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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).
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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
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The Evening Independent, June 26, 1934
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The Evening Independent, July 12, 1934
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Pitsburgh Post-Gazette, July 18, 1934
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Universal Weekly July 21, 1934
Universal Weekly, July 21, 1934
Universal Weekly, July 21, 1934
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Universal Weekly, July 21, 1934
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The Milwaukee Journal, August 6, 1934
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The Virgin Islands Daily News, August 13, 1835
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Motion Picture Daily, Sept 6, 1934
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Universal Weekly September 22, 1934
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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
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Universal Weekly, September 29, 1934
Universal Weekly, September 29, 1934
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Eugene Register-Guard, September 30, 1934
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Photoplay Magazine, October, 1934
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Eugene Register-Guard, October 1, 1934
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Eugene Register-Guard, October 2, 1934
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Eugene Register-Guard, October 3, 1934
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Eugene Register-Guard, October 4, 1934
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Yale Daily News no. 41, Nov 9, 1934
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The Norfolk Hour, January 29, 1935
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The Norfolk Hour, January 30, 1935
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Lobby Cards
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Stills
Edmund Lowe and Ruth Etting
Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi
Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi
Boris Karloff, Douglas Montgomery, June Knight, Roger Pryor, Bela Lugosi and Paul Lukas relax on the set
