Danger - Love at Work
Encyclopedia
Danger - Love at Work is a 1937 American screwball comedy film
directed by Otto Preminger
. The screenplay by James Edward Grant
and Ben Markson focuses on an attorney's frustrating efforts to deal with a wildly eccentric family.
, he meets Junior Pemberton, an obnoxious ten-year-old prodigy whose behavior prompts Henry to kick him in the pants when they arrive at the station, much to the dismay of the boy's sister Toni.
Henry arrives at the Permberton home before Toni and Junior, and the rest of the family mistakes him for her fiancé Howard Rogers. She quickly corrects the misunderstanding and soon finds herself liking the amiable lawyer, despite their unpleasant first meeting. Mistakenly believing the millionaire
Henry is impoverished and the sole support of his widowed mother, Toni promises to help him financially, but Howard convinces the family Henry is a fraud. The attorney returns to New York City
, where he promptly is fired.
Anxious to find Henry, Toni convinces the Pembertons their town is being quarantined, and the entire family travels to New York. When Toni learns Henry has lost his job, she vows to help him get it back. She urges her family to sign the documents allowing their land to be sold, and then she and Henry go to the country to obtain the signatures of her Aunts Pitty and Patty and Uncle Goliath.
Howard, still certain Henry is a con artist, decides to assess the Pemberton's property and discovers oil, unaware it's leaking from his own car. Believing the land is worth a fortune, he persuades the family to sell it to him for $125,000 and convinces them Henry was trying to scam them. Thinking Henry was deceiving her, Toni ends their relationship.
Howard discovers the oil was from his car and tries to get his money back, only to discover the Pembertons already have spent it. When he decides to sell the land to Howard, Toni tries to warn him, but he refuses to speak to her, until Pitty and Patty reveal Toni and Henry spent the night in their barn, and Toni pretends he took advantage of her. Her family storms Henry's apartment and demands he make an honest woman of her, and he willingly agrees to marry Toni.
-winning 1936 play You Can't Take It with You
by George S. Kaufman
and Moss Hart
, as well as Morrie Ryskind
and Gregory LaCava's script for My Man Godfrey
. 20th Century Fox
executive Darryl F. Zanuck
originally cast Simone Simon
as Southern belle Toni Pemberton, but her heavy French accent proved to be too difficult to understand, and after a few days of filming she was replaced by Ann Sothern
.
The film's title song was written by Harry Revel
and Mack Gordon
.
called the film "a C-grade screwball comedy that's quaintly competent but lacks energy" and added, "Preminger does a workmanlike job on this . . . but doesn't lift the material above the ordinary. He seems happy just to parade this collection of oddball caricatures in front of the lens, content that their cheery wackiness is enough to power the story. Sadly it isn't. There is no urgency or drive to the action to match the snappiness of the dialogue. Even though it runs at less than 80 minutes, the film seems to dawdle."
Time Out London said Preminger "directs efficiently, but with little feeling for screwball form; with hindsight it was hardly his sort of thing. Amiable enough, but, as ever, a little loveable eccentricity goes a very long way."
In reviewing the film for DVD Times, Anthony Nield observed although Preminger "may not have the sense of timing which distinguished the great screwball directors, from Howard Hawks
to Preston Sturges
, he nonetheless manages a slick, professional job . . . [T]here is something pleasing to come from the knowledge that the director of such twisted efforts as Where the Sidewalk Ends
, Bunny Lake is Missing
and, indeed, Laura
could start out in Hollywood on something so relatively straightforward."
released a Region 2 DVD on September 26, 2005. The film is in fullscreen
format, with an audio track and subtitles in English. There are no bonus features.
Screwball comedy film
The screwball comedy is a principally American genre of comedy film that became popular during the Great Depression, originating in the early 1930s and thriving until the early 1940s. It is characterized by fast-paced repartee, farcical situations, escapist themes, and plot lines involving...
directed by Otto Preminger
Otto Preminger
Otto Ludwig Preminger was an Austro–Hungarian-American theatre and film director.After moving from the theatre to Hollywood, he directed over 35 feature films in a five-decade career. He rose to prominence for stylish film noir mysteries such as Laura and Fallen Angel...
. The screenplay by James Edward Grant
James Edward Grant
James Edward Grant was an American short story writer and screenwriter who contributed to more than fifty films between 1935 and 1971....
and Ben Markson focuses on an attorney's frustrating efforts to deal with a wildly eccentric family.
Plot
Henry MacMorrow, a junior partner in the law firm of Parsons, Hilton, Trent and MacMorrow, is assigned the task of obtaining the signatures of various members of the Pemberton family so that a piece of property they own can be sold. While en route by train to the Pemberton home in Aiken, South CarolinaAiken, South Carolina
Aiken is a city in and the county seat of Aiken County, South Carolina, United States. With Augusta, Georgia, it is one of the two largest cities of the Central Savannah River Area. It is part of the Augusta-Richmond County Metropolitan Statistical Area. Aiken is home to the University of South...
