Road Show (1941)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

Hal Roach

Writers:

Arnold Belgard (writer)
Eric Hatch (novel)

Release Date:

27 July 1942 (Sweden)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Rich playboy Drogo Gaines is in imminent danger of marrying a gold digger, and escapes by feigning insanity...

Plot Keywords:

Carnival | Beautiful Woman | Canceled Wedding | Eccentric | Based On Novel

Cast

Adolphe Menjou	...	Col. Carleton Carroway
Carole Landis	...	Penguin Moore
John Hubbard	...	Drogo Gaines
Charles Butterworth	...	Harry Whitman
Patsy Kelly	...	Jinx
George E. Stone	...	Indian
Margaret Roach	...	Priscilla
Polly Ann Young	...	Helen Newton
Edward Norris	...	Ed Newton
Marjorie Woodworth	...	Alice
Florence Bates	...	Mrs. Newton
Willie Best	...	Willie
The Charioteers	...	Themselves - Musical ensemble

Runtime:

87 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #5577) | Sweden:Btl

Company:

Hal Roach Studios

Trivia:

Cameo: [Shemp Howard]Moe Parker. The character was named after Howard's brother and fellow Stooge, Moe Howard.

Soundtrack:

I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN YOU YEARS AGO

This Will Scrape Your Funny Bone Dry

I have to agree with the two previous reviewers. I can't believe this film hasn't got more of a reputation than it does. It's a non-stop laugh from start to finish.

The players in Road Show look like they're having a marvelous time in this film. Hal Roach must have kept a really loose and happy set for these people to have put in the work they did.

Millionaire playboy John Hubbard gets cold feet at the altar and his gold digging bride gets him committed to an asylum. While there he meets Adolphe Menjou who's another millionaire there for a rest cure from his grabby family.

The two make an escape and wind up in a carnival owned by Carole Landis and from then on it's one mad plot situation after another.

Adolphe Menjou was a player of extraordinary range. In silent films with that waxed mustache he was usually villains, but in sound he played a good range of serious characters. Yet he had a funny side to him that when it was displayed could be hilarious. We saw more than hints of it in films like Broadway Gondolier and Gold Diggers of 1935. But here as the center of the film, he really explodes on the screen. I've never seen him funnier.

Possibly because it did not star any of the great comic actors, just a whole lot of good players doing their shtick, Road Show does not stand out in the Hal Roach list of comedy masterpieces. That's a pity because this shows what Roach could do without people like Laurel and Hardy to star in a film for him.

Don't ever miss this if it's broadcast again.