For Sale (1929) Is Six Minutes Under High Pressure
Gregory Ratoff well-cast as the world's mostobnoxious salesman. He just won't leave Guy Kibbee (who knew from obnoxious
himself) alone. Audiences then found funny the idea of a never-say-die, or
never-take-no, peddler. Enough of them were still knocking on doors for all to
know the approach. Today we get it from Amazon's suggestive selling. Ratoff
doesn't look like the eventual director of Intermezzo, Lancer Spy, and
numerous Fox musicals, and yet, he made the jump, going back/forth from
sets to behind camera (his best parts? Probably All About Eve's Max Fabian and seldom-seen Once In A Lifetime). I
get the impression that Ratoff was very well-connected socially, particularly
in Darryl Zanuck's circle. Not that he lacked talent, provided you like accents
cut thick, and in-face shtick. For Sale
tenders a routine I'd assume fed Ratoff in vaudeville. Maybe that's what
recommended him to Vitaphone's Bryan Foy, himself a lifetime member of the
performing fraternity. Foy strikes me as a man who'd fall asleep on the set,
wake up, and discover he's just finished another one-reeler. How else to
explain such prolific output? For Sale
was done when fast talk itself was enough to dazzle, Ratoff being without peer
at least at that. The short is part of Warner Archives' Vitaphone: Volume Two,
from which I've dug many a treasure, and now await further servings of
wonderful same.
Two favorite moments from films directed by Ratoff: Fred MacMurray, Fortunio Buonanova and Carlos Ramirez singing the 10-minute Weill/Gershwin operetta number "The Nina, The Pinta and the Santa Maria'' from "Where Do We Go From Here'' (1945); and musician-turned-guerilla fighter Susan Peters teaching schoolchildren how to make Molotov cocktails to welcome the Nazis in "Song of Russia'' (1944). The former available from the Fox Cinema Archive, the latter streaming at Warner Archive Instant.
That IS a great operetta number from "Where Do We Go From Here," the highlight of the feature for me. "Song Of Russia" is another very interesting title. Ratoff is a director well worth another look, based on these and more good ones he did. Thanks for the reminder of that, Lou.
Ratoff gives a marvelous comedy performance in "Let's Fall in Love",a 1933 gem about backstage Hollywood. The whole picture's good, with smooth work from Edmund Lowe and a star-making turn by Ann Sothern (in her first lead). But Ratoff still manages to steal most of his scenes - delivering that trademark fractured English of his at breakneck speed. And guess what? He's playing a producer named Max - not Fabian this time out - but Hopper. If you haven't already seen the film, you've got a treat in store.
3 Comments:
Two favorite moments from films directed by Ratoff: Fred MacMurray, Fortunio Buonanova and Carlos Ramirez singing the 10-minute Weill/Gershwin operetta number "The Nina, The Pinta and the Santa Maria'' from "Where Do We Go From Here'' (1945); and musician-turned-guerilla fighter Susan Peters teaching schoolchildren how to make Molotov cocktails to welcome the Nazis in "Song of Russia'' (1944). The former available from the Fox Cinema Archive, the latter streaming at Warner Archive Instant.
That IS a great operetta number from "Where Do We Go From Here," the highlight of the feature for me. "Song Of Russia" is another very interesting title. Ratoff is a director well worth another look, based on these and more good ones he did. Thanks for the reminder of that, Lou.
Ratoff gives a marvelous comedy performance in "Let's Fall in Love",a 1933 gem about backstage Hollywood. The whole picture's good, with smooth work from Edmund Lowe and a star-making turn by Ann Sothern (in her first lead). But Ratoff still manages to steal most of his scenes - delivering that trademark fractured English of his at breakneck speed. And guess what? He's playing a producer named Max - not Fabian this time out - but Hopper. If you haven't already seen the film, you've got a treat in store.
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