That Certain Thing
About That Certain Thing
Molly Kelly works a cigar stand to support her widowed mother Maggie and two brothers, and she intends to marry a millionaire. She meets Andy B. Charles Jr., heir to the A.B.C. restaurants, and they marry that night. His father, A. B. Charles, cuts him off. Andy takes a ditch-digging job, hits a water main on the first swing, and is fired. Molly's thick-cut sandwiches sell to the workmen for fifty cents, the box-lunch trade undercuts the restaurants, and Charles buys the company, with Andy made general manager.
Cast & crew
More about That Certain Thing
Frank Capra directed it, his first film for Harry Cohn at Columbia. Elmer Harris wrote the story and Al Boasberg wrote the titles. Harry Cohn produced it. Arthur Roberts edited it. Photography ran in November and December 1927. Columbia released it on 28 January 1928. It runs 69 minutes. A timed copy runs 1 hour 3 minutes 52 seconds.
Themes
Making
Capra's first Columbia picture is also the first he made with cameraman Joseph Walker.
Look
Joseph Walker photographed the tenement, the double-decker bus, and the sandwich shop.
Preservation
Prints survive at the Library of Congress Packard Campus, the George Eastman Museum, UCLA Film & Television Archive, the National Archives of Canada in Ottawa, and the Cineteca del Friuli in Gemona.
Notes
- Viola Dana plays Molly. Ralph Graves plays Andy. Burr McIntosh is A. B. Charles. Aggie Herring is Maggie Kelly. Carl Gerard is Secretary Brooks. Syd Crossley is the valet.
- Capra wrote that he demanded control of the writing, directing, and editing, and that Cohn then offered him two more films.
- According to Joseph Walker's autobiography, George Hager was the gaffer.
- The father's rule for the restaurants is to cut the ham thin. Molly's motto is the opposite.
Scenes
- Andy hits a water main with the pickaxe and soaks his boss.
- A wheelbarrow of sandwiches sells at fifty cents.
- Molly tells Charles the secret is to cut the ham thick.
Also available
- Internet Archive (that-certain-thing-1928)
- Wikimedia Commons (That Certain Thing (Frank Capra, 1928).webm)
- Library of Congress Packard Campus
- George Eastman Museum
- UCLA Film & Television Archive
Quotes
Cut the ham thick.
