8mm Forum: When's Your Birthday? (Joe E Brown) 1937

This is topic When's Your Birthday? (Joe E Brown) 1937 in forum 8mm Print Reviews at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on November 04, 2006, 08:53 PM:

It seems that I champion the films that most people have either forgotten or are just rare on Super 8. This is one of them.

Joe E Brown plays a boxer that refuses to fight unless the stars are alighned. You see, he is a astrologer as well, and he does everything by the planets. As the film begins, he is going to his sweethearts house who he is to marry.

This all falls apart when Joe states that thgey can't get married because the planets aren't aligned. He is kicked out, along with his dog, but not before the dog takes a fair share of the fathers pants.

In need of a job, he becomes a waiter, which goes wrong, of course, but he does, while there, forecasts a dog race and guesses it right. The guys look tough and so he runs away, (but not before appearing in drag to escape, rather funny, but he makes a very ugly woman.)

He then gets a job as a fortune teller and does well, as well as meeting his sweetheart. While being a fortune teller, he runs into the tough guys who wanted to find him before. They then enlist him professionally as a fore-teller of fights. Un-
-fortunately, his real sweetheart catches him with his old sweetheart, (a gold-digger) and there romance is off!

Joe is supposed to forecast the chances of the tough guys boxer winning but mistake Joes own horoscope as the boxers. Now they find out that Joe was a boxer and since his horoscope says he can't lose, they force him to play thier boxer.

But there's one cast, Joe can't win until 9:45, when thew moon comes up. Joe stalls for time as good as he can, but he gets a beating.

Meanwhile, his real sweetheart learns the truth and comes to the fights to find him. Finally, the moon does come up and Joes back in action. he wins the fight! As he looks at the moon he sees one last forecast in the moon. We see a baby in his future.

THE END

This is real interesting film print. It's definitely an older
print, as the magnetic sound stripe is only on one side, a trait of earlier sound releases. I would love to find a forum member that knows which company released this print.

As for the print, it is exceptionally sharp, which I'd say isn't always the case with these old Black n White movies. Blackhawk set the standard for great B/W classic films, but this could easily rest alongside of them.

One thing that really stands out is the contrast, which is absolutely excellent on this print. This must have been struck from an early generation negative, no washout or too dark of sections. The original film negative did have some wear, but not too bad.

The sound isn't exceptional on some parts, but it is acceptable.

This was the first indepedent feature that Joe E Brown made and it was his best of these later features by him. This also stars Edgar Kennedy, (famous for films ranging from the Marx Brothers to Laurel and Hardy), as well as Margeret Hamiltion, (who played the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of OZ), as well as other stalwart actors of the 30's.

Oh, on another interesting bit of trivia, the film opens with a four minute animated sequence, which was animated by Bob Clampett, who would later become famous for such cartoons as "The Great Piggy bank Robbery" (Daffy Duck) as well a myriad of others classic, (and later, Beany and Cecil for TV), this was his very first animation directing job, and it's pretty good.

A somewhat rare film, but a good deal of fun!

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on November 04, 2006, 09:26 PM:

Osi,

Thanks for the review. Joe E. Brown doesn't get anywhere near the recognition that he deserves. By the way, that animated opening sequence was originally in Technicolor.

Doug

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on November 05, 2006, 08:29 PM:

That's true, however, the super release is all black and white but still much fun. Who released this print? It is on eastman film stock and that's all I know.

Posted by Eberhard Nuffer (Member # 410) on November 06, 2006, 07:43 AM:

Osi,

as far as I know, a 4x400' edition of "When's Your Birthday" was released by Niles. Perhaps anybody can confirm this (come on, at least one forum member should own a Niles catalogue!!)

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on November 06, 2006, 10:06 AM:

If this is a Niles print, then it's got to be the absolute best B/W print that they ever did. From what I have seen, most Niles prints are marginal to downright bad, having extremely poor grain, terrible contrast, ect. The only good thing I can say about Niles prints is that for some reason, thier cartoons faired better and they did have a large selection of very rare feature film titles.

Posted by Gary Crawford (Member # 67) on November 07, 2006, 08:18 AM:

Yes...Niles was variable to say the least. I have to give credit , though....their Meeting at Midnight and especially their Invisible Ghost were superb prints....At one time I had standard 8, super 8 and 16's of those and they were all great. White Zombie, on the other hand......ugh......all the actors looked like zombies with all facial detail whited out.

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