The hunted professor
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The hunted professor |
| Original title | Professor Beware |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1938 |
| length | 90 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Elliott Nugent |
| script |
Delmer Daves Jack Cunningham Clyde Bruckman |
| production | Harold Lloyd |
| music |
Victor Young Rudolph G. Kopp |
| camera | Archie Stout |
| cut | Duncan Mansfield |
| occupation | |
| |
The Hunted Professor is an American slapstick comedy by Elliott Nugent with Harold Lloyd , who was also responsible as the producer, in the title role.
action
The American Prof. Dean Lambert works as a passionate Egyptologist in the museum. He has recently become very fascinated by a blackboard on which the fate of a certain Neferus, already 3000 years ago, is written. It is a dramatic love story between Neferus and Anebi that the young scientist desperately wants to decipher. Dean gets so involved in this story over time that he soon sees himself as Neferus (or as his reincarnation) and that his own love will only bring him bad luck, just like the man from the pharaonic kingdom once did. In the course of the story Lambert gets into hair-raising entanglements, which reinforce his belief in an impending catastrophe. He meets the somewhat over-the-top actress and millionaire heiress Jane Van Buren and has to swap clothes with her audition partner, the drunkard Snoop Donlan. Since his clothes smell like a still, the police lock up Lambert for public drunkenness. When Lambert's arrest becomes public, Dean is urged to resign from his museum post, as his behavior has damaged the reputation of the cultural site. The catastrophe is thus perfect, as the young academic wanted to set off on an expedition to Egypt soon. But Dean doesn't want to miss out on the trip to the Middle East. On the way to New York, from where the ship will leave, he hides in a trailer of a couple who are on their honeymoon to the Niagara Falls. Soon he has the sober snoop by the heel, who claims that Dean Lambert stole his clothes and his watch. Jane, in turn, has clung to Lambert's heel to return Dean's clothes and the museum's car. Soon Dean Lambert becomes the eponymous hunted professor.
The bride and groom have meanwhile discovered Dean and thrown out of their trailer. The police want to arrest Lambert on suspicion of robbery and bail fraud. Jane finds Dean on the street and urges him to put the allegations in front of the police out of the way, but Dean doesn't have time for something like that. He persuades Jane to go on to New York with him. In the middle of the desert, the two get closer and kiss. Suddenly a storm comes out of the blue and lightning strikes Dean. The hunted professor is then in his own, ancient Egyptian world and begins to speak to Jane in a completely foreign language. The following day, Lambert leaves Jane a message. On a piece of paper she reads the lines “Death is before us” should both continue their romance.
A few adventurous events later, Sheriff Henry Sweatt of Springville, Pennsylvania arrested Dean, but Jane picked up her loved one in the museum vehicle and was now in turn pursued by the police. In a forest the two manage to hide from their pursuers. Here Dean and Jane have the first opportunity to breathe a little. They use the time to come closer to deciphering the eighth tablet of Neferus. The prophecy “marriage” is written on it. The next transport vehicle to New York Harbor is a refrigerator truck. In the end, however, they end up in the hands of the state and are brought before a judge. He misunderstood the entire context and drops the charges so that the alleged lovers can finally go to the marriage that was spoken of in the Neferu tablet. Since the trial was public, the press is now getting wind of the whole thing, and since Jane Van Buren is not only drawn to the theater, but is also the heiress of a million dollar fortune, a little later the headline reads that Miss Van Boer wanted to marry a tramp. And so both actually appear in front of the altar in New York.
When Dean then wants to introduce himself to the parents of his newlywed wife, her father promptly insinuates that he is probably nothing more than a dowry hunter. Dr. Ellerson, the leader of the upcoming expedition, gives Dean an ancient artifact as a wedding gift, allegedly the missing fragment of the ninth and final tablet of Neferus. Jane wanted to play fate and without further ado rewrote the story of Neferus and Anebi in such a way that, contrary to Dean's expectations, she still had a happy ending: On Jane's stone tablet it was written that Neferus saved his Anebi from her father, who kidnapped her Has. Now the skinny Prof. Lambert becomes a fighter because he believes that Neferus' story will repeat itself in him. He storms Mr. Van Buren's yacht and fights for his bride. The chic boat breaks, which doesn't bother Jane's father, because the allegedly softened son-in-law has proven that he is a "real guy". Jane is also happy because of course her husband immediately saw through that they wanted to fool him with a false hieroglyphic tablet. Decades later, Prof. Lambert actually comes across the real ninth tablet, which tells him that he will not die tomorrow ...
Production notes
The hunted professor was born in the winter of 1937/38. The yacht recordings were made in San Pedro (California) in early January 1938. The world premiere took place on June 20, 1938. In Germany, the film was not shown in cinemas, the local premiere took place on February 4, 1978 on ARD .
Lloyd ended his regular work as a comedian with this financially unsuccessful film and did not return to the camera until 1946, for the last time, in Crazy Wednesday .
For the 25-year-old leading actress Phyllis Welch (1913-2008) this was the only film. In order to get Jane Van Buren's part, she had to agree to a contractual clause in 1938 that said she was not allowed to marry or get engaged for the next six months. Breaking this agreement would have cost her $ 5,000; an enormous sum at the time. Shortly after the film, she actually married and retired from the film business.
Reviews
The trade journal Variety ruled in 1938: "Both Lloyd and the audience are out of breath after crossing country for 3,000 miles, but most of the exhaustion comes from the laughter."
Halliwell's Film Guide sums it up: "Slow beginning comedy with only a few moments that show the comedian on top."
The Movie & Video Guide found the film had “good moments” but the story was all in all pretty “thin”.
The film service says: "Gag-rich, enjoyable comedy, but due to its imbalance only occasionally reaches the level of Lloyd's best works."
The All Movie Guide concludes that “most of the individual gags are funny”, but that the film is still a lot below the standard of Lloyd's silent films.
Individual evidence
- ↑ According to Jeffrey Vances and Suzanne Lloyd's biography "Harold Lloyd: Master Comedian", p. 191, the cost was $ 872,275, the income was only $ 796,385.
- ^ Obituary by Phyllis Welch, October 7, 2008 in the Los Angeles Times
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 819
- ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 1044
- ↑ The hunted professor. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed December 1, 2019 .
- ^ Professor Beware (1938) - Elliott Nugent | Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related. Accessed December 1, 2019 .
Web links
- The hunted professor at the American Film Institute
- The hunted professor on Turner Movies Classics
- The hunted professor in the Internet Movie Database (English)