The Drama: A Marriage of Discomfort and Empathy
This is not a film, it’s a drop tower. A drop tower that you don’t get off of for the vast majority of its 106-minute runtime.
Only Saps Work (1930)
Rubber-legged comedian Leon Errol made his talkie starring bow in Paramount's Only Saps Work. Based on a play by Owen Davis Sr., the film casts Errol as James Wilson, a kleptomaniac who starts with picking pockets and ends up robbing a bank. Wilson's friend Lawrence Payne (Richard Arlen) inadvertently aids our hero during one of his heists, ending up in deep doo-doo with the law. Before Wilson is able to extricate Payne from his dilemma for the sake of heroine Barbara Tanner (Mary Brian), he pauses long enough to pose as a private eye -- and even gives bellboy Oscar (Stu Erwin) tips on how to spot a crook! If only all of Leon Errol's feature films had been as consistently hilarious as Only Saps Work.
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Rubber-legged comedian Leon Errol made his talkie starring bow in Paramount's Only Saps Work. Based on a play by Owen Davis Sr., the film casts Errol as James Wilson, a kleptomaniac who starts with picking pockets and ends up robbing a bank. Wilson's friend Lawrence Payne (Richard Arlen) inadvertently aids our hero during one of his heists, ending up in deep doo-doo with the law. Before Wilson is able to extricate Payne from his dilemma for the sake of heroine Barbara Tanner (Mary Brian), he pauses long enough to pose as a private eye -- and even gives bellboy Oscar (Stu Erwin) tips on how to spot a crook! If only all of Leon Errol's feature films had been as consistently hilarious as Only Saps Work.
Rating:
Genre:Comedy, Crime
Written By:Percy Heath, Sam Mintz, Joseph L. Mankiewicz
In Theaters:12/5/1930
Box Office:
Runtime:77 minutes
Studio:Paramount Pictures, Paramount Publix Corp.
Cast
Cyril Gardner, Edwin H. Knopf
Director
Leon Errol
James Wilson
Richard Arlen
Larry Payne
Mary Brian
Barbara Tanner