The Fabulous Joe
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Harve Foster
Walter Abel
Margot Grahame
Marie Wilson
Donald Meek
Sheldon Leonard
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
After twenty years of marriage, Milo and Emily Terkel are in the middle of divorce proceedings when Milo explains to the court how their marriage fell apart: The previous July on his anniversary, Milo returns home from his bank job carrying an expensive necklace for his wife. She is out visiting Mrs. Belmont, a society lady, however, and he and his dog, Joseph McMasters, are forced to have dinner at a club. At the club, Milo is hit while defending a young woman named Gorgeous Gilmore, who is admiring his wife's necklace. When Milo laments to Joe, the dog "tells" him to be a brute like Humphrey Bogart. When Milo returns home, he learns that his spendthrift daughter Debbie is going to marry Mrs. Belmont's son Cornelius. After snidely remarking that Cornelius will be "broke in a month" if he marries Debbie, Milo is threatened by Emily's freeloading brother, George Baxter, who has been living with them for ten years. Milo bravely tells George to "shut up," then ends up sleeping with Joe. The next evening, Milo returns home to find a note from Emily, stating that the family can no longer tolerate his "brutal and abusive behavior," and that she will be at her sister's until he apologizes. When Milo accidentally meets Gorgeous again in a park, Joe pushes her into a pond so that she will have to go home with Milo. At home, Joe tosses Gorgeous' clothes out a window, forcing Milo to buy her new clothes. Although George reports Milo's "infidelity" to Emily, she has a change of heart and apologizes to Milo over the telephone. He asserts that from now on he will be the head of the household. Meanwhile, Gorgeous' boyfriend Louie meets her at Milo's apartment and, in anger, rips off her new dress, forcing her to hide in a slip as Emily returns. After Debbie, Cornelius, George and Mr. and Mrs. Belmont arrive and discover Gorgeous, chaos ensues while they try to hide her, and Joe starts a fire so that Milo can sneak Gorgeous out of the building. Later, Milo tells his lawyer that his dog has been talking to him and pushed Gorgeous into his life to make Emily jealous. Back in the courtroom, it is decided that Milo has become mentally unbalanced from overwork and an extremely unhappy situation at home. Emily then decides to kick George out of the house and take her husband to Maine for a rest cure.
Director
Harve Foster
Cast
Walter Abel
Margot Grahame
Marie Wilson
Donald Meek
Sheldon Leonard
Howard Petrie
Nana Bryant
Clarence Kolb
Johnny Miles
Barbara Bates
Donald Macbride
Lucien Littlefield
Dorothy Christy
John Eldredge
Al Bridge
Charlotte Wynters
Ellen Corby
Patti Morgan
Sid Saylor
Jimmy Dundee
Tom Noonan
Cyril Ring
Eddie Hall
Michael Macban
Crew
Arnold Belgard
Harry Black
John W. Boyle
Bebe Daniels
Burris Grimwood
Jack Jevne
Bert Jordan
John H. Morse
Jerome Pycha Jr.
William Randall
Hal Roach
Hal Roach Jr.
Hal Roach Jr.
Heinz Roemheld
Roy W. Seawright
William Stevens
Jack Temple
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The Fabulous Joe was originally released as Part II of The Hal Roach Comedy Carnival, which had a total running time of 112 minutes. Part I was Curley. Although each part was copyrighted separately, both certificates were issued on the same day. The film ends with "Joe" saying to the camera, "Don't be silly, you know dogs can't talk!" The Fabulous Joe was the first film Bebe Daniels produced for Hal Roach. This film was one of Roach's "streamlined features," a series of short comedies intended to fill the second half of a double bill. The first streamlined feature was the 1941 film Tanks a Million (see below).
