Once in a Lifetime (1932)

Story of a Hollywood studio during the transition from silents to talkies.

Director:

Russell Mack

Writers:

Moss Hart (play), George S. Kaufman (play),

Stars:

Jack Oakie, Sidney Fox, Aline MacMahon

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Jack Oakie	...	George Lewis
Sidney Fox	...	Susan Walker
Aline MacMahon	...	May Daniels
Russell Hopton	...	Jerome 'Jerry' Hyland
Louise Fazenda	...	Helen Hobart
Zasu Pitts	...	Miss Leyton
Gregory Ratoff	...	Herman Glogauer
Jobyna Howland	...	Mrs. Walker
Onslow Stevens	...	Lawrence Vail
Gregory Gaye	...	Rudolph Kammerling
Eddie Kane	...	Meterstein
Johnnie Morris	...	Weiskopf (as Johnny Morris)
Frank LaRue	...	The Bishop
Margaret Lindsay	...	Dr. Lewis' Secretary

Storyline

Story of a Hollywood studio during the transition from silents to talkies.

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Plot Keywords:

hollywood | train | vaudevillian | satire | based on play

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

2 October 1932 (USA)

Also Known As:

Una vez en la vida

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Aline MacMahon created the role of May Daniels in the first tryout of the play. (Source: Moss Hart's autobiography 'Act One'.)

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Quotes

Herman Gloguaer: What did they have to go and make pictures talk for? Things were going along fine. You couldn't stop making money - even if you turned out a good picture you made money.

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Soundtracks

"Put on the Dog"
(uncredited)
Music by Val Burton and Edward Kilenyi

User Reviews

The Reel "Act One" for Kaufman and Hart

There ought to be a movement to bring this one back from the dead. This is a film for which the term "revival" seems to have been invented. No matter a certain staginess -- its humor and topicality, not to mention its place in history as the first collaboration between George S Kaufman and Moss Hart, make it a "must see." It's not only connected to other early Thirties films like What Price Hollywood, but also to the much adulated Singin' In the Rain. If the latter is a Fifties musical displaying the well-scrubbed brightness of that era's sensibilities, then Once In A Lifetime is its counterpoint, betraying a Depression-era, acerbic grasp of the absurdity of the movie business and of "human business" in general. It ought to be on a double bill with Harlow's Bombshell -- another clever and entertaining early 1930s view of Hollywood and the "geniuses" who ran it.