International House (1933 film)
| International House | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | A. Edward Sutherland |
| Produced by | Emanuel Cohen |
| Screenplay by |
Walter DeLeon Francis Martin |
| Story by | Neil Brant Louis E. Heifetz |
| Starring |
W.C. Fields Bela Lugosi George Burns Gracie Allen Cab Calloway Rose Marie Peggy Hopkins Joyce |
| Music by |
Ralph Rainger Howard Jackson John Leipold Al Morgan Cab Calloway |
| Cinematography | Ernest Haller |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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70 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
International House is a 1933 American Pre-Code comedy film directed by A. Edward Sutherland and starring W.C. Fields. Released by Paramount Pictures, the film was based on a story by Neil Brant and Louis E. Heifetz and was adapted for the screen by Walter DeLeon and Francis Martin.
International House is a mix of standard and slapstick interlaced with numerous acts and bits, like a vaudeville variety show, in the style of the Big Broadcast pictures that were also released by Paramount during the 1930s. In addition to the typical lunacy by the comic players, it also provides a snapshot of some popular stage and radio acts of the era.
After a few brief scenes in the International Settlement in Shanghai, the setting moves over 200 miles away to the International House Hotel, a large metropolitan hotel in Wuhu, China ("Wuhu" also being a pun on the greeting "Yoo hoo").
The ostensible plot line concerns a Chinese inventor (Edmund Breese as "Dr. Wong") premiering a "radioscope", an early version of television. Unlike actual television, the mechanism does not need a camera, but its monitor can focus in and pick up on acts around the world, relaying sound and visuals as though it were a combination of a radio and telescope. Dr. Wong has brought his device to the hotel in an attempt to attract a commercial buyer to develop it.
Dr. Henry R. Quail (Fields) is one of many people from all over the world converging on the hotel, though he is the only one not hoping to buy (or steal) Dr. Wong's television invention, as he was intending to land in Kansas City but went off-course in his autogyro. Plotlines also involve four-times-divorced American celebrity Peggy Hopkins Joyce playing herself, avoiding one of her ex-husbands, the jealous Russian General Petronovich (Bela Lugosi); Tommy (Stuart Erwin) as a prospective buyer from an American electric company hoping to buy Wong's invention and finally wed his sweetheart Carol (Sari Maritza); resident physician Dr. Burns (George Burns) and his goofy aide Nurse Allen (Gracie Allen) dealing with a quarantine on the hotel; and the exasperation of the hotel's fussy and frustrated manager (Franklin Pangborn). All of this is broken up with transmissions Dr. Wong receives on his radioscope, as well as a short floor show featuring Lona Andre and Sterling Holloway in the hotel's rooftop garden restaurant.
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