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{{Short description|1933 film}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2021}}
{{Infobox film
{{Infobox film
| name = International House
| name = International House
| image =
| image = International House 1933.jpg
| image_size =
| caption =
| director = [[A. Edward Sutherland]]
| director = [[A. Edward Sutherland]]
| producer = Emanuel Cohen
| producer = Emanuel Cohen
| story = Neil Brant<br>Louis E. Heifetz
| story = Neil Brant<br>Louis E. Heifetz
| screenplay = [[Walter DeLeon]]<br>[[Francis Martin (writer)|Francis Martin]]
| screenplay = [[Walter DeLeon]]<br>Francis Martin
| starring = [[W.C. Fields]]<br>[[Bela Lugosi]]<br>[[George Burns]]<br>[[Gracie Allen]]<br>[[Cab Calloway]]<br>[[Rose Marie]]<br>[[Peggy Hopkins Joyce]]
| starring = [[Peggy Hopkins Joyce]]<br>[[W. C. Fields]]<br>[[Bela Lugosi]]<br>[[George Burns]]<br>[[Gracie Allen]]<br>[[Cab Calloway]]<br>[[Rose Marie|Baby Rose Marie]]
| music = [[Ralph Rainger]]<br>Howard Jackson<br>John Leipold<br>Al Morgan<br>[[Cab Calloway]]
| music = [[Ralph Rainger]]<br>[[Howard Jackson (composer)|Howard Jackson]]<br>[[John Leipold]]<br>[[J. Russel Robinson]]<br>Al Morgan
| cinematography = [[Ernest Haller]]
| cinematography = [[Ernest Haller]]
| editing =
| editing =
Line 15: Line 15:
| released = {{Film date|1933|05|27}}
| released = {{Film date|1933|05|27}}
| runtime = 70 minutes
| runtime = 70 minutes
| country = [[United States]]
| country = United States
| language = [[English language|English]]
| language = English
}}
}}


'''''International House''''' is a 1933 American [[Pre-Code]] [[comedy film]] directed by [[A. Edward Sutherland]] and starring [[W.C. Fields]]. Released by [[Paramount Pictures]], the film was based on a story by Neil Brant and Louis E. Heifetz and was adapted for the screen by [[Walter DeLeon]] and Francis Martin.
'''''International House''''' is a 1933 American [[pre-Code]] [[comedy film]] starring [[Peggy Hopkins Joyce]] and [[W. C. Fields]], directed by [[A. Edward Sutherland]] and released by [[Paramount Pictures]]. The tagline of the film was "The ''[[Grand Hotel (1932 film)|Grand Hotel]]'' of comedy". It is a mixture of comedy and musical acts tied together by a slim plot line, in the style of the ''[[The Big Broadcast|Big Broadcast]]'' pictures that were also released by Paramount during the 1930s. In addition to some typical comedic lunacy from W. C. Fields and [[Burns and Allen]] ([[George Burns]] and [[Gracie Allen]]), it provides a snapshot of some popular stage and [[Old-time radio|radio]] acts of the era. The film includes some [[wikt:risqué#Adjective|risqué]] pre-Code humor. The cast also features [[Cab Calloway]] with his orchestra and [[Bela Lugosi]].


==Synopsis==
==Plot==
At International House, a large hotel in metropolitan [[Wuhu City|Wuhu]], [[China]] Chinese inventor Dr. Wong ([[Edmund Breese]]) is soliciting bids for the rights to his "radioscope", a kind of television. Unlike real television, his contraption does not need a camera; it can look in on events anywhere in the world as if it were a ground-penetrating electronic telescope, complete with audio.
''International House'' is a mix of standard and slapstick interlaced with numerous acts and bits, like a [[vaudeville]] variety show, in the style of the ''[[The Big Broadcast of 1938|Big Broadcast]]'' pictures that were also released by Paramount during the 1930s. In addition to the typical lunacy by the comic players, it also provides a snapshot of some popular stage and radio acts of the era.


