Men Are Like That

Name: Men Are Like That
Director: Frank Tuttle
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Released: 1930
Duration: 59 min
Cast: Hal Skelly, Doris Hill, Clara Blandick, Charles Sellon, Helene Chadwick

1930 Drama Comedy 59 minutes Directed by Frank Tuttle

About Men Are Like That

Railroad clerk J. Aubrey Piper brags his way into a marriage with Amy Fisher over her parents' objection. Frank Hyland, her brother-in-law, pays for the honeymoon and later for a wreck: Aubrey borrows Frank's car, fights a traffic cop, and breaks the cop's arm. Pa Fisher dies of a stroke the same night. In court Aubrey talks the fine up from $500 to $7,000. He then barges into the lawyers who have just given Amy's brother Joe $50,000 for an invention and demands $100,000. The lawyers throw him out, then send the larger check anyway. Joe makes him a partner. Ma Fisher says, "Lord help me from now on."

Cast & crew

More about Men Are Like That

Frank Tuttle directed. Herman J. Mankiewicz and Marion Dix wrote the script from George Kelly's play The Show-Off. Paramount Famous Lasky released it on 22 March 1930. Hal Skelly plays Aubrey. Doris Hill plays Amy. Verna Willis edited. W. Franke Harling wrote the music.

Themes

A clerk who talks like a rich man
The in-laws who pay for the talk
A bluff that somehow gets the check
J. Aubrey Piper
Amy Fisher
The Show-Off
railroad clerk
traffic cop
Hal Skelly
pre-Code

Music

W. Franke Harling wrote the music.

Preservation

Preserved in the Library of Congress collection.

Notes

Clara Blandick plays Ma Fisher and Charles Sellon plays Pa. Helene Chadwick is Clara Hyland. Morgan Farley is Joe. George Fawcett is the judge. William B. Davidson is Frank Hyland. Eugene Pallette is the traffic cop.
The AFI Catalog times it at 57 minutes. A full copy runs 58 minutes 42 seconds. The Wikipedia infobox says 59.
A 1926 silent, The Show-Off, used the same play. MGM filmed it again in 1934 with Spencer Tracy and in 1946 with Red Skelton. Blandick repeated Ma Fisher in the 1934 version.
A print is in the Library of Congress.
Reviewers at the time said this first talking version stayed close to Kelly's play.

Scenes

Aubrey antagonizes a traffic cop and breaks the man's arm with Frank's car.
The judge hears the speech and raises the fine from $500 to $7,000.
The lawyers mail the $100,000 check Aubrey demanded after they had thrown him out.