''Local Boy Makes Good'' is a 1931 American

Pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was an era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry that occurred between the widespread adoption of sound in film in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship gui ...

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

Mervyn LeRoy Mervyn LeRoy (; October 15, 1900 – September 13, 1987) was an American film director and producer. During the 1930s, he was one of the two great practitioners of economical and effective film directing at Warner Bros., Warner Brothers studios, ...

and written by Robert Lord,

Raymond Griffith Raymond Griffith (January 23, 1895 – November 25, 1957) was an American silent movie actor and comedian. Later in his career, he worked behind the camera as writer and producer. Biography Griffith was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He lost ...

and

Ray Enright Ray Enright (March 25, 1896 – April 3, 1965) was an American film director. He directed 73 films between 1927–53, many of them for Warner Bros. He oversaw comedy films like Joe E. Brown vehicles, five of the six informal pairings of Joa ...

. The film stars Joe E. Brown, Dorothy Lee, Ruth Hall, Edward Woods,

Edward Nugent Edward James Nugent (February 7, 1904 – January 3, 1995) was an American film and stage actor. Biography Nugent was born on February 7, 1904, and acted in films between 1928 and 1937. When Nugent was a boy, he sang with the Metropolitan Ope ...

and

Wade Boteler Wade Boteler (October 3, 1888 – May 7, 1943) was an American film actor and writer. He appeared in more than 430 films between 1919 and 1943. Biography He was born in Santa Ana, California, and died in Hollywood, California, from a heart ...

. The film was released by

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

on November 27, 1931.

Plot

Sheepish bookstore employee John Miller has become infatuated with a college girl, Julia Winters, he has never met. His love letters to her are accidentally mailed, so Julia comes to visit, under the mistaken impression John is a college track star. While co-worker Marjorie helps continue his deception, John tries to join the school's team. His wild javelin throw nearly kills other athletes, who chase him off the field. The college's coach is amazed at how fast John can run. Julia figures out she's been had. A psychology student, she analyzes John as a boy with an inferiority complex. After the coach finds John and invites him to run, Julia persuades him to race against her old boyfriend, Spike Hoyt, a star athlete and a bully. Majorie eventually talks John into it, even getting him drunk enough to do it.

Cast

* Joe E. Brown as John Augustus Miller * Dorothy Lee as Julia Winters * Ruth Hall as Marjorie Blake * Edward Woods as Spike Hoyt *

as Wally Pierce *

as Doc *John Harrington as Coach Jackson * William Burress as Colonel Small

Box office

According to Warner Bros records the film earned $500,000 domestically and $143,000 foreign.

Preservation status

* A print is housed in the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

collection.''Catalog of Holdings The American Film Institute Collection and The United Artists Collection at The Library of Congress'', (<-book title) p.105 c.1978 by The American Film Institute

References

External links