, he meets Junior Pemberton, an obnoxious ten-year-old prodigy whose behavior prompts Henry to kick him in the pants when they arrive at the station, much to the dismay of the boy's sister Toni.
Henry arrives at the Permberton home before Toni and Junior, and the rest of the family mistakes him for her fiancé Howard Rogers. She quickly corrects the misunderstanding and soon finds herself liking the amiable lawyer, despite their unpleasant first meeting. Mistakenly believing the millionaire
Millionaire
A millionaire is an individual whose net worth or wealth is equal to or exceeds one million units of currency. It can also be a person who owns one million units of currency in a bank account or savings account...
Henry is impoverished and the sole support of his widowed mother, Toni promises to help him financially, but Howard convinces the family Henry is a fraud. The attorney returns to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where he promptly is fired.
Anxious to find Henry, Toni convinces the Pembertons their town is being quarantined, and the entire family travels to New York. When Toni learns Henry has lost his job, she vows to help him get it back. She urges her family to sign the documents allowing their land to be sold, and then she and Henry go to the country to obtain the signatures of her Aunts Pitty and Patty and Uncle Goliath.
Howard, still certain Henry is a con artist, decides to assess the Pemberton's property and discovers oil, unaware it's leaking from his own car. Believing the land is worth a fortune, he persuades the family to sell it to him for $125,000 and convinces them Henry was trying to scam them. Thinking Henry was deceiving her, Toni ends their relationship.
Howard discovers the oil was from his car and tries to get his money back, only to discover the Pembertons already have spent it. When he decides to sell the land to Howard, Toni tries to warn him, but he refuses to speak to her, until Pitty and Patty reveal Toni and Henry spent the night in their barn, and Toni pretends he took advantage of her. Her family storms Henry's apartment and demands he make an honest woman of her, and he willingly agrees to marry Toni.
Cast
- Ann SothernAnn SothernAnn Sothern was an American film and television actress whose career spanned six decades.-Early life and career:...
..... Toni Pemberton - Jack HaleyJack HaleyJohn Joseph "Jack" Haley was an American stage, radio, and film actor best known for his portrayal of the Tin Man and Kansas farmworker Hickory in The Wizard of Oz.-Career:...
..... Henry MacMorrow - Edward Everett HortonEdward Everett HortonEdward Everett Horton was an American character actor. He had a long career in film, theater, radio, television and voice work for animated cartoons. He is especially known for his work in the films of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.-Early life:Horton was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Isabella...
..... Howard Rogers - Mary BolandMary Boland-Career:Born Marie Anne Boland in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she was the daughter of William Boland, an actor, and his wife Mary Cecilia Hatton. She had an older sister named Sara....
..... Alice Pemberton - John CarradineJohn CarradineJohn Carradine was an American actor, best known for his roles in horror films and Westerns as well as Shakespearean theater. A member of Cecil B DeMille's stock company and later John Ford's company, he was one of the most prolific character actors in Hollywood history...
..... Herbert Pemberton - Walter CatlettWalter CatlettWalter Catlett was an American actor. As a San Francisco citizen, he started out in vaudeville with a detour for a while in opera before breaking into films.-Early career:...
..... Uncle Alan - Benny Bartlett ..... Junior Pemberton
- Maurice CassMaurice CassMaurice Cass was a character actor in numerous films and television shows. Born in Lithuania, he came to the US to pursue an acting career....
..... Uncle Goliath - Margaret SeddonMargaret SeddonMargaret Seddon was an American film actress. She appeared in 104 films between 1915 and 1951. She was born in Washington, D.C...
..... Aunt Pitty - Margaret McWade ..... Aunt Patty
Production
The story by James Edward Grant upon which the screenplay was based borrowed heavily from the hit Pulitzer PrizePulitzer Prize for Drama
The Pulitzer Prize for Drama was first awarded in 1918.From 1918 to 2006, the Drama Prize was unlike the majority of the other Pulitzer Prizes: during these years, the eligibility period for the drama prize ran from March 2 to March 1, to reflect the Broadway 'season' rather than the calendar year...
-winning 1936 play You Can't Take It with You
You Can't Take It with You
You Can't Take It with You is a comedic play in three acts by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. The original production of the play opened at the Booth Theater on December 14, 1936, and played for 837 performances...
by George S. Kaufman
George S. Kaufman
George Simon Kaufman was an American playwright, theatre director and producer, humorist, and drama critic. In addition to comedies and political satire, he wrote several musicals, notably for the Marx Brothers...
and Moss Hart
Moss Hart
Moss Hart was an American playwright and theatre director, best known for his interpretations of musical theater on Broadway.-Early years:...
