The Young Great-Great-Grandfather

1936 Comedy 80 minutes Directed by Luiz de Barros

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About The Young Great-Great-Grandfather

At an auction, Eduardo Menezes buys a box holding a prayer said to raise the dead. A séance brings back his great-great-grandfather Victor Eulálio, who died in 1832 at 26. Shaved and dressed in 1936 clothes, Victor chases women, lands in a cabaret, and tries an airplane. He even courts his own descendant, Dora. Eduardo turns to a macumba rite to send him back, which is a relief to Dora's fiancé.

Cast & crew

More about The Young Great-Great-Grandfather

Luiz de Barros directed and co-wrote the script from Gilberto de Andrade's 1926 play O Tataravô. Cinédia opened the film on September 14, 1936, at the Cinema Odeon in Rio de Janeiro. The company used a new portable sound camera, the Akeley Recorder, for outdoor scenes with recorded sound.

Themes

  • A séance at an auction
  • 1832 manners in 1936 Rio
  • A flirtation with his own descendant
  • Macumba sends him back
  • Victor Eulálio
  • séance
  • Cinédia
  • Cinema Odeon
  • cabaret
  • airplane
  • macumba
  • Dora

Technique

Outdoor dialogue was recorded with Cinédia's newly imported Akeley Recorder, a portable sound camera.

Preservation

A print survives.

Notes

  • Marcel Klass plays Victor Eulálio. Darcy Cazarré plays Eduardo Menezes. Dulce Weytingh plays Loura Dora.
  • Luiza Fonseca plays Eduardo's wife. Carlos Frias plays Dora's fiancé. Manuel F. de Araújo plays the cabaret owner.
  • One account of the trick says the box of secrets had belonged to Tomé de Sousa; the film plot uses it to yank Victor out of 1832.
  • Cinédia advertised the picture as comedy with location shots, not a studio-bound revue.

Scenes

  • The séance pulls Victor Eulálio out of the box.
  • Victor, newly barbered, tries the cabaret and then an airplane.
  • Eduardo uses macumba to put him back.

Influenced by

  • Gilberto de Andrade's play O Tataravô (1926)