Their Big Moment

For a film that deals with an interesting subject like fake mediums, this '34 mystery/comedy fails to hit the mark. It's not particularly impressive as a mystery and the comedy is on the weak side.

It's a B-film programmer with ZASU PITTS and SLIM SUMMERVILLE providing the comic relief while others carry the straight plot line. Pitts and Summerville play WILLIAM GAXTON's assistants in a magic act where he bills himself as The Great La Salle. BRUCE CABOT hires them to take part in a fake seance at a wealthy woman's home where a young woman has been receiving messages from a dead husband. RALPH MORGAN is suspected of being a swindler trying to deceive the woman at her swanky home on Long Island.

Unfortunately, ZASU PITTS is saddled with a ditzy role beyond belief. And to make matters worse, nobody else in the cast has lines that are any smoother or wittier.

"Not a very friendly fellow," says Gaxton.

"About as friendly as a rattlesnake," says Summerville.

That gives you an idea of the wit and sophistication. The suspense, of course, lies in finding out how the fake seance will go and who the real culprits are in the household. Not hard to guess the predictable outcome.

Summing up: A clumsy mystery/comedy hardly worth bothering about.

Report from Cinesation 2006: THEIR BIG MOMENT (***) A 1934 RKO comedy-mystery directed by James Cruze, which apparently is kept off TCM by rights problems with the original play. William Gaxton (a big stage star), Zasu Pitts and Slim Summerville are a magician and his assistants who get hired as fake mediums to try to get a rich widow out of the clutches of another fake (Ralph Morgan). The plot meanders and needed some ironing out, but some genuinely funny bits and a good cast made this a pleasant find. (I was especially taken with the actress playing the widow, Julie Haydon, and wondered if she'd ever done anything else; she sure did-- she originated the daughter in The Glass Menagerie on Broadway.)

The Great La Salle is a stage mentalist who impresses audiences with his routine. A man sees their act and impressed by their vaudeville act..and offers them money to expose a faker...Dr. Portman (Ralph Morgan). It seems that Portman has an unusual hold over a widow and he seems to be a con man...and La Salle and his friends go to see her and, hopefully, stop Portman. But something odd happens when La Salle's partner (Zasu Pitts) is in her trance...she REALLY does receive a message from the dead husband! What's next? And, what's RALLY going on here?! And, could the woman who is being bilked actually be in dancer?!

During the 1930s, Hollywood made hundreds or, perhaps, thousands of B-mystery movies. Most have a very strong sameness about them...but not "Their Big Moment"...which turns out to be very well written, very well acted and is much better than I might have expected. And, most importantly, it's a very smart film that doesn't rely on the usual cliches!

Julie Haydon's husband died in a plane crash. She has since come under the domination of fake spiritualist Ralph Morgan. Her sister Kay Johnson and brother-in-law Bruce Cabot hire stage magician William Gaxton and his company of Slim Summerville and Zasu Pitts to destroy morgan's authority. It does not go as planned.

Gaxton tries to play it big and stagy, yet doesn't really succeed. His is odd, because he was a stage performer who had a big Broadway career, often starring with Victor Moore. That explains his infrequent movie appearances. Here, however, I was subject to the thought that this was a role intended for Edmund Lowe..... who was working for Fox.

Which leaves us with Summerville and Miss Pitts. Enjoying them is, I understand, a matter of individual taste. Happily, I enjoy them a great deal.

An interesting thirties film with the better character actors of that decade. As usual Ralph Morgan plays the heavy, while Zasu Pitts and Slim Summerville give the laughs to a light motion picture.

Actually the plot concept was better developed in, THE NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES, 1948, in a more involved story written by Cornell Woolrich.