⚫
Prof. Henry R. Quail ([[W. C. Fields]]) is one of many people from around the world converging on the hotel, though he is one of the few not hoping to buy (or steal) Dr. Wong's invention, as he was intending to land in Kansas City in his [[autogyro]] but flew off course. Also converging on the hotel are four-times-divorced American celebrity [[Peggy Hopkins Joyce]] (playing herself) avoiding one of her ex-husbands, violently jealous Russian General Petronovich ([[Bela Lugosi]]); Tommy ([[Stuart Erwin]]), the representative of an American electric company, hoping to buy Wong's invention and finally wed his sweetheart Carol ([[Sari Maritza]]); resident physician Dr. Burns ([[George Burns]]) and his goofy aide Nurse Allen ([[Gracie Allen]]) dealing with a quarantine at the hotel; and the exasperation of the hotel's fussy and frustrated manager ([[Franklin Pangborn]]).
After a few brief scenes in the [[International Settlement, Shanghai|International Settlement]] in [[Shanghai]], the setting moves over 200 miles away to the International House Hotel, a large metropolitan hotel in [[Wuhu City|Wuhu]], [[China]] ("Wuhu" also being a pun on the greeting "Yoo hoo").


Dr. Wong is particularly eager to look in on a six-day indoor bicycle race in New York, but instead somehow brings in performances by popular crooner [[Rudy Vallée]], bandleader-vocalist [[Cab Calloway]], and precocious torch singer [[Rose Marie|Baby Rose Marie]], and comedians [[Stoopnagle and Budd]]. A floor show (featuring [[Sterling Holloway]] and [[Lona Andre]]) is also performed in the hotel's rooftop garden restaurant.
The ostensible plot line concerns a Chinese inventor (Edmund Breese as "Dr. Wong") premiering a "radioscope", an early version of [[television]]. Unlike actual television, the mechanism does not need a camera, but its monitor can focus in and pick up on acts around the world, relaying sound and visuals as though it were a combination of a radio and telescope. Dr. Wong has brought his device to the hotel in an attempt to attract a commercial buyer to develop it.


Ultimately, Tommy wins both the rights to the radioscope and his sweetheart, and Peggy Hopkins Joyce, having learned that Prof. Quail is a millionaire, quickly attaches herself to her next [[wikt:sugar daddy#Noun|sugar daddy]]. Prof. Quail and his new companion are chased as he drives his little [[American Austin]] automobile through several public areas of the hotel and down several flights of a fire escape before driving it back into the hold of his autogyro and taking off.<ref>Green, Stanley (1999) Hollywood Musicals Year by Year (2nd ed.), pub. Hal Leonard Corporation {{ISBN|0-634-00765-3}} page 22</ref>
⚫
Dr. Henry R. Quail (Fields) is one of many people from all over the world converging on the hotel, though he is the only one not hoping to buy (or steal) Dr. Wong's television invention, as he was intending to land in [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]] but went off-course in his [[autogyro]]. Plotlines also involve four-times-divorced American celebrity [[Peggy Hopkins Joyce]] playing herself, avoiding one of her ex-husbands, the jealous Russian General Petronovich (Bela Lugosi); Tommy (Stuart Erwin) as a prospective buyer from an American electric company hoping to buy Wong's invention and finally wed his sweetheart Carol (Sari Maritza); resident physician Dr. Burns (George Burns) and his goofy aide Nurse Allen (Gracie Allen) dealing with a quarantine on the hotel; and the exasperation of the hotel's fussy and frustrated manager (Franklin Pangborn). All of this is broken up with transmissions Dr. Wong receives on his radioscope, as well as a short floor show featuring [[Lona Andre]] and [[Sterling Holloway]] in the hotel's rooftop garden restaurant.

The film ends with Prof. Quail being chased as he drives his [[American Austin]] automobile through several rooms of the hotel and up and down stairs before driving back into the hold of his autogyro and taking off.


