SIX OF A KIND

US, 1934, 65 minutes, Black and white.
Wesley Ruggles, Mary Boland, W.C. Fields, George Burns, Gracie Allen.
Directed by Leo Mc Carey.

A brief comedy typifying so much of thirties' comedy style: Wesley Ruggles and the harassed American middle-aged male, Mary Boland and the chattering dominating American housewife, George Burns and Gracie Allen with her incessant inane chatter, W.C. Fields and his routines. Leo Mc Carey who directed many of this kind of film including Marx Brothers' 'Duck Soup', went on to make such films as 'The Awful Truth' and 'Going My Way' amongst other popular comedies and films of sentiment.

1. The thirties' comedy and its style and conventions, appeal, the stars? Contrived? Dated?

2. Black and white photography, extensive use of studio sets for example the Grand Canyon? Artificial comedy?

3. The ironic touches especially with the title? What did the six have in common? The establishing of characters and types, farcical interludes and routines, the mocking of these American types?

4. Flora and Pinky - middle-aged marriage, fighting, making up, the memories of marriage and romantic dreams? The advertisement, Flora refusing to pay the money, the planning of the trip. George and Gracie and the dog and the continual harassment, the rooms and the inconvenience, the falling over the Grand Canyon, the encounter with the criminals, with Honest John? the need for privacy? The point behind their satirical presentation?

5. George and Gracie and the doad?pan humour, the mindless chatter? Dated comedy? The dog? The comedy of intrusion?

6. Honest John and his place in the town, Nevada? W.C. Fields and his routines especially the playing of pool, the investigations?

7. The minor characters from the people at the bank, the people in restaurants, hotels, the criminals? Briefly sketched for the purposes of the comedy?

8. The routines of visual humour, verbal humour, satire? A particular view of American characters and characteristics? The film as a picture of thirties' Americana?