ZaSu Pitts Movies
According to her own account, actress ZaSu Pitts was given her curious cognomen because she was named for two aunts, Eliza and Susan. Born in Kansas, Pitts moved with her family to California, where at age 19 she began her film career. Her first starring role was as an ugly duckling who finds true love in 1919's Better Times. Her calculated vagueness and fluttery hand gestures earned Pitts comedy roles from the outset, but director Erich Von Stroheim saw dramatic potential in the young actress. He cast her as the grasping, money-mad wife in his masterpiece Greed (1924), and she rose to the occasion with a searing performance. Except for a couple of later collaborations with Von Stroheim, Pitts returned to predominately comic assignments after Greed. One exception was her portrayal of Lew Ayres' ailing mother in the Oscar-winning All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), a brilliant piece of work that unfortunately fell victim to the editors' scissors when a preview audience, conditioned to Pitts' comedy roles, broke out in loud laughter when she came onscreen (she was replaced by Beryl Mercer in the domestic version of All Quiet, though reportedly her scenes were retained for some European versions). Established as a top character comedian by the '30s (her oft-imitated catchphrase was "Oh, dear, oh my!"), Pitts co-starred with Thelma Todd in a series of Hal Roach two-reelers, was top-billed in such feature programmers as Out All Night (1933) and The Plot Thickens (1935), and showed up in select character roles in A-pictures. During the '40s and '50s, she toured in Ramshackle Inn, a play written especially for her by George Batson. From 1956 through 1960, Pitts played Elvira "Nugey" Nugent on the popular Gale Storm TV sitcom Oh, Susanna. ZaSu Pitts died in 1963, shortly after completing her final film appearance in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) and just a few days after her last TV guest assignment on Burke's Law. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1941
Even non-fans of RKO Radio's "Mexican Spitfire" series will garner a few healthy laughs from Mexican Spitfire's Baby. This time around, tempetuous Carmelita (Lupe Velez) and her staid American husband Dennis (Charles "Buddy" Rogers) adopt a French war orphan. Imagine Dennis' surprise and Carmelita's dismay when their adopted "little girl" turns out to be voluptuous blonde Fifi (Marion Martin). As if Carmelita's jealous rages weren't bad enough, Fifi's equally jealous fiance Pierre (Fritz Feld) shows up, demanding satisfaction from Dennis in the form of a duel. As always, it's up to Dennis' Uncle Matt (Leon Errol) to straighten out the mess -- and also as always, Uncle Matt is required to disguise himself as his British lookalike Lord Epping. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lupe Velez, Leon Errol, (more)
- 1941
The second of Hal Roach's "streamliners" (feature films running 45 minutes or so), Niagara Falls serves as a showcase for Roach protegee Marjorie Woodworth. The action takes place at a honeymoon hotel in-where else?--Niagara Falls. Gangly Sam Sawyer (Slim Summerville), newly married to matronly Emmy Sawyer (ZaSu Pitts), is constitutionally incapable of minding his own business. As a result, he decides to play cupid for young singles Margie Blake (Woodworth) and Tom Wilson (Tom Drake), contriving to force the couple to share a single room for a single night. It's all very innocent, in the "Imagine my embarrassment" fashion of Hal Roach's old Charley Chase 2-reelers. Roach's daughter Margaret, who later pursued an acting career as Diana Rochelle, plays a minor role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marjorie Woodworth, Tom Brown, (more)
- 1941
Boasting a script cowritten by Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell from a story by Budd Schulberg, Weekend for Three should have been a comedy classic-but alas, it isn't. Over the protests of her husband Jim (Dennis O'Keefe), Ellen Craig (Jane Wyatt) invites her old friend Randy (Dennis O'Keefe) to dinner. Jim endures Randy's phony effusiveness and loud, braying laughter only because he's certain that the jerk will go home soon. Instead, Randy invites himself to the Craig household for the weekend-and shows no signs of ever wanting to leave! More of an anecdote than a story, Weekend for Three is just too thin to be stretched over 61 minutes: it might have worked better as an Edgar Kennedy or Leon Errol 2-reeler. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dennis O'Keefe, Jane Wyatt, (more)
- 1940
