"Advice to the Forlorn," originally entitled to the "Lovelorn," is a very funny comedy that combines some drama, corruption, crime and romance in a walloping good satire of newspapers. Lee Tracy was the perfect actor to play the lead character in this type of film, and I think his Toby Prentiss is his best performance from the several of his films I have seen to date. Others have noted that the film borrows the idea for the setting from a Nathanael West novel, "Miss Lonelylhearts," but discards the mostly dark plot of that story.
The film has a good cast all around, with just four more characters having significant roles. Paul Harvey has a very good, entertaining and funny role as Toby's newspaper publisher boss, Gaskell. I agree with a couple other reviewers on the role by Sterling Holloway as Benny. I think it's one of his best and better liked roles. Sally Blane plays Toby's fiancé, Louise, and C. Henry Gordon plays Kane who owns the Kranz discount drugstore chain. Gordon gets a chuckle when one first sees him because he sports a mustache that was a characteristic attire of the classic villains of the silent film era.
While the satire in this film isn't heavy, it's very obvious. And it begins with the opening scene in a Los Angeles radio station. The radio announcer introduces Reuben J. Klutz, president of the Sunshine Society of Southern California. Then, on comes Tommy Conlin a familiar face in so many comedies and other films of the golden era. He, too, is perfect for this role - a klutz. As he extols the advantages of living in southern California, he points out the disadvantages of other areas.
"Now, in the Middle West," he says, "you have tornadoes, in the Northwest you have blizzards, in the South you have hurricanes, in the East you have rain, sleet, slush and snow, but in California - ahhh! Sunshine all the year round - sunshine and flowers." The set then rattles, rumbles and shakes, with the cast and the props, as an earthquake strikes. "This is very unusual," says Klutz. "Don't go away folks."
While the film hit theaters the first week of December 1933, southern Californians would have memories yet of the real earthquake that had struck the Los Angeles area earlier that year. The March 10 quake registered 6.4 and was centered just off the coast of Long Beach. It was the largest quake in the state since the granddaddy of them all, the San Francisco earthquake of April 18, 1906 that destroyed 80 percent of that city. But, by 1933, much more was known about earthquakes. And, setting this story around the March quake of that year, movie audiences would quickly see the humor and satire about touting southern California over other areas of the country for its less exposure to natural disasters and threats. That area actually has about 10,000 earthquakes every year; but, obviously not major quakes.
Then, on the heels of the news coverage of the quake in the story, the press gets another scathing. The film shows headlines of the story from big city papers around the country - Detroit, Boston, Salt Lake City, etc., with their banner headlines that read, "Southern California in Ruins," and others about the quake that demolished L. A. Then comes the local paper report the very next day, a small article with a one-column head on the front page, "Slight Quake disturbs city."
The real comedy takes off after this when the five-year editor of the paper's "Advice to the Lovelorn" column has to quit because she has found love. Toby had goofed on the earthquake story with a hangover, so Gaskell makes him the new Lovelorn editor. After all the ribbing and arguing, Toby writes some humorous and pithy responses. But before he and Gaskell can part company for good, the bean counters come into the office and rave about the column and the huge jump in subscriptions.
There are job complications because Toby was supposed to leave the paper and take over the management of the upscale garage that Louise's father owns. And dishonesty and graft creeps in when Toby agrees to plug the discount Kranz drug stores of Kranz, who pays him $1,100 per week. The story turns to drama when Toby's mother gets sick and a Kranz prescription that was supposed to revive her until the doctor arrives, fails. Louise starts to fall for the guy her father hired in place of Toby to run the garage. So, Toby now has to woo her back away from Adolf. The scene when she tells him about Adolf is so funny and uncanny with the rising notoriety of a certain person by that name in Europe.
There's much more humor, mixed with some drama and a scary scene where Toby and Louise are in danger of getting bumped off by Kranz and his henchmen. But, Benny comes to the rescue - well, sort of, for a final funny ending. And, those who follow history and older audiences will note the uncanny foresight in this story about the future of newspaper advice columns to the love-struck. "Dear Abby" and "Dear Ann Landers" became syndicated columns with more than 200 million readers between them from the 1950s into the 21st century.
Even though this film is set in the early 1930s, its humor isn't dated. People who enjoy comedies should get some hearty laughs from this picture. Here are a couple of favorite lines from this film.
