Business and Pleasure

Earl Tinker (Will Rogers) is taking his family on a cruise to the Middle East. He has gotten rich off selling razor blades...and he wants to buy the process for making Damascus steel. Unfortunately, he falls under the spell of a phony psychic, as she works for his competition and is feeding them information as well as trying to delay Tinker in his journey. Will this dope figure out she's using him before it's too late? And, what about Mrs. Tinker...as she thinks Earl is fooling around with some other woman?

"Business and Pleasure" certainly isn't a very deep plot nor is it exactly a must-see film. But it is entertaining and watching Rogers is always a pleasure, as his acting seems to natural. Fun and worth seeing.

Will Rogers is a big shaving blade magnate. His firm is trying to deal with a competitor's new product, but he's on a pleasure trip to the Mediterranean with wife Dorothy Peterson and daughter Peggy Ross, who's feuding with snobby dramatist Joel McCrea, who looks down on Midwestern business types. But while Rogers won't admit it, he's combining business with pleasure: he hopes to buy the process for making Damascus steel, and industrial spy Jetta Goudal, who's being paid b the other firm to vamp business secrets from the naive Rogers.

Well, we know that won't work in the end! In all honesty, it's not among the best of Rogers' vehicles for Fox; like many Fox movies in this period, it has too many writers, too many subplots, to let Rogers do what he does best: charm the audience with his sly good sense. He''s best in his first scene, where he's getting drunk with other Midwest businessmen, getting drunk on the ship on the trip over. Still, director David Butler does a decent job of juggling all the subplots, and in te end, we get to see Will's impish grin. Good enough.

1932's "Business and Pleasure" to this day remains one of Will Rogers' least seen efforts, and it's easy to see why; he's virtually on his own as a razor blade magnate on his way to the Middle East to buy the secrets of Damascus steel so as to conquer all competition. Working on behalf of the rival Straightback company is an exotic femme fatale, played by Dutch-born silent star Jetta Goudal, whose French accent did not lend well to talkies (in fact, this would be her last film). The best scene has Rogers impersonating a crystal gazer, complete with whiskers, to fool both Jetta and his wife (Dorothy Peterson, who made a career out of long suffering spouses). His daughter was pretty Peggy Ross, in her second and final screen appearance, romanced by a young Joel McCrea, about 17 films behind him, just on the cusp of stardom. The opening half hour is truly frustrating aboard ship, recovering nicely on land, with the unexpected appearance (for the last 15 minutes) of an uncredited Boris Karloff as Sheik Ali Ben Joseph, who would prefer to behead Rogers rather than negotiate over money. Karloff's lack of billing can perhaps be explained by the fact that he completed this film well before starting work on "Frankenstein," though his name is prominently featured on the posters (he shortly reunited with Dorothy Peterson in "Night World," while director David Butler later did the same on 1940's "You'll Find Out"). Boris would return to Fox only once more, for 1936's "Charlie Chan at the Opera."

This movie was awful besides being rife with cultural mistakes it hinged upon the misadventures of a dumb Oklahoman who couldn't have been more country. He called his wife "mama" in all settings which was a sure sign of a lack of sophistication and ignorance, yet he was a successful businessman. The rest of the movie made you wonder how he could be successful at anything, especially owning his own razor company. The plot and people were so idiotic it's not worth going into.

I can sum up the entire picture with one scene:

The main character, Earl Tinker (Will Rogers), dressed up like a fortune telling Hindu holy man, put on his best (by which I mean worst) Indian accent, and proceeded to dole out fortunes via a crystal ball. Why was a Hindu priest in Damascus, Syria? I don't know. Why couldn't the two who went to him recognize that he was a horrible fraud (especially Madame Momora (Jetta Goudal) who was a student of the swami)? Again, I don't know. All I know is that everything was wrong about this movie and this dated tripe couldn't pass the smell test in any era.

Buried in this dump was Boris Karloff as Sheik Ali Ben Joseph which makes no sense. Boris as Ali simply because he's not American and has an accent is as believable as a dog playing a cat. But that was par for the course for this movie.

Free on YouTube.

As this was my first Will Rogers experience, I had no expectations beyond those which David Butler's credit as director aroused.

Mr. Butler had amazed me with an astonishing opening shot for his "Sunny Side Up" (1929). In that film, as the credits faded, I recalled his camera floating over a crowded tenement street as vignettes of life unfolded before it. The all seeing eye rose to peek into window after window, down both sides of the street and all in one take! What my anticipation received was a storm tossed ocean liner with an unpleasant series of seasick passengers. [Joel McCrea fan alert: his thankless role goes downhill from here, if that's possible]. Rogers' character is introduced to negative reactions from all involved; he's not seasick. Perhaps David Butler realized how bad the rest of "Sunny Side Up" looked after the socko opening and lowered expectations here. In either case, first views establish mood. This reel was hard to shake off, but the effort is worthwhile.

Reel 2: Will plays Earl Tinker, a leading razor blade manufacturer who graces each package with his goofy visage. Be alert for the Three Stooges foil Vernon Dent doing a falsetto voice. Joel McCrea's on hand to bring on the romantics. A winsome Peggy Ross playing Tinker's daughter is towered over by him, and I'm surprised he never steps on her. The viewer will be further challenged to suspend logic as the plot requires you to believe that Tinker is headed into the desert to buy the secret to making Damascus Steel. Now, if you think about it, you'll probably wonder, how is steel making going on among these sand dunes? And this Damascus Steel is the world's finest. So don't think about it, the film makers didn't. After all, Booth Tarkington's novel probably explained it better and this is watered down from a play adapted from the book "The Plutocrat". Jetta Goudal lurks effectively and proves herself to be a worthy villain. As Madame Mamora, she'll spy on Tinker for his competitor and "foresee" anything that comes between Tinker and his Damascus Steel. Her crystal ball sets up a hilarious Rogers impersonation.

Boris Karloff menaces in the final reel in another of his pre-Frankenstein cameos. He's most believable as the tribal chief until Mr. Karloff calls for his camel and horses show up. It's all great fun though, and after all, this was a more innocent time. Key plot phrase: "the magic box (radio) never lies".