By Violet LeVoit
Millionaire Playboy
Brief Synopsis
A young millionaire gets hiccups whenever he kisses a pretty woman.
Cast & Crew
Read More
Leslie Goodwins
Director
Joe Penner
Joe Zany
Linda Hayes
Lois Marlow
Russ Brown
Bob Norman
Fritz Feld
Gorta
Tom Kennedy
Murphy
Film Details
Also Known As
Glamour Boy
Genre
Comedy
Release Date
Mar
15,
1940
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 4m
Sound
Mono (RCA Recording System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
7 reels
Synopsis
Joe, the son of millionaire J. B. Zany, is girl shy, the victim of too much kissing in his cradle which caused him to be overcome with hiccups whenever a woman kisses him. To cure Joe of his affliction, J. B. hires Bob Norman, the head of an escort bureau, who takes the boy to a lake resort inhabited by women. To assuage Joe's fears, Bob tells him that the name of the resort is the Lifted Face Club and that all the guests are over sixty. To make sure that Joe receives ample attention from the man-hungry residents, Bob registers him as Joe Potter, the millionaire playboy. Unknown to Joe, his father has sent his flunkies, Stafford and Murphy, to buy the resort as a site for a dam, but the owner, Lois Marlow, refuses to sell. To force Lois to reconsider, Stafford and Murphy pipe strange noises through the heating system, terrifying the guests. When Joe proves that the noises are coming from Murphy's radio, he earns an embrace from Lois. The next day, Lois, Bob and the others are rehearsing a play, and when Joe watches as Lois proclaims her love for him and shoots Bob, he thinks that the action is real. After finishing rehearsal, Lois stuffs a dummy into a sack, and Joe, believing that the sack contains Bob's body, decides to save Lois by disposing of the evidence. Hitchhiking to town with the sack, Joe is mistaken for the sack murderer and cornered by the angry citizenry when Bob and Lois catch up to him and pull the dummy from the sack. Back at the lodge, Joe realizes that Lois is the woman for him and buys up all the overdue bank notes on her property, thus saving her from bankruptcy.
Director
Leslie Goodwins
Director
Cast
Joe Penner
Joe Zany
Linda Hayes
Lois Marlow
Russ Brown
Bob Norman
Fritz Feld
Gorta
Tom Kennedy
Murphy
Granville Bates
Stafford
Arthur Q. Bryan
J. B. Zany
Adele Pearce
Eleanor
Diane Hunter
Hattie
Mary Milford
Bertha
Mantan Moreland
Bellhop
Crew
Doran Cox
Assistant Director
Albert D'agostino
Art Director Associate
Bert Granet
Screenwriter
Bert Granet
Story
Jack Mackenzie
Photography
Lee Marcus
Executive Producer
Desmond Marquette
Editing
Van Nest Polglase
Art Director
Renie
Gowns
Charles E. Roberts
Screenwriter
Paul Sawtell
Music Score
Robert Sisk
Producer
Vernon L. Walker
Special Effects
Earl A. Wolcott
Recording
Film Details
Also Known As
Glamour Boy
Genre
Comedy
Release Date
Mar
15,
1940
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 4m
Sound
Mono (RCA Recording System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
7 reels
Articles
Millionaire Playboy -
Joe Penner, the nasal, nebbishy, and now nearly forgotten radio comedian, was hugely popular for his catchphrases "Wanna buy a duck?" and "You nasssss-ty man!" After getting his big break from being introduced by a favorably impressed Rudy Vallee, he made ten movies in six years - but this is one of his last, made while his star was falling. Here he plays Joe Zany, a man who suffers from the strange malady of getting hysterical cases of the hiccups when confronted with a beautiful lady. His father's solution is to supply him an all-expense paid vacation at a lake resort popular with the ladies, in the hopes that enough feminine attention will acclimate him to kisses. But when Joe learns about his father's backroom dealings with the resort (and the dam he hopes to build nearby), he's got to choose loyalties between his father or with Lois (xxx), the pretty owner of the resort. In real life Penner was terribly anxious and credited his wife Eleanor with soothing his nerves - and it was she who, less than a year later, frantically called for a doctor when Penner died in his sleep from a heart attack at the age of 36.
By Violet LeVoit
By Violet LeVoit
Millionaire Playboy -
Joe Penner, the nasal, nebbishy, and now nearly forgotten radio comedian, was hugely popular for his catchphrases "Wanna buy a duck?" and "You nasssss-ty man!" After getting his big break from being introduced by a favorably impressed Rudy Vallee, he made ten movies in six years - but this is one of his last, made while his star was falling. Here he plays Joe Zany, a man who suffers from the strange malady of getting hysterical cases of the hiccups when confronted with a beautiful lady. His father's solution is to supply him an all-expense paid vacation at a lake resort popular with the ladies, in the hopes that enough feminine attention will acclimate him to kisses. But when Joe learns about his father's backroom dealings with the resort (and the dam he hopes to build nearby), he's got to choose loyalties between his father or with Lois (xxx), the pretty owner of the resort. In real life Penner was terribly anxious and credited his wife Eleanor with soothing his nerves - and it was she who, less than a year later, frantically called for a doctor when Penner died in his sleep from a heart attack at the age of 36. By Violet LeVoit
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title of this picture was Glamour Boy. It was Joe Penner's last film for RKO. A production chart in Hollywood Reporter adds Frank Faylen, Kathryn Adams, Beth Dynes and Helene Whitney in the cast, but their participation in the final film has not been confirmed. A news item in Hollywood Reporter notes that Russ Brown replaced Richard Lane in the role of Bob Norman after Lane was unable to appear because of a conflict in scheduling.
