Once in a Lifetime *** (1932, Jack Oakie, Sidney Fox, Aline MacMahon, Russell Hopton, ZaSu Pitts) – Classic Movie Review 12,214

Jack Oakie stars in Once in a Lifetime.

Jack Oakie stars in the welcome 1932 movie comedy Once in a Lifetime about the advent of talking pictures, based on the vintage George S Kaufman and Moss Hart play. 

Director Russell Mack’s 1932 comedy Once in a Lifetime is a welcome movie version of the brilliantly sharp-witted farce about the advent of talking pictures, featuring conmen setting themselves up as voice teachers.

Its stage basis in the lovely 1930 George S Kaufman and Moss Hart play is clearly visible in its static handling, but the razor-sharp humour survives intact, the pace is breakneck, and the playing is terrific, especially from Jack Oakie, Sidney Fox, Aline MacMahon, Russell Hopton, Louise Fazenda and ZaSu Pitts.

The film is produced and distributed by Universal Pictures, and is preserved at the Library of Congress.

The cast are Jack Oakie as George Lewis, Sidney Fox as Susan Walker, Aline MacMahon as May Daniels, Russell Hopton as Jerry Hyland, Louise Fazenda as Helen Hobart, ZaSu Pitts as Miss Leighton, Gregory Ratoff as Herman Glogauer, Jobyna Howland as Mrs. Walker, Onslow Stevens as Lawrence Vail, Gregory Gaye as Rudolph Kammerling, Eddie Kane as Meterstein, Johnnie Morris as Weiskopf, Frank LaRue as The Bishop, Margaret Lindsay as Dr Lewis’s secretary, Alan Ladd as Projectionist, Mona Maris as Phyllis Fontaine, Walter Brennan, Leyland Hodgson, Earl McCarthy, Sam McDaniel, Robert McWade, Claudia Morgan, and Carol Trevis.

Once in a Lifetime is the first of eight 1930s plays by Moss Hart and George S Kaufman. In 1979, Trevor Nunn directed a brilliant Royal Shakespeare Company revival at London’s Aldwych Theatre, with David Suchet, Richard Griffiths, Zoë Wanamaker, Peter McEnery, Ian Charleson, Juliet Stevenson, and David Bradley. Gillian Lynne staged the memorable 15-minute tap-dancing finale.

American playwright, librettist, and theatre director Moss Hart (October 24, 1904 – December 20, 1961). Hart married Kitty Carlisle on 10 August 1946 and they had two children. Kitty Carlisle Hart (born Catherine Conn; September 3, 1910 – April 17, 2007) is best remembered as the leading lady of the Marx Brothers movie A Night at the Opera (1935).

Moss Hart’s screenplays: 1944 Winged Victory, 1947 Gentleman’s Agreement, 1952 Hans Christian Andersen, and 1954 A Star Is Born.

Moss Hart’s plays: 1930 Once in a Lifetime (George S Kaufman and Moss Hart), 1934 Merrily We Roll Along (Kaufman and Hart), 1936 You Can’t Take It with You (Kaufman and Hart; Pulitzer Prize winner), 1937 I’d Rather Be Right (Kaufman and Hart), 1938 The Fabulous Invalid (Kaufman and Hart), 1939 The American Way (Kaufman and Hart), 1939 The Man Who Came to Dinner (Kaufman and Hart), 1940 George Washington Slept Here (Kaufman and Hart), 1941 Lady in the Dark, with Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin, 1943 Winged Victory, and 1948 Light Up the Sky.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,214

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