The Slippery Pearls (1931)

Director:

William C. McGann

Writers:

Release Date:

4 April 1931 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Short

Plot:

Star-packed promotional short subject intended to raise funds for the National Variety Artists tuberculosis sanatarium...

Plot Keywords:

Detective | Laurel And Hardy | Dog | Police Sergeant | Public Domain

Cast

Wallace Beery	...	Police Sergeant
Buster Keaton	...	Policeman
Jack Hill	...	Policeman
J. Farrell MacDonald	...	Policeman
Edward G. Robinson	...	Edward Robinson (as Edward Robinson)
George E. Stone	...	Himself
Eddie Kane	...	Detective
Stan Laurel	...	Policeman
Oliver Hardy	...	Police Driver
Allen 'Farina' Hoskins	...	Farina (as Farina)
Matthew 'Stymie' Beard	...	Stymie (as Stymie)
Norman 'Chubby' Chaney	...	Chubby (as Chubby)
Mary Ann Jackson	...	Herself
Shirley Jean Rickert	...	Shirley Jean
Dorothy DeBorba	...	Echo (as Echo)

Also Known As:

The Stolen Jools

Runtime:

20 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Netherlands:AL (DVD rating)

Company:

Masquers Club of Hollywood

Trivia:

"The Stolen Jools" is this film's original title. It was made by the National Vaudeville Artists (NVA) as part of a charity campaign and distributed free to theatres in 1931. After the showing a live speaker would come out and request donations. The film was rediscovered in 1972 in Britain, where it had been released in 1932 as "The Slippery Pearls," one of the Masquers Club comedy series for RKO. Subsequently a U.S. print was discovered and the film's true title, origin and purpose were at last known.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): On Detective Kane's pawn ticket, "saxophone" is misspelled "saxaphone."

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Room 101: (#8.3)" (2003)

Celebrity Soup

A dogged police inspector searches Hollywood for THE SLIPPERY PEARLS purloined from Norma Shearer.

Several of Tinseltown's brightest talents donated their time to this fund-raiser for the National Variety Artists Tuberculosis Sanitarium located at Savanac Lake, New York. Funds would be solicited from theater patrons after viewing this 20 minute short, which was ironically sponsored by Chesterfield Cigarettes. Distributed by Paramount Studios, some of the stars are embarrassingly bad in their tiny roles. The comedy team of Wheeler & Woolsey come off by far the best, although one wishes one could see more of Maurice Chevalier, Laurel & Hardy and the Our Gang kids.

This little film is sometimes shown under its alternate title of THE STOLEN JOOLS (1931).

The closing credits obligingly give a cast list, particularly helpful in identifying the celebrities of yesteryear who've faded into obscurity:

At The Police Station: Wallace Beery, Buster Keaton, Jack Hill, J. Farrell MacDonald, Edward G. Robinson & George E. Stone.

The Law: Eddie Kane, Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy.

At The Victim's House: Our Gang's Allen 'Farina' Hoskins, Matthew 'Stymie' Beard, Norman 'Chubby' Chaney, Mary Ann Jackson, Shirley Jean Rickert, Dorothy 'Echo' DeBorba, Bobby 'Wheezer' Hutchins & Pete the Pup. Also Polly Moran, Norma Shearer & Hedda Hopper.

Tête-à-Tête: Joan Crawford & William Haines.

On The Porch Swing: Dorothy Lee.

At Breakfast: Edmund Lowe, Victor McLaglen & El Brendel.

In The Hotel: Charles Murray, George Sidney, Winnie Lightner, Fifi D'Orsay, Warner Baxter (as the Cisco Kid) & Irene Dunne.

At Lunch: Bert Wheeler & Robert Woolsey.

In The Movie Studio: Richard Dix, Lowell Sherman & Claudia Dell.

The Newsmen: Eugene Palette, Stuart Erwin, 'Skeets' Gallagher, Gary Cooper, Wynne Gibson & 'Buddy' Rogers.

The Detective: Maurice Chevalier.

Under The Tree: Douglas Fairbanks Jr. & Loretta Young.

At The Car: Richard Barthelmess.

At The Gate: Charles Butterworth.

Couples At Home: Bebe Daniels & Ben Lyon, Frank Fay & Barbara Stanwyck.

In A Movie Scene: Jack Oakie & Fay Wray.

In A Beard: Joe E. Brown (unbilled).

In The Projection Room: George 'Gabby' Hayes & Little Billy Rhodes.

Solving The Mystery: Mitzi Green.

An interesting comparison with THE SLIPPERY PEARLS is MGM's THE Christmas PARTY, released the same year and with some of the same cast (Norma Shearer, Polly Moran, Wallace Beery). In half the time and with much better production values, it presents a rapid succession of some of MGM's biggest stars playing themselves in a Christmas greeting to their fans.