Roman Scandals (1933)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Frank Tuttle

Writers:

George S. Kaufman (story)
William Anthony McGuire (writer)

Release Date:

29 December 1933 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Family | Fantasy | Musical | Romance

Plot:

A kind-hearted young man is thrown out of his corrupt home town of West Rome, Oklahoma. He falls asleep and dreams that he is back in the days of olden Rome, where he gets mixed up with court intrigue and a murder plot against the Emperor. |

Plot Keywords:

Emperor | Dance | Senator | Poison | Rescue

Cast

Eddie Cantor	...	Eddie aka Oedipus
Ruth Etting	...	Olga
Gloria Stuart	...	Princess Sylvia
David Manners	...	Josephus
Verree Teasdale	...	Empress Agrippa
Edward Arnold	...	Emperor Valerius
Alan Mowbray	...	Majordomo
Charles C. Wilson	...	Police Chief Charles Pratt
Harry Holman	...	Mayor of West Rome
Jack Rutherford	...	Manius
Willard Robertson	...	Warren Finley Cooper
Lee Kohlmar	...	Storekeeper

Runtime:

USA:93 min (original version) | USA:85 min (edited version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Certification:

USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Samuel Goldwyn Studios - 7200 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood, California, USA

Company:

Samuel Goldwyn Company, The

Trivia:

The studio had say over which girls Busby Berkeley could or could not use in his chorus lines and could reject one of them for any reason, though Berkeley usually fought for all of his casting decisions. For this film the studio rejected only two members of the chorus, Barbara Pepper and Lucille Ball.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Mayor of West Rome: As mayor of West Rome, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you and to introduce our first citizen, Warren Fenwick Cooper!
Warren F. Cooper: Thank you, mayor. Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. Heh, heh, you see I know my Roman history.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in History of the World: Part I (1981)

Soundtrack:

Build a Little Home

Classic Eddie Cantor!

If you aren't a fan of the Wide-Eyed Wonder already, you should be. He takes the audience of romp after romp from Rome, New York to ancient Rome itself. Cantor was the emperor's food taster in the time of the Roman Empire; what a task! Who else could do it so whimsically? We to go to the movies for fun, right? You will definitely have fun skipping through a loosely written script with the man with the mesmerizing eyes. Considering the time(1930's) and the sad state the entire country was in (the Depression), this had to be the most enjoyable time of a person's week. Absolutely remarkable. And to prove it, this movie made a ton of money! Lucille Ball makes her screen debut in this film and rejoins Eddie a year later in 1934's Kid Millions. Eddie Cantor is said to have commended Lucy for putting "comedy before glamour" in her work on this film.