Humphrey Bogart is a gangster again, this time as counterpoint to the comic elements of It All Came True. On the lam from the cops, Bogart hides out in a theatrical boarding house, where most of the residents are old-timers dreaming of a comeback. Amused by these offbeat characters, Bogart arranges to transform the boarding house into a nostalgia-oriented nightclub, along the lines of Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe. Thanks to his intervention, singer Ann Sheridan gets her big break, introducing the Warner Bros. standard "Angel in Disguise". Based on the Louis Bromfield novel Better Than Life, It All Came True is typical of the lighthearted fare in which Bogart frequently was forced to act before The Maltese Falcon allowed the actor to pick and choose his roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, (more)
- 1940
No, No, Nanette was the second film version of the popular Otto Harbach-Vincent Youmans Broadway musical. Though slightly updated, the basic plot remains the same, with heroine Nanette (Anna Neagle) entering into a financial arrangement whereby she must answer "No" to every question during a 24-hour period. It's all for the sake of her rogueish uncle (Roland Young), who's heavily in debt thanks to a gaggle of gold-digging chorines. Nanette's task is complicated by her romantic entanglements involving an artist (Richard Carlson) and a flashy theatrical producer (Victor Mature). The songs include "I Want to Be Happy", "Tea for Two" and the title number. Unlike the previous Neagle-RKO Radio-Herbert Wilcox collaboration Irene, No, No, Nanette fizzled at the box office. For many years, the film was withdrawn from circulation because of Warner Bros.' 1950 remake, the Doris Day vehicle Tea for Two. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Neagle, Richard Carlson, (more)
- 1939
In this heartwarming drama, a crook endeavors to raise his son in the slums until he kills a teller during a bank robbery. At first he sends the lad to his grandma, but when government agents threaten to catch him, he grabs the kid and hightails it. They high-jack a school bus filled with children and accidently run it into a snowdrift. The honorable son refuses to leave the freezing children and finally, the father goes out in search of help. Unfortunately, he is shot. The young man is then left to save the children. He does so by building a campfire, and thereby, becomes a hero. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Cabot, Ralph Byrd, (more)
- 1939
The "Lady" of the title is horse-farm owner Penelope Hollis (Ellen Drew), but during the first half of this film, bookie Marty Black (George Raft) only has eyes for Penelope's prize two-year-old. After losing his gambling joint, Marty finds himself with half ownership of the horse as his sole asset. He tries to persuade Penelope to continue racing the horse, but she will have none of this and packs the nag back to her Kentucky farm. Through Marty's persistence, the horse is entered in an important stake race, but in the process is "ridden out" and rendered useless. The enraged Penelope refuses to have anything to do with Marty again unless he changes his reckless ways-which of course he does. The best moment in The Lady's From Kentucky comes at the end, when supporting players Hugh Herbert ("Woo woo!") and ZaSu Pitts ("Oh, dear, oh, my") imitate each other's catch-phrases, a gag repeated the following year by Mae West and W.C. Fields in My Little Chickadee. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Raft, Ellen Drew, (more)
- 1939
It's Swing Music vs. the Classics in the easy-to-take Warners tunefest Naughty But Nice. Dick Powell dons the obligatory spectacles as a staid music professor Hardwick, who harbors a desire to become a songwriter. With the help of aspiring lyricist Linda McKay (Gale Page), Hardwick pens a little ditty that, through a fluke, becomes a smash hit. Not entirely prepared for show-business success, Hardwick falls into the clutches of predatory vocalist Zelda Manion (Ann Sheridan), leaving poor Linda in the lurch-at least until the last reel. Ronald Reagan breezes through one of his then-typical wiseguy supporting roles, while ZaSu Pitts, Vera Lewis and Elizabeth Dunne are likewise typecast as Hardwick's maiden aunts (conversely, the Professor's other aunt, played by Helen Broderick, is a real hep-cat). Virtually all the Harry Warren/Johnny Mercer songs in Naughty but Nice have been adapted from the works of such past masters as Mozart, Bach and Wagner-and old device, but one which works beautifully here. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Sheridan, Dick Powell, (more)
Anita's (Loretta Young) life seems to be progressing nicely. She's engaged to Don Barnes (Broderick Crawford), a wealthy man that will give her all the stability and comfort a woman could desire. But then she meets a magician with the unlikely name of The Great Arturo (David Niven), who performs a singular feat of magic -- he sweeps her off her feet. Promptly dropping Barnes, she weds Arturo and travels the globe as his assistant. After some time, however, the magic begins to wear off and Anita longs for a simpler life, perhaps on a quite farmhouse in the country. She's also a bit put out by Arturo's flirting with other women, but what really worries her are the dangerous stunts he has added to his repertoire. Realizing it is time for her to do something, she pulls a little magic of her own and disappear, forcing Artuto to set off on a lively chase to find her. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Loretta Young, David Niven, (more)
