff who was still billed just by his last name during this period in his career. They appear separately just minutes of each other. This one was also very enjoyable. There are some other music acts like Ruth Etting and other sketches which are hit-and-miss. The story itself is a little amusing but also for the birds as the narrative goes on. I also feel like citing three men in the beginning appearing at a receptionist's desk singing a part of "Tiger Rag" which is my LSU Tigers football team's theme song. Also, this was directed by Karl Freund, normally a cinematographer who would eventually wrap up his career doing that on the classic TV show "I Love Lucy". So on that note, Gift of Gab is worth a look and nothing more.