You Said a Mouthful (1932) - Turner Classic Movies

Brief Synopsis

To sell his unsinkable bathing suit, an inventor passes himself off as a championship swimmer.

Cast & Crew

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Lloyd Bacon

Joe E. Brown

Ginger Rogers

Preston S. Foster

Farina

Harry Gribbon

Photos & Videos

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You Said A Mouthful (1932) -- (Movie Clip) You're Just As I Pictured You

You Said A Mouthful (1932) -- (Movie Clip) The Sharks Won't Like The Flavor

You Said A Mouthful - (Original Trailer)

You Said A Mouthful (1932) -- (Movie Clip) He Isn't Chump Enough

Film Details

Genre

Comedy

Release Date

Nov 26, 1932

Premiere Information

New York premiere: 16 Nov 1932

Production Company

First National Pictures, Inc.

Distribution Company

First National Pictures, Inc.

Country

United States

Technical Specs

Duration

1h 15m

Sound

Mono

Color

Black and White

Theatrical Aspect Ratio

1.37 : 1

Film Length

7 reels

Synopsis

Joe Holt, a minor employee of the Armstrong Rubber Goods and Swimming Wear Company, has invented an unsinkable bathing suit. His ambitions make him the butt of practical jokes perpetrated by the other employees, who convince him that Mr. Armstrong, the head of the company, is interested in his invention. On the contrary, Mr. Armstrong will have nothing to do with Joe, so when a lawyer informs him that he has inherited his aunt's fortune, Joe is suspicious. Finally convinced, Joe quits his job, only to find when he arrives in California that his aunt's entire fortune consists of worthless stock. In its place, she has left him to care for Sam Wellington, the son of a servant. Completely broke, Joe and Sam apply for jobs on Catalina Island. Just before the boat leaves, socialite Alice Brandon takes him in hand, announcing that they will stay at the house of Tom Brandon, her father. Alice has mistaken water-fearing Joe for Joe Holt, the marathon swimmer, who is to swim in a race across the Catalina Channel. Joe tries to tell Alice the truth, but she is too busy confessing that she has fallen out of love with Ed Dover, another competitor, to listen and begs Joe to beat Ed for her sake. Joe Holt, the swimmer, meanwhile, has been jailed as an imposter. Sam tries to teach Joe how to swim, but the effort fails until Joe acquires an unsinkable suit. After his attempts to avoid the race fail, Joe dons the suit and swims across the Channel, winning the race by hitching a ride on a shark. His win secures Alice's love.

Director

Lloyd Bacon

Cast

Joe E. Brown

Ginger Rogers

Preston S. Foster

Farina

Harry Gribbon

Edwin Maxwell

Sheila Terry

Walter Walker

Guinn Williams

Joe Holt, swimming champ

Oscar Apfel

Bert Morehouse

William Burress

Frank Hagney

Selmer Jackson

Mia Marvin

Armstrong's secretary

Harry Seymour

James Eagles

Arthur S. Byron

Anthony Lord

Crew

Cheney Brothers

William B. Dover

Leo F. Forbstein

Vitaphone Orch Conductor

Harold Kruger

Vernon Lawson

Assistant Camera

Robert Lord

Don Mair

Bolton Mallory

Owen Marks

Jack Okey

Orry-kelly

William Schurr

Richard Towers

Charles Scott Welbourne

Still Photographer

Videos

You Said A Mouthful (1932) -- (Movie Clip) The Sharks Won't Like The Flavor Nearing the end, Joe E. Brown, a nerd non-swimmer, mistaken for a Canadian champ, thinking he’s wearing the unsinkable swimsuit he invented, with sidekick Farina, desperate to impress Ginger Rogers as heiress Alice, getting ready for the big race from Catalina Island, Preston Foster his rival Ed, in You Said A Mouthful, 1932.

