Gift of Gab
Cast & Crew
Karl Freund
Edmund Lowe
Gloria Stuart
Ruth Etting
Alice White
Victor Moore
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Philip "Gift of Gab" Gabney has talked himself in and out of various jobs throughout his life. He manages to sell himself as master of ceremonies on Colonel Horatius Trivers' radio program even though Norton, the president of the station, is not enthusiastic about him. Barbara Kelton, program director, helps him with his script, and Gabney's broadcast, with many radio and film stars, is a big success. Patsy, Gabney's friend, boosts his popularity by calling the studio many times using different voices to praise his work. Success goes directly to Gabney's head. When he is banned from a broadcasting a college football game because of a quarrel with the alumni president, he sneaks in with the help of radio announcer Graham McNamee and broadcasts the game from the stands using a lapel microphone. Finding himself late for a broadcast at Curtis Field, where a British flier is scheduled to land, he fakes the broadcast from the studio, only to learn that the flyer was killed in a crash twenty minutes earlier. This miscalculation ruins his career until Barbara, who is in love with him, sends him to report on a train crash in an inaccessible area. When the pilot refuses to fly low enough for Gabney to see the wreck, he bails out and lands at the scene. Broadcasting conditions from a portable radio, Gabney regains his national popularity. He rewards Barbara's faithfulness by marrying her on the air.
Director
Karl Freund
Cast
Edmund Lowe
Gloria Stuart
Ruth Etting
Alice White
Victor Moore
Hugh O'connell
Helen Vinson
Gene Austin
Tom Hanlon
Henry Armetta
Andy Devine
Marion Byron
Sterling Holloway
Edwin Maxwell
Ethel Waters
Paul Lukas
Chester Morris
Roger Pryor
Binnie Barnes
Karloff
Bela Lugosi
June Knight
Douglas Fowley
The Downey Sisters
The Beale Street Boys
Graham Mcnamee
Gus Arnheim And His Orchestra
Gene Austin With Candy And Coco
Alexander Woollcott
Wini Shaw
Sid Walker
"skins" Miller
Jack Harling
Leighton Noble
Maurice Black
Tammany Young
James Flavin
Billy Barty
Florence Enright
Richard Elliott
Warner Richmond
Crew
Lou Breslow
Con Conrad
Ray Curtiss
Philip G. Epstein
John P. Fulton
David Garber
Myrtle Gibson
Rian James
Rian James
Carl Laemmle Jr.
Carl Laemmle
Herb Magidson
Murray Mencher
Jack Meskill
Sergei Petschnikoff
George Robinson
Charles Tobias
Ed Tyler
Vera
Albert Von Tilzer
Jerry Wald
Edward Ward
Harold Wenstrom
George Whiting
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The above plot and credits were taken from a studio cutting continuity and contemporary sources. The radio program within the film features music by Ruth Etting, Gene Austin, Helen Vinson, Gus Arnheim and his orchestra, the Beale Street Boys and a dramatic sketch with Bela Lugosi, Binnie Barnes, Boris Karloff, Roger Pryor, Chester Morris, Douglas Fowley, June Knight and Paul Lukas. A news item in Daily Variety notes that writers and radio personalities Sidney Skolsky, Edwin Shallert, Jerry Hoffman, Rian James and Jimmy Starr also appeared in the radio broadcast scene but their participation in the final film has not been confirmed. Although Phil Baker is credited in the cutting continuity, he was eliminated from the film according to Daily Variety.
