''International House'' is a 1933 American

pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines, popularly known ...

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

starring

Peggy Hopkins Joyce Peggy Hopkins Joyce (born Marguerite Upton; May 26, 1893 – June 12, 1957) was an American actress, artist's model, and dancer. In addition to her performing career, Joyce was known for her flamboyant life, with numerous engagements, four ...

and W. C. Fields, directed by A. Edward Sutherland and released by Paramount Pictures. The tagline of the film was "The '' Grand Hotel'' of comedy". It is a mixture of comedy and musical acts tied together by a slim plot line, in the style of the '' Big Broadcast'' pictures that were also released by Paramount during the 1930s. In addition to some typical comedic lunacy from W. C. Fields and

Burns and Allen Burns and Allen was an American comedy duo consisting of George Burns and his wife, Gracie Allen. They worked together as a successful comedy team that entertained vaudeville, film, radio, and television audiences for over forty years. The duo ...

(

George Burns George Burns (born Nathan Birnbaum; January 20, 1896March 9, 1996) was an American comedian, actor, writer, and singer, and one of the few entertainers whose career successfully spanned vaudeville, radio, film and television. His arched eyebr ...

and

Gracie Allen Grace Ethel Cecile Rosalie Allen (July 26, 1895 – August 27, 1964) was an American vaudevillian, singer, actress, and comedian who became internationally famous as the zany partner and comic foil of husband George Burns, her straight man, ...

), it provides a snapshot of some popular stage and

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

acts of the era. The film includes some risqué pre-Code humor. The cast also features Cab Calloway with his orchestra and

Bela Lugosi Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó (; October 20, 1882 – August 16, 1956), known professionally as Bela Lugosi (; ), was a Hungarian and American actor best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in the 1931 horror classic ''Dracula'', Ygor in ''S ...

Plot

At International House, a large hotel in metropolitan

Wuhu Wuhu () is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Anhui province, China. Sitting on the southeast bank of the Yangtze River, Wuhu borders Xuancheng to the southeast, Chizhou and Tongling to the southwest, Hefei city to the northwest, Ma'ansh ...

, China Chinese inventor Dr. Wong (

Edmund Breese Edmund Breese (June 18, 1871 – April 6, 1936) was an American stage and film actor of the silent era. Biography Breese was born in Brooklyn, New York. His parents were Renshaw Breese and Josephine Busby. The Opera House in Eureka Spring ...

) is soliciting bids for the rights to his "radioscope", a kind of television. Unlike real television, his contraption does not need a camera; it can look in on events anywhere in the world as if it were a ground-penetrating electronic telescope, complete with audio. Prof. Henry R. Quail ( W. C. Fields) is one of many people from around the world converging on the hotel, though he is one of the few not hoping to buy (or steal) Dr. Wong's invention, as he was intending to land in Kansas City in his

autogyro An autogyro (from Greek and , "self-turning"), also known as a ''gyroplane'', is a type of rotorcraft that uses an unpowered rotor in free autorotation to develop lift. Forward thrust is provided independently, by an engine-driven propeller. Whi ...

but flew off course. Also converging on the hotel are four-times-divorced American celebrity

(playing herself) avoiding one of her ex-husbands, violently jealous Russian General Petronovich (

); Tommy ( Stuart Erwin), the representative of an American electric company, hoping to buy Wong's invention and finally wed his sweetheart Carol ( Sari Maritza); resident physician Dr. Burns (

) and his goofy aide Nurse Allen (

) dealing with a quarantine on the hotel; and the exasperation of the hotel's fussy and frustrated manager (

Franklin Pangborn Franklin Pangborn (January 23, 1889 – July 20, 1958) was an American comedic character actor famous for playing small but memorable roles with comic flair. He appeared in many Preston Sturges movies as well as the W. C. Fields films '' Interna ...

). Dr. Wong is particularly eager to look in on a six-day indoor bicycle race in New York, but instead somehow brings in performances by popular crooner

Rudy Vallée Hubert Prior Vallée (July 28, 1901 – July 3, 1986), known professionally as Rudy Vallée, was an American singer, musician, actor, and radio host. He was one of the first modern pop stars of the teen idol type. Early life Hubert Prior Vall ...

