Perdone, señorita

Despite its being the work of seven different writers, "Fast Workers" succeeds as an interesting and unusual story very well moved forward with clever dialogue delivered by a large cast of great actors.

Mae Clarke was a welcome surprise. She was given a chance to perform and she did! Ms. Clarke was a uniquely attractive actress, who too often -- as in "Frankenstein" -- didn't have much to do except look pretty and react.

Here, though, she was a pivotal character, and boy did she grab hold and carry the part beautifully.

This one role should have boosted her to major stardom.

Robert Armstrong reached his pinnacle as the impresario in "King Kong," and seemed to play that type of character afterward. Here, though, he played something completely different and he too showed enough talent to prove to casting directors and audiences he should have also been a major star.

Sterling Holloway had what might have been his best part. Instead of the fey characters he did awfully well, he was a real person, one of the crew working the high iron, with a distinctive personality -- as had all the characters in this play-become-movie -- who seemed real (or at least movie real).

John Gilbert was first billed and was, at the time, still the biggest name in the cast. He didn't really still have the looks that had catapulted him into the highest galaxy of stars, but he did still have the talent.

And he did have the best line of the movie, the last.

"Fast Workers" was part of a 24-hour marathon of Mae Clarke films on Turner Classic Movies, presented 20 August 2015. This type of retrospective is exactly why The Good Lord gave us video recorders, to be able to save for more convenient times a whole day of motion picture history and entertainment.

Mae Clarke today is known mostly for getting a grapefruit smashed into her face, but anyone seeing more of her work has to be convinced she was a major talent and, therefore, should have been a major star and should be far better known today.

I highly recommend "Fast Workers."

After working on a New York City high-rise building, manly construction worker John Gilbert (as Gunner Smith) goes out to a speakeasy with less attractive pal Robert Armstrong (as Bucker Reilly). While making time with an attached woman, Mr. Gilbert decks her companion and is brought before the judge. Gilbert calls marriage-minded lover Mae Clarke (as Mary) to help bail him out, not knowing she's about to fleece Mr. Armstrong. Gilbert is the one she loves, but Ms. Clarke is tempted to settle down and accept Armstrong's marriage proposal...

"Fast Workers" found Gilbert nearing the end of his movie career. This was his last film as a top-billed MGM star...

Director Tod Browning and the MGM crew make it look above average. As usual, Gilbert's appearance is better than the legendary stories about his demise. That the studio cared about making Gilbert sound masculine may be evidenced in having squeaky-voiced Sterling Holloway (as Pinky Magoo) given the largest supporting role. However, Gilbert's lack of interest or commitment shows in the mechanics; his collar has three positions in one scene, there is no shot of him after his character has a dramatic fall, and the ending is noticeably abrupt.

***** Fast Workers (1933-03-10) Tod Browning ~ John Gilbert, Robert Armstrong, Mae Clarke, Sterling Holloway

In some ways, this is like "La Chienne." The characters are simple, Everyman-types. The characters are basically a guy, a girl, the guy's buddy. The plot seems inevitable.

Tod Browning directed "Freaks" at just about the same time. How different from that this is! And Robert Armongstrong, very appealing as a kind of goofy loser here, played Carl Denham in "King Kong" the same year! Mae Clark, though she plays a tough, hard woman, is appealing. She is costumed interestingly against type. She doesn't look like a siren or a bad girl. She always wears a hat and an innocent looking suit. Though she is not kind of Armstrong, I don't think we're meant to dislike her.

The star is John Gilbert. He was such a good actor, too. He looks dissipated and considerably older than he was. But he is fully up to the admittedly somewhat rather minor demands of the role. What a shame that his career ended so badly and so soon after this came out!

Snappy film that looks and feels like a Warners film, this MGM film bristles with sexual tension. John Gilbert is terrific as the construction worker who tangles with smart dame Mae Clarke and pal Robert Armstrong.

Gilbert had his problems at MGM with LB Mayer, but his talent shines thru the rotten films they assigned him. And this film is a perfect example. It's a B film about the loves and lives of menial workers but Gilbert makes it an event. He's confident, sexy, and terrific as the worker who falls into the clutches of a "working girl." The three stars are quite good. The supporting cast includes Herman Bing, Sterling Holloway, Vince Barnett, Bob Burns, Nora Cecil, and Virginia Cherrill.

As mentioned elsewhere, this film finished off Gilbert's contract with MGM. Mayer had done his best to ruin Gilbert's career by assigning him bad films, but Gilbert is really good in this film as well as THE PHANTOM OF Paris and DOWNSTAIRS.

"Fast Workers" is a mostly successful change-of-pace for "Dracula" and "Freaks" director Tod Browning. The story is a rather trifling love-triangle, but it is unapologetically pre-code, and leavened with humor. It is also set in a highly orginal work environment (the building of skyscrapers), and contains what must be one of the earliest movie-going sequences in movie history. The star trio is terrific, especially Mae Clarke who is modern in a Barbara Stanwyck-esque way. There is also an extremely idiosyncratic supporting performance by Sterling Holloway as.... Pinky Magoo, who always says the weirdest things. **1/2 out of 4.