- 1939
Many of the "preparedness" films of the years just prior to World War II sidestepped censorship by depicting past outrages of the Germans. Such a film was British producer Herbert Wilcox's Hollywood production Nurse Edith Cavell, in which Wilcox's future wife Anna Neagle portrayed the titular martyred Englishwoman. Ms. Neagle plays the legendary Ms. Cavell as a candidate for Canonization. Her selfless efforts to rescue refugee soldiers from World War I Belgium results in her being arrested on charges of espionage. Despite international pleas for clemency, the dastardly Deutschlanders sentence Edith to death. She faces the firing squad with a courageous serenity that makes Joan of Arc look like a hysterical schoolgirl. An earlier, silent version of Nurse Edith Cavell had caused turmoil in England due to its unadorned depiction of war's horrors. In 1939, however, audiences inundated by reports of Hitler's latest outrages were more receptive. Ironically, the film opened in the US a scant few days before war broke out in Europe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Neagle, Edna May Oliver, (more)
- 1937
RKO Radio's "Hildegarde Withers" series, based on the mystery stories by Stuart Palmer, ground to a half with 40 Naughty Girls. ZaSu Pitts is once more miscast as crime-solving schoolmarm Hildegarde Withers, while James Gleason is rather better served as Inspector Oscar Piper. The title refers to a "Follies"-style Broadway revue, which serves as the backdrop for a baffling murder mystery. When the show's leading man is killed in full view of the audience, suspicion immediately falls upon the hapless prop man (Frank M. Thomas). But Hildegarde suspects that someone else was responsible, and, acting upon her impulses, assimilates a dizzying succession of contradictory clues to finger the actual killer. Among the "40 Naughty Girls" is 17-year-old Marjorie Lord, some 20 years before her TV fame as Danny Thomas's "wife." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Gleason, ZaSu Pitts, (more)
- 1937
In this comedy, a mild-mannered shipping clerk and his wife get into deep trouble after they are mistaken for jewel thieves by gangsters who want them to steal some valuable jewels. Despite the couple's protest, the crooks force them into pulling off the job during a ritzy party. While there, they realize that the real jewel thieves are also in attendance. The two ingeniously engineer the capture of the crooks and bring them to justice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- ZaSu Pitts, Claude Dampier, (more)
- 1937
This musical chronicles 15 years in the life of a New York City Street. In 1912, 52nd Street is a peaceful residential neighborhood and by 1937 it has become a bawdy red-light district. As the street changes, so do the lives of a brother and his two sisters who become estranged when he marries an actress at the beginning of the film. The two snooty sisters find their brothers' actions distasteful and consider the lowly actress unworthy of their high-born brother. Songs include: "I Still Love to Kiss You Goodnight," "Nothing Can Stop Me Now," "52nd Street," "23 Skiddoo," "Let Down Your Hair and Sing," and "We Love the South." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ian Hunter, Leo Carrillo, (more)
- 1937
In this drama a Detroit secretary working at a small school finds herself inheriting $500 upon her principal's death. She decides to use the money for a London vacation. Unfortunately, the new principal fires her for insisting on time off. She goes to England anyway where she finds her impoverished relatives who believe that she is a wealthy heiress. When it appears that she is too cheap to help them, they become quite nasty to her. Fortunately, in the end, they discover the truth, and somehow all financial turmoil is settled and happiness ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- ZaSu Pitts, Guy Newall, (more)
- 1936
Making a transcontinental plane flight in only thirteen hours was quite an achievement when this film was made in 1936 -- but it was not impossible, as indicated by Paramount's last-minute decision to "downsize" the film's original title, Twenty Hours by Air. In anticipation of Airport 34 years later, womanizing pilot Jack Gordon (Fred MacMurray) is called upon to safely guide his plane through a blinding blizzard. His task is complicated by a trio of crooks who are escaping from the law after pulling a jewel heist, and by a shady nobleman (Fred Keating) who offers Gordon a large amount of money if he will land the plane before San Francisco. In the climax, one of the passengers hijacks the plane, only to be foiled by -- of all people -- an obnoxious brat of a youngster (Bennie Bartlett). Oh yes, and before this eventful flight has reached its conclusion, self-styled Lothario Jack has decided to settle down with one girl, wealthy Felice Rollins (Joan Bennett), who, during one of the many crises, is briefly pressed into service as Jack's copilot. Thirteen Hours by Air was produced with the technical assistance of United Airlines. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred MacMurray, Joan Bennett, (more)
