Bunker Bean
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
William Hamilton
Owen Davis Jr.
Louise Latimer
Robert Mcwade
Jessie Ralph
Lucille Ball
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
When Bunker Bean, a timid stenographer for the brutish J. C. Kent, an aircraft manufacturing executive, learns about reincarnation from his friend, Dr. Meyerhauser, he becomes convinced that he was an important, successful figure in a previous life. To confirm his beliefs, Bunker visits fortune-teller Countess Cassandra, who tells him that he is a reincarnation of Napoleon Bonaparte. Soon after, Bunker receives a letter informing him that his uncle has died and has willed him $5,000 and the rights to the patent of his uncle's invention, a gyro-stablilizer device for airplanes. Bunker then is ordered to Kent's country home for a weekend of work and, in his boss's library, finds a biography of Napoleon.
Stimulated by the section on Napoleon's love affairs, Bunker boldly spanks Kent's pretty daughter Mary when she insists on dating a notorious playboy. Humiliated by Mary's subsequent fury, Bunker re-visits Cassandra and her partner, Professor Balthazer, who assure Bunker that he is actually a reincarnation of Ram Tah, a wise and brave Egyptian pharoah. Kent, meanwhile, learns that Bunker owns the gyro-stablilizer patent and, although he knows that it is worth a considerable sum, offers him one hundred dollars for it. Inspired by a sawdust reproduction of Ram Tah's mummy, which Balthazer has sold to him for $1,000, Bunker becomes determined to force Kent to pay him a fair price and to marry Mary. During negotiations with Kent and his business rival, however, Bunker discovers that his mummy is a fake and suddenly loses his confidence. After Mary, who has fallen in love with the "new" Bunker, persuades him that his transformation is genuine, Bunker manipulates Kent into a $50,000 offer and then informs his boss that Mary is now Mrs. Bunker Bean.
Cast
Owen Davis Jr.
Louise Latimer
Robert Mcwade
Jessie Ralph
Lucille Ball
Berton Churchill
Edward Nugent
Hedda Hopper
Ferdinand Gottschalk
Leonard Carey
Russell Hicks
Sibyl Harris
Pierre Watkin
Charles Arnt
Patricia Wilder
Maxine Jennings
Ed Dearing
Edward Le Saint
Richard Abbott
Crew
David Abel
Samuel J. Briskin
James Gow
John Grey
Al Herman
Jack Hively
Henry Johnson
Edmund North
Van Nest Polglase
Clem Portman
William Sistrom
Roy Webb
Dorothy Yost
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
The original play opened in New York on 2 October 1916.
Notes
Harry Leon Wilson's novel was first serialized in The Saturday Evening Post. The working title for this film was His Majesty, Bunker Bean, which also was the British release title. According to Hollywood Reporter, John Arledge and John Beal were first considered for the role of "Bunker Bean." Owen Davis, Jr., who eventually got the part, made his debut as a star in the production. The exact nature of Henry Johnson and John Grey's writing contribution, which was found in Screen Achievements Bulletin, is not known. Hollywood Reporter production charts add Helen Lowell, Richard Barbee, Lorimer Johnson, Bentley Hewlett, Ralph Byrd and Will Stanton to the cast, but their participation in the final film has not been confirmed. Modern sources add Joan Davis (Telephone operator) to the cast. In 1918, William D. Taylor directed Jack Pickford and Louise Huff in a Famous Players-Lasky version of Wilson's novel called His Majesty, Bunker Bean (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1911-20; F1.1982). In 1928, Warner Bros. produced another version, also called His Majesty, Bunker Bean, which was directed by Harry Beaumont and starred Matt Moore (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1921-30; F2.2523).
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States 1936
Released in United States 1936
