Director: LESLIE GOODWINS. Screenplay: Charles E. Roberts, Jack Townley. Story: Charles E. Roberts. Film editor: Desmond Marquette. Photography: Jack Mackenzie. Art directors: Van Nest Polglase, Albert S. D'Agostino. Set decorator: Darrell Silvera. Costumes: Renié. Special effects: Vernon L. Walker. Music composed by Roy Webb, directed by Constantin Bakaleinikoff. Assistant director: Kenneth Holmes. Sound recording: Richard Van Hessen. RCA Sound System. Producer: Cliff Reid. Executive producer: Lee Marcus.
Copyright 15 November 1940 by RKO-Radio Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Rialto: 29 October 1940. U.S. release: 15 November 1940. Australian release: 2 January 1941. 6,962 feet. 76 minutes.
COMMENT: Why is this one the best of the series? Well, it has a quite amusing script to begin with, and even more importantly the screenwriters provide some marvelous opportunities to the players, particularly Leon Errol, Charles Coleman, Tom Kennedy, Eddie Dunn, Frank Orth, Grant Withers, Jan Buckingham and Fred Kelsey.
As in Sees a Ghost, Errol has four roles, but unlike Ghost where his butler is cut from exactly the same cloth as his Uncle Matt, on this occasion his "man" is given quite a different personality-and what a joy it is! And what a pleasure also to find Errol and Coleman inter-acting so well. Here Coleman makes the most of one of his biggest roles. His scenes with Errol are absolutely side-splitting.
Tom Kennedy also has a couple of most amusing run-ins with Errol, and we really enjoyed Grant Withers' mastery of comic timing in his altercations with the star.
As for Jan Buckingham's wonderfully supercilious secretary, all we can say is that she makes her one brief scene impossible to forget.
This entry is full of wonderfully rib-tickling character sketches from start to finish. The pace never lets up. A pity Townley wasn't hired to jazz up some of Roberts' other scripts.
Copyright 15 November 1940 by RKO-Radio Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Rialto: 29 October 1940. U.S. release: 15 November 1940. Australian release: 2 January 1941. 6,962 feet. 76 minutes.
COMMENT: Why is this one the best of the series? Well, it has a quite amusing script to begin with, and even more importantly the screenwriters provide some marvelous opportunities to the players, particularly Leon Errol, Charles Coleman, Tom Kennedy, Eddie Dunn, Frank Orth, Grant Withers, Jan Buckingham and Fred Kelsey.
As in Sees a Ghost, Errol has four roles, but unlike Ghost where his butler is cut from exactly the same cloth as his Uncle Matt, on this occasion his "man" is given quite a different personality-and what a joy it is! And what a pleasure also to find Errol and Coleman inter-acting so well. Here Coleman makes the most of one of his biggest roles. His scenes with Errol are absolutely side-splitting.
Tom Kennedy also has a couple of most amusing run-ins with Errol, and we really enjoyed Grant Withers' mastery of comic timing in his altercations with the star.
As for Jan Buckingham's wonderfully supercilious secretary, all we can say is that she makes her one brief scene impossible to forget.
This entry is full of wonderfully rib-tickling character sketches from start to finish. The pace never lets up. A pity Townley wasn't hired to jazz up some of Roberts' other scripts.