GET THAT GIRL

US, 1932, 67 minutes, Black-and-white.
Richard Talmadge, Shirley Gray, Fred Malatesta, Carl Stockdale.
Directed by George Crone.

This is a brief supporting feature from 1932. It was made by the company owned by the star, Richard Talmadge. It is a star vehicle for him, an actor who was an acrobat and incorporated acrobatics in his film. It was noted that he was popular in the Soviet Union, perhaps more so than in the US. Then it was suggested that this screenplay, very basic and straightforward, probably played better outside the US.

In fact, it is very simple. A young girl has to sign a document about her inheritance, is being pursued, is warned by the police, hurries to the train. A young man is running late for the train, the gate is shut, he leaps over the barrier and finds himself sitting at the back of the carriage next to the young girl. He is rather awkward in a genial kind of way. She tries to keep to herself. Then she gets a message that the pursuer is on the train and she becomes suspicious of the young man, getting off, he being put off the train and deciding that he must rescue her.

She goes to a mansion where she comes under the power of the mad doctor and his nurse assistant. The men following her to kidnap her also turn up. The young man steals a car and drives to the mansion to try to rescue her – and their follows a rather long scene of basic acrobatics for the star, over tables, under tables, round tables, upstairs, downstairs and a lot of throwing the opposition around the rooms.

The police come to arrest him for the stealing of the car and the audience sees the mad doctor wanting the building for his private asylum, the young woman and her being terrorised, the plans for her. Then the young man returns – and a rather long sequence where all the acrobatics are repeated. Needless to say he confronts the mad doctor as do the police and rescues the girl.

Basic filmmaking.