, bandleader-vocalist Cab Calloway, and precocious torch singer

Baby Rose Marie Rose Marie (born Rose Marie Mazzetta; August 15, 1923 – December 28, 2017) was an American actress, singer, comedian, and vaudeville performer with a career ultimately spanning nine decades, which included film, radio, records, theater, night ...

, and comedians Stoopnagle and Budd. A floor show (featuring

Sterling Holloway Sterling Price Holloway Jr. (January 4, 1905 – November 22, 1992) was an American actor and voice actor who appeared in over 100 films and 40 television shows. He did voice acting for The Walt Disney Company, playing Mr. Stork in '' Dumbo'', A ...

and Lona Andre) is also performed in the hotel's rooftop garden restaurant. Ultimately, Tommy wins both the rights to the radioscope and his sweetheart, and Peggy Hopkins Joyce, having learned that Prof. Quail is a millionaire, quickly attaches herself to her next sugar daddy. Prof. Quail and his new companion are chased as he drives his little American Austin automobile through several public areas of the hotel and down several flights of a fire escape before driving it back into the hold of his autogyro and taking off.Green, Stanley (1999) Hollywood Musicals Year by Year (2nd ed.), pub. Hal Leonard Corporation page 22

Cast

Actors

as herself * W. C. Fields as Prof. Henry R. Quail * Stuart Erwin - Tommy Nash *

- Doctor Burns *

- Nurse Allen * Sari Maritza - Carol Fortescue *

Lumsden Hare Francis Lumsden Hare (17 October 1874 – 28 August 1964) was an Irish-born film and theatre actor. He was also a theatre director and theatrical producer. Early years Hare studied at St. Dunstan's College in London. Career Hare appeare ...

- Sir Mortimer Fortescue *

- Gen. Nicholas Petronovich *

- Hotel Manager *

- Dr. Wong, Chinese inventor

Performers

* Stoopnagle and Budd - F. Chase Taylor and Budd Hulick *

Rudy Vallee Rudy or Rudi is a masculine given name, sometimes short for Rudolf, Rudolph, Rawad, Rudra, Ruairidh, or variations thereof, a nickname and a surname which may refer to: People Given name or nickname *Rudolf Rudy Andeweg (born 1952), Dutch poli ...

as himself * Cab Calloway as himself, with his band *

as herself * Lona Andre as China Teacup *

as Coffee Mug

Production

Pre-Code elements

''International House'' was produced before a strict Hollywood

Production Code The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the ...

took effect in July 1934, and it is notable for the kind of risqué subject matter, humor and costumes associated with

Pre-Code Hollywood Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines, popularly known ...

. Top-billed

was famous as an unabashed real-life gold-digger, not as an actress. Her many affairs with and several marriages to wealthy older men earned her millions, and in the film she makes several humorous references to her profitable divorces, a topic that would become almost completely off-limits with enforcement of the Code. Several of the "

cellophane Cellophane is a thin, transparent sheet made of regenerated cellulose. Its low permeability to air, oils, greases, bacteria, and liquid water makes it useful for food packaging. Cellophane is highly permeable to water vapour, but may be coated ...

" costumes in the "She Was a China Tea-cup" production number allow the bare outlines of breasts to be seen, a degree of nudity that the Code would not permit. The setting of Wuhu, China also serves as a play on "Woo-hoo!", an exclamation which at that time was sometimes used to comment that something was sexually naughty. Hearing the city's name, W. C. Fields, as Professor Quail, responds to what he mistakes as homosexual

flirting Flirting or coquetry is a social and sexual behavior involving spoken or written communication, as well as body language. It is either to suggest interest in a deeper relationship with the other person or, if done playfully, for amusement. I ...

with "Don't let the posy fool you", referring to his own boutonniere, which he plucks out and tosses away. Walking down a hotel corridor, Fields pauses to peep through a keyhole, then comments, "What won't they think of next!" Such implications of what the Code called "sex perversion" (usually defined then as anything other than procreative sex in the

missionary position The missionary position or man-on-top position is a sex position in which, generally, a woman lies on her back and a man lies on top of her while they face each other and engage in vaginal intercourse. The position may also be used for other ...

) would soon be strictly prohibited. This was one of several films in which Fields tweaked censors' noses with one particular deniable

double entendre A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, of which one is typically obvious, whereas the other often conveys a message that would be too socially ...

