Flying High (1931)
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Synopsis of Flying High
Flying High was a nonsensical Broadway musical hit of 1930 starring Bert Lahr. The film version, made one year later by MGM, made a few efforts to "cinematize" the stage original, but the focus was on Lahr, re-creating his Broadway performance virtually verbatim -- except for his famous (and notorious) gag sequence involving a urinalysis! Lahr plays the goofy inventor of an "aerocopter" flying machine, who is compelled to prove the efficiency of his invention in a slapstick cross-country airmail delivery race. While Lahr's original Broadway co-star Kate Smith does not appear in the film, he was more than amply matched comedically by Charlotte Greenwood. The musical numbers for Flying High were choreographed by Busby Berkeley; one of his more engaging routines was later excerpted for the 1934 Ted Healy/Three Stooges two-reeler Plane Nuts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Complete Cast of Flying High
- Bert Lahr - Rusty
- Pat O'Brien - Sport
- Charles Winninger - Dr. Brown
- Guy Kibbee - Mr. Smith
- Richard Carle
- Charlotte Greenwood - Pansy
- Kathryn Crawford - Eileen
- Hedda Hopper - Mrs. Smith
- Herbert Braggiotti - Gordon
- Gus Arnheim & Orch. - Themselves
- Director(s):
- Charles "Chuck" Riesner
- Writer(s):
- R.E. Hopkins, Robert Hopkins, A.P. Younger
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