==Cast==
==Cast==
Line 45: Line 43:
|first2=Carol Hurd
|first2=Carol Hurd
|title=Notable American women: the modern period : a biographical dictionary
|title=Notable American women: the modern period : a biographical dictionary
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CfGHM9KU7aEC&pg=PA14
|url=https://archive.org/details/notableamericanw00sich
|url-access=registration
|accessdate=9 March 2011
|access-date=March 9, 2011
|year=1980
|year=1980
|publisher=Harvard University Press
|publisher=Harvard University Press
|isbn=978-0-674-62733-8
|isbn=978-0-674-62733-8
|page=14}}</ref>
|page=[https://archive.org/details/notableamericanw00sich/page/14 14]}}</ref>
*[[Sari Maritza]] - Carol Fortescue
*[[Sari Maritza]] - Carol Fortescue
*[[Lumsden Hare]] - Sir Mortimer Fortescue
*[[Lumsden Hare]] - Sir Mortimer Fortescue
Line 56: Line 55:
*[[Franklin Pangborn]] - Hotel Manager
*[[Franklin Pangborn]] - Hotel Manager
*[[Edmund Breese]] - Dr. Wong, Chinese inventor
*[[Edmund Breese]] - Dr. Wong, Chinese inventor
*[[Wong Chung]] as Health Inspector


===Performers===
===Performers===
*[[Stoopnagle and Budd]] as F. Chase Taylor and Budd Hulick
*[[Stoopnagle and Budd]] - F. Chase Taylor and Budd Hulick
*[[Rudy Vallee]] as himself
*[[Rudy Vallee]] as himself
*[[Cab Calloway]] as himself, with his band<ref name="AberjhaniWest2003">{{cite book
*[[Cab Calloway]] as himself, with his band<ref name="AberjhaniWest2003">{{cite book
Line 65: Line 65:
|title=Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
|title=Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XP48QWTmjyUC&pg=PA55
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XP48QWTmjyUC&pg=PA55
|accessdate=9 March 2011
|access-date=March 9, 2011
|date=September 2003
|date=September 2003
|publisher=Infobase Publishing
|publisher=Infobase Publishing
|isbn=978-0-8160-4539-6
|isbn=978-0-8160-4539-6
|page=55}}</ref>
|page=55}}</ref>
*[[Rose Marie]] as herself ("Baby Rose Marie")
*[[Rose Marie|Baby Rose Marie]] as herself
*[[Lona Andre]] as China Teacup
*[[Lona Andre]] as China Teacup
*[[Sterling Holloway]] - Coffee Mug
*[[Sterling Holloway]] as Coffee Mug


==Production==
==Production==


===Pre-Code elements===
===Pre-Code elements===
''International House'' was produced before the Hollywood [[Production Code]] took effect in July 1934, and is notable for the kind of risqué subject matter, humor and costumes associated with [[Pre-Code Hollywood]]. For example, Peggy Hopkins Joyce appears as herself and makes several humorous references to her many divorces, a topic that would become almost completely off-limits with the enforcing of the Code. [[Cab Calloway]] sings his song "[[Reefer Man]]", which describes a man smoking marijuana and becoming high from it. Fields' Dr. Quayle responds to what he mistakes as [[Flirting|homosexual flirting]] with "Don't let the [[Pansy#Symbolism|pansy]] fool you!" referring to his own [[boutonniere]], which he tears off and tosses away. Several of the revealing costumes of the female dancers in the "She Was a China Teacup" song-and-dance routine show the bare outline of breasts, something that the Code would also virtually eliminate. In a gyrocopter scene, Fields sees a basket with a kitten under the seat of his female companion and exclaims, as he peers between the lady's legs
''International House'' was produced before a strict Hollywood [[Production Code]] took effect in July 1934, and it is notable for the kind of risqué subject matter, humor and costumes associated with [[Pre-Code Hollywood]]. Top-billed [[Peggy Hopkins Joyce]] was famous as an unabashed real-life [[Gold digger|gold-digger]], not as an actress. Her many affairs with and several marriages to wealthy older men earned her millions, and in the film she makes several humorous references to her profitable divorces, a topic that would become almost completely off-limits with enforcement of the Code. Several of the "[[cellophane]]" costumes in the "She Was a China Tea-cup" production number allow the bare outlines of breasts to be seen, a degree of nudity that the Code would not permit.
: "My, what a cute little pussy!".


