Al Boasberg - Turner Classic Movies

Biography

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Al Boasberg's talent for screenwriting gave him a Hollywood career. Boasberg wrote screenplays for "Battling Butler" (1926) and the comedy "The General" (1927) with Buster Keaton. at the beginning of his careerHe then went on to add film writing projects like "So This Is College" (1929), "Doughboys" (1930) and "Murder in the Private Car" (1934). to his nameLater in his career, Bo...

Filmography

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Myrt and Marge (1933)

A Day at the Races (1937)

A Day at the Races (1937)

Make a Wish (1937)

Additional Dialogue

Silly Billies (1936)

Let 'Em Have It (1935)

Additional Dialogue

Photos & Videos

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Battling Butler (1926) -- (Movie Clip) Go Out And Rough It

Battling Butler (1926) -- (Movie Clip) Put Up Your Hands

Biography

Al Boasberg's talent for screenwriting gave him a Hollywood career. Boasberg wrote screenplays for "Battling Butler" (1926) and the comedy "The General" (1927) with Buster Keaton. at the beginning of his careerHe then went on to add film writing projects like "So This Is College" (1929), "Doughboys" (1930) and "Murder in the Private Car" (1934). to his nameLater in his career, Boasberg wrote the comedy "The Nitwits" (1935) with Bert Wheeler. Boasberg passed away in June 1937 at the age of 45.

Filmography

Director (Feature Film)

Myrt and Marge (1933)

Writer (Feature Film)

A Day at the Races (1937)

A Day at the Races (1937)

Make a Wish (1937)

Additional Dialogue

Silly Billies (1936)

Let 'Em Have It (1935)

Additional Dialogue

The Nitwits (1935)

A Night at the Opera (1935)

Additional Dialogue

Tres amores (1934)

Murder in the Private Car (1934)

Myrt and Marge (1933)

Bachelor Mother (1933)

Additional Dialogue

Cracked Nuts (1931)

50 Million Frenchmen (1931)

Everything's Rosie (1931)

Everything's Rosie (1931)

Cracked Nuts (1931)

¡De frente, marchen! (1930)

Argumento [Story]

Doughboys (1930)

Free and Easy (1930)

The Florodora Girl (1930)

Additional Dialogue

Chasing Rainbows (1930)

Doughboys (1930)

Way for a Sailor (1930)

Additional Dialogue

So This Is College (1929)

The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929)

So This Is College (1929)

It's a Great Life (1929)

Trmt & comedy dial

Ladies' Night in a Turkish Bath (1928)

That Certain Thing (1928)

Smile, Brother, Smile (1927)

Her Father Said No (1927)

Quarantined Rivals (1927)

The Gorilla (1927)

Clancy's Kosher Wedding (1927)

California or Bust (1927)

Her Father Said No (1927)

The General (1927)

Battling Butler (1926)

Screenplay Adapted

Music (Feature Film)

So This Is College (1929)

Director (Short)

Jail Birds of Paradise (1934)

Writer (Short)

Jail Birds of Paradise (1934)

Life Events

Videos

Battling Butler (1926) -- (Movie Clip) Go Out And Rough It Opening with his parents and valet (Snitz Edwards), director Buster Keaton is affluent milquetoast Alfred Butler, who agrees that camping might toughen him up, in Battling Butler, 1926, produced Joseph Schenck, distributed by Metro-Goldwyn, exteriors shot at the Talmadge on Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles.

Battling Butler (1926) -- (Movie Clip) Put Up Your Hands Because the real lightweight champ who took his name has quit (in order to avoid fighting the dreaded “Alabama Murderer”), and to prevent his new wife finding out he’s not a boxer at all, director and star Buster Keaton trains, with his valet (Snitz Edwards) and coach (Tom Wilson), in Battling Butler, 1926.

