You Said a Mouthful (Warner Bros.) (1932)

CURRENT FEATURE STORIES CURRENT FEATURE ‘Note to Exhibitor:—tThis extremely funny feature can well be used as a humorous column in the newspapers, in your advance pregram, or as a throwawy. A Movie Comedian Offers Helpful Swimming Pointers by pe EE WN Joe E. Brown, who splashed his way through the First Na—— tea sass : in the Fi tional swimming comedy, ‘‘You Said a Mouthful’’ which comes (Based altogether on his experiences in the First tose ees Theatte-on. 16S , declares that National picture, ‘You Said a Mouthful!’’ now from now on he hopes to strut his stuff on dry land. showitgut the = Theatre All because Joe got a mouthful. In fact, he got many of them, during the two weeks he spent at Catalina Island making CURRENT FEATURE Joe E. Brown Hopes His Next Film Will Be On a Desert Comedian Lost Love For Water After Spending 14 Days in Ocean Making “‘You Said a Mouthful’’ 1. Don’t go swimming. 2. If you must swim, imitate the poor fish. Be yourself in the water. 3. It is not so important that you keep out of the water as it is that you keep the water out of you. 4. Find a nice pond. The _ Pacific Ocean is really bigger than anyone, except our very best swimmers’ needs. 5.--D'o nt kick your feet as though you had an ear caught in a wringer. Remember Grace — but don’t let your wife know you remember her! 6. —There is a rule in the Brown family . that whoever : splashes least, Suit Yourself — gyowns first. Borrowed Suits Are te ere Most Often Moth: Eaten. yourself — Ee borrowed suits are most often, moth-eaten. should reach for the water — not punch at it. Which explains why people who live in boarding houses make the best swimmers. 9. Breathe regularly, but not under water. 10. Keep your head, by avoiding shark infested waters, ships’ propellers and mermaids. 11. Beginners should remember their directions, especially the way “up. 12. Swallow often but not much. This prevents water-logging and sinking in unfrequented spots about the ocean. 13. Kick vigorously, the management may refund your money. 14. Diving is different. Some are important you people go into dives naturally. Some have to be encouraged. 15. Position is important. If you have a good, permanent, well-paid position, don’t go into dives. 16. Avoid profanity. More swimmers have drowned at the Hellespont than have drowned at Catalina. 17. It’s safer for the beginner to stroke a back than to try to back-stroke. 18. You shouldn’t swim right after eating but you can eat right after swimming—and how! 19. If-you must flirt do so near shore. You'll get in deep water quickly enough that way, anyhow. RN po a ‘ ull oe eS ~ iN It’s Safer to Stroke a Back Than to Try to Back-Stroke. 20. Plunge in. Don’t dilly-dally. Dilly-dalliers suffer the most. 21. If anyone tells you you swim as well as Joe E. Brown, the answer is — “You Said a Mouthful.” Cuts illustrated above are available at your local exchange. Order Cut No. 8, Cut 30c, Mat 10¢. CURRENT FEATURE How Comedians Get Funny Joe E. Brown Resorts to Practical Jokes to Work Himself and Company Into Proper Mood What makes Joe E. Brown funny? What makes any screen comedian funny? And how do they get that way? It: has: long been a mystery as to how a sereen comedian gets himsélf into the frame of mind, to clown before the camera. It is one thing to be funny on the stage where there is some thing of inspiration in personal contact. But to be funny before a cold camera and “mike,” — that’s something else again. Comedians. are not so differently constituted from other people. They don’t always feel like clowning. They have their moods, and sometimes they get out of the wrong side of the bed like any other mortal. The morning grouch doesn’t always pass them by. But if you had watched Joe EL Brown working on his latest First National comedy, “You Said a Mouthful,” which is now at the See ee ese ae ' Theatre, the mystery would be solved, at least as far as Joe igs concerned. Joe, of course, has a natural advantage. His “pan” is a laugh in itself. He can’t disguise that wide open space whether the corners turn up or down. But he admitted that he doesn’t wake up every morning feeling as though he could lick a basket full of wild cats and make the whole world snicker. Comedian’s Toughest Job “Par from it,” said Joe. “I frequently get the doldrums like anyone else. But I have to go before the camera and strut my stuff just the same. The company is on the set and everything is waiting. You can’t put it off until you feel like it. If you did, the picture probably never would be made. You’ve got to make yourself feel like it. You have to work yourself into the proper mood. That’s the comedian’s toughest job.” And Joe does it by