- 1936
For a change of pace, Warner Bros. contract tenor James Melton sings no opera in Sing Me A Love Song -- nor does he sing anything particularly memorable, either. Melton stars as Jerry Haines, a young man-about-town who takes an entry-level job in his dad's department store. Jerry wants no special favors, so he works under an assumed name, a fact that will lead to complications in due time. Music-counter clerk Jean Martin (Patricia Ellis) is attracted to Jerry, especially when he helps her out by singing the latest tunes for her customers. As their off-and-on romance plays itself out, the film's comedy subplot is carried by Hugh Herbert as zany kleptomaniac Siegfried Hammerschlag, ZaSu Pitts is would-be hillbilly crooner Gwen, and Walter Catlett as a stupidly obsequious floorwalker. In fact, there's so much comedy in Sing Me a Love Song that there's hardly any time to sing that love song! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Melton, Patricia Ellis, (more)
- 1936
The overlong but absorbing MGM "B" melodrama Mad Holiday stars Edmund Lowe as vacationing movie idol Philip Trent. Tired of starring in murder mysteries, Trent discovers he can't escape typecasting even on an ocean voyage: one of the passengers is murdered in our hero's cabin. The killing is tied in with a stolen diamond and a seemingly unending supply of suspects. To avoid being arrested himself, Trent teams up with pretty detective novelist "Peter" Dean (Elissa Landi) to solve the mystery. As Trent's wisecracking press agent Mert Morgan, Ted Healey has a wonderful moment when he stumbles over a corpse and asks nonchalantly, "What's the matter with him, he crocked?" ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edmund Lowe, Elissa Landi, (more)
- 1935
It is said that former gagman Clyde Bruckman spent most of his directing days sitting in his canvas chair quietly nursing a hangover. Well, someone must have directed Spring Tonic, and if it was Bruckman (as credited), he certainly sobered up long enough to deliver the goods. Claire Trevor walks out on her fiance Lew Ayres in search of adventure. She gets more than she bargained for when she stumbles upon a gang of bootleggers. Ayres comes to the rescue with the help of a circus troupe. The film was based on Man Eating Tiger, an obscure play by Ben Hecht and Rose Caylor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lew Ayres, Claire Trevor, (more)
- 1935
Dithery ZaSu Pitts is miscast as novelist Stuart Palmer's crime-solving schoolmarm Hildegarde Withers in The Plot Thickens. As usual, Hildegarde tries to figure out the connection between two ostensibly unrelated murders. The unifying factor turns out to be a priceless museum artifact, targeted for pilfering by a gang of international art thieves. James Gleason, a holdover from RKO Radio's previous Hildegarde Withers films with Edna May Oliver and Helen Broderick, is back as Hildegarde's friendly nemesis, Inspector Oscar Piper. The Plot Thickens was released in Great Britain as The Swinging Pearl Mystery. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Gleason, ZaSu Pitts, (more)
- 1935
Previously filmed in 1918 and 1923, Harry Leon Wilson's novel achieved movie classic status when it was remade by Leo McCarey in 1935. The story opens in Paris, circa 1908. Ruggles, beautifully underplayed by Charles Laughton, is the ultra-obedient manservant to the bibulous Earl of Burnstead (Roland Young). During one of the Earl's nocturnal forays, nouveau riche American cattle baron Egbert Floud (Charles Ruggles) wins Ruggles in a poker game. Terrified at the prospect of being bundled off to the Wild West, Ruggles' resolve is weakened somewhat when he and the raucous but ingratiating Egbert spend a wild night on the town. (The besotted butler's periodic exclamations of "Whoopee!" are priceless.) Back in the frontier "boom town" of Red Gap, a misunderstanding obliges Egbert's social-climbing wife Effie (Mary Boland) to pass off Ruggles as an aristocratic British army officer, immediately arousing the suspicions of priggish social arbiter Charles Belknap-Jackson (Lucien Littlefield). The longer he spends in America, the more Ruggles grows to like the concept of democracy and self-determination. Of the film's many highlights, two are standouts: the scene in which Ruggles silences a rowdy saloon crowd with his recitation of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, and the droll, semi-improvised vignette in which dancehall girl Nell Kenner (Leila Hyams) teaches the Earl of Burnstead how to play the drums. Ruggles of Red Gap was filmed for a fourth time in 1950 as the Bob Hope-Lucille Ball musical Fancy Pants. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Laughton, Mary Boland, (more)