The setting of Wuhu, China also serves as a play on "Woo-hoo!", an exclamation which at that time was sometimes used to comment that something was sexually naughty. Hearing the city's name, [[W. C. Fields]], as Professor Quail, responds to what he mistakes as homosexual [[flirting]] with "Don't let the [[posy]] fool you", referring to his own [[boutonniere]], which he plucks out and tosses away. Walking down a hotel corridor, Fields pauses to peep through a keyhole, then comments, "What won't they think of next!" Such implications of what the Code called "sex perversion" (usually defined then as anything other than procreative sex in the [[missionary position]]) would soon be strictly prohibited. This was one of several films<!-- e.g., the Countess DePuizzi (Fields pronounces it "Countess de Pussy") in "Poppy" and the Black Pussy Cat Cafe ("cat" consistently omitted in spoken mentions) in "The Bank Dick"; remarkably, both films are post-1934 --> in which Fields tweaked censors' noses with one particular deniable [[double entendre]]. Sitting next to him in a small car, Joyce (whom he has punningly called "my little [[wikt:Laplander|Laplander]]") squirms uncomfortably and tells him she is sitting on something. After saying "I lost mine in the [[1929 stock market crash|stock market]]" Fields checks, finds a cat under her, and exclaims, "Ah, it's a pussy!"
⚫
In the sequence with the [[American Austin Car Company|Austin]] - the smallest car sold in America at that time - W.C. Fields remarks that it had "belonged to the [[Postmaster General of the United States|Postmaster General]]." This was a potshot at [[Will H. Hays]], the diminutive former Postmaster General who was then trying to enforce his Hollywood Production Code.


Performing with his hot dance band, [[Cab Calloway]] sings "[[Reefer Man]]", which describes the odd behavior and ravings of the titular heavy marijuana smoker (portrayed by bass player [[Al Morgan (bassist)|Al Morgan]], who performs as if in a trance). In one gag, W. C. Fields enters a scene contentedly smoking an [[opium pipe]] (but with a cigar in place of the opium) and commenting, "They stupefy! They're roasted!", a play on two then-current cigarette advertising slogans. References to recreational drug use were among the many [[Legion of Decency]] thou-shalt-nots that would soon be rigidly enforced.
⚫
===Filming===
⚫
On March 10, 1933, a small tremor struck the set while cameras were rolling, and a [[Paramount News]] newsreel featured the story. A documentary featurette on W. C. Fields accompanying the film's DVD release, however, reveals that Fields and director Sutherland faked the footage from the set as a publicity stunt. The [[1933 Long Beach earthquake|actual earthquake]] was centered in nearby [[Long Beach, California]]. About 120 people were killed and most of the downtown section was destroyed.


⚫
In the sequence with the [[American Austin Car Company|Austin]]&nbsp;&ndash; the smallest car sold in America at that time&nbsp;&ndash; W. C. Fields remarks that it "used to belong to the [[Postmaster General of the United States|Postmaster General]]." This was a potshot at [[Will H. Hays|Will Hays]], the diminutive former Postmaster General who was then trying to enforce an essentially voluntary and often disregarded early Production Code.
==Music==
⚫
Lyricist Leo Robin and composer Ralph Rainger wrote three songs for the film, "She Was a China Tea-cup and He Was Just a Mug," performed offscreen by an unidentified male vocalist; "Thank Heaven For You," sung onscreen by Rudy Vallee; and "My Bluebird's Singing the Blues,"
sung onscreen by Baby Rose Marie. Cab Calloway and His Orchestra perform 1932's "Reefer Man," written by Andy Razaf (lyrics) and J. Russel Robinson (music).


==Home media==
===Earthquake===
⚫
On March 10, 1933, an earthquake occurred during production, and a [[Paramount News|Paramount newsreel]] featured what was presented as footage of cast members on the set reacting as it struck. A documentary featurette on W. C. Fields accompanying the film's DVD release, however, reveals that Fields and director Sutherland faked the footage for the publicity. The [[1933 Long Beach earthquake|actual earthquake]], centered off nearby [[Long Beach, California|Long Beach]], caused widespread major damage to unreinforced masonry and about 120 consequent fatalities. A 1976 episode of the television series ''[[In Search of... (TV series)|In Search of...]]'' that dealt with earthquakes showed the footage.
⚫
In 1996, Universal Studios Home Video released the film to [[VHS]]. In 2004, the studio released the film on Region 1 DVD as part of the five-disc W.C. Fields Comedy Collection set.