You Said A Mouthful (1932) -- (Movie Clip) He Isn't Chump Enough Opening the First National-Vitaphone Joe E. Brown vehicle, we meet the star as a nerdy swimsuit factory employee, Harry Gribbon and Sheila Terry as colleagues in charge of playing tricks on him, Lloyd Bacon directing, in You Said A Mouthful, 1932, also starring Ginger Rogers.

You Said A Mouthful (1932) -- (Movie Clip) You're Just As I Pictured You Joe E. Brown as Joe Holt, in L-A from Iowa, come for his $1-million inheritance and having found out all he got was a servant?s son (Farina), they?re about to take jobs on Catalina Island when Ginger Rogers, age 21, mistakes him for we-don?t-know-who, Guinn Williams the real guy, in You Said A Mouthful, 1932.

You Said A Mouthful - (Original Trailer) To sell his unsinkable bathing suit, Joe E. Brown must pass himself off as a championship swimmer in You Said A Mouthful (1932).

Film Details

Genre

Comedy

Release Date

Nov 26, 1932

Premiere Information

New York premiere: 16 Nov 1932

Production Company

First National Pictures, Inc.

Distribution Company

First National Pictures, Inc.

Country

United States

Technical Specs

Duration

1h 15m

Sound

Mono

Color

Black and White

Theatrical Aspect Ratio

1.37 : 1

Film Length

7 reels

Articles

You Said a Mouthful

January 26, 2010

A former circus acrobat, semi-pro baseball player, vaudevillian, burlesque comic and Broadway star, Joe E. Brown became one of the favorite comedians of the early talkie period, and one of Warner Bros.' top moneymakers. Ginger Rogers had arrived in Hollywood in 1930, working first at Paramount, then at Pathé. By 1932, she was dating Warner Bros. director Mervyn LeRoy, who suggested her as Brown's love interest in The Tenderfoot (1932). In her autobiography, Rogers recalled Brown's kindness to her. "Considerate, friendly, kind and thoughtful, he was everything you could wish for in a colleague. Though he was the star, he took the time to make sure I was okay and kept thinking of ways to turn my face to the camera." So she was delighted to work with him again a few months later in You Said a Mouthful (1932), and found the experience equally gratifying.

In You Said a Mouthful, Brown plays meek office clerk Joe Holt, who's the butt of office jokes about the unsinkable swimsuit he's invented. He's mistaken for a championship swimmer, also named Joe Holt, by heiress Rogers, and ends up competing in a marathon swimming race. It's a typical slapstick Brown vehicle, and pleased his fans and critics alike. Even Mordaunt Hall of the august New York Times warmed to the film, saying it "may be both a trifle too boisterous and slow at times, but it has several genuinely funny sequences and occasional flashes of originality...Joe E. Brown does quite well with this ludicrous role. Ginger Rogers is lively as Alice Brandon." Marguerite Tazelaar of the New York Herald Tribune also had kind words for Rogers: "Ginger Rogers strikes just the right note in her supporting role, giving her ingénue the touch of sophistication and playful spoofing desirable." The World-Telegram critic was more succinct: "Ginger Rogers continues to be one of the most attractive young women on the screen." So was Photoplay: "Ginger Rogers was made for a bathing suit."

Lloyd Bacon, who directed You Said a Mouthful, also directed Rogers's next film, 42nd Street (1933). Bacon apparently saw something special in the young actress and offered her a featured role as "Anytime Annie," a chorus girl so named, another chorine explains, because "She only said 'no' once and that was because she didn't hear the question!" In her autobiography, Rogers credits LeRoy with urging her to accept the role. Once she did, she ran with it, adding clever affectations like a fancy accent and a monocle. The small role launched her career.

As Rogers's career rose, Brown's descended. Although he was one of Hollywood's top box office stars in 1933 and 1936, he left Warner Brothers in the late 1930s, and signed with an independent producer. His films were cheaply made and not very good, and Brown's career never fully recovered. But he did have one more great film role in him, eccentric millionaire Osgood Fielding in Some Like It Hot (1959), who utters the film's iconic last line, "Well, nobody's perfect!"

