By Richard Harland Smith
We're Rich Again
Brief Synopsis
A society couple gone broke tries to land a wealthy husband for their daughter.
Cast & Crew
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William A. Seiter
Director
Edna May Oliver
Maude [Standing]
Billie Burke
Linda [Page]
Marion Nixon
Arabella
Reginald Denny
[Bookington] Bookie [Wells]
Joan Marsh
Carolyn [Page]
Film Details
Also Known As
Arabella
Genre
Comedy
Adaptation
Release Date
Jul
13,
1934
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the play And Let Who Will Be Clever by Alden Nash (Hollywood, 2 Feb 1934).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 12m
Film Length
7 reels
Synopsis
Wilbur Page, a once prosperous Santa Barbara businessman, faces bankruptcy and a possible jail sentence three days before his daughter Carolyn's wedding to the rich Bookington "Bookie" Wells. Frantically dodging the summons server, the Pages are unprepared for the appearance of their country cousin, Arabella, a talkative "bumpkin" whose mottos are "be good sweet maid" and "let who will be clever." Within hours of her arrival, Arabella usurps Carolyn's lavish trousseau and flirts openly with Bookie, who finds her seeming innocence "charming." As she plays the chattering fool, Arabella convinces Carolyn's younger sister Victoria to elope with her quiet boyfriend, Erasmus "Erp" Rockwell Pennington, a champion swimmer and, as Arabella alone discovers, a wealthy heir. On the pretext of stopping the elopement, Arabella flies to Ensenada, Mexico with Bookie, returning not only with his heart, but with a tip about a potentially lucrative oil stock as well. Wise to the Pages' financial crisis, Arabella informs Wilbur about the stock, talking him into taking a $25,000 loan on his life insurance policy to buy shares. In the middle of the wedding, Bookie's ex-wife Charmion shows up, claiming that Bookie's Mexican divorce is illegal in California. In the ensuing chaos, bookworm Carolyn announces that she wants to leave for New York to write novels rather than marry, while Wilbur discovers that his apparently bad stock has suddenly turned to gold. Once Erp establishes that Bookie's divorce was legal, Arabella, having restored the Pages' fortune single-handedly, accepts Bookie's proposal and marries him on the spot.
Director
William A. Seiter
Director
Cast
Edna May Oliver
Maude [Standing]
Billie Burke
Linda [Page]
Marion Nixon
Arabella
Reginald Denny
[Bookington] Bookie [Wells]
Joan Marsh
Carolyn [Page]
Larry "buster" Crabbe
[Erasmus] Erp [Rockwell Pennington]
Grant Mitchell
Wilbur [Page]
Gloria Shea
[Victoria] Vic [Page]
Edgar Kennedy
Healy
Otto Yamaoka
Fugi
Lenita Lane
Charmion
Dick Elliott
Mr. Green
Andreas De Segurola
Jose
Crew
Glendon Allvine
Associate Producer
Pandro S. Berman
Executive Producer
John L. Cass
Recording
Doran Cox
Assistant Director
George Crone
Editing
Ray Harris
Screenwriter
Alex Kahle
Still Photographer
Albert Hay Malotte
Composer
Nick Musuraca
Photography
Van Nest Polglase
Art Director
Frank Redman
Camera Operator
Oliver Sigurdson
Still Photographer
Max Steiner
Music Director
Film Details
Also Known As
Arabella
Genre
Comedy
Adaptation
Release Date
Jul
13,
1934
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the play And Let Who Will Be Clever by Alden Nash (Hollywood, 2 Feb 1934).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 12m
Film Length
7 reels
Articles
We're Rich Again (1934) -
RKO Radio Pictures' adaptation of the Alden Nash stage play And Let Who Will Be Clever was rechristened We're Rich Again (1934) for general release, no doubt in a bid to reassure Depression era moviegoers that things would, no matter how zanily contrived, work out for the best. Though she receives top billing, Edna May Oliver (fresh from playing snoopy sleuth Hildegarde Withers for the second time, in RKO's Murder on the Blackboard [1934]) keeps to the periphery of this screwball comedy, as the mother-in-law of formerly affluent, now insolvent family man Grant Mitchell (ruined previously in Wild Boys of the Road [1933]), who races to marry off daughter Joan Marsh to stockbroker Reginald Denny before he is hauled to debtor's prison. Complicating matters is the arrival of country cousin Marian Nixon (wife of director William Seiter), whose intrusive demeanor threatens to ruin the family but leads to salvation at the eleventh hour. Billie Burke costars as Mitchell's clueless better half (a comic turn in step with her role in George Cukor's Dinner at Eight, 1933) but the film's casting coup, to modern eyes, is Buster Crabbe, stripped to his swim trunks two years shy of pop culture immortality as the star of the Universal serial Flash Gordon (1936).
By Richard Harland Smith
By Richard Harland Smith
We're Rich Again (1934) -
RKO Radio Pictures' adaptation of the Alden Nash stage play And Let Who Will Be Clever was rechristened We're Rich Again (1934) for general release, no doubt in a bid to reassure Depression era moviegoers that things would, no matter how zanily contrived, work out for the best. Though she receives top billing, Edna May Oliver (fresh from playing snoopy sleuth Hildegarde Withers for the second time, in RKO's Murder on the Blackboard [1934]) keeps to the periphery of this screwball comedy, as the mother-in-law of formerly affluent, now insolvent family man Grant Mitchell (ruined previously in Wild Boys of the Road [1933]), who races to marry off daughter Joan Marsh to stockbroker Reginald Denny before he is hauled to debtor's prison. Complicating matters is the arrival of country cousin Marian Nixon (wife of director William Seiter), whose intrusive demeanor threatens to ruin the family but leads to salvation at the eleventh hour. Billie Burke costars as Mitchell's clueless better half (a comic turn in step with her role in George Cukor's Dinner at Eight, 1933) but the film's casting coup, to modern eyes, is Buster Crabbe, stripped to his swim trunks two years shy of pop culture immortality as the star of the Universal serial Flash Gordon (1936).
By Richard Harland Smith
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title of this film was Arabella. RKO borrowed Billie Burke from M-G-M for this production. Marion Nixon and director William Seiter married in 1936. According to modern sources, Walter Plunkett, the head of RKO's costume department, worked on this film, and California socialite Nellie Wilson Baldwin played the role of "Mrs. Green."
