Trade ad from Photoplay Magazine, April, 1931
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The third of Bela Lugosi’s four colour films. Although based on Cole Porter’s stage musical of the same name, Warner Brother’s cut all of the musical numbers from the film before releasing it in America due to a loss of public interest in musicals at the box office. It was released intact in other countries. Only a black and white print of the American cut release is currently available. It is unknown if a copy of the uncut Technicolor original has survived. Bela Lugosi is reputed to have been paid $1,000 for his brief unbilled performance as a magician which was filmed prior to the release of Dracula.
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Production Company: Warner Brothers
Director: Lloyd Bacon
Screen Adaptation: Joseph Jackson and Eddie Welch
Based on the stage musical by Cole Porter, Herbert Fields and E. Ray Goetz
Dialogue: Al Boasberg
Cinematography: Dev Jennings
Music: Cole Porter
Orchestra: Vitaphone Orchestra
Vitaphone Orchestra Conductor: Leo F. Forbstein
Editor: Robert O. Crandall
Wardrobe: Earl Luick
Running Time: 68 minutes
Copyright Number: LP2046, March 4 1931
Cast:
William Gaxton: Jack Forbes
Ollie Olsen: Simon Johanssen
Chic Johnson: Peter Swanson
John Halliday: Michael Cummings
Helen Brodrick: Violet
Claudia Dell: Lulu Caroll
Lester Crawford: Billy Baxter
Charles Judels: Permasse, the hotel manager
Carmelita Geraghty: Marcelle Dubrey
Nat Carr: Jewish tourist
Vera Gordon: Jewish tourist’s wife
Norman Phillips, Jr.: Jewish tourists’ son
Bela Lugosi: Orizon the magician
Evalyn Knapp: Miss Wheeler-Smith
Daisy Belmore: Lulu Caroll’s mother
Rolfe Sedan: Taxi driver
Kernan Cripps: Jealous husband
Jay Eaton: Effete bar patron
Lee Phelps: Bartender
Katherin Clare Ward: Dowager tourist
Barbara Weeks: Dowager’s daughter
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The Evening Independent, August 16, 1930
The Evening Independent, August 29, 1930
The Evening Independent, September 8, 1930
Boston Herald, October 3, 1930
San Diego Union, November 2, 1930
Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Queensland), January 6, 1931
PROFITABLE TWO MINUTES
Two minutes work on Warner Bros’s. First National Vitaphone special, “Fifty Million Frenchmen, netted £ 200 to Bela Lugosi, the Hungarian actor. Only Lugosi, according to the casting director, fitted the role of the East Indian magic who enters towards the close of the piece. To secure his services, Warner Bros’s. First National guaranteed him a week’s salary of £ 200. When the picture was completed, he had worked a total of two minutes. “Fifty Million Frenchmen” is photographed entirely in Technicolor.
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Palm Beach Daily, March 5, 1931
San Francisco Chronicle, March 24, 1931
The New York Times, March 26, 1931
THE SCREEN
Buffoonery in Paris.
By MORDAUNT HALL.
Lloyd Bacon directed this film and it should be said that its buffoonery aroused quite a deal of laughter in the Winter Garden at the opening performance. A closing sequence in which there is a chase has its ludicrous moments, for the Parisian policemen gradually increase in number as they run through streets and squares, leaping on the tops of congested automobiles and taxicabs, being stuck in the soft asphalt and then slipping on other sections of the roadway. Jack Forbes, played by Mr. Glaxter, is an unfortunate victim of a wager, that is unfortunate for a good deal of the time. His rival bets him $50,000 that he cannot start without any money (in the French capital) and keep himself going by what work he can find and become engaged to the pretty Looloo Carroll within two weeks. The pseudo comic Simon and Peter, impersonated by Olsen and Johnson, are employed to follow Forbes and worry him. In the course of his anxiety over his love for Looloo, Forbes, in order to be presentable, borrows a waiter’s short coat and trousers and then tacks a pair of boys knickers to the back to look like tails. At the race course, which is quite well pictured, Forbes after thinking that he has won a tidy sum, hears that the horse on which he had made the bet has been disqualified and he tears up his betting tickets. Then he learns that the animal has won. This causes further disappointment and for some reason, not quite clear, Looloo is not particularly pleased with Forbes. And so it goes until at the last second Looloo is pacified and consents to listen to Forbes’s proposal of marriage. Miss Broderick makes the most of her rôle. Mr. Halliday also does what he can in his part. Miss Dell is very attractive and Charles Judels is faintly amusing as a Frenchman. Olsen and Johnson are a trifle too boisterous to be funny. Buffoonery in Paris. FIFTY MILLION FRENCHMEN, based on the musical comedy; directed by Lloyd Bacon; produced by Warner Brothers. At the Winter Garden. Simon and Peter . . . . . Olsen and Johnson Jack Forbes . . . . . William Gaxton Michael Cummings . . . . . John Halliday Violet . . . . . Helen Broderick Looloo Carroll . . . . . Claudia Dell Billy Baxter . . . . . Lester Crawford Pernasse . . . . . Charles Judels Marcelle Dubrey . . . . . Carmelita Geraghty Jewish Tourist . . . . . Nat Carr His Wife . . . . . Vera Gordon Their Son . . . . . Norman Phillips Jr.
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San Francisco Chronicle,March 27, 1931
Photoplay Magazine, April, 1931
Canton Repository, April 3, 1931
Pitsburgh Post-Gazette, April 4, 1931
San Francisco Chronicle, April 5, 1931
Sarasota Herald-Tribune, April 17, 1931
Sarasota Herald-Tribune, April 19, 1931
The Berkeley Gazette, April 25, 1931
Aberdeen Daily News, May 3, 1931
Eugene Register-Guard, May 22, 1931
Spokane Daily Chronicle, June 5, 1931
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Ottawa Citizen, September 5, 1931
Courtesy of https://scenesfromthemorgue.wordpress.com
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https://scenesfromthemorgue.wordpress.com
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Lobby card
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Set Photo
Courtesy of Art Directors Guild archive http://www.flickr.com/photos/79596692
Stills