Niagara Falls

I have been watching lot of 30s and 40s classics. I came across this and this was so much fun. If you are ok with appreciating the values more than 8 decades ago, I think this is so much fun as a screwball comedy of errors.

This was a laugh riot from start to finish. All the characters- the young "couple", the old couple and the hotel manager were all very funny.

Too many people are bothered that this doesn't seem to be shot in Niagara Falls. I don't know if people were expecting this as a romantic movie based in the Niagara Falls. This is just a sweet and funny comedy. Best 40 minutes of my time spent.

This weak little effort doesn't begin to use a fraction of the ability of its two leads, Slim Summerville and Zasu Pitts, in no small part because too much of the story concerns the two good-looking but uninteresting juveniles. The picture is one of Roach's one-hour 'streamliners' that he was concentrating on in this period; it took World War Two and contract work to stabilize the studio.

However, the little time they do get together -- in this honeymoon hotel movie -- is time well spent. The two were in ten movies together -- if you don't count ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, where they reshot all of Miss Pitts' scenes with another actress -- and they certainly worked together well. This was their last movie together. A pity they couldn't end on a higher note.

I was very surprised when I read a few of the reviews for this film, as apparently some time after NIAGARA FALLS was made, someone stupidly combined this film with MISS POLLY. While both are short Hal Roach films and star many of the same actors, combining them is like combining PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE with STAR WARS! Sure, they're both sci-fi films, but other than that there is a huge gap in quality of the two pictures. Bluntly put, NIAGARA FALLS is a cute comedy whereas MISS POLLY is a pile of crap--merging them together must have resulted in a very confusing film indeed! I saw NIAGARA FALLS on Turner Classic Movies and it was shown in its original form--thank goodness. Now I am sure that many will think my score of 9 is way out of line, but I am NOT comparing this film to every other movie--just other short films (such as Roach's "Streamliners") and B-movies. I've actually seen quite a few of these post-Laurel and Hardy films by Roach Studios and this is bar far the funniest and best made of the bunch (and they do vary wildly in quality).

What makes this film so good is the quality of the writing. While MISS POLLY totally missed the mark, here with NIAGARA FALLS everything fell perfectly into place. One way I know it was such a good film is that my teenage daughter who is NOT a lover of old films like me still loved the film. Another way I know how good it was is that we both laughed repeatedly at the film. Sure, sometimes the humor wasn't 100% sophisticated, but it was funny--very, very funny. I particularly loved how outlandish the film became--such as the scenes with the gun and the very end of the film.

As far as the acting goes, it was fine but I don't know why Slim and Zasu got secondary billing--they (particularly Slim Summerville) were great. Zasu was not annoying (something she frequently was in other films) and Slim was like a walking cartoon character.

So if you'd like a good laugh and don't mind that the film is occasionally very silly, watch this movie.

Being a fan of ZaSu Pitts comedies, I thought this one looked like it was worth a try. I was quite disappointed.

(The version I saw was on TCM, but consisted only of the Niagara Falls movie; the Miss Polly movie was absent.) The talents of the actors, who give fine performances, is wasted on one of the stupidest stories I have ever had the misfortune of sitting through.

Tom Brown (Tom Wilson) surprised me by being the strongest actor in the show, but the spotlight is hogged by Slim Summerville (Sam Sawyer), who, if he has any talent, didn't demonstrate it here.

ZaSu Pitts (Elly Sawyer) is great, but doesn't have near big enough a part. The biggest laugh in the movie is when she ends up under Sam under a table.

The only one in the movie who has any sense at all is Tom Wilson. Margie (Marjorie Woodworth) is unreasonable in general. While she is physically quite attractive, her personality and attitudes make her completely undesirable. Elly, Sam, and the hotel desk clerk are just complete fools.

Sam and Elly give up their honeymoon suite in the crowded hotel for Tom and Margie. But then they take it back. Sam ends up imprisoning Tom and Margie in their room. Most of the movie is them trying to break out, but Sam, using a rifle, always puts them back again.

Towards the end comes the worst part. Tom, who is finally about to make good his escape, runs into a minister on a lower floor of the hotel. Now the guy, who, as I said, is the only one in the whole movie who has a head on his shoulders, suddenly, for absolutely no reason at all, decides he has to marry Margie!

He drags the minister up to the room he has just escaped from, but Margie doesn't want to marry him. He gives her a kiss, and now, after one kiss, she feels compelled to marry him.

Finally, Sam has the nerve to say to Tom, "You deceived me," when practically the only line Tom had to Sam earlier was, "We're not married," to which Sam replied, "You think I'd believe that?"

Idiotic.

At Niagara Falls, oil tycoon Slim Summerville (as Sam Sawyer) attempts suicide but is stopped by peanut vendor Tommy Mack. We flashback to view his story… Though older than most newlyweds, Mr. Summerville and bride Zasu Pitts (as Emmy) are on their way to a hotel. They meet younger couple Marjorie Woodworth (as Margy Blake) and Tom Brown (as Tom Wilson) on the road, with car trouble. At the "Falls View Hotel", Ms. Pitts wants to have sex with her groom, but Summerville becomes involved with Ms. Woodworth and Mr. Brown. Summerville thinks the other couple is bickering, and endeavors to reunite them. But Woodworth and Brown are not even married. It's all silly, but short.

**** Niagara Falls (10/17/41) Gordon Douglas ~ Slim Summerville, Marjorie Woodworth, Tom Brown, Zasu Pitts