Friday, March 18, 2016

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Top Hat (1935)

Horace: Mr. Travers is in trouble.
He has practically put his foot right into a hornets' nest.
Bates: But hornets' nests grow on trees, sir.
Horace: Never mind that.
We have got to do something.
Bates: What about rubbing it with butter, sir?
Horace: You blasted fool, you can't rub a girl with butter!
Bates: My sister got into a hornets' nest
and we rubbed HER with butter, sir!
Horace: That's the wrong treatment,
you should've used mud - never mind that!

The great comic character actor (and classic queen) Edward Everett Horton was born 130 years ago today. Horton lit up dozens of movies with his lightly fey schtick for decades. His longtime companion was another actor, named Gavin Gordon - they only acted together in one movie, Frank Capra's 1961 film Pocketful of Miracles. There aren't as far as I can find any pictures of them together (given the times they were together, that's not so surprising) but here is Gordon looking dashing in the 1930 film Romance opposite Greta Garbo:

1 comment:

Jim said...

Did we really have to wait 37 years for Brando and Bertolucci to teach us that, yes, you could rub a girl with butter?