By Richard Harland Smith
The Go Getter
Brief Synopsis
A Navy veteran with one leg fights to make himself a success.
Cast & Crew
Read More
Busby Berkeley
Director
George Brent
Bill Austin
Anita Louise
Margaret Ricks
Charles Winninger
Cappy Ricks
John Eldredge
Lloyd Skinner
Henry O'neill
Commander Tisdale
Film Details
Genre
Drama
Comedy
Release Date
May
22,
1937
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the short story "The Go-Getter" by Peter B. Kyne in Hearst's International-Cosmopolitan (publication date undetermined).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 32m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
10 reels
Synopsis
Unemployed lumber salesman Bill Austin is determined to get a job with the Ricks' Lumber Company in San Francisco. When neither Lloyd Skinner nor Matt Peasley, the two men who run the company, will hire him because he is lame from a war wound, Bill approaches the owner, Cappy Ricks, directly. While he is waiting to see Ricks, he strikes up a conversation with Margaret Ricks, not knowing that she is Ricks's daughter. He assumes that she is also looking for a job and asks her to attend a movie with him that evening. After she accepts, she is ushered into Ricks's office, where she convinces her father to give Bill a job by telling him that both Skinner and Peasley turned him down. Ricks tells Bill in Skinner's presence that he will be given the toughest job at the company, selling skunk spruce, and if he does not make good he will be out of a job. Confidently, Bill welcomes the challenge. Although believing at first that Margaret is a maid in the Ricks's home, Bill still wants to date her when he learns she is Ricks's daughter. That evening Bill and Margaret fall in love, but the next day, Bill is off on his sales trip. He is very successful, selling all the skunk spruce on hand as well as more orders than the company can fill. When he closes a difficult deal, he is awarded a raise. Before he assigns Bill to head the Shanghai office, Ricks devises a test to ensure that he is the right man for the job. He asks Bill to buy a certain vase with his own money and deliver it to him on the Santa Barbara train. In the meantime, Bill asks Margaret to marry him and she accepts. Ricks is unwilling to lose his only daughter and now is doubly determined to see Bill fail. Ricks has given Bill the wrong location of the store and, by the time he finds it, the store is closed. Bill then tracks down the owner, pawns Margaret's engagment ring for the money to buy the vase, and finds an old shipmate to fly him to meet the train. Ricks is astonished to see Bill, but pleased. When he tells Bill that the whole thing was a trick to test him, Bill is initially crushed, but after he learns about the new job, he announces that he and Margaret will marry before he leaves, which they do despite Ricks's protests. Ricks then tries to prevent their sailing to Shanghai by purchasing all the staterooms on the ship. Bill and Margaret outwit him by coming aboard in a car. Then Ricks learns that the strikers at his company will only talk to Bill. He wires Bill aboard ship, and true to his motto, "It Shall Be Done," Bill, accompanied by Margaret, comes ashore. Bill settles the strike and Ricks sends Skinner to Shanghai, awarding Bill with Skinner's old job.
Director
Busby Berkeley
Director
Cast
George Brent
Bill Austin
Anita Louise
Margaret Ricks
Charles Winninger
Cappy Ricks
John Eldredge
Lloyd Skinner
Henry O'neill
Commander Tisdale
Joseph Crehan
Karl Stone
Gordon Oliver
Luce
Eddie Acuff
Bob Blair
Willard Robertson
Matt Peasley
Pierre Watkins
Browne
Helen Valkis
Skinner's secretary
Herbert Rawlinson
Lester
Helen Lowell
Mrs. Luce
Harry Beresford
M. M. Baker
Minerva Urecal
Cappy Rick's secretary
Mary Treen
Mrs. [Mary] Blair
George Humbert
Tony
Edward Price
Radio station operator
Ed Gargan
Policeman
Craig Reynolds
Macon survivor
Carlyle Moore
Macon survivor
James Robbins
Information clerk
Harry Fox
Crew
Sam Bischoff
Associate Producer
Delmer Daves
Screenwriter
Arthur Edeson
Photography
Leo F. Forbstein
Music Director
William Holmes
Film Editor
M. K. Jerome
Composer
Orry-kelly
Gowns
Irving Rapper
Dialogue Director
Hugh Reticker
Art Director
Russ Saunders
Assistant Director
Jack Scholl
Composer
Jack L. Warner
Executive Producer
Film Details
Genre
Drama
Comedy
Release Date
May
22,
1937
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the short story "The Go-Getter" by Peter B. Kyne in Hearst's International-Cosmopolitan (publication date undetermined).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 32m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
10 reels
Articles
The Go Getter (1937) -
Visionary Hollywood filmmaker Busby Berkeley directed his first non-musical in the aftermath of a tragic 1935 road accident that had left three dead and five injured - among them, Berkeley himself, who was wheeled into Los Angeles Municipal Court on a stretcher to face charges of vehicular manslaughter. Though he was eventually acquitted, the damage to body and soul was done as Berkeley drifted into career doldrums, a dissatisfaction aggravated by what he felt was an industry-wide disregard for his talents. A degree of recognition came with a 1936 citation from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his contributions to musical productions in movies but Berkeley's request for a pay raise went unanswered at Warner Brothers. Scripted by future director Delmer Daves (who had adapted The Petrified Forest [1936] for Archie Mayo the previous year), The Go Getter stars George Brent as a plucky World War I veteran who, minus a leg, attempts to make it big in the lumber industry by adhering to the motto "It shall be done." Based on a magazine story by Peter B. Kyne and a 1923 silent film of the same name, The Go Getter did little for Berkeley's career. Emigrating to MGM, he directed several pictures starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland and mentored an up and coming actor-dancer named Gene Kelly.
By Richard Harland Smith
By Richard Harland Smith
The Go Getter (1937) -
Visionary Hollywood filmmaker Busby Berkeley directed his first non-musical in the aftermath of a tragic 1935 road accident that had left three dead and five injured - among them, Berkeley himself, who was wheeled into Los Angeles Municipal Court on a stretcher to face charges of vehicular manslaughter. Though he was eventually acquitted, the damage to body and soul was done as Berkeley drifted into career doldrums, a dissatisfaction aggravated by what he felt was an industry-wide disregard for his talents. A degree of recognition came with a 1936 citation from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his contributions to musical productions in movies but Berkeley's request for a pay raise went unanswered at Warner Brothers. Scripted by future director Delmer Daves (who had adapted The Petrified Forest [1936] for Archie Mayo the previous year), The Go Getter stars George Brent as a plucky World War I veteran who, minus a leg, attempts to make it big in the lumber industry by adhering to the motto "It shall be done." Based on a magazine story by Peter B. Kyne and a 1923 silent film of the same name, The Go Getter did little for Berkeley's career. Emigrating to MGM, he directed several pictures starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland and mentored an up and coming actor-dancer named Gene Kelly.
By Richard Harland Smith
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
"The Go-Getter" was also published in Peter B. Kyne's book Cappy Ricks Comes Back (New York, 1934). It was one of a series of stories Kyne wrote around the character of Cappy Ricks. According to Motion Picture Herald, Ricardo Cortez was originally assigned to the part of Lloyd Skinner. Mathilde Comont, Kenneth Harlan and Myrtle Stedman are listed in early reports of the cast, but their participation in the final film has not been confirmed. For other films based on Kyne's stories about Cappy Ricks, see entry above for Cappy Ricks Returns.
