THE WORKING MAN (1933)

Distinguished, but little remembered British stage actor George Arliss suffers the double burden of having his two highest profile films show him at something less than his best.  DISRAELI, filmed twice (a lost silent in ‘21, an Early Talkie in ‘29) stiff as a board; THE MAN WHO PLAYED GOD/’32, mostly known for saving Bette Davis’s career at Warners before she broke out in OF HUMAN BONDAGE/’33.  Arliss looks slow & hammy in both; 'distinguished' in all the wrong ways.  Here's a much better place to start: Playing a shoe manufacturing titan, he's still hammy, but also forceful & funny when his work ethic gets thrown for a loop after his main competitor dies.  With no rival to best, what’s the point?  Now’s the time to take that long delayed fishing trip, which is where he bumps into his late rival’s kids, entitled nincompoops Bette Davis & Theodore Newton who’d rather drink & socialize than run a shoe factory.  The way they’re going, they’ll soon lose the company.  Now Arliss has his new mission: anonymously save his competitor’s company; even at the expense of his own.  The film turns into something of a Depression Era pep talk and has a lot of fun keeping the deceptions & romantic roundelays spinning with Arliss functioning as secret Godfather.  Less pushy than most Warners’ comedies, the two male ingenues (Newton and Hardie Albright as Arliss’s workaholic nephew) both hilarious.  (Davis, BTW, at her most fetching.)  John G. Adolfi, something of a specialist directing Arliss, keeps it moving without the usual panicking flop-sweat of a typical Warners comedy.  Modest, but fun.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  Arliss would have even better vehicles to show himself off when he followed Warners exec Darryl F. Zanuck to his new company, 20th Century.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2015/03/cardinal-richelieu-1935.html

CONTEST:  Even if you never warm up to Arliss’s old-fashioned stage technique (he was born in 1868), you can still appreciate his longest lasting achievement . . . if you like salad.  Touring in San Francisco, a brand new salad dressing was named for the play he led.  Name the play (and the dressing!) to win a MAKSQUIBS Write-Up of your choice.