Jack Oakie Movies

Paramount Pictures' annual college musical of 1934 is a pip, as they used to say. Jack Oakie plays Finnegan, a conceited gridiron hero whose prowess on the football field is exceeded only by his appreciation of the ladies. But his strutting manner and accompanying overbearing ego have alienated his one-time best friend Larry Stacey (Lanny Ross), a serious, more scholarly type who deeply resents the adulation heaped on Finnegan. Things go wrong for Finnegan after he graduates, as he pins his hopes on a job offer from a business firm that folds soon after. He finally shows up at Stacey's department store, where Larry -- the owner's son -- has taken over as general manager; and Larry, finally having the advantage over Finnegan, seeks to humiliate him in the course of helping him out with a menial job. But as it turns out, Larry is no sterling success either -- he's turned his father's once-thriving department store into a haven catering only to the very rich, of whom there were precious few in the midst of the Great Depression; Larry is also such a self-involved prig in his own way, wallowing in self-pity where Finnegan wallows in self-adulation, that he scarcely notices that his own secretary (Helen Mack) is almost dying in her unrequited love for him. In order to save his business, Larry's father, J. P. Stacey (eorge Barbier), turns to Finnegan, the football hero who used to sell 60,000 tickets a week on the playing field -- Finnegan understands ballyhoo, and what the public wants, and is put in charge of the store, and also becomes captain of a football team fielded by the store. Soon the place is jumping, especially when Finnegan brings back his old college team waterboy Joe (Joe Penner) and his duck mascot Goo-Goo, and fetching blonde cheerleader/singer Mimi (Lyda Roberti). Larry is reduced to running a department in the store and finally decides its time to step up and take on Finnegan head-to-head, joining the store's football team. But there's treachery and dirty tricks afoot -- in between a bright score by Mack Gordon and Harry Revel -- when Stacey's takes on a team fielded by their arch-rival store, Whimple's, in a bitter grudge-match fueled by the two owners' mutual dislike for each other. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

No relation to the later Clifton Webb vehicle of the same name, Sitting Pretty is a dated but likable film about the songwriting racket. Jack Oakie and Jack Haley play a pair of would-be tunesmiths who team up with aspiring dancer Ginger Rogers. Through the kindness of a tippling director (Lew Cody), the trio is given a bid for stardom in a movie musical directed by an excitable Russian (Gregory Ratoff). The characters played by Oakie and Haley were loosely based on Paramount's real-life songwriting team Mack Gordon and Harry Revel, who show up in bit parts. Sitting Pretty is the film that introduced the sprightly tune "Did You Ever See a Dream Walking?" ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The world of horse racing provides the backdrop for this episodic drama. Much of the story is set at the Luray Springs Hotel where the characters wait for the running of the Capitol Handicap. The main story focuses upon Colly Tannyer, a pretty young handicapper who must wrangle up $10,000 so she can bet on a special horse. He former lover, Cuff Billings, helps her out under the condition that if the horse loses, she must make love to him. She agrees, and unfortunately, her steed places third. Fortunately, Cuff is more honorable than she though and he ends up romancing her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