⚫
===Music===
⚫
Lyricist Leo Robin and composer Ralph Rainger wrote three songs for the film: "She Was a China Tea-cup and He Was Just a Mug", performed offscreen by an unidentified male vocalist; "Thank Heaven For You", sung onscreen by Rudy Vallee; and "My Bluebird's Singing the Blues",
sung onscreen by Baby Rose Marie (at a UCLA screening of the restored film at the Billy Wilder Theatre on March 10, 2013, Rose Marie indicated that her song was filmed in New York at the Astoria studio and she had no contact with the Hollywood players). A fourth Robin-Rainger song, "Look What I've Got", originally featured in the slightly earlier film ''[[A Bedtime Story]]'', is heard as an instrumental, supposedly played by "Ah Phooey and His Manly Mandarins" in a broadcast from a radio station that calls itself "The Voice of Long Tung"; it provides the musical accompaniment for an otherwise silent he-and-she undressing scene. Cab Calloway and His Harlem Maniacs perform 1932's "Reefer Man", written by Andy Razaf (lyrics) and J. Russell Robinson (music).<ref name="LoC">[https://www.loc.gov/item/jots.200016377/ Library of Congress page on this film], which cites ''Jazz on the Screen'' by David Meeker (used with permission) as its source for musical information. Retrieved April 7, 2018.</ref>

==Release==
===Home media===
⚫
In 1996, Universal Studios Home Video released the film on [[VHS]]. In 2004, it was released on Region 1 DVD as part of the five-disc W. C. Fields Comedy Collection set.

===Restoration===
In 2013, ''International House'' was preserved to a polyester dupe negative by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. It was copied from the excellent Paramount 35mm nitrate studio answer print, the lowest generation surviving copy. The audio was re-recorded and denoised, revealing very high fidelity. The Cab Calloway "Reefer Man" number proved to be dubbed 4&nbsp;dB louder than the rest of the film, giving the Calloway band an infectious, powerful musical presence. This print premiered in the UCLA Festival of Preservation in 2013 and subsequently toured extensively to archival venues.


==References==
==References==
Line 96: Line 103:


== External links ==
== External links ==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20140714190441/http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=5907 ''International House''] at [[American Film Institute]] (archived)
*{{tcmdb title|id=79305|title=International House}}
*{{IMDb title | id=0024183 | title=International House}}
*{{IMDb title | id=0024183 | title=International House}}



{{A. Edward Sutherland}}
{{A. Edward Sutherland}}


[[Category:1933 films]]
[[Category:1933 films]]
[[Category:1930s comedy films]]
[[Category:1933 comedy films]]
[[Category:American black-and-white films]]
[[Category:American black-and-white films]]
[[Category:American comedy films]]
[[Category:American comedy films]]
⚫
[[Category:American films]]
⚫
[[Category:English-language films]]
[[Category:Films directed by A. Edward Sutherland]]
[[Category:Films directed by A. Edward Sutherland]]
[[Category:Films made before the MPAA Production Code]]
[[Category:Films set in China]]
[[Category:Films set in China]]
[[Category:Films set in hotels]]
[[Category:Films set in hotels]]
[[Category:Paramount Pictures films]]
[[Category:Paramount Pictures films]]
[[Category:W. C. Fields]]
[[Category:1930s English-language films]]
⚫
[[Category:1930s American films]]
⚫
[[Category:English-language comedy films]]
[[Category:Films scored by Ralph Rainger]]
[[Category:Films scored by Howard Jackson (composer)]]
[[Category:Films scored by John Leipold]]

Latest revision as of 23:54, 21 December 2024

International House
Directed byA. Edward Sutherland
Screenplay byWalter DeLeon
Francis Martin
Story byNeil Brant
Louis E. Heifetz
Produced byEmanuel Cohen
StarringPeggy Hopkins Joyce
W. C. Fields
Bela Lugosi
George Burns
Gracie Allen
Cab Calloway
Baby Rose Marie
CinematographyErnest Haller
Music byRalph Rainger
Howard Jackson
John Leipold
J. Russel Robinson
Al Morgan
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • May 27, 1933 (1933-05-27)
Running time
70 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

