Gift Of Gab (Universal Studios, 1934)

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An all-star vehicle featuring radio, music and film stars, Gift of Gab featured Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff in cameo roles in a short radio murder mystery skit. Lugosi filmed his part during the making of the serial The Return of Chandu (1934). Gift of Gab also featured Mr. Jiggs, the pairs feline co-star from The Black Cat. The film’s star, Edmund Lowe, also appeared with Lugosi in The Silent Command (1923), Women of All Nations (1931), Chandu the Magician (1932) and Best Man Wins (1935).

Production Company: Universal Studios

Producer: Carl Laemmle, Jr.

Associate Producer: Rian James

Director: Karl Freund

Assistant Directors: Sergei Petschnikoff and Ed Tyler

Screenplay: Rian James and Lou Breslow

Original Story: Jerry Wald and Philip G. Epstein

Cinematography: George Robinson and Harold Wenstrom

Special photography: John P. Fulton

Art Director: David Garber

Musical Director: Edward Ward

Music: Albert von Tilzer, Con Conrad and Charles Tobias

Editor: Raymond Curtiss

Costume Design: Vera West

Script Clerk: Myrtle Gibsone

Running Time: 68 minutes

Copyright Number: LP4950, September 17 1934

Cast:

Edmund Lowe: Phillip “Gift of Gab” Gabney

Gloria Stewart: Barbara Kelton

Ruth Etting: Ruth

Phil Baker: Doctor

Ethel Waters: Herself

Alice Whit: Margot

Victor Moore: Colonel Horatios Trivers

Hugh O’Connell: Patsy

Binnie Barnes: Maid

Helen Vinson: Nurse

Tom Hanlon: Radio Announcer

Henry Armetta: Janitor

Andy Devin: John P. McDougal

Wini Shaw: Cabaret singer

Marion Byron: Telephone girl

Sterling Holloway: Sound effects man

Edwin Maxwell: Norton, President of WGAB

Leighton Noble: Orchestra leader

Maurice Black: Auction room owner

Tammany Young: Mug

James Flavin: Alumni president

Billy Barty: Baby

Richard Elliot: Father

Florence Enright: Mother

Warner Richmond: Cop

The Three Stooges (Sid Walker, Skins Miller and Jack Harling)

Sidney Skolsky: Movie magazine columnist

Boris Karloff: The Phantom

Bela Lugosi: French Apache dancer

Alexander Woolcott: Himself

Paul Lukas: The corpse

Chester Morris: Doyle

The Downey Sisiters: Themselves

Douglas Montgomery

Gene Austin with Candy and Coco: Radio artists

Douglas Fowley: Mac

June Knight: Lottie Von Pepper

Dave O’Brien: Dance floor extra

Dennis O’Keefe: Dance floor extra

The Beale Street Boys: Themselves

Graham McNamee: Sportscaster

Gus Arnheim and His Orchestra: Themselves

Mr. Jiggs: Black cat

The Evening Independent, June 26, 1934

The Evening Independent, July 12, 1934

Pitsburgh Post-Gazette, July 18, 1934

Universal Weekly July 21, 1934

Universal Weekly, July 21, 1934

July 21, 1934 Universal weekly

Universal Weekly, July 21, 1934

The Milwaukee Journal, August 6, 1934

The Virgin Islands Daily News, August 13, 1835

Motion Picture Daily, Sept 6, 1934

Universal Weekly September 22, 1934

The New York Times, September 26, 1934

THE SCREEN

“Gift of Gab,” at the Rialto, flings out a diamond-studded cast that is colossal enough to choke a cow or a radio enthusiast. There are comedians, blues singers, crooners, sister teams and Alexander Woollcott, who, with his round eyes tight shut and his hands clenched, confides to the camera his anecdote of the drunk and why he called the human fly a sissy. There are Phil Baker, Ethel Waters, Victor Moore, Hugh O’Connell, Ruth Etting and Henry Armetta. To complete the inventory, there is a story about a conceited radio announcer, Edmund Lowe, who vindicates himself in the esteem of Gloria Stuart by parachuting into the mountains with a microphone in his hand to inform the world of the fate of a missing airplane. The total effect of “Gift of Gab” is that of an endless and progressively soporific procession of one-reelers strung together to make a full-length feature, and it constitutes a minor miracle that the sum of so much talent should be such meagre entertainment. Big Cast. GIFT OF GAB, based on a story by Jerry Wald and Phil G. Epstein; music by Albert Von Tilzer, Con Conrad and Charles Tobias; directed by Karl Freund; a Universal production. At the Rialto. Phillip Gabney . . . . . Edmund Lowe Barbara Kelton . . . . . Gloria Stuart Ruth . . . . . Ruth Etting Absent-minded doctor . . . . . Phil Baker Ethel . . . . . Ethel Waters Margot . . . . . Alice White Alexander Woollcoott . . . . . Alexander Woollcott Colonel Trivers . . . . . Victor Moore Patsy . . . . . Hugh O’Connell Nurse . . . . . Helen Vinson Crooner . . . . . Gene Austin Radio announcer . . . . . Thomas Hanlon Janitor . . . . . Henry Armetta McDougal . . . . . Andy Devine Cabaret singer . . . . . Wini Shaw Telephone girl . . . . . Marion Byron Sound effects man . . . . . Sterling Holloway Three stooges . . . . . Sid Walker Skins Miller Jack Harling Norton . . . . . Edwin Maxwell Orchestra leader . . . . . Leighton Noble Auction room owner . . . . . Maurice Block Mug . . . . . Tammany Young Alumni president . . . . . James Flavin Baby . . . . . Billy Barty Mother . . . . . Florence Enright Father . . . . . Richard Elliott Cop . . . . . Warner Richmond