It's Great to Be Alive
Cast & Crew
Alfred Werker
Raúl Roulien
Gloria Stuart
Edna May Oliver
Herbert Mundin
Joan Marsh
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Carlos Martin, an irrepressible rake, must give up his slew of girl friends when he becomes engaged to his true love, Dorothy Wilton. After their engagement party at the Wilton house, to which he arrives late, delayed by a goodbye dinner for his various amours, a drunk Carlos stumbles into the bedroom of the slumbering Toots, who earlier flirted openly with him. When Toots screams and awakens the household, Dorothy breaks her engagement to Carlos, who, in his distraught condition, decides to make a dangerous flight over the Pacific. Dorothy listens on the radio to the progress of Carlos' flight, and Brooks, the butler, informs her that he accidentally led Carlos into Toots's room. Moments later, just as Carlos gives Dorothy a message over the radio, his plane goes down and he loses all contact with the outside world. Three years later, Dorothy's father, Dr. Wilton, and Dr. Ruth Prodwell continue to work on a cure for masculitis, a disease that kills only men. Another two years pass and the last man in the world has died as the women of the world, led by Dr. Prodwell, attempt to create a synthetic man. When the synthetic man blows up in a puff of smoke as he is being galvanized, an aviatrix comes to Dr. Prodwell's lab and informs her that she has found a man on a Pacific island. The women decide to keep the valuable discovery a secret, but Helen, assisting Dr. Prodwell, informs her gangster boss, "Al," about the last man's existence. The lady gangsters arrive on the island, find Carlos and bring him back to a stateside speakeasy where they attempt to auction him off to a rich woman. Before Carlos can be claimed, however, the police arrive with Dr. Prodwell, and Al is arrested for illegal possession of government property. Dorothy hears of Carlos' rescue and decides to claim her lost fiancé. Carlos is set up in a plush apartment where he is visited by adoring women, and attended to by a fleet of lovely females who flutter about, catering to his every whim. Dorothy gets Carlos alone and persuades him to run away with her, but refuses to bring the attendants with them, as Carlos requests. The police pursue the couple, who escape in Dorothy's plane, and call out the entire U.S. Navy and Air Force fleet to capture their valuable possession. Warships pick the couple up when they jump out of the plane in parachutes. A world congress is convened to decide the last man's fate where the nations plead their case for Carlos' hand in marriage. Carlos, devoted to Dorothy, tries to convince them of his fidelity to his fiancée, and then, tired of their cajolery, threatens to kill himself, terrifying the female delegation. Dr. Prodwell agrees to the marriage of Carlos and Dorothy, and the couple kiss.
Director
Alfred Werker
Cast
Raúl Roulien
Gloria Stuart
Edna May Oliver
Herbert Mundin
Joan Marsh
Dorothy Burgess
Emma Dunn
Edward Van Sloan
Robert Greig
Gloria Roy
Elene Shannon
Beatrice Rossi
Margaret Rilling
Martha Reeves
Helen Pacino
Kathleen Ogilvie
Mona Munro
Helene Friend
Mildred Lewis
Liana Galen
Florence Kitzmiller
Zaruhi Elmassian
Emilia Da Prato
Josephine Campbell
Mary York
Betty Boldrick
Lorraine Bridges
Beatrice Becker
Mildred Carroll
Willow Wray
Lois Woody
Eleanor Wells
Gelal Talata
Alice Towne
Betty Keeler
Marjorie Seavey
Eva Sabenie
Ruth Moody
Harriet Mathews
Loraine Marshall
Lucille House
Dorothy Compton
Marguerite Warner
Margaret Nearing
Ruth Jennings
Sugar Geise
Dixie Dean
Sally Haines
Audrene Brier
Betty Bryson
Mildred Clare
Leonore La Hogue
Geneva Sawyer
Lucille Porcett
Patsy Lee
Peaches Jackson
Theo De Voe
Harriette Haddon
Marbeth Wright
Florine Mckinney
Lucille Miller
Gloria Fayth
Amo Ingraham
Edith Haskins
Sally Arden
Esther Brodelet
Bonita Barker
Gwen Seager
Bee Stevens
Margaret Harding
Lee Bailey
Georgia Clarke
Crew
Arthur Arling
Clarence Baker
Alfred Bruzlin
Wallace Chewning
Duncan Cramer
H. David
Philip Ford
Maurice Kains
Samuel Kaylin
William Kernell
William Kernell
Arthur Kober
Donald W. Lee
Sammy Lee
J. Murphy
Paul Perez
Robert Planck
Royer
Bob Simpson
John Stone
J. Van Wormer
Barney Wolf
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The plot and onscreen credits were based on a screen continuity and credit sheets in the Twentieth Century-Fox Produced Scripts Collection and Records of the Legal Department at the UCLA Arts-Special Collections Library. Fox produced a Spanish-language version of this film, El último varón sobre la Tierra, before they made the English-language version. According to New York Times, It's Great to Be Alive included a scene at a "symposium attended by screen duplicates of Professors [Albert] Einstein and [Auguste] Piccard." New York Mirror and Chicago News noted that Raúl Roulien's voice and his manner of singing was in the style of Maurice Chevalier. Philadelphia Inquirer remarked that Fox "is pinning [upon Roulien] the badge of stardom and high hopes for the 'discovery' of a new screen personality....In all kindness, one would suggest that the Fox Company... let Mr. Roulien go back to his roles in pictures made wholly for Spanish-speaking audiences." According to information in the Fox legal files, some scenes were shot at the Grand Central Airport in Glendale, CA. The legal files also reveal that the title of the English-language version was taken from a song title written by Lew Brown and Ray Henderson. After an agreement was reached concerning the use of the title, Brown sent a telegram to Fox producer Sol Wurtzel which read, in part, "Accepting your offer of two hundred thousand dollars for title 'It's Great to Be Alive.' Hope this low figure will not establish a precedent for my future titles. Kindly send three dollars to cover this telegram and then you can disregard first part of this wire." According to a Film Daily news item, this was the first film on which the prominent fashion designer Royer worked. A Hollywood Reporter news item noted that Wurtzel tried to get actress Constance Cummings for this film.
According to information in the file on the film in the MPAA/PCA Collection in the AMPAS Library, the Hays Office objected to aspects of the screenplay of this film. Dr. James Wingate, director of the Studio Relations Committee of the AMPP, wrote to producer John Stone that the most serious problem with the film was the "overemphasis on sex as brought out through a situation wherein a world of sex starved females suddenly find one lone male whose presence brings about a series of humorous but nevertheless, rather baldly suggestive events." Stone thanked Wingate for his "constructive criticism" and replied that they "have since given the scenario a most careful overhauling, and eliminated the indicated-and other-objectionable points." After Wingate viewed a print of the film, he objected to a number of lines and bits of business, and the studio adhered to all the objections except a shot of "Toots" dropping a key into the bodice of her dress. Wurtzel noted that Wingate had not stated "definitely" that that should be eliminated. The shot remained in the film, and Wingate, in a letter to MPPDA secretary, Governor Carl E. Milliken, stated that "In the future I shall have to be more positive in my statements."
Fox also produced a film in 1924 based on the same source entitled The Last Man on Earth, directed by J. G. Blystone and starring Earle Foxe.
