comedy film
The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...
directed by Malcolm St. Clair and written by Mauri Grashin. The film stars
Lois Collier
Lois Collier (born Madelyn Earle Jones; March 21, 1917"Salley" ''
Skip Homeier
George Vincent Homeier (October 5, 1930 – June 25, 2017), known professionally as Skip Homeier, was an American actor who started his career at the age of eleven and became a child star.
Career Child actor
Homeier was born in Chicago, Illino ...
Jerome Cowan
Jerome Palmer Cowan (October 6, 1897 – January 24, 1972) was an American stage, film, and television actor.
Early years
Cowan was born in New York City, the son of William Cowan, a confectioner of Scottish descent, and Julia Cowan, née Pal ...
. The film was released on April 7, 1948, by
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...
.
Plot
Mrs. Bixby (Barbara Brown) is determined that her daughter Margaret (Lois Collier) will marry a successful man and arrange a match. Margaret, however, marries her sweetheart James (Richard Crane), but insists the couple keep it a secret from her mother. The groom objects to this deception, but acquiesced. In an attempt to distract their mother, Margaret’s younger brother (Howard Freeman) pretends to be engaged, but only makes matters worse. Ultimately the mother discovers and truth and acknowledges that her daughter has married for love.
Cast
*
Lois Collier
Lois Collier (born Madelyn Earle Jones; March 21, 1917"Salley" ''
Skip Homeier
George Vincent Homeier (October 5, 1930 – June 25, 2017), known professionally as Skip Homeier, was an American actor who started his career at the age of eleven and became a child star.
Career Child actor
Homeier was born in Chicago, Illino ...
as Arthur Bixby
* Ann E. Todd as Valarie Jeanne Bradford
*
Jerome Cowan
Jerome Palmer Cowan (October 6, 1897 – January 24, 1972) was an American stage, film, and television actor.
Early years
Cowan was born in New York City, the son of William Cowan, a confectioner of Scottish descent, and Julia Cowan, née Pal ...
William Bakewell
William Robertson Bakewell (May 2, 1908 – April 15, 1993) was an American actor. He achieved his greatest fame as one of the leading juvenile performers of the late 1920s and early 1930s.
Early years
Bakewell was a native of Los Angeles, w ...
as Lawrence White
*
Howard Freeman
Howard Freeman (December 9, 1899 – December 11, 1967) was an American actor of the early 20th century, and film and television actor of the 1940s through the 1960s.
Biography
Freeman was born in Helena, Montana, and began working as ...
as Bert Bixby
*Joan Blair as Mrs. Bradford
* Almira Sessions as Mrs. Barnafogle
*Jeanne Gail as Betty Lou
*Donald Kerr as Cab Driver
* Luana Walters as Newspaper Woman
Retrospective appraisal
''Arthur Takes Over'' is representative of the low-budget “B” movies that director St. Clair made at the end of his career. Film historian Ruth Anne Dwyer reports that the scripts offered to St. Clair at 20th Century Fox in the late 1940s were “the weakest he had encountered” from the studio.”
Though ''Arthur Takes Over'' exhibits “some charm and reasonable production values” the storyline is decidedly weak, “almost plotless.”Dwyer, 1996 p. 153
Notes
References
*Dwyer, Ruth Anne. 1996. ''Malcolm St. Clair: His Films, 1915-1948.'' ''
The Scarecrow Press
Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group is an American independent academic publishing company founded in 1949. Under several imprints, the company offers scholarly books for the academic market, as well as trade books. The company also owns t ...