It's a Joke, Son!
About It's a Joke, Son!
The Daughters of Dixie nominate Magnolia Claghorn for state senator. A political machine, afraid its own man will lose, uses her daughter's boyfriend Jeff Davis to talk Magnolia's husband Beauregard into running and splitting the opposition. Beauregard catches on with the voters, and the machine then has to stop the candidate it created.
Cast & crew
More about It's a Joke, Son!
Benjamin Stoloff directed his last film, from a script by Robert E. Kent and Paul Gerard Smith, with Aubrey Schenck producing for Bryan Foy Productions. Eagle-Lion Films released it on 15 January 1947. Wikipedia calls it Eagle-Lion's first American production and gives the budget as $650,000.
Themes
Audiences
Wikipedia reports that the picture was a box-office disappointment. One theater chain pulled it in under a week after it took in $1,000, and it added to Eagle-Lion's multimillion-dollar loss for 1947.
Look
Clyde De Vinna photographed the film.
Music
Alvin Levin wrote the music.
Preservation
The film is in the public domain. Copies are on the Internet Archive and Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Kenny Delmar plays Beauregard Claghorn, the senator he had already done on Fred Allen's radio show. The character later fed the cartoon Foghorn Leghorn.
- Una Merkel is Magnolia. June Lockhart is Mary Lou. Kenneth Farrell is Jeff Davis. Douglass Dumbrille is Big Dan Healey. Jimmy Conlin is Senator Alexander P. Leeds.
- Arthur B. Krim later said the studio overpaid for Delmar and overestimated what the radio name would earn.
- The film is in the public domain.
Scenes
- The machine recruits Beauregard so he will split his wife's vote.
- Once he draws a crowd, the same operatives try to shut him down.
Influenced by
- Kenny Delmar's Senator Claghorn on Fred Allen's radio program
Also available
- Internet Archive (its_a_joke_son)
- Wikimedia Commons (It's A Joke, Son.ogv)
