Just Imagine (1930)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

David Butler

Writers:

Buddy G. DeSylva (story) &
Lew Brown (story) ...

Release Date:

23 November 1930 (USA)

Genre:

Musical | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

YOUTH AND LOVE 50 YEARS FROM NOW! (original print ad - all caps)

Plot:

New York, 1980: airplanes have replaced cars, numbers have replaced names, pills have replaced food...

Plot Keywords:

Mars | Airplane | Pill | New York | Stowaway

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

El Brendel	...	Single O
Maureen O'Sullivan	...	LN-18
John Garrick	...	J-21
Marjorie White	...	D-6
Frank Albertson	...	RT-42
Hobart Bosworth	...	Z-4
Kenneth Thomson	...	MT-3
Mischa Auer	...	B-36
Ivan Linow	...	Loko / Boko
Joyzelle Joyner	...	Loo Loo / Boo Boo (as Joyzelle)
Wilfred Lucas	...	X-10

Runtime:

USA:104 min (FMC Library Print) | 113 min (copyright length)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric System)

Certification:

USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:TV-G (TV rating)

Filming Locations:

Arcadia, California, USA

Company:

Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

Hearing that people fly "Rosenbergs" and "Goldbaums" instead of driving cars, Single-O comments that someone got revenge on 'Henry Ford' - a jab at the famed auto maker's well-known rabid anti-Semitism (now all but forgotten).

Quotes:

Single O: Boys, I vouldn't know de old town! Vere is all de automobiles?
RT-42: [pointing skyward] Oh, they're in the upper level.
J-21: Hardly anyone drives a car now. They all use planes.
Single O: Is dat so?
RT-42: Yeah, I drive a Rosenblatt. J flies a Pinkus for his personal use, but all the airliners are Goldfarbs.
Single O: Goldfarb!
[laughs uproariously]
Single O: It looks like someone got even with Henry Ford!

Movie Connections:

Edited into Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940)

Soundtrack:

Mothers Ought to Tell Their Daughters

Brief review

This is one trippy movie from 70 years ago! A combination of booze jokes, sci-fi, lewd sex, vaudeville jokes. El Brendel plays a poor sap who is struck by lightning in 1930, and winds up in 1980 New York, where flying Rosenbergs and Goldbergs have replaced earthbound Fords and Chevys. Babies are gotten through vending machines, and a trip to Mars proves Martians to be twins, (Each set has a good over-sexed one, and an evil homicidal one.) I'm not making this up!! Pepper this oddity with bad puns, miniature effects, and musical numbers and you got, you got.... this film.