, as well as Morrie Ryskind
Morrie Ryskind
Morrie Ryskind was an American dramatist, lyricist and writer of theatrical productions and motion pictures, who became a conservative political activist later in life.-Biography:...
and Gregory LaCava's script for My Man Godfrey
My Man Godfrey
My Man Godfrey is a 1936 American screwball comedy film directed by Gregory La Cava. The screenplay was written by Morrie Ryskind, with uncredited contributions by La Cava, based on "1101 Park Avenue", a short story by Eric Hatch. The story concerns a socialite who hires a derelict to be her...
. 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
executive Darryl F. Zanuck
Darryl F. Zanuck
Darryl Francis Zanuck was an American producer, writer, actor, director and studio executive who played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of its longest survivors...
originally cast Simone Simon
Simone Simon
Simone Thérèse Fernande Simon was a French film actress who began her film career in 1931.-Early life:Born in Béthune, Pas-de-Calais France, she was the daughter of Henri Louis Firmin Champmoynat, a French engineer, airplane pilot in World War II, who died in a concentration camp, and Erma Maria...
as Southern belle Toni Pemberton, but her heavy French accent proved to be too difficult to understand, and after a few days of filming she was replaced by Ann Sothern
Ann Sothern
Ann Sothern was an American film and television actress whose career spanned six decades.-Early life and career:...
.
The film's title song was written by Harry Revel
Harry Revel
Harry Revel was an English composer of musical theatre.Revel was born in London. Before emigrating to the United States in 1929, he wrote musicals for productions in Paris, Copenhagen, Vienna and London....
and Mack Gordon
Mack Gordon
Mack Gordon was an American composer and lyricist of songs for the stage and film. He was nominated for the best original song Oscar nine times, including six consecutive years between 1940 and 1945, and won the award once, for "You'll Never Know"...
.
Critical reception
Ceri Thomas of Channel 4Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
called the film "a C-grade screwball comedy that's quaintly competent but lacks energy" and added, "Preminger does a workmanlike job on this . . . but doesn't lift the material above the ordinary. He seems happy just to parade this collection of oddball caricatures in front of the lens, content that their cheery wackiness is enough to power the story. Sadly it isn't. There is no urgency or drive to the action to match the snappiness of the dialogue. Even though it runs at less than 80 minutes, the film seems to dawdle."
Time Out London said Preminger "directs efficiently, but with little feeling for screwball form; with hindsight it was hardly his sort of thing. Amiable enough, but, as ever, a little loveable eccentricity goes a very long way."
In reviewing the film for DVD Times, Anthony Nield observed although Preminger "may not have the sense of timing which distinguished the great screwball directors, from Howard Hawks
Howard Hawks
Howard Winchester Hawks was an American film director, producer and screenwriter of the classic Hollywood era...
to Preston Sturges
Preston Sturges
Preston Sturges , originally Edmund Preston Biden, was a celebrated playwright, screenwriter and film director born in Chicago, Illinois...
, he nonetheless manages a slick, professional job . . . [T]here is something pleasing to come from the knowledge that the director of such twisted efforts as Where the Sidewalk Ends
Where the Sidewalk Ends
Where the Sidewalk Ends is a 1950 American film noir directed and produced by Otto Preminger. The screenplay for the film was written by Ben Hecht, and adapted by Robert E. Kent, Frank P. Rosenberg, and Victor Trivas. The screenplay and adaptations were based on the novel Night Cry by William L....
, Bunny Lake is Missing
Bunny Lake Is Missing
Bunny Lake Is Missing is a 1965 British psychological thriller film directed and produced by Otto Preminger, who filmed it in black and white widescreen format in London. It was based on the novel of the same name by Merriam Modell. The score is by Paul Glass and the opening theme is often heard as...
and, indeed, Laura
Laura (1944 film)
Laura is a 1944 American film noir directed by Otto Preminger. It stars Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews and Clifton Webb. The screenplay by Jay Dratler, Samuel Hoffenstein, and Elizabeth Reinhardt is based on the 1943 novel of the same title by Vera Caspary....
could start out in Hollywood on something so relatively straightforward."
DVD release
The British Film InstituteBritish Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
released a Region 2 DVD on September 26, 2005. The film is in fullscreen
Pan and scan
Pan and scan is a method of adjusting widescreen film images so that they can be shown within the proportions of a standard definition 4:3 aspect ratio television screen, often cropping off the sides of the original widescreen image to focus on the composition's most important aspects...
format, with an audio track and subtitles in English. There are no bonus features.