Despite its being the work of seven different writers, "Fast Workers" succeeds as an interesting and unusual story very well moved forward with clever dialogue delivered by a large cast of great actors.
Mae Clarke was a welcome surprise. She was given a chance to perform and she did! Ms. Clarke was a uniquely attractive actress, who too often -- as in "Frankenstein" -- didn't have much to do except look pretty and react.
Here, though, she was a pivotal character, and boy did she grab hold and carry the part beautifully.
This one role should have boosted her to major stardom.
Robert Armstrong reached his pinnacle as the impresario in "King Kong," and seemed to play that type of character afterward. Here, though, he played something completely different and he too showed enough talent to prove to casting directors and audiences he should have also been a major star.
Sterling Holloway had what might have been his best part. Instead of the fey characters he did awfully well, he was a real person, one of the crew working the high iron, with a distinctive personality -- as had all the characters in this play-become-movie -- who seemed real (or at least movie real).
John Gilbert was first billed and was, at the time, still the biggest name in the cast. He didn't really still have the looks that had catapulted him into the highest galaxy of stars, but he did still have the talent.
And he did have the best line of the movie, the last.
"Fast Workers" was part of a 24-hour marathon of Mae Clarke films on Turner Classic Movies, presented 20 August 2015. This type of retrospective is exactly why The Good Lord gave us video recorders, to be able to save for more convenient times a whole day of motion picture history and entertainment.
Mae Clarke today is known mostly for getting a grapefruit smashed into her face, but anyone seeing more of her work has to be convinced she was a major talent and, therefore, should have been a major star and should be far better known today.
I highly recommend "Fast Workers."
Mae Clarke was a welcome surprise. She was given a chance to perform and she did! Ms. Clarke was a uniquely attractive actress, who too often -- as in "Frankenstein" -- didn't have much to do except look pretty and react.
Here, though, she was a pivotal character, and boy did she grab hold and carry the part beautifully.
This one role should have boosted her to major stardom.
Robert Armstrong reached his pinnacle as the impresario in "King Kong," and seemed to play that type of character afterward. Here, though, he played something completely different and he too showed enough talent to prove to casting directors and audiences he should have also been a major star.
Sterling Holloway had what might have been his best part. Instead of the fey characters he did awfully well, he was a real person, one of the crew working the high iron, with a distinctive personality -- as had all the characters in this play-become-movie -- who seemed real (or at least movie real).
John Gilbert was first billed and was, at the time, still the biggest name in the cast. He didn't really still have the looks that had catapulted him into the highest galaxy of stars, but he did still have the talent.
And he did have the best line of the movie, the last.
"Fast Workers" was part of a 24-hour marathon of Mae Clarke films on Turner Classic Movies, presented 20 August 2015. This type of retrospective is exactly why The Good Lord gave us video recorders, to be able to save for more convenient times a whole day of motion picture history and entertainment.
Mae Clarke today is known mostly for getting a grapefruit smashed into her face, but anyone seeing more of her work has to be convinced she was a major talent and, therefore, should have been a major star and should be far better known today.
I highly recommend "Fast Workers."