International House is a 1933 American pre-Code comedy film starring Peggy Hopkins Joyce and W. C. Fields, directed by A. Edward Sutherland and released by Paramount Pictures. The tagline of the film was "The Grand Hotel of comedy". It is a mixture of comedy and musical acts tied together by a slim plot line, in the style of the Big Broadcast pictures that were also released by Paramount during the 1930s. In addition to some typical comedic lunacy from W. C. Fields and Burns and Allen (George Burns and Gracie Allen), it provides a snapshot of some popular stage and radio acts of the era. The film includes some risqué pre-Code humor. The cast also features Cab Calloway with his orchestra and Bela Lugosi.

Plot

[edit]

At International House, a large hotel in metropolitan Wuhu, China Chinese inventor Dr. Wong (Edmund Breese) is soliciting bids for the rights to his "radioscope", a kind of television. Unlike real television, his contraption does not need a camera; it can look in on events anywhere in the world as if it were a ground-penetrating electronic telescope, complete with audio.

Prof. Henry R. Quail (W. C. Fields) is one of many people from around the world converging on the hotel, though he is one of the few not hoping to buy (or steal) Dr. Wong's invention, as he was intending to land in Kansas City in his autogyro but flew off course. Also converging on the hotel are four-times-divorced American celebrity Peggy Hopkins Joyce (playing herself) avoiding one of her ex-husbands, violently jealous Russian General Petronovich (Bela Lugosi); Tommy (Stuart Erwin), the representative of an American electric company, hoping to buy Wong's invention and finally wed his sweetheart Carol (Sari Maritza); resident physician Dr. Burns (George Burns) and his goofy aide Nurse Allen (Gracie Allen) dealing with a quarantine at the hotel; and the exasperation of the hotel's fussy and frustrated manager (Franklin Pangborn).

Dr. Wong is particularly eager to look in on a six-day indoor bicycle race in New York, but instead somehow brings in performances by popular crooner Rudy Vallée, bandleader-vocalist Cab Calloway, and precocious torch singer Baby Rose Marie, and comedians Stoopnagle and Budd. A floor show (featuring Sterling Holloway and Lona Andre) is also performed in the hotel's rooftop garden restaurant.

Ultimately, Tommy wins both the rights to the radioscope and his sweetheart, and Peggy Hopkins Joyce, having learned that Prof. Quail is a millionaire, quickly attaches herself to her next sugar daddy. Prof. Quail and his new companion are chased as he drives his little American Austin automobile through several public areas of the hotel and down several flights of a fire escape before driving it back into the hold of his autogyro and taking off.[1]

Cast

[edit]

Actors

[edit]

Performers

[edit]

Production

[edit]

Pre-Code elements

[edit]

International House was produced before a strict Hollywood Production Code took effect in July 1934, and it is notable for the kind of risqué subject matter, humor and costumes associated with Pre-Code Hollywood. Top-billed Peggy Hopkins Joyce was famous as an unabashed real-life gold-digger, not as an actress. Her many affairs with and several marriages to wealthy older men earned her millions, and in the film she makes several humorous references to her profitable divorces, a topic that would become almost completely off-limits with enforcement of the Code. Several of the "cellophane" costumes in the "She Was a China Tea-cup" production number allow the bare outlines of breasts to be seen, a degree of nudity that the Code would not permit.

The setting of Wuhu, China also serves as a play on "Woo-hoo!", an exclamation which at that time was sometimes used to comment that something was sexually naughty. Hearing the city's name, W. C. Fields, as Professor Quail, responds to what he mistakes as homosexual flirting with "Don't let the posy fool you", referring to his own boutonniere, which he plucks out and tosses away. Walking down a hotel corridor, Fields pauses to peep through a keyhole, then comments, "What won't they think of next!" Such implications of what the Code called "sex perversion" (usually defined then as anything other than procreative sex in the missionary position) would soon be strictly prohibited. This was one of several films in which Fields tweaked censors' noses with one particular deniable double entendre. Sitting next to him in a small car, Joyce (whom he has punningly called "my little Laplander") squirms uncomfortably and tells him she is sitting on something. After saying "I lost mine in the stock market" Fields checks, finds a cat under her, and exclaims, "Ah, it's a pussy!"