. Sitting next to him in a small car, Joyce (whom he has punningly called "my little Laplander") squirms uncomfortably and tells him she is sitting on something. After saying "I lost mine in the stock market" Fields checks, finds a cat under her, and exclaims, "Ah, it's a pussy!" Performing with his hot dance band, Cab Calloway sings " Reefer Man", which describes the odd behavior and ravings of the titular heavy marijuana smoker (portrayed by bass player Al Morgan, who performs as if in a trance). In one gag, W. C. Fields enters a scene contentedly smoking an opium pipe (but with a cigar in place of the opium) and commenting, "They stupefy! They're roasted!", a play on two then-current cigarette advertising slogans. References to recreational drug use were among the many Legion of Decency thou-shalt-nots that would soon be rigidly enforced. In the sequence with the Austin – the smallest car sold in America at that time – W. C. Fields remarks that it "used to belong to the

Postmaster General A Postmaster General, in Anglosphere countries, is the chief executive officer of the postal service of that country, a ministerial office responsible for overseeing all other postmasters. The practice of having a government official responsib ...

." This was a potshot at Will Hays, the diminutive former Postmaster General who was then trying to enforce an essentially voluntary and often disregarded early Production Code.

Earthquake

On March 10, 1933, an earthquake occurred during production, and a Paramount newsreel featured what was presented as footage of cast members on the set reacting as it struck. A documentary featurette on W. C. Fields accompanying the film's DVD release, however, reveals that Fields and director Sutherland faked the footage for the publicity. The actual earthquake, centered off nearby

Long Beach Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

, caused widespread major damage to unreinforced masonry and about 120 consequent fatalities. A 1976 episode of the television series " In Search Of..." that dealt with earthquakes showed the footage.

Music

Lyricist Leo Robin and composer Ralph Rainger wrote three songs for the film: "She Was a China Tea-cup and He Was Just a Mug", performed offscreen by an unidentified male vocalist; "Thank Heaven For You", sung onscreen by Rudy Vallee; and "My Bluebird's Singing the Blues", sung onscreen by Baby Rose Marie (at a UCLA screening of the restored film at the Billy Wilder Theatre on March 10, 2013, Rose Marie indicated that her song was filmed in New York at the Astoria studio and she had no contact with the Hollywood players). A fourth Robin-Rainger song, "Look What I've Got", originally featured in the slightly earlier film ''

A Bedtime Story ''A Bedtime Story'' is a 1933 American pre-Code romantic comedy film starring Maurice Chevalier. Plot Chevalier plays a Parisian playboy who finds himself obliged to care for an abandoned baby. The film was directed by Norman Taurog and also st ...

'', is heard as an instrumental, supposedly played by "Ah Phooey and His Manly Mandarins" in a broadcast from a radio station that calls itself "The Voice of Long Tung"; it provides the musical accompaniment for an otherwise silent he-and-she undressing scene. Cab Calloway and His Harlem Maniacs perform 1932's "Reefer Man", written by Andy Razaf (lyrics) and J. Russell Robinson (music).Library of Congress page on this film
which cites ''Jazz on the Screen'' by David Meeker (used with permission) as its source for musical information. Retrieved April 7, 2018.

Release

Home media

In 1996, Universal Studios Home Video released the film on VHS. In 2004, it was released on Region 1 DVD as part of the five-disc W. C. Fields Comedy Collection set.

Restoration

In 2013, ''International House'' was preserved to a polyester dupe negative by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. It was copied from the excellent Paramount 35mm nitrate studio answer print, the lowest generation surviving copy. The audio was re-recorded and denoised, revealing very high fidelity. The Cab Calloway "Reefer Man" number proved to be dubbed 4 dB louder than the rest of the film, giving the Calloway band an infectious, powerful musical presence. This print premiered in the UCLA Festival of Preservation in 2013 and subsequently toured extensively to archival venues.

References

External links

''International House''
at American Film Institute (archived) * * {{A. Edward Sutherland 1933 films 1933 comedy films American black-and-white films American comedy films Films directed by A. Edward Sutherland Films set in China Films set in hotels Paramount Pictures films 1930s English-language films 1930s American films