The Life of the Party (1930 film)

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The Life of the Party (1930)

Directed by	Roy Del Ruth
Written by	Darryl F. Zanuck Arthur Caesar
Starring	Winnie Lightner Irene Delroy Jack Whiting Charles Butterworth Charles Judels
Music by	Earle Crooker Sidney D. Mitchell
Cinematography	Devereaux Jennings Frank B. Good (Technicolor)
Editing by	William Holmes
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	October 25, 1930
Running time	79 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
IMDb profile

The Life of the Party is a 1930 musical comedy film photographed entirely in Technicolor. The musical numbers of this film were cut out before general release due to the fact that the public had grown tired of musicals by late 1930. Only one song was left in the picture. The film only survives in a black and white copy made in the 1950's for television.

1 Plot
2 Pre-Code Sequences
3 Songs
4 Preservation
5 Trivia
6 Cast

[edit] Plot

Poster for the film showing Jack Whiting and Irene Delroy.

Winnie Lightner and her friend (played by Irene Delroy) decide to do some gold digging when they are fired from their job in a sheet music store. They find a dressmaker named Le Maire (played by Charles Judels) to do some gold-digging on. They "borrow" a lot of expensive clothes, jewelry, etc. and then hop on a ship for Havana. Meanwhile the dressmaker is happy thinking he is going to spend the night with the girls (he is interested in the young and beautiful Irene Delroy) along with his friend (who will have Winnie Lightner). He arrives at the party only to receive a note from the girls thanking him for being so generous. He goes wild and starts breaking all the furniture while his friend only says "Yoo-Hoo" (a phrase he always used with the girls) whenever he tells him to say something and that makes him even more irritated. The girls try to find a millionaire in Havana but end up finding a male "gold-digger" who is looking for a rich woman to help pay his bills. Eventually, the dressmaker arrives in Havana...

[edit] Pre-Code Sequences

Poster for the film.

One of the Pre-Code gags in this comedy include a scence where the dressmaker is showing the girls some dresses and says "And this one the prince wanted to wear but his mother would not let him." Towards the end of the film LeMaire catches up with the two golddiggers and literally destroys a room while shouting "I Will Call The Police If I Don't Get The Money For The Dresses" After he gets a check he says: "And I'm glad I didn't lose my temper!"

[edit] Songs

"Poison Ivy"
"Can It Be Possible?"(Cut from United States release print)
"One Robin Doesn't Make A Spring" (Cut from United States release print)
"Somehow" (Cut from United States release print)

[edit] Preservation

Poster for the film showing Winnie Lightner, Charles Judels and Irene Delroy.

Only a black and white copy of the cut print released in the United States (without most of the musical numbers) seems to have survived. The complete film was released intact in countries outside the United States where a backlash against musicals never occurred. It is unknown whether a copy of this full version still exists.

[edit] Trivia

The music heard of the credits at the beginning of the film was added in the 1950's. These credits are also not original but have been redrawn, removing all indication that the film was photographed in Technicolor. The original music survives on Vitaphone disks. The rest of the film, beginning with the first title card ("New York was originally purchased from the Indians..."), has the original sound.