By Richard Harland Smith
A Very Honorable Guy
Brief Synopsis
A gambler sells his body to science to pay his debts.
Cast & Crew
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Lloyd Bacon
Director
Joe E. Brown
Feet Samuels
Alice White
Hortense [Hathaway]
Robert Barrat
Dr. Snitzer
Alan Dinehart
The Brain [Joel Baldwin]
Irene Franklin
Toodles [Hathaway]
Film Details
Genre
Comedy
Release Date
May
5,
1934
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
First National Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
First National Pictures, Inc.; The Vitaphone Corp.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the short story "A Very Honorable Guy" by Damon Runyon in Hearst's International-Cosmopolitan (Aug 1929).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 1m
Film Length
6 reels
Synopsis
Feet Samuels is known as a very honorable man. When he is arrested because of a misunderstanding, gangster Joel Baldwin, known as the Brain, bails him out. Now Feet owes five hundred dollars and is worried because the Brain is known to punish those who default on loans. Feet is an unlucky gambler and is unlucky at love as well. His girl friend, Hortense Hathaway, is only interested in money and Feet has none. Finally, in desperation, Feet decides to sell his body to science. This way, he will pay off his debts, have enough money for a good time for a month, and then at the end of the month, he will hire a hitman to kill him and deliver his body to the highest bidder. At first, there are no takers, but then Dr. Snitzer, Hortense's new boyfriend, offers Feet the necessary money. To guarantee that he will really get the body in thirty days, Snitzer asks the Brain to vouch for Feet. Now that it no longer matters, Feet's luck changes. He wins a fortune in the following month, and now that he has money, Hortense is in love with him again. On the last day of the month, Feet marries Hortense, but he no longer wants to die. He begs Snitzer to release him from his promise, but Snitzer refuses and calls the Brain. The Brain's men kidnap Feet and Hortense, but the Brain realizes that Snitzer is crazy and only bid for the body out of jealousy. He therefore considers the contract invalid and takes off after his men to stop the execution. In the following chase, the two cars crash right in front of a chicken ranch that is for sale. Feet and Hortense buy the ranch and settle in to raise chickens just as they had always planned.
Director
Lloyd Bacon
Director
Cast
Joe E. Brown
Feet Samuels
Alice White
Hortense [Hathaway]
Robert Barrat
Dr. Snitzer
Alan Dinehart
The Brain [Joel Baldwin]
Irene Franklin
Toodles [Hathaway]
Hobart Cavanaugh
Benny
Arthur Vinton
Moon O'Hara
George Pat Collins
Red Hendrickson
Harold Huber
Joe Ponzetti
James Donlan
O'Toole
Harry Warren
Harry
Al Dubin
Al
Harry Seymour
Tweezer LaRue
Bob Montgomery
Ten Pass Charlie
Brooks Benedict
Donny Detroit
Robert Ellis
Gangster
Dick Powell
Waiter
Katherine Clare Ward
Irish woman
Lee Shumway
First cop
Jack Cheatham
Second cop
Wade Boteler
Guard
James Burke
Sergeant
Charles Williams
Druggist
Maidel Turner
Mrs. Emerson
Bud Jamison
Jerry, the waiter
Raymond Brown
Mindy
Harry Semels
Greek
Aggie Herring
Mrs. Mullins
Eddie Kane
Mrs. Mullins
Matt Briggs
Farmer Perkins
Paul Hurst
Butler
Billy West
Mike
Clarence Muse
Harry Holman
Crew
Videos
Movie Clip
Trailer
Film Details
Genre
Comedy
Release Date
May
5,
1934
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
First National Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
First National Pictures, Inc.; The Vitaphone Corp.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the short story "A Very Honorable Guy" by Damon Runyon in Hearst's International-Cosmopolitan (Aug 1929).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 1m
Film Length
6 reels
Articles
A Very Honorable Guy
Based on Damon Runyon's 1929 story, A Very Honorable Guy is an early entry in the subset of films about a man (in this case, bass-mouthed comic Joe E. Brown) with nothing to live for who arranges to have himself knocked off by a hitman... only to find, in his dwindling days, ample reason to go on. Par for the course for Runyonville, this Warner Brothers comedy is chockablock with outrageous characters, among them Alan Dinehart as a mobster who stands to profit from Brown's untimely demise; Alice White as Brown's greedy guts fiancée; and Robert Barrat as a mad scientist with designs on Brown's skull. Director Lloyd Baker helmed this modestly budgeted farce between bigger assignments on the Academy Award-nominated 42nd Street (1933) and the James Cagney vehicle Here Comes the Navy (1934), nominated for Best Picture in 1935. Lending credible - and often incredible - support are Hobart Cavanaugh, Arthur Vinton, and Al Hill (a real life criminal who traded larceny for the life of an actor) as underworld thugs, as well as the composer-lyricist team of Harry Warren and Al Dubin, who would win the Best Original Song Oscar in 1936 for "Lullaby of Broadway." Screenwriter Earl Baldwin had incorporated mad science into his script for Doctor X (1932) and co-wrote Warners' later Damon Runyon adaptation A Slight Case of Murder (1938), starring Edward G. Robinson.
By Richard Harland Smith
By Richard Harland Smith
A Very Honorable Guy
Based on Damon Runyon's 1929 story, A Very Honorable Guy is an early entry in the subset of films about a man (in this case, bass-mouthed comic Joe E. Brown) with nothing to live for who arranges to have himself knocked off by a hitman... only to find, in his dwindling days, ample reason to go on. Par for the course for Runyonville, this Warner Brothers comedy is chockablock with outrageous characters, among them Alan Dinehart as a mobster who stands to profit from Brown's untimely demise; Alice White as Brown's greedy guts fiancée; and Robert Barrat as a mad scientist with designs on Brown's skull. Director Lloyd Baker helmed this modestly budgeted farce between bigger assignments on the Academy Award-nominated 42nd Street (1933) and the James Cagney vehicle Here Comes the Navy (1934), nominated for Best Picture in 1935. Lending credible - and often incredible - support are Hobart Cavanaugh, Arthur Vinton, and Al Hill (a real life criminal who traded larceny for the life of an actor) as underworld thugs, as well as the composer-lyricist team of Harry Warren and Al Dubin, who would win the Best Original Song Oscar in 1936 for "Lullaby of Broadway." Screenwriter Earl Baldwin had incorporated mad science into his script for Doctor X (1932) and co-wrote Warners' later Damon Runyon adaptation A Slight Case of Murder (1938), starring Edward G. Robinson. By Richard Harland Smith