Performing with his hot dance band, Cab Calloway sings "Reefer Man", which describes the odd behavior and ravings of the titular heavy marijuana smoker (portrayed by bass player Al Morgan, who performs as if in a trance). In one gag, W. C. Fields enters a scene contentedly smoking an opium pipe (but with a cigar in place of the opium) and commenting, "They stupefy! They're roasted!", a play on two then-current cigarette advertising slogans. References to recreational drug use were among the many Legion of Decency thou-shalt-nots that would soon be rigidly enforced.

In the sequence with the Austin – the smallest car sold in America at that time – W. C. Fields remarks that it "used to belong to the Postmaster General." This was a potshot at Will Hays, the diminutive former Postmaster General who was then trying to enforce an essentially voluntary and often disregarded early Production Code.

Earthquake

[edit]

On March 10, 1933, an earthquake occurred during production, and a Paramount newsreel featured what was presented as footage of cast members on the set reacting as it struck. A documentary featurette on W. C. Fields accompanying the film's DVD release, however, reveals that Fields and director Sutherland faked the footage for the publicity. The actual earthquake, centered off nearby Long Beach, caused widespread major damage to unreinforced masonry and about 120 consequent fatalities. A 1976 episode of the television series In Search of... that dealt with earthquakes showed the footage.

Music

[edit]

Lyricist Leo Robin and composer Ralph Rainger wrote three songs for the film: "She Was a China Tea-cup and He Was Just a Mug", performed offscreen by an unidentified male vocalist; "Thank Heaven For You", sung onscreen by Rudy Vallee; and "My Bluebird's Singing the Blues", sung onscreen by Baby Rose Marie (at a UCLA screening of the restored film at the Billy Wilder Theatre on March 10, 2013, Rose Marie indicated that her song was filmed in New York at the Astoria studio and she had no contact with the Hollywood players). A fourth Robin-Rainger song, "Look What I've Got", originally featured in the slightly earlier film A Bedtime Story, is heard as an instrumental, supposedly played by "Ah Phooey and His Manly Mandarins" in a broadcast from a radio station that calls itself "The Voice of Long Tung"; it provides the musical accompaniment for an otherwise silent he-and-she undressing scene. Cab Calloway and His Harlem Maniacs perform 1932's "Reefer Man", written by Andy Razaf (lyrics) and J. Russell Robinson (music).[4]

Release

[edit]

Home media

[edit]

In 1996, Universal Studios Home Video released the film on VHS. In 2004, it was released on Region 1 DVD as part of the five-disc W. C. Fields Comedy Collection set.

Restoration

[edit]

In 2013, International House was preserved to a polyester dupe negative by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. It was copied from the excellent Paramount 35mm nitrate studio answer print, the lowest generation surviving copy. The audio was re-recorded and denoised, revealing very high fidelity. The Cab Calloway "Reefer Man" number proved to be dubbed 4 dB louder than the rest of the film, giving the Calloway band an infectious, powerful musical presence. This print premiered in the UCLA Festival of Preservation in 2013 and subsequently toured extensively to archival venues.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Green, Stanley (1999) Hollywood Musicals Year by Year (2nd ed.), pub. Hal Leonard Corporation ISBN 0-634-00765-3 page 22
  2. ^ Sicherman, Barbara; Green, Carol Hurd (1980). Notable American women: the modern period : a biographical dictionary. Harvard University Press. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-674-62733-8. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
  3. ^ Aberjhani; Sandra L. West (September 2003). Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance. Infobase Publishing. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-8160-4539-6. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
  4. ^ Library of Congress page on this film, which cites Jazz on the Screen by David Meeker (used with permission) as its source for musical information. Retrieved April 7, 2018.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=International_House_(film)&oldid=1264430051"