Safety in Numbers
About Safety in Numbers
William Butler Reynolds is due to inherit $350 million on his next birthday. His uncle, F. Carstair Reynolds, says the money waits until the young man has learned something of the world, and hires three Follies girls — Jacqueline, Maxine, and Pauline — to take him around New York.
Cast & crew
More about Safety in Numbers
Victor Schertzinger directed. George Marion Jr. and Percy Heath wrote the script from a story by Marion Dix. Richard A. Whiting and Marion wrote the songs. Henry W. Gerrard photographed. Paramount released it on 30 May 1930. It runs 60 minutes. Charles “Buddy” Rogers plays William. Kathryn Crawford is Jacqueline, Josephine Dunn is Maxine, and Carole Lombard, early in her career, is Pauline.
Themes
Making
Schertzinger, who also wrote songs for other pictures, stages this one as a New York tour paid for by an uncle. The three Follies parts are the education, not a backstage story.
Look
Henry W. Gerrard shot the Paramount musical, including the New York outings the uncle pays the three women to arrange.
Music
Richard A. Whiting and George Marion Jr. wrote the songs.
Preservation
A print survives.
Notes
- Roscoe Karns plays Bertram Shapiro. Francis McDonald is Phil Kemptom. Raoul Paoli is Jules.
- Virginia Bruce appears as Alma McGregor and Louise Beavers as Messalina.
- Geneva Mitchell is Cleo Carewe. Lawrence Grant’s Commander Brinker is uncredited, as are Tom London’s motorist and a doorman and a cab driver.
- It is a pre-Code musical comedy, released before the 1934 Production Code crackdown.
- The inheritance figure in the plot summary is $350 million.
Scenes
- The uncle names the $350 million and the condition.
- Jacqueline, Maxine, and Pauline are hired to show William the city.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Safety in Numbers (1930).webm)
