Shoot the Works (film)

Shoot the Works is a 1934 American pre-Code comedy film directed by Wesley Ruggles and written by Claude Binyon, Gene Fowler, Howard J. Green and Ben Hecht. It is based on the Gene Fowler and Harold Hecht 1932 play The Great Magoo (and not, despite the title, the 1931 musical revue Shoot the Works). The film stars Jack Oakie, Ben Bernie, Dorothy Dell, Alison Skipworth, Roscoe Karns, Arline Judge and William Frawley. It was released on June 29, 1934 by Paramount Pictures, just before rigorous enforcement of the Hollywood Production Code that began on July 1, 1934.[1][2]

Shoot the Works
Theatrical release poster
Directed byWesley Ruggles
Screenplay byClaude Binyon
Gene Fowler
Howard J. Green
Ben Hecht
Produced byAlbert Lewis
Adolph Zukor
StarringJack Oakie
Ben Bernie
Dorothy Dell
Alison Skipworth
Roscoe Karns
Arline Judge
William Frawley
CinematographyLeo Tover
Production
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Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • June 29, 1934 (1934-06-29)
Running time
64 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Plot

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Cast

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Reception

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In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Andre Sennwald called Shoot the Works "a remarkably dull show" and wrote a scathing review:

"The Great Magoo" has now been scrubbed, rinsed and dried in the California sunshine with such heartiness that not only its stench but also its humor has been washed out. Flaying the production for its attention to dramatic hygiene is obviously not the most effective method of prodding the producers into the pastures now being staked out for them by the current film crusade. Their error resided, not in their well-intentioned efforts to perform a major operation upon a bawdy play, but their attempt to transfer the guttersnipe population of "The Great Magoo" to the screen in the first place. Lacking anything in its structure that might be mistaken for a thesis, the story depends for its lure upon a cynical contemplation of a gaudy and fly-blown crew of small-time show people. Staking its claims to recognition upon its success in escaping the usual beery sentimentalisms with which the drama regards her children, the work, in its film version, turns a back somersault into the emotional commonplaces which it originally sought to avoid.[3]

References

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  1. ^ A.D.S. (1934-07-07). "Movie Review - Shoot the Works - ' Shoot the Works', a Laundered Film Version of 'The Great Magoo' at the Paramount". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-02-28.
  2. ^ "Shoot the Works". Afi.com. Retrieved 2015-02-28.
  3. ^ Sennwald, Andre (1934-05-21). "The Screen: 'Shoot the Works,' a Laundered Film Version of 'The Great Magoo,' at the Paramount—'The Hell Cat.'". The New York Times. p. 16.
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