Post by rmichaelpyle on May 19, 2009 4:52:27 GMT -6
Last night I watched "Extravagance" (1930), a Tiffany Productions film which really showed the meaning of 'poverty row' production values, but was a fine show to watch. The antique sound system which recorded it still shows, but the sound track per se was in fine condition, and the sound movements made by cameras, etc. which only a half year later were not heard again are heard in spades here! I kept thinking of "Singin' In The Rain" and all the sound troubles joked about in that film. The tag line for this film on the ads was, "Fred is asking lots of snooping questions of his new bride, such as where did you get that new sable coat? Fred has doubts that Alice caught and skinned a sable in their back yard."
The film stars Lloyd Hughes and June Collyer, and co-stars Owen Moore (ten years beyond his 9 year marriage with Mary Pickford), Dorothy Christy, and an incredibly oily Jameson Thomas (!). Based on the tag line from the ad above you can get the gist that this is a pre-code quickie. The plot is pretty standard fare for the time, if not a little boring, but the actors do a fine job with it. In fact, it moves like lightning and lasts only a little over an hour. I must admit that when Dorothy Christy swore a couple of times with the word "damn", and used it rather crassly, it raised a few eyebrows in our family. It also made it certain that Clark Gable wasn't the first by a long shot! In fact, I have another independently produced film from that year with Tom Moore, Owen's brother, called "The Costello Case", and the swearing was actually intense. It seems the Moore brothers didn't have any scruples about what kinds of films they made, as long as it meant a meal or two.
The film stars Lloyd Hughes and June Collyer, and co-stars Owen Moore (ten years beyond his 9 year marriage with Mary Pickford), Dorothy Christy, and an incredibly oily Jameson Thomas (!). Based on the tag line from the ad above you can get the gist that this is a pre-code quickie. The plot is pretty standard fare for the time, if not a little boring, but the actors do a fine job with it. In fact, it moves like lightning and lasts only a little over an hour. I must admit that when Dorothy Christy swore a couple of times with the word "damn", and used it rather crassly, it raised a few eyebrows in our family. It also made it certain that Clark Gable wasn't the first by a long shot! In fact, I have another independently produced film from that year with Tom Moore, Owen's brother, called "The Costello Case", and the swearing was actually intense. It seems the Moore brothers didn't have any scruples about what kinds of films they made, as long as it meant a meal or two.