Jack Pearl (born October 29, 1894, passed away December 25, 1982) had started his entertaining career at a very young age as part of Vaudeville star Gus Edwards's School Days act. By the 1920's Jack Pearl had become a regular in Broadway musical revues. These included The Dancing Girl (Jan 24, 1923 - May 12, 1923), Topics of 1923 (Nov 20, 1923 - Mar 22, 1924), A Night in Paris (Jan 05, 1926 - Jul 10, 1926) (Jul 26, 1926 - Oct 30, 1926), Artists and Models (Nov 15, 1927 - Mar 24, 1928), Pleasure Bound (Nov 15, 1927 - Mar 24, 1928), The International Revue (Feb 25, 1930 - May 17, 1930), Ziegfeld Follies of 1931 (Jul 01, 1931 - Nov 21, 1931) and Pardon My English (Jan 20, 1933 - Feb 25, 1933). He made his radio debut in 1932 on The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air. On that show he played his most famous character, Baron Munchausen. As this character he would tell very farfetched silly stories with a comedic German accent. The character caught on like wildfire. With this in mind, it would not be long until he would bring this character to the screen, which he would do for the first time with this movie (he would later play the character again in Hollywood Party (1934), another feature film with Ted Healy and His Stooges).
Jack Pearl's co-star in this film is Jimmy Durante (born February 10, 1893, passed away, January 29, 1980). Durante had been a star of vaudeville in the 1920's. With his corny jokes, musical talents and hammy persona Durante was almost vaudeville incarnate. As with many of his fellow stage performers, with the birth of talkies, Hollywood came knocking and movie fans fell under the charms of this lovable ham. Around the time this movie was released Durante was working for MGM working as half of a comedy team with Buster Keaton (who is best remembered for his silent film work). This made for an odd pairing as the two comedians could not have been more different in comedy stylings. Keaton had a more deadpan sense of humor while Jimmy Durante was as over the top and hammy as can be. However, despite this odd pairing I love the movie, Speak Easily (1932). Durante would once again be paired with Jack Pearl in Pearl's second and last time playing the Baron in a theatrical feature film, Hollywood Party. Many people today probably remember Jimmy best for him being caricatured in plenty of cartoons (the Hanna-Barbera character Doggy Daddy is one such example) as well as his final screen role as the narrator of the classic TV special, Frosty the Snowman (1969). The same year Meet the Baron was released Durante appeared on the same stage as Ted Healy and his Stooges. This was on October 7, 1933, at the Loew's State Theatre in Los Angeles, California for a benefit for those affected by the tragic Griffith Park fire of that year. Also appearing at that benefit were Max Bear, Lionel Barrymore, Helen Hayes and Johnny Weissmuller.
In this film the Baron Munchausen (Henry Kolker) is trekking through Africa with two traveling companions (Jimmy Durante, Jack Pearl). When the going gets tough, he abandons his traveling companions to save his own skin. A rescue party comes and saves the two companions mistaking on of them for the Baron. They are now made to speak at an all-girls college, Cuddle College, and try to avoid being found out as fakes. Ted Healy and his Stooges are the college's janitors.
The main problem with this film is Jack Pearl's main character. Pearl lacked any sort of screen presence, and it is easy to see why he never became a movie star. Honestly, he comes off as quite dull here. It doesn't help that his character gets many very weak jokes. There are some comedians who can make even the corniest of jokes work (such as Groucho Marx) but frankly Jack Pearl is not one of them.
Despite this though I actually enjoy most everything else about this movie. Ted Healy and the Stooges are wonderful here. The whole scene about them fixing the plumbing in the girl's shower room is truly hilarious. The supporting cast as a whole is excellent though. Of course, Jimmy Durante is delightful as always here and saves many of the scenes with Jack Pearl. Edna May Oliver and Zasu Pits (one of my favorite character actresses of this era) light up the screen whenever they are on. Some of the surreal gags are even quite funny, especially the Statue of Liberty gag and the wonderful ending gag
The musical numbers are also quite good here. I really enjoy Hail to the Baron Munchausen, which I find catchy and a lot of fun. However, the highlight of musical numbers is Clean as a Whistle. This is a very risqué and naughty musical number (this was the pre-code era after all). Besides just being shocking to see in an old movie, the musical number is also very catchy, and the visual filmmaking is very well done and memorable. It is surprising that this great number does not get more attention from pre-code fans.
