Laugh and Get Rich

The no-nonsense wife of a whimsical, unemployed inventor knows it's impossible to LAUGH AND GET RICH.

This mildly amusing little movie is blessed with the talents of two of Hollywood's finest character actors - Miss Edna May Oliver & Mr. Hugh Herbert. As usual , they both give their full effort, wringing all they can out of their lines. Alas, the script gives them scant support, indecisive as to whether it wants to be a domestic comedy or a drama. Much of the time is spent dealing with the characters' financial woes and it is difficult to get many laughs from penury.

But the two leads are worth watching, irregardless, if only for their one wonderful scene, in which an inebriated Oliver & compliant Herbert joyously compel an entire party of stuffy society types to unbend and romp about the room to the music of 'Pop! Goes The Weasel.'

Kewpie doll-cute Dorothy Lee (doubtless on parole from Wheeler & Woolsey) plays their daughter, a young lady replete with all the requisite romantic difficulties. Oliver's boarding house tenants include elderly, deaf Charles Sellon & Italian immigrant George Davis, an artist handicapped by his inability to paint anything but cows.

Movie mavens will recognize teenager Rochelle Hudson at the country club dance and Ivan Lebedeff as the oily Count at the party, both uncredited.

Edna May Oliver runs a boarding house. Husband Hugh Herbert hasn't worked in years. Daughter Dorothy Lee is in love with no-account inventor Russell Gleason.

Director Gregory La Cava makes do with a patchy script that uneasily combines desperately unhappy situations with the sort of wackiness that you'd expect of the three main performers. Although Miss Oliver is, as expected, believable in both registers, Herbert is surprisingly good without his familiar comic tics. The script looks like a patchwork, more like a series of shorts strung together than a finished script, but the movie has enough bright moments to make it amusing.

Times are tough. Sarah Austin (Edna May Oliver) makes ends meet running her home as a boarding house. Her husband Joe (Hugh Herbert) is trying every get-rich scheme in the book. Their daughter Alice (Dorothy Lee) has a crush on poor inventor Larry Owens (Russell Gleason), but her mother keeps pushing her to be with Bill Hepburn (John Harron) from a good family.

This is a pre-Code comedy. Edna May Oliver is the real lead behind the throne. It becomes rather chaotic and more serious than I expected. I was looking for a non-consequential comedy. Ultimately, this is too uneven and not funny enough.

Two of hollywood's comedy pro's Hugh Herbert and Edna Oliver, are a married couple, Sarah and Joe Austin. They run a boarding house, and try to keep a watch over their daughter Alice. she's dating Larry the inventor, played by Russell Gleason. the folks don't approve of Larry, who tinkers with his inventions rather than working. hmmm.. this RKO film has so many similarities to a little film Columbia will make in 1938, called You Can't Take it With You. This 1931 version is a little slower, a little stiffer, more old-timey, where the later version is much faster, upbeat, and won two oscars. anyway. Mrs. Austin has money, so people are always trying to get her husband Joe to invest in things. kind of a fun (vaudeville) bit where they try to sell Joe shares in an oil well project. and when money starts disappearing around the boarding house, they bring in the cops, and the farce begins. and another bit where they keep calling Joe Austin "Mister Cranston", because they know the wife has all the money. the family sticks together in the ups and downs, and all's well that ends well! it's a fun romp, right in the heart of the depression. both Herbert and Oliver look like they will be stuffy, upright cardboard characters in most of their films, but they were both fun, energetic, and there's a good energy going on in this one. Gleason died quite young at 38, in a fall from a new york hotel room, while serving in the military. Directed by Greg LaCava, who made so many HUGE films... My Man Godfrey, Stage Door, and TWO W.C. Fields films. LaCava also died pretty young, at 59,

This movie has nothing at all to do with its title. It is actually a few separate stories strung together. Not deftly, but effectively.

There is one very poignant scene between Edna May Oliver and Hugh Hurbert. He has confessed to stealing $250 from her to invest in an oil scheme. She expresses her deep anger and disappointment in a manner that a loving wife would. There is no comedy in that scene

I was very touched by the depth of the acting by both of them.