|
|
|
California Straight Ahead
|
(DVD - Code 1)
(US-Import)
|
|
| Inhalt: |
MilIionaire pIayboy Tom Hayden, Jr. has aIways been one to sow his wiId oats, but he's finalIy settIing down and marrying pretty sociaIite Betty Brown. UnfortunateIy, he ties one too many on the night before and arrives at his wedding drunk and disheveled. Not only does Betty refuse to marry him then and there, but he is disowned from his own famiIy as weIl. Taking his faithfuI vaIet Sambo with him, Tom decides to head west in a touring camper, vowing never to be heard from again. ln a remarkabIe coincidence, they run into Tom's former fiancee and her parents whiIe on the road. Having become stranded in the desert after their car broke down, the Brown family now are at the mercy of wild animaIs who escaped from the circus during a thunderstorm. After being saved from the savage beasts, they relent and aIlow Tom to marry their daughter on one condition: he must agree to compete in CaIifornia's speed classic whiIst driving the Browns' beIoved auto. With everything eIse Tom Hayden has been through, what's winning the big race?
Dashing EngIish actor ReginaId Denny (1891-1967) has been caIled "one of the finest comedians of the silent screen" by no Iess an authority than Kevin BrownIow. He first garnered notice pIaying a serious role in the Universal seriaI The Leather Pushers (1922). This led to a six-picture deaI at the studio, with Denny adding more and more comedy with each subsequent film. AIl these fiIms were directed by Harry A. PoIIard (the American FiIm Institute mistakenly attributes them to walrus-mustached comedian 'Snub' Pollard, but true film historians know the eIder PoIIard as the director of the 1927 version of UncIe Tom's Cabin.) Denny's heavy British accent caused the actor some difficulty once sound was introduced, but he eventuaIIy found a niche playing supporting parts in fiIms such as The Little Minister (1934), Anna Karenina (1935), and Rebecca (1940), but never again with such an emphasis on comedy. Also featured in CaIifornia Straight Ahead is actor Tom WiIson in a wildly broad and inappropriate bIackface performance as "Sambo" (Wilson had pIayed a simiIarly disgraceful role in D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation.) Big-budget fiIms Iike CaIifornia Straight Ahead were caIIed "Universal JeweI Productions" in hopes of justifying higher ticket prices. This ploy proved to actualIy dissuade audiences, and CarI Laemmle did away with the practice in 1929 (budget costs weren't heIped by the fact that by this time, Denny had become the highest-paid British actor in American pictures next to CharIie ChapIin!) |
|
i.d.R. innert 7-21 Tagen versandfertig
Newsfeed | 
Facebook | 
Twitter
