Getting a Ticket
About Getting a Ticket
A judge charges Eddie Cantor with disorderly conduct for making love to a woman in the park. Cantor says she is his wife and shows a marriage certificate. The case is dismissed. Out on the road a policeman stops him. Cantor stalls with jokes, including one about an uncle who died in September, "B.C., Before the Crash." The officer hands him a ticket. It is not for speeding. It is for disturbing the peace.
Cast & crew
More about Getting a Ticket
Morton Blumenstock directed. The titles say Adolph Zukor and Jesse L. Lasky present Eddie Cantor. Charles C. Wilson is the other billed player. A notice on the surviving print dates it 1929, though some later lists say 1930. The Commons copy runs 10 minutes 34 seconds.
Themes
Background
The "Before the Crash" joke places the patter after the October 1929 market break, or at least in the season when that break was already a punchline.
Making
The short is almost all talk: a two-set comedy, courtroom and roadside, built so Cantor can deliver a monologue to a straight man in uniform.
Music
Cantor's dialogue and the officer's replies are recorded as a talkie. There is no separate score credit.
Preservation
A print of about ten and a half minutes survives. A full dialogue transcript is on Wikisource.
Notes
- Wikisource has a transcript taken from the film.
- After the courtroom scene Cantor tells his wife he will be home when the radiator stops knocking.
- The policeman apologizes for the park arrest once he hears the woman is Cantor's wife.
- The ticket pun lands on speech, not speed.
- Cantor was making other Paramount talkie shorts the same year, including A Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic.
Scenes
- Cantor waves a marriage certificate and the judge dismisses the park charge.
- He talks a traffic stop into a comedy routine.
- The officer writes the ticket for disturbing the peace.
Quotes
He died in September, B.C., Before the Crash.
No; for disturbing the peace.