Director: Lloyd Bacon
Producer: Raymond Griffith
Screenplay: Robert Lord, Bolton Mallory, based on a story by William B. Dover
Cinematography: Richard Towers
Editor: Owen Marks
Art Direction: Jack Okey
Cast: Joe E. Brown (Joe Holt), Ginger Rogers (Alice Brandon), Preston Foster (Ed Dover), Sheila Terry (Cora), Guinn "Big Boy" Williams (Joe Holt), Farina (Sam), Harry Gribbon (Harry Daniels).
BW-71m.

by Margarita Landazuri

You Said A Mouthful

You Said a Mouthful

A former circus acrobat, semi-pro baseball player, vaudevillian, burlesque comic and Broadway star, Joe E. Brown became one of the favorite comedians of the early talkie period, and one of Warner Bros.' top moneymakers. Ginger Rogers had arrived in Hollywood in 1930, working first at Paramount, then at Pathé. By 1932, she was dating Warner Bros. director Mervyn LeRoy, who suggested her as Brown's love interest in The Tenderfoot (1932). In her autobiography, Rogers recalled Brown's kindness to her. "Considerate, friendly, kind and thoughtful, he was everything you could wish for in a colleague. Though he was the star, he took the time to make sure I was okay and kept thinking of ways to turn my face to the camera." So she was delighted to work with him again a few months later in You Said a Mouthful (1932), and found the experience equally gratifying. In You Said a Mouthful, Brown plays meek office clerk Joe Holt, who's the butt of office jokes about the unsinkable swimsuit he's invented. He's mistaken for a championship swimmer, also named Joe Holt, by heiress Rogers, and ends up competing in a marathon swimming race. It's a typical slapstick Brown vehicle, and pleased his fans and critics alike. Even Mordaunt Hall of the august New York Times warmed to the film, saying it "may be both a trifle too boisterous and slow at times, but it has several genuinely funny sequences and occasional flashes of originality...Joe E. Brown does quite well with this ludicrous role. Ginger Rogers is lively as Alice Brandon." Marguerite Tazelaar of the New York Herald Tribune also had kind words for Rogers: "Ginger Rogers strikes just the right note in her supporting role, giving her ingénue the touch of sophistication and playful spoofing desirable." The World-Telegram critic was more succinct: "Ginger Rogers continues to be one of the most attractive young women on the screen." So was Photoplay: "Ginger Rogers was made for a bathing suit." Lloyd Bacon, who directed You Said a Mouthful, also directed Rogers's next film, 42nd Street (1933). Bacon apparently saw something special in the young actress and offered her a featured role as "Anytime Annie," a chorus girl so named, another chorine explains, because "She only said 'no' once and that was because she didn't hear the question!" In her autobiography, Rogers credits LeRoy with urging her to accept the role. Once she did, she ran with it, adding clever affectations like a fancy accent and a monocle. The small role launched her career. As Rogers's career rose, Brown's descended. Although he was one of Hollywood's top box office stars in 1933 and 1936, he left Warner Brothers in the late 1930s, and signed with an independent producer. His films were cheaply made and not very good, and Brown's career never fully recovered. But he did have one more great film role in him, eccentric millionaire Osgood Fielding in Some Like It Hot (1959), who utters the film's iconic last line, "Well, nobody's perfect!" Director: Lloyd Bacon Producer: Raymond Griffith Screenplay: Robert Lord, Bolton Mallory, based on a story by William B. Dover Cinematography: Richard Towers Editor: Owen Marks Art Direction: Jack Okey Cast: Joe E. Brown (Joe Holt), Ginger Rogers (Alice Brandon), Preston Foster (Ed Dover), Sheila Terry (Cora), Guinn "Big Boy" Williams (Joe Holt), Farina (Sam), Harry Gribbon (Harry Daniels). BW-71m. by Margarita Landazuri

Quotes

Trivia

Notes

The scenes set on Santa Catalina Island were shot there. According to production records in the file on the film in the AMPAS library, shooting lasted thirty-one days and the film was made for a total cost of $223,000.

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