Zenobia (1939)

Director:

Gordon Douglas

Writers:

Walter DeLeon (story) &
Arnold Belgard (story) ...

Release Date:

21 April 1939 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

A southern country doctor is called on by a visiting circus man to cure his sick elephant. After the doctor heals the grateful beast...

Plot Keywords:

Doctor | Elephant | Americana | Beautiful Woman | Racial Stereotype

Cast

Oliver Hardy	...	Dr. Henry Tibbett
Harry Langdon	...	Professor McCrackle
Billie Burke	...	Mrs. Bessie Tibbett
Alice Brady	...	Mrs. Emily Carter
James Ellison	...	Jeff Carter
Jean Parker	...	Mary Tibbett
June Lang	...	Virginia Reynolds
Olin Howland	...	Attorney Culpepper
J. Farrell MacDonald	...	Judge
Stepin Fetchit	...	Zero (as Step'n Fetchit)
Hattie McDaniel	...	Dehlia (as Hattie McDaniels)
Philip Hurlic	...	Zeke (as Phillip Hurlic)
Hobart Cavanaugh	...	Mr. Dover
Clem Bevans	...	Sheriff
Tommy Mack	...	Mr. Miller - the Butcher

Also Known As:

Elephants Never Forget (UK)
It's Spring Again (USA) (working title)
This Time It's Love (USA) (working title)
We the People (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

73 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #5022) | USA:TV-G (TV rating) | Finland:S | Germany:o.Al. | Sweden:Btl

Company:

Hal Roach Studios

Trivia:

This film was originally developed as a Laurel and Hardy vehicle, but was re-scripted after Stan Laurel had a falling out with Hal Roach and left the studio for quite some time in 1938-1939.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Of Mice and Men (1939)

Soundtrack:

I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls

Love Pachyderm Style

For those wondering what Oliver Hardy was doing in a film without Stan Laurel, we have to remember that Hal Roach created the team back in silent days when he had these two comedians both signed to contracts with him. Their contracts were negotiated separately unlike Abbott and Costello or the Ritz Brothers, etc. So with Ollie signed with studio again and Stan balking at terms, Hal Roach decided to pair Hardy with Harry Langdon who was trying to recapture the stardom he enjoyed in the silent era.

Ollie is a country doctor in post Civil War Mississippi who lives with wife Billie Burke and daughter Jean Parker in genteel poverty. James Ellison, late of the Hopalong Cassidy series, wants her hand in marriage, but his mother Alice Brady forbids it as Jean's parents are just not her sort.

Nevertheless Ollie and Billie try to help Jean with her romance, but Ollie gets himself entangled with traveling medicine show man Harry Langdon and his performing elephant Zenobia. When the pachyderm becomes ill, Ollie effects a cure and the beast's gratitude makes his life miserable.

Though they were advertised as a team, Langdon and Hardy are not a team really in this film, though their scenes with Zenobia are pretty funny. They're like Abbott and Costello in The Time Of Their Lives, a comedy team in two separate roles in which they only interact occasionally. Actually Burke and Brady, a couple of veteran Broadway performers, have some scenes together and they're pretty good in and of themselves.

Getting Alice Brady and Billie Burke was a casting coup of sorts for Hal Roach. Look at the rest of his cast which he got from the major studios, if he was to have a new comedy team, they would be launched properly.

Of course Stan Laurel came to terms and Langdon and Hardy were no more. But Zenobia is a film filled with gentle humor and some good comic situations.