clowning off the set before work starts on the re Even Bath Tubs Will Be Looked Upon With Suspicion From Now On. Cut No. 10 Cut 30c Mat roc . his current picture. The entire company lived in bathing-suits, except when they doffed them for sleeping pajamas. They dove, swam, trod water and capered in the briny while the cameras recorded their discomforts to give motion picture audiences an hour of hearty laughter. “T feel permanently waterlogged,” said Joe after the final shots of we had stayed in the water off Catalina another day, I’d probably have begun to grow scales, or broke out with fur, like a seal. “As a rule, each day, we took our first dive into the ocean just as the sun was coming up, although still soggy from the day before. Personally, I love the water. When I was a kid, I used to think I’d like’ nothing better than a life on the ocean wave. But a life in the ocean wave is another matter. “During the day, Lloyd Bacon, the director, would let us come out of the water long enough to get a cup of coffee or something else hot, and then chase us back for more scenes. “The pay-off, though,” Joe went on, “was the surprise we found waiting for us when we got back to the studio. We thought we had left all the water stuff behind us at Catalina, but we hadn’t. There were two days more of close-ups to be taken in the studio tank. And, of course, I was in nine-tenths of them. However, pictures are pictures, and making people laugh is a serious business, so I gritted my teeth — they had just recovered from a ten-day spell of chattering— dragged the bathing suit out of the go on being a deep-sea hero. | “Now I’m going to dry out, if possible. I hope the locale of our next picture is out in the middle of the desert, two hundred~ miles from the nearest ocean. Even bath tubs will be looked upon with sus -picion from now on. “T almost forgot to add,” said Joe, “that we had to pick the coldest -summer California has had for fif teen years to romp around in the ocean for days at a time with not much more on than a Kanaka would wear at. Waikiki. In one way, this was an advantage. I didn’t have to use my imagination to work up a shrinking hesitancy about getting too familiar with the ocean, such as the character I was playing is supposed to feel. Maybe that will help to make those scenes funnier. ET eT picture in the morning, in between scenes. He frequently works himself into a lather of excitement that lasts through the day. And it frequently leaves him as limp as a rag at the end of the day. Clowning may look easy. But it’s not, not for the comedian. One of his methods is practical jokes. He plays them on the other actors, the director, the cameramen, the electricians, the prop men, or the innocent bystander. One morning when the company was working on location at Catalina Island in a swimming scene, Joe came tearing down the beach, yelling: “Sharks! Sharks!” And when Joe yells, he says a mouthful. ‘The swimmers scrambled madly for shore and _ clustered around Joe,. demanding, “Where? . Joe just lay down on the sand on his back and kicked his heels in the air. He laughed at the fright of the players. He laughed at the seolding director. Then everyone laughed. Joe’s laugh in infectious. And the company was in the mood to go to work. One On Ginger Rogers When Joe fastened a crab to Ginger Rogers’ bathing suit and she ran screaming down the beach, the other players went into hysterics. When Sheila Terry fled hysterically for her dressing room after Joe had trailed a wet, snaky rope across her bare legs, even the cameramen laughed. And it was a long day when someone didn’t get an unexpected ducking. The climax came on the studio set when Joe let loose eight barn mice in the women’s dressing room. They were prop mice, used in the picture, but even movie stars of the fair sex can’t forget the national fear of the ladies for mice. The panic that ensued held up the picture for half an hour. Nor could the girls be coaxed to come back to work until assured that all the mice had been exterminated.. That was enough to keep the crowd in good humor for the rest of the day. But when, next morning, Ginger Rogers appeared with a cat tucked under her arm, and refused to go on the set without it, they were off in roars of laughter again. Crew Kept in Comedy Mood “These may sound like silly child tricks in recital,’ said Joe. “But they mean a lot in keeping the whole company in a comedy mood when we are working before the camera. Some of the tricks are spontaneous. Everyone likes to have a little fun at the other fellow’s expense. And some of the tricks are planned deliberately for the purpose. They all help to keep up the good spirits of the players working on the set.” Page Nine