Polo Joe (Warner Bros.) (1936)

Below is the official billing for ‘Polo Joe.” It is important that this be followed without change or variation. sa pt . JOE E. BROWN»: POLO JOE CAROL HUGHES 75% RICHARD'Skeets GALLAGHER?» and JOSEPH KING — GORDON ELLIOT GEORGE E. STONE ee DIRECTED by WILLIAM McGANN 20% ® e ° A Warner Bros. 10% Productions Corporation 10% Picture 10% Joe E. Brown... MMR cstiet cues t negara Ce res cmt tay AUD: Joe Bolton MrOd WIR CR oe OMe titi ite WAN ie a ee oe Mary Hilton RaChigns’ t SiCOEs 1, GAUAUNER cops oe ot Br a as gas Haywood FG a ac ick ee a oy depen: Gea cage ae he Colonel Hilton UME ee ee ROOD ee Apap Ae ys Don Trumbeau PIAL Ls RS ee RRA eee eine a ey apt UBeRSee Peeita ecole MUU Aunt Minnie MOOV ROU OURS oo eye ie lie hae Sree 3 nena, ee First Loafer ON ce Ie OS SARC NR NERD EMRE SLES eaETI eR DEE AMEE POLY Mrs. Hilton (ani eels oe ee es ea Jack Hilton Se ee, | 2 SE EMAMRRIT IG ae lc age DELON ee Rpm eu AT Gps ares nan ae Marker Sr RL APR Nagel ar” At CoRR NPR Hiro a al Aten Se tA RT Bert SOIT UE Racor tr en eS Gar seh dh oe Ongectat! 8 os MTSE Rusty Mee ac DI aia ae ae ge Second Loafer TEE Pe Te RCai et taet e e SE e AR e RR C A Ge William McGann GROMER IANO DY oso 8i so re ee i ee Peter Milne and Hugh Cummings PNG MARIE Ne ee bo te teas oe L. William O’Connell, A.S.C. LL || ee least PrP namie akea” <tc ne Eee heroine aie gna HRS oo wil! Clarence Kolster Rive preerer. 0 ee a SRR Le ean: «aN ea ee Roland Hill CMR Ra eee he hier arr ae aan wat eae Deg Orry-Kelly CSG at IPCC EOE ee see ee ac ete eT gale a Leo F. Forbstein Ree te eae eo ge he ee eo 3863 FEET PRC i a es Oe 65 MINUTES Page Two A Warner Bros. Picture e “POLO JOE”’ PRODUCTION DATA Joe Bolton (Joe E. Brown) returns from a 10-year absence in China with his faithful valet Haywood (Skeets Gallagher), to go to the fashionable home of his Aunt Minnie (Fay Holden), a multi-millionairess. There he finds that the sole interest of the suburban colony is horses and pole. Horses are Joe’s pet aversion. Every time he gets near one he has to sneeze. They give him hay fever. A beautiful young neighbor of Aunt Minnie’s is Mary Hilton (Carol Hughes), for whom Joe falls immediately. Her most ardent admirer is Don Trumbeau (Gordon Elliott), who sees through Joe at once. Don is really a 3-goal polo player, a member of the local team. Joe sees that the only way he can win Mary is by being a polo player. He boasts about having been an “11goal man” out in China and tells how he won an international championship there, single-handed. His valet, Haywood, insisting Joe ought to do a little practicing, brings into the barn a circus-donkey, which boots Joe all over the place. That scheme won’t work. Then a member of the polo team breaks his arm in practice, and the socialite colony insists the “ll-goal player” replace him. The valet engages two gangsters to kidnap Joe and keep him until after the game, so he will not have to reveal his inability. But the gangsters demand $5,000 of Colonel Hilton (Joseph King), for Joe’s release. Trumbeau, who has overheard Joe and the valet making JOE E. BROWN—is a shining example of a home town boy who has made good . . . The home town was a tiny Ohio village named Holgate . .. Joe Evan was the eldest of a large brood and at nine he ran off and joined a circus . . . Got beaten up regularly but took it and said nothing . . . Became the smallest member of an acrobatic troup known as the Five Marvelous Ashtons . . . One night while doing a pyramid the big boss —a churlish mortal—let the kid fall . .. His leg was broken and he lay in a hospital for weeks after the show moved on... Has always been a nut about baseball . . . Joined a St. Paul team and later had a brief stay with | the New York Yankees . . . Repeated glimpses of his funny face revealed by the candid mirror made him decide to be a comedian . . . Was in burlesque and musical shows like “Listen, Lester,” “Jim Jam Gems” and “Captain Jinks” . . . He was doing his ludicrous didoes in “Twinkle, Twinkle” in Los Angeles when Warner Bros. gave him a long term contract and started him . off on his fantastic career in “Crooks Can’t Win” .. . His portrayal of Flute the Bellows-mender in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” was acclaimed as the acme of low comedy . . . Joe is married .. . has two sons and two daughters . . . and here he is in his most uproarious role as a Polo Pretender who is so bad he makes good and wins the object of his regard . . . Carol Hughes. up the plot, denounces Joe as a faker, and feads the Colonel to the hideout. Joe, in the meantime, having been threatened with desertion by the gangsters, knocks them out. Haywood, knowing that Joe is about to be exposed, rushes to the hideout with police. They arrest the crooks and proclaim Joe a hero just as the Colonel and Trumbeau drive up. The Colonel denounces Trumbeau and takes the protesting Joe back to the polo grounds. Unable to escape, Joe asks Haywood to find him a gentle horse. He brings him a quiet, sleepy animal, equips Joe with polo costume and mallet, and sends him into action. But this horse proves to be an old circus horse and when the band starts playing at the beginning of the game, he waltzes, two-steps, and does a hooch-dance while the other poloists are driving the ball up and down the field. The first period ends with the opposition team far in the lead, and Joe, an object of ridicule is razzed by the crowd. The ingenuity of the valet, however, has not yet been exhausted. When Don insists upon Joe using his spirited pony, in the next period, Haywood rigs up a contrivance made from a rubber inner-tube, which yanks Joe back into the saddle whenever he begins to fall. Equipped with this, Joe plays through the game, makes some marvelous shots, and wins the match by a score of 11 to 10. He is the hero of the crowd and the socialite colony, and the beautiful Mary Hilton is his for life. CAROL HUGHES — who plays the swanky, polo-crazy girl of the hero's choice in “Polo Joe” sang and danced her way into the talkies . . . Born and _ educated in Chicago she hot-footed it from high school to a dancing academy, and at the same time studied voice, meaning to land in musical comedy ... Instead a try-out by the Keith-Orpheum Vaudeville Circuit landed her with the comedy team of Taylor and Hughes with whom she toured for three seasons . . . When her show hit Los Angeles she got a job in a musical show ... A Warner Bros. scout saw her work and at once signed her up for pictures . . . You’ve seen her in one Joe E. Brown picture, “Earthworm Tractors” and in other films . . . but here she is in an altogether different sort of role ... You'll like her best of all in her latest characterization in hilarious “Polo Joe.” RICHARD “SKEETS” GALLAGHER -—the solemn of the talkies was drafted from the University of Indiana dramatic club into vaudeville .. smile-winner . He promptly gave up the study of law, toured the country and landed on Broadway in musical shows like “No, No, Nanette,” “Magnolia” and “Rose Marie” . . . While playing in “The City Chap” he was offered a part in a silent film . . . He has kept on in the talkies and is at his best as the valet of the exasperating hero of “Polo Joe.” Country of origin U. S. A. Copyright 1936 Vitagraph, Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright is waived to magazines and newspapers.