Director – Lowell Sherman, Screenplay – Barry Trivers, Based on the Novel Night Life of the Gods (1931) by Thorne Smith, Producer – Carl Laemmle, Jr., Photography (b&w) – John J. Mescall, Music – Arthur Morton, Special Effects – John P. Fulton, Art Direction – Charles D. Hall. Production Company – Universal.
Cast
Alan Mowbray (Hunter Hawk), Florina McKinney (Megaera ‘Meg’ Turner), Peggy Shannon (Daphne Lambert), Richard Carle (Grandpa Lambert), Theresa Maxwell Conover (Alice Lambert), Phillips Smalley (Alfred Lambert), Wesley Barry (Alfred, Jr.), Albert Emery (Betts), Ferdinand Gottschalk (Old Man Turner), Raymond Benard (Apollo), George Hassell (Bacchus), Paul Kaye (Mercury), Robert Warwick (Neptune), Irene Ware (Diana), Geneva Mitchell (Hebe), Pat DiCicco (Perseus), Marda Deering (Venus)
Plot
Eccentric inventor Hunter Hawk is in constant danger of blowing himself and his garden laboratory up with his experiments. He then announces to his family that he has created a petrification ray. Using a version of the ray built as a ring, he demonstrates it, turning himself to marble, and then uses another ring that reverses the process. He then turns the rest of his family, all except for his sister Daphne, into statues. Wandering, Hunter encounters the 900-year-old leprechaun Old Man Turner whose daughter Meg decides that Hunter is the love of her life. They travel to the museum where on a whim Hunter decides to use the ring to bring the statues of the Greek gods to life. Chaos ensues as they take the awakened gods out to experience modern New York night life.
Thorne Smith (1892-1934) was a popular writer of humorous fantasy. A former advertising copywriter, Smith has an instant hit with the publication of the novel Topper (1926) and continued writing up until his death at the age of 42. Smith never saw any of the films that would be adapted from his books – he died in June 1934, eight months before Night Life of the Gods, the first of the films, adapted from his novel Night Life of the Gods (1931), came out. To follow would be the hit Topper (1937), which led to two sequels and a tv series revival, the bodyswap film Turnabout (1940) and the delightful romantic comedy I Married a Witch (1942).
Night Life of the Gods falls into the then relatively new genre of the screwball comedy that emerged in the 1930s. This centred around fast-paced repartee and deliberately absurd situations – the Topper film is an absolutely perfect example of this. Some definitions of screwball comedy entail that it is based solely around romantic relationships and the playing off of men and women (I am not such a stickler with definitions) – there is some of that here after Alan Mowbray connects with Florina McKinney about a third of the way in, but their relationship is not a central comedic aspect of the film.
Florine McKinney and Alan Mowbray (front in suits) with the Greek gods
The film has a wacky premise and the plot is all over the place – the invention of a petrification ray, leprechauns, romance with the leprechaun’s mischievous daughter, the bringing of the Greek god statues to life and taking them out on the town. Lowell Sherman directs a series of fast and madcap scenes – with Alan Mowbray’s relatives entering his laboratory following the explosion, most of the scenes with the gods out on the town. On the other hand, while the film is comedy there is not much of it that comes across as funny. (That could well may be due to changing standards in comedy today and/or that the only copy available to view was a low quality one from YouTube). Most of the cast play fairly broadly, farcically so when it comes to the actors playing the gods, although Albert Emery’s butler does have a nicely droll deadpan delivery.
Night Life of the Gods was the last film directed by Lowell Sherman, who had directed a number of comedies and dramas since the early silent era – he made his first film as an actor in 1904 and began directing in 1928. Sherman died of pneumonia in December 1934, three months before Night Life of the Gods premiered. This was his only film that falls within genre confines.