All in all, this movie is a lot of fun in spite of its main character and star.
This film's director was Walter Lang (born August 10, 1896, passed away February 7, 1972). Though his name is not well known by film buffs today, he had a very prolific career that includes many loved movies. His career started in the mid-1920's and lasted through the early 1960's. Some of his films include The Red Kimono (1925), The Spirit of Youth (1929), The Little Princess (1939), The Blue Bird (1940), Moon Over Miami (1941), State Fair (1945), Cheaper by the Dozen (1950), The King and I (1956) and Desk Set (1957). Lang would direct the Stooges once more, decades later in the feature film Snow White and the Three Stooges (1961). He was married to Madalynne Field from 1937 until his death. Madalynne Field had appeared in some silent comedies for producer Mack Sennett (who produced the earliest films of Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand, Harry Langdon and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle). There she worked with actress Carole Lombard (including in the short, Run Girl Run (1928)), who would go on to great fame. The two became very close friends and Lang met Field when he directed Lombard in Love Before Breakfast (1936).
The film was co-written by none other than Herman J. Mankiewicz (Born November 7, 1897, March 5, 1953), who shared a writing credit with Orson Wells on what many consider the greatest movie ever made, Citizen Kane (1941). He was also a writer on what is considered the most watched movie of all time, The Wizard of Oz (1939). Comedy fans might also know that Herman J. Mankiewicz produced The Marx Brothers' films for Paramount (which many Marx purists consider the team's best works). Herman was the brother of the brilliant director Joseph L. Mankiewicz and the grandfather of TCM host Ben Mankiewicz. With the Citizen Kane connection it is worth noting that there is a mule named Rosebud in this film.
There is a dialogue exchange here that all Stooge-philes will be familiar with. It goes like this: "Get the tools!" "What tools?" " The tools we've been using for the last ten years!" The team would later do this skit again in multiple short films including Pardon My Scotch (1935), 3 Dumb Clucks (1937), How High is Up? (1940) and Dizzy Detectives (1943).
In this movie, the Stooges are janitors. This is a role they would play again quite a few times. They played janitors in such films as Three Missing Links (1938), All the World's a Stooge (1941), A Gem of a Jam (1943), Dopey Dicks (1950), Three Dark Horses (1952) and the feature length Have Rocket Will Travel (1959) to name just a few. They would even play janitors in a live action wrap around segment for their 1965 TV cartoon show, The New Three Stooges.
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| Motion Picture Daily, 1933 |
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| Motion Picture Daily, 1933 |
The following are some 1933 exhibitor's reviews from the Motion Picture Herald.
"Meet the Baron: Jack Pearl, Zazu Pitts, Jimmy Durante - Here is another poor picture from Metro on the 1933 contract. Why should producers put such pictures as this off on the exhibitors and the paying public. If you didn't have this, you were very lucky. Played on bargain day to poor business. Running time, 65 minutes. Played Mar. 9. - J.J. Medford. Orpheum Theatre, Oxford, N.C. General Patronage."
"Meet the Baron: Jack Pearl, Jimmy Durante - Just a fair picture, but we had nice business with it because of the Baron's radio friends. Played Feb 3-4 - N.E. Frank, Wayland Theatre, Wayland, Mich. Small Town Patronage."
"Meet the Baron: Jack Pearl, Jimmy Durante - Undoubtedly this is the very poorest picture that we ever put off on our patrons. We are still afraid to come out to the front door. This may be great radio entertainment but it's a flop on the screen. Pull this one regardless. - W. J. Bryan, Paramount Theatre, Geneva, Ala. Small Town Patronage."
-Michael J. Ruhland
Resources Used
The Three Stooges Scrapbook by Jeff Lenburg, Joan Howard Maurer and Greg Lenburg
A Tour De Farce: The Complete History of the Three Stooges on the Road by Gary Lassin
https://travsd.wordpress.com/2013/10/29/stars-of-vaudeville-69-jack-pearl-a-k-a-baron-munchausen/
https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/jack-pearl-55801
https://threestooges.net/filmography/view/207
https://forgottenactors.blogspot.com/2022/07/madalynne-field.html
https://mediahistoryproject.org/