Toby Prentiss, to Louise, "Listen, you can't get mixed up with a guy by the name of Adolf. It's dangerous. There never was an Adolf in history that was anything but a mess."
Benny, "How many Z's in hesitate?"
The film has a good cast all around, with just four more characters having significant roles. Paul Harvey has a very good, entertaining and funny role as Toby's newspaper publisher boss, Gaskell. I agree with a couple other reviewers on the role by Sterling Holloway as Benny. I think it's one of his best and better liked roles. Sally Blane plays Toby's fiancé, Louise, and C. Henry Gordon plays Kane who owns the Kranz discount drugstore chain. Gordon gets a chuckle when one first sees him because he sports a mustache that was a characteristic attire of the classic villains of the silent film era.
While the satire in this film isn't heavy, it's very obvious. And it begins with the opening scene in a Los Angeles radio station. The radio announcer introduces Reuben J. Klutz, president of the Sunshine Society of Southern California. Then, on comes Tommy Conlin a familiar face in so many comedies and other films of the golden era. He, too, is perfect for this role - a klutz. As he extols the advantages of living in southern California, he points out the disadvantages of other areas.
"Now, in the Middle West," he says, "you have tornadoes, in the Northwest you have blizzards, in the South you have hurricanes, in the East you have rain, sleet, slush and snow, but in California - ahhh! Sunshine all the year round - sunshine and flowers." The set then rattles, rumbles and shakes, with the cast and the props, as an earthquake strikes. "This is very unusual," says Klutz. "Don't go away folks."
While the film hit theaters the first week of December 1933, southern Californians would have memories yet of the real earthquake that had struck the Los Angeles area earlier that year. The March 10 quake registered 6.4 and was centered just off the coast of Long Beach. It was the largest quake in the state since the granddaddy of them all, the San Francisco earthquake of April 18, 1906 that destroyed 80 percent of that city. But, by 1933, much more was known about earthquakes. And, setting this story around the March quake of that year, movie audiences would quickly see the humor and satire about touting southern California over other areas of the country for its less exposure to natural disasters and threats. That area actually has about 10,000 earthquakes every year; but, obviously not major quakes.
Then, on the heels of the news coverage of the quake in the story, the press gets another scathing. The film shows headlines of the story from big city papers around the country - Detroit, Boston, Salt Lake City, etc., with their banner headlines that read, "Southern California in Ruins," and others about the quake that demolished L. A. Then comes the local paper report the very next day, a small article with a one-column head on the front page, "Slight Quake disturbs city."
The real comedy takes off after this when the five-year editor of the paper's "Advice to the Lovelorn" column has to quit because she has found love. Toby had goofed on the earthquake story with a hangover, so Gaskell makes him the new Lovelorn editor. After all the ribbing and arguing, Toby writes some humorous and pithy responses. But before he and Gaskell can part company for good, the bean counters come into the office and rave about the column and the huge jump in subscriptions.
There are job complications because Toby was supposed to leave the paper and take over the management of the upscale garage that Louise's father owns. And dishonesty and graft creeps in when Toby agrees to plug the discount Kranz drug stores of Kranz, who pays him $1,100 per week. The story turns to drama when Toby's mother gets sick and a Kranz prescription that was supposed to revive her until the doctor arrives, fails. Louise starts to fall for the guy her father hired in place of Toby to run the garage. So, Toby now has to woo her back away from Adolf. The scene when she tells him about Adolf is so funny and uncanny with the rising notoriety of a certain person by that name in Europe.
There's much more humor, mixed with some drama and a scary scene where Toby and Louise are in danger of getting bumped off by Kranz and his henchmen. But, Benny comes to the rescue - well, sort of, for a final funny ending. And, those who follow history and older audiences will note the uncanny foresight in this story about the future of newspaper advice columns to the love-struck. "Dear Abby" and "Dear Ann Landers" became syndicated columns with more than 200 million readers between them from the 1950s into the 21st century.
Even though this film is set in the early 1930s, its humor isn't dated. People who enjoy comedies should get some hearty laughs from this picture. Here are a couple of favorite lines from this film.
Toby Prentiss, to Louise, "Listen, you can't get mixed up with a guy by the name of Adolf. It's dangerous. There never was an Adolf in history that was anything but a mess."
Benny, "How many Z's in hesitate?"