Battling Butler (1926) -- (Movie Clip) Isn't She Pretty? Playing the over-resourced but incompetent hunter Alfred Butler (shooting along the Kern River, near Bakersfield), director and star Buster Keaton blunders around with his valet (Snitz Edwards), but is pleased to meet the charming “Mountain Girl” (Sally O’Neil), early in Battling Butler, 1926.

Nitwits, The (1935) -- (Movie Clip) You Opened My Eyes George Stevens with a clever opening, directing his third feature and his second Wheeler & Woolsey vehicle, with a song introduced by Joey Ray, Joan Andrews also singing, the tune by Felix Bernard and L. Wolfe Gilbert, Donald Kerr the lackey, Hale Hamilton the music company boss, and the stars, Bert and Robert, running the cigar shop (Betty Grable in the photo!), in The Nitwits, 1935.

Nitwits, The (1935) -- (Movie Clip) Music In My Heart If Betty Grable looks like she’s 18 it’s because she was, in one of her earliest credited features, as Mary, secretary to the boss upstairs at the music publishing company, who needs a murder song, so she can’t wait to tell her songwriting beau Johnnie (Bert Wheeler) down at the cigar shop, launching into a Jimmy McHugh-Dorothy Fields original, in the Wheeler & Woolsey comedy The Nitwits, 1935.

Nitwits, The (1935) -- (Movie Clip) The Black Widow's Going To Get You! Having by chance written a song about the “Black Widow,” not knowing that music publishing company boss Lake (Hale Hamilton), to whom they’re pitching the song, is being tormented by a blackmailer by that very name, Bert hesitates but Robert manages to perform, in the Wheeler & Woolsey vehicle The Nitwits, 1935.

Everything's Rosie (1931) -- (Movie Clip) We've Been In Muddier Towns Now doing a gypsy schtick at the traveling carnival, Anita Louise, the title character, meets good-natured local law student Billy (John Darrow), while her partner (Robert Woolsey as Droop, now telling fortunes) processes an uncredited customer, in RKO’s Woolsey-without-Wheeler programmer Everything’s Rosie, 1931.

Day At The Races, A (1937) -- (Movie Clip) I Proposed To Your Mother Horse doctor Hackenbush (Groucho Marx) enters as his rich patient Mrs. Upjohn (Margaret Dumont) is hoping to intervene on behalf of sanitarium owner Judy (Maureen O’Sullivan), who’s being railroaded by her business manager Whitmore (Leonard Ceeley), early in A Day At The Races, 1937.

Freaks (1932) -- (Movie Clip) Living Breathing Monstrosities In the sometimes forgotten prologue, the barker (Murray Kinnell) lures spectators, then director Tod Browning introduces Hans and Freida (Harry and Daisy Earles) and the already evil-seeming "Cleopatra" (Olga Balaclova), in the eventually influential box-office flop Freaks, 1932.

Freaks (1932) -- (Movie Clip) Wedding Feast Director Tod Browning's famous scene, "Half Boy" Johnny Eck leading cohorts, mocking Cleopatra (Olga Baclanova) at her sham wedding to clueless Hans (Harry Earles), his jilted Daisy (Earles) dejected, her real boyfriend, strong-man Hercules (Henry Victor) being dumb, in Freaks, 1932.

Doughboys (1930) -- (Movie Clip) I Want My Mama A rare vocal by Buster Keaton, with “Ukelele Ike” Cliff Edwards, who became a lifelong pal after this picture, reeling off an un-credited vaudeville tune, which they often did between takes, chilling in the barracks, in Keaton’s second MGM talkie, Doughboys, 1930.

Doughboys (1930) -- (Movie Clip) You Rolls Royces Once you adjust to Buster Keaton speaking, this is his second of two attempts, as blue-blood "Elmer Stuyvesant," to woo shopgirl Mary (Sally Eilers), his servant Gustave (Arnold Korff) standing by as the chauffeur enlists for the war, in Keaton's second talkie for MGM, Doughboys, 1930.

Bibliography

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