Down to Their Last Yacht

Down to Their Last Yacht is a 1934 comic adventure produced and distributed by RKO Pictures.[1]

Down to Their Last Yacht
Directed byPaul Sloane
Produced byLou Brock
Pandro S. Berman
Written byStory:
Herbert Fields
Lou Brock
Screenplay
Marion Dix
Lynn Starling
StarringMary Boland
Polly Moran
Music byRoy Webb
CinematographyEdward Cronjager
Edited byArthur Roberts
Distributed byRKO Pictures
Release date
August 31, 1934
in United States
Running time
64 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Plot

After the stock market crash of 1929, the Colt-Stratton family are forced to rent their yacht to the nouveau riche at the behest of Nella Fitzgerald (Polly Moran), including gambler Barry Forbes (Sidney Blackmer) and his sidekick Freddy Finn (Sterling Holloway). When Freddy rigs the yacht's roulette wheel to respond to his saxophone, he is caught, but moments later Captain "Sunny Jim" Roberts (Ned Sparks) runs the yacht aground on the South Sea Island of Malakamokolu, run by Queen Malakamokalu (Mary Boland), a white woman, who takes the passengers as forced labor. Tiring of them, she offers to release them if Barry stays to marry her. However, once she hears Freddy play his saxophone, she falls in love with him and plans to blow up the yacht with a bomb. Barry manages to rescue the passengers, but not the boat, and they accept their new home in the tropics.

Cast

Production

To speed the production, two separate units were used, one directed by producer Lou Brock and the other by director Paul Sloane. Sam White was hired to direct retakes, supervised by Brock, which involved re-shooting a quarter of the film. Brock was given carte blanche on the film, which went considerably over budget; it turned out to be his last production for RKO.[2]

Reception

The New York Times review of film called the movie "a sorry melange of Hollywood native dancing, theme-song singing and preposterous comedy."[3]

The film was a box-office disappointment for RKO.[4]

gollark: Er, per terminal, not pair.
gollark: It's actually 1kRF/t per terminal pair.
gollark: Yes, but they have weirdness.
gollark: They're not *that* dangerous.
gollark: <@239056962980020225> I also have a ZIP version of the modpack which you can just extract into the mods folder.

References

Notes

  1. The American Film Institute Catalog Feature Films: 1931–40
  2. "Notes" on TCM.com
  3. F.S. N. (September 24, 1934). "Down to Their Last Yacht (1934) South Seas Fantasy". New York Times.
  4. D. W. (Nov 25, 1934). "TAKING A LOOK AT THE RECORD". New York Times. ProQuest 101193306.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.