Reducing (1931)

Director:

Charles Reisner

Writers:

Beatrice Banyard (dialogue continuity)
Robert E. Hopkins (additional dialogue)

Release Date:

3 January 1931 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

A beauty parlor manager has an old friend help her with interesting results. |

Plot Keywords:

Beauty Parlor | Marriage | Cousin Cousin Relationship | Sister | Playboy

Cast

Marie Dressler	...	Marie Truffle
Polly Moran	...	Polly Rochay
Anita Page	...	Vivian Truffle
Lucien Littlefield	...	Elmer Truffle
William Collier Jr.	...	Johnnie Beasley (as Buster Collier Jr.)
Sally Eilers	...	Joyce Rochay
William Bakewell	...	Tommy Haverly
Billy Naylor	...	Jerry Truffle
Jay Ward	...	Marty Truffle

Runtime:

77 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Quotes:

Elmer Truffle: Hello, Tommy.
[to Marie]
Elmer Truffle: Who was at the door?
Marie Truffle: Lindbergh to take me flying, but I couldn't go.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Big Parade of Comedy (1964)

Soundtrack:

Swanee River

Marie Dressler & Polly Moran Team-Up For Top Comedy

A Midwestern housewife comes to New York City to help her social-climbing sister run a fancy beauty salon & REDUCING parlor.

Marie Dressler shines in this movie vehicle tailored especially for her. With simple dignity & genuineness - and a crazy sense of humor - she captures the viewer's attention from her very first scene. Whether intimidating a ticket seller, attempting to climb into an upper berth, creating havoc in the salon, or prying an egg out of her little boy's mouth, she amply provides illustration why she was Hollywood's greatest & most beloved star in the early 1930's. There's never been another like her; she was completely unique & irreplaceable.

Receiving equal billing with Dressler is her frequent partner in mirth, the ubiquitous Polly Moran. This short, shrill, buxom comedienne could hold her own with the inimitable Dressler in the field of slapstick. Whether wallowing in a mud bath or trapped in a steam room, Moran is great fun as Marie's foil.

Anita Page & Lucien Littlefield have some good moments as Dressler's daughter & husband; but with Dressler & Moran on the loose, they're up against severe screen competition.

Movie mavens will recognize the unbilled Roscoe Ates as the stuttering railway ticket agent who has the misfortune to find Marie in his line.

It is important to note that the large glass swastika in the salon, which Marie inadvertently smashes, has nothing whatsoever to do with the Nazis. Rather it was an ancient symbol, even used by some Native American tribes, and was not infrequently seen as a trendy design or decoration.