Night Life of the Gods (1935)

Thorne Smith was a writer whose stories reliably made good movies, even after the censors cut some of the juice out of them. I am also an Alan Mowbray fan. Thus, I expected a lot from Night Life of the Gods. The title itself suggested a witty parodyThis film did not deliver A large amount of time was devoted to Mowbray using his magic ring to freeze annoying people and bring ancient statues of Greek gods to life. Zip! Zap! Huntz Hall could have done it much better. It takes forever to get to the part where the gods are brought to life. When this finally happens , the Gods turn out to be .morons. There are no comments from them about modern life nor any comparison with lifer on Mt. Olympus. They just act like bewildered children with an immense sense of entitlement. Unfortunately, there is very little humor in their romp through New York City.Florine McKenny is the romantic interest She hams it up royally. Everyone else also does the same, but it is unusual to see this in the romantic lead. She screws her face into some awfully unattractive expressions which I can't remember ever seeing from a female romantic lead, at least not from one as attractive as she.Too bad.

First, the long post by wmorrow explains why everyone complains about the blurry print that's out there. (Great post, by the way.) It has the dark, smeary look of bad VCR work -- but it looks as if the print that was copied was pretty good. For one thing, the soundtrack is OK, and in brightly-lit closeups you can tell that a better transfer would reveal a decent image. I have longed to see this film since I saw it in the Henry Armetta entry of a clucky old film fan book called Immortals of the Screen. The film turns out to be oddball without being especially funny. Very broad acting, an attempt to portray a madcap family with a butler who blandly countenances every bizarre event, with elements of fantasy and science fiction. The gods don't appear until the final third of the picture -- and then they simply harass people in a swimming pool and at a fish market (instead of, say, changing the news or defying natural law...I don't know what I expected them to do, but they behave like the Ritz Brothers.) This film hasn't become a cult item because there wasn't enough comic inspiration in the first place. It also lacks a central charismatic star performance -- the cast of Night Life consists of some very skilled character actors and some "B leads." Who knows -- with a better print and a festival audience, this film might - MIGHT - have some impact.

Thorne Smith wrote some of the funniest and most risqué books of the era which my mother introduced her kids to in the 70's. We watched 'I married a Witch' (which is now available on DVD - although I got my copy in Spain several years ago) and my mum told me that she'd seen Topper, Turnabout and that she'd heard that they had may have made Night Life of the Gods. The book rocks which is why I wanted to see the film. The DVD of this movie took me two years to find and was so appalling in quality that I couldn't finish it - and I really did try. even in postage stamp format the picture was bad. Alas, 70 years of culture and a really bad print really mucks things up. This movie had the opportunity to be THE screwball comedy of all time, it had great lines,sex and all in a time of innocence, I really wish I could have seen if the movie had lived up to it. I guess if it had it might not be in such a sorry state.........

A one-of-a-kind comic fantasy from the pen of Thorne Smith, creator of "Topper", this strained whimsy has eccentric playboy Alan Mowbray invent a magic ring that turns people to stone. After rendering his annoying family into marble, he spends the night drinking with leprechauns, and then visits New York's Metropolitan museum, where he throws his ring into reverse and brings to life the statues of ancient Greek gods. Hectic shenanigans ensue when they all check into the Waldorf-Astoria hotel: Bacchus drinks rubbing alcohol, Venus de Milo acquires arms, Neptune starts a slapstick fight in a fish market, and so on. More witty than funny, the movie is afloat with Prohibition-era tipsy jokes, but manages to get an occasional naughty touch past the Hays Code restrictions. Mowbray captures the right energy and manic glint in his eye, and an imperturbable butler wins some laughs, but the others give overly broad performances that are comic, but in the wrong way. At this point in history, the curiosity value and Art Deco sets exceed the entertainment, or maybe they've now become the entertainment.