The good old time

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Movie
German title The good old time
Original title The old fashioned way
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1934
length 71 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director William Beaudine
script WC Fields
(as Charles Bogle ),
Jack Cunningham ,
Garnett Weston
production William LeBaron for
Paramount Pictures
music John Leipold
camera Ben F. Reynolds
occupation

The Good Old Days is a 1934 American comedy film directed by William Beaudine . The leading role is starred comedian WC Fields , who also wrote the script.

action

1897 : The puffed-up theater actor and director The Great McGonigle travels with his third-rate acting troupe through the small towns of the USA . Because McGonigle's theatrical performances rarely find an audience, he and his actors regularly have to flee from creditors and sheriffs . The long overdue on their Gage waiting actors are always shortly before the rebellion, his loving daughter Betty and his simple-minded Mnager Marmaduke but he stay true to the side. Betty is adored by a theater-loving suitor named Wally Livingston, but she rejects his advances because Wally does not belong in the theater world and should follow the wish of his wealthy father, Mr. Livingston, to finally go to college . After an arduous train journey for almost everyone involved (only McGonigle was the only one of the troop to get hold of a sleeping car through scams ), they land in another small town, where they want to perform the popular melodrama The Drunkard .

In the small town McGonigle meets the pushy widow Cleopatra Pepperday, who despite lacking talent wants to sing with McGonigle's troupe and feels drawn to McGonigal. At first he rejects Cleopatra's advances until he learns that she is the richest woman in the small town - from now on he wants to be her “ Marcus Antonius ”. Only with Cleopatra's nasty little son Albert, who humiliates him in all possible ways while eating, he can by no means make friends. McGonigle has a rival at Cleopatra, however: the local sheriff Walter Jones is engaged to Cleopatra, even with him only because of the money. McGonigle wins the support of Cleopatra when he promises her an appearance on his show. Meanwhile, Wally Livingston gets his chance to appear as an actor and singer on The Drunkard when another actor leaves McGonigle for lack of pay. However, in the meantime, Wally's father, Mr. Livingston, has turned up in the village, who is anything but happy that his son - instead of studying at college - is traveling after an acting company and wants to marry Betty, the daughter of a burnt artist.

In the evening, the population appears in large numbers to McGonigle's performance because everyone wants to see how Cleopatra Pepperday - apparently not popular in the town - embarrasses herself with her cameo in the play. So that the piece can be performed and it can occur, Cleopatra pays all debt bills that come in for McGonigle during the course of the evening. However, he does not think of letting her perform: Cleopatra studies her single sentence "Here comes the prince" exuberantly, but there is no prince at all in the play, so that at the end of the play she howls with her fiancé, the sheriff, leaves the building. Wally's appearance in the play, however, is convincing, and his father is impressed by his son's talent. Mr. Livingston's skepticism towards Betty is also softened when he learns that she had always tried to get Wally to attend college. At the end of the successful evening, the great McGonigle performs his act as a juggler .

Backstage, McGonigle learns that his sponsors have canceled the tour due to the previous failure. Mr. Livingston - although meanwhile convinced of Betty - is still critical of McGonigle and does not want him in his immediate family. McGonigle ignores the statement and convinces his daughter to break up with him and marry Wally. He tells Wally and Betty that he will now try Broadway in New York. McGonigle and Marmaduke steal from their pension at Mrs. Wendelschaffer's that night so that they don't have to pay them. A little later, Betty receives a letter from her father that he is now celebrating theater successes in New York. In truth, however, the great McGonigle and Marmaduke sell alcohol to unsuspecting passers-by as a supposed miracle cure for hoarseness.

background

A poster for a production of the piece

The fact that Fields performed one of the most successful pieces of the abstinence movement with William H. Smith's play The Drunkard from 1844, of all things, has an ironic character: In truth, he himself and his film characters were very fond of alcohol, which was a kind of running gag for Fields was. As in his short film The Fatal Glass of Beer (1933), he made fun of the moralizing character of the abstinence pieces. In his five-minute vaudeville scene in the film, he impressively demonstrates his talent as a juggler. For years he was considered one of the best jugglers in the world, but he rarely juggled in his films. The film is also a tribute to Fields' early days as an entertainer in vaudeville theaters in the 1890s, especially since the film is set in the same era with the 1897 plot.

The actress Jan Duggan makes her eye-catching film debut as Cleopatra Pepperday in The Good Old Times at the age of 53. She was found by Fields in a parody of The Drunkard in Los Angeles and was to star in other films with the comedian. Fields also talks about Cleopatra's appearance in perhaps the most famous quote in the film, "She's all dressed up like a well-kept grave!" .

Reviews

The film service judged: "A spectacle full of tension and amusement, captivating above all because of the excellent presentation."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Biography of Jan Duggan at IMDb
  2. "The good old days" at two thousand and one