There can never be Too Much Harmony in a Bing Crosby picture, not even in a bucolic backstage musical like this. Crosby plays Eddie Bronson, a big-time singing star stranded in a one-horse town. Refusing to let any grass grow under his feet, Eddie combs through the local talent, discovering comedians Benny Day (Jack Oakie) and Johnny Dixon (Skeets Gallegher) and aspiring actress Ruth Brown (Judith Allen). He brings his new protegees with him to Broadway, where Ruth becomes a huge success in spite of the machinations of prima donna Lucille Watson (Lilyan Tashman). Featured in the cast as Benny Day's mother is Jack Oakie's real-life mom Evelyn, who's absolutely terrific. A partial remake of 1929's Close Harmony, Too Much Harmony features such hummable Crosby tunes as Thanks, Black Moonlight and the self-parodying Boo Boo Boo. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on the stage comedy by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, Once in a Lifetime is a satire of Hollywood's early-talkie era. A down-and-out vaudeville trio (Jack Oakie, Aline MacMahon, and Russell Hopton) takes advantage of the confusion attending the talkie revolution by heading to Hollywood and posing as voice experts. George (Oakie), the team's dimwitted straight man, falls in love with a pretty young miss (Sidney Fox) who has come to Hollywood to become an actress -- and won't let her utter lack of talent get in the way. Fast-talking themselves into jobs at the Glogauer Studios, the phony vocal specialists eventually wear out their welcome and are on the verge of being fired. But George, who has been listening to the complaints of a disillusioned screenwriter, suddenly spouts those complaints word for word to Mr. Glogauer (Gregory Ratoff) -- and is lauded as a genius for being the first man to stand up to the despotic studio head. George is made a producer, and immediately sets about filming an expensive movie vehicle for his girlfriend. Unfortunately, George had found the script for his film in a wastebasket, and winds up shooting the wrong picture. He and his vaudeville chums are fired, but when his picture (an incomprehensible farrago shot in darkness because George forgot to turn on the klieg lights) is previewed, it is hailed as a daringly original masterpiece. George is made the supervising producer of Glogauer Studios, and all ends happily for himself and his friends. An interesting precursor to the Singin' in the Rain school of Hollywood kidding itself, Once in a Lifetime has tarnished a bit over the years but is still well worth seeing. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Richard Arlen more or less revives his aviation-ace role from Wings in the Paramount programmer Sky Bride. Arlen plays Speed Condon, the star attraction of a barnstorming troupe of stunt flyers. When his best friend Eddie (Tom Douglas) is killed during a staged "dogfight," Speed quits the troupe and takes a job as an airport mechanic. By chance, he boards a plane already occupied by Eddie's mother (Louise Closser Hale), who is as yet unaware of her boy's death. Now feeling even more responsible for Eddie's demise, Speed breaks his promise to himself and takes to the air again when Eddie's parachutist kid brother Willie (Robert Coogan) gets stuck in the landing gear of a plane in flight. As was customary in the Paramount product of this period, Jack Oakie supplies the good-natured comedy relief. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a story by Robert Andrews, If I Had a Million is a multipart comedy-drama employing Paramount's top directorial and acting talents. Refusing to leave his fortune to his grasping relatives, dying millionaire Richard Bennett selects several people at random from the phone book and bestows upon each of them a check for one million dollars. The first recipient is henpecked husband Charlie Ruggles, who cheerily enters his former place of employment, a china shop, and smashes every bit of crockery in the place. Prostitute Wynne Gibson uses her money to escape from her sordid lifestyle and finally sleep in a bed all by herself. Forger George Raft finds that he can't convince anyone that his check is genuine, and ends up handing the check to a flophouse manager--who promptly burns it. Husband and wife W.C. Fields and Alison Skipworth, dismayed that their new car has been destroyed by a "road hog," utilize part of their million dollars to purchase a fleet of cars and then smash up every road hog in sight! Convicted murderer Gene Raymond hopes that his million will help finance a new trial, but the execution is carried out on schedule. Newly rich clerk Charles Laughton calmly makes his way through a series of offices, reaches his boss' desk, and delivers a loud Bronx cheer. Gary Cooper, Roscoe Karns and Jack Oakie play three brawling marines who think the check's a joke and sign it over to an illiterate lunch-counter owner. The last million-dollar recipient is May Robson, an elderly woman confined to a dismal nursing home. She spends her money to turn the home into a joyful resort for old people, forcing the formerly repressive nursing-home staffers to earn their paychecks by sitting all day in rocking chairs. The millionaire who started the plot rolling is given a new lease on life by May Robson's example, and he recovers from his "fatal" illness. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Roly-poly comedian Jack Oakie in a serious role? Yes, that is exactly what you get with Uptown New York, an otherwise humdrum melodrama from lower echelon company World Wide Pictures. Oakie plays Eddie Doyle, a gumball machine salesman who marries Pat Smith (Shirley Grey) knowing full well that the girl is on the rebound from a failed romance with aspiring Jewish doctor Max Silver (Leon Ames). But when Pat is nearly killed in an effort to protect her husband's gumball machines from hoodlums and is in need of a lifesaving operation, Eddie calls on Dr. Max and then nobly fades into the background. While recuperating, Pat learns from one of Eddie's pals that her husband is languishing in prison, convicted of selling the business without consulting her, the part owner. The girl finally realizes that she truly loves the self-sacrificing Eddie and they reconcile. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Two of Paramount's best contract comedians made a rare joint appearance in Dude Ranch. Jack Oakie heads the cast as Jennifer (sic!), the head of a travelling troupe of repertory actors. Finding themselves on the premises of a dude ranch, Jennifer and his actors strike up a deal with ranch proprietor Chester Carr (Stuart Erwin). The thespians will stage a "Wild West" extravaganza, complete with a phony hold-up, to entertain the tourists. Naturally, a bunch of gangsters try to take advantage of the actors' presence to knock off the local bank -- and just as naturally, it is the faux Westerners who save the day. Some of the film's best moments are provided by Eugene Pallette who, as the acting troupe's resident character man, is forced to double as a mustache-twirling villain and a stoic Indian, with some bizarre costume juxtapositions along the way. Elements of Dude Ranch later worked their way into the script of Jack Benny's 1940 comedy Buck Benny Rides Again. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this gridiron drama, a college football coach and ex-All American will stop at nothing to have a winning team. The trouble begins as Dastardly Dan Curtis sends an injured player into a big game. The ploy works and the team wins; unfortunately, the player ends up hospitalized. Later he changes his ways and proves it during an important game by refusing to send a player with a massive head injury into the game. They lose the game, but he regains the respect and affection of those around him. The film includes clips of several football legends including Jim Thorpe, Roy Riegels, Howard Jones and Russ Saunders. The story is based on a novel by Francis Wallace, a former member of Knute Rockne's coaching staff. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Few films outside of Let's Go Native could boast a cast as diverse as Jack Oakie, Jeanette MacDonald and Kay Francis -- all under the direction of Leo McCarey. A variation of the "Admirable Crichton" theme, the story concerns a group of highly incompatible people, all stranded on a tropical island. Among the castaways are Brooklyn cabbie Voltaire McGinniss (Oakie), socialite Joan Wood (MacDonald), Joan's reluctant fiance Wally Wendell (James Hall), and good-time girl Constance Cooke (Kay Francis). The local natives prove to be surprisingly sophisticated, thanks to the influence of a song-and-dance man (Skeets Gallegher) who'd been shipwrecked sometime earlier. Using costumes that she's bought for a show she hopes to produce, the enterprising Joan buys the oil-rich island from the natives, only to have it sink into the sea after an earthquake. By this time, however, everyone has fallen in love with everyone else, so there's smiles all around when the rescue party arrives. Nothing makes much sense in Let's Go Native, but the film scores points on sheer energy and good spirits. As a bonus, director Leo McCarey harks back to his Laurel & Hardy days by incorporating a tit-for-tat "reciprocal destruction" routine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide