| International House | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | A. Edward Sutherland |
| Produced by | Emanuel Cohen |
| Written by | Neil Brant |
| Starring | W.C. Fields Bela Lugosi George Burns Gracie Allen Cab Calloway Rose Marie Peggy Hopkins Joyce |
| Music by | Ralph Rainger Howard Jackson John Leipold Al Morgan Cab Calloway |
| Cinematography | Ernest Haller |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | May 27, 1933 |
| Running time | 70 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
International House (1933) is a comedy film, directed by A. Edward Sutherland and released by Paramount Pictures. The tagline of the film was "the Grand Hotel of comedy".
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The film is a mix of numerous acts and bits, like a vaudeville variety show, interlaced with a plot line, in the style of the Big Broadcast pictures that were also released by Paramount during the 1930s
The ostensible plot line concerns a Chinese inventor trying to sell a "radioscope", an early version of television. Unlike real television, this imagined mechanism did not need a camera, but its monitor could zoom in on acts around the world. In addition to the typical Fieldsian comic lunacy, it also provides a snapshot of some popular stage and radio acts of the era.
The setting is a large hotel in Wuhu, China (from the dialogue, "Wuhu" was clearly chosen as a pun on the greeting "Yoo hoo") and the "international" in the title resonates with the real-life International Settlement in Shanghai. It was actually filmed on Paramount's Hollywood back lot.
Fields portrays Dr. Henry R. Quail, who is one of many people—from all over the world—converging on the "International House Hotel" in Wuhu, though he is the only one not hoping to buy (or steal) Dr. Wong's television invention, as he was intending to land in Kansas City but went off-course.
The film ends with minor characters chasing Fields as he drives Peggy Hopkins Joyce in his American Austin (the smallest car sold in America at that time) through the function rooms of the hotel and up and down the stairs, to drive the car into the hold of his autogyro and take off.
The film was produced in the days before the Production Code fully controlled filmmaking, and is notable for the kind of risqué humor associated with Pre-Code Hollywood. In Cab Calloway's song "Reefer Man," moreover, bass player Al Morgan performs as if in a trance and Calloway sings about him being "high on reefers."
During the filming of International House, a small tremor struck the set while cameras were rolling, and a Paramount News newsreel featured the story. A documentary featurette on W.C. Fields accompanying the film's DVD release, however, reveals that Fields faked the footage from the set as a publicity stunt. The actual earthquake was centered in nearby Long Beach, California. 115 people were killed and most of the downtown section was destroyed.
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