- 1935
Consigned to the Warner Bros. "B" unit in the mid-1930s, director Robert Florey must have had a high old time trying to inject some visual dynamics into such unprepossessing projects as Going Highbrow. Guy Kibbee and ZaSu Pitts star as Mr. and Mrs. Matt Upshaw, a nouveau riche couple clearly inspired by Bringing Up Father's Jiggs and Maggie. While Matt prefers to live his life as simply as he'd done before striking it rich, Mrs. Upshaw is bound and determined to crash high society. To appease his wife, Matt hires dimwitted lunch-counter waitress Annie (Judy Canova) to pose as the Upshaw's daughter, thereby qualifying for the upcoming debutante ball. As things turn out, Annie reveals her true identity at the worst possible time, while the Upshaws are clipped for $50,000 by obsequious social "arranger" Augie (Edward Everett Horton). Though Going Highbrow represented Judy Canova's first major role at Warner Bros., the studio was unimpressed and dropped her option; in later years, Canova admitted that the picture was "not so hot." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Guy Kibbee, ZaSu Pitts, (more)
- 1935
The multitalented James Gleason was both star and co-director of the RKO Radio programmer Hot Tip. Gleason is cast as restaurant owner Jimmy McGill, an inveterate horse player who's a sucker for every race-track tout within a hundred-mile radius. But his wife Jane (ZaSu Pitts) detests gambling, so Jimmy promises to stop playing the ponies. This promise lasts only until our hero needs 200 bucks in a hurry to help out his future son-in-law Ben (played by Gleason's real-life son Russell Gleason). James Gleason and ZaSu Pitts worked so well together that RKO later reteamed them in two "Hildegarde Withers" entries, The Plot Thickens and 40 Naughty Girls. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- ZaSu Pitts, James Gleason, (more)
- 1935
Susan (ZaSu Pitts) is a plain-Jane wallflower who spends a day at Coney Island. Here she catches the eye of equally shy (and twice as homely) Hugh O'Connell. Though both hero and heroine spend every penny and then some riding the rides and trying their luck at the arcade; it hardly matters since, at the end of the day, they have each other. A short story by Mann Page was the principal inspiration of The Affair of Susan; scripters include ex-Laurel and Hardy gagman H. M. Walker and future Three Stooges contributor Andrew Benniston. In no way is this amiable little farce the predecessor to the 1945 political satire The Affairs of Susan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- ZaSu Pitts, Hugh O'Connell, (more)
- 1935
In this comedy, a waitress at a local lunch counter inadvertently foils a bank robbery and finds herself turned into a national heroine by an eager-beaver reporter. Unfortunately, her sudden notoriety causes gangsters to abduct her. The plucky waitress not only manages to talk them into returning her, she also convinces them to go straight. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- ZaSu Pitts, Hugh O'Connell, (more)
- 1934
Frequently and misleadingly advertised as a W.C. Fields vehicle, Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch confines the Great Man's appearance to the final two reels. The rest of the picture is a ploddingly paced adaptation of the hoary old Anne Hagan Rice novel about how wonderful it is to be poor. In a rare movie appearance, the great stage star Pauline Lord plays Mrs. Wiggs, the impecunious but ever-optimistic matriarch of a large, fatherless brood. Though creditors constantly hound Mrs. Wiggs, she remains firmly confident that all family problems will be resolved when her long-missing husband (Donald Meek) returns from his unexplained odyssey. It's quite a chore for our heroine to put on a happy face, especially after the death of the sickliest Wiggs child (George Breakstone), but she does -- and miracle of miracles, her faith in the elusive Mr. Wiggs turns out to be well-founded (though not intentionally so). W.C. Fields is cast as touring actor Mr. Stubbins the "mail-order husband" of Mrs Wiggs' spinsterish friend Miss Hazy (ZaSu Pitts). Once Fields shows up on screen, demanding a gourmet meal from poor Miss Hazy (who's never cooked anything in her life!) all the film's shortcomings and maudlin passages can be forgiven. W.C.'s best line: "The theatre was so packed, the audience couldn't applaud this way?" (claps sideways) "?They had to applaud this way." (claps up and down). Previously filmed in 1914 and 1919, Mrs.Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch was remade with Fay Bainter in 1942. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pauline Lord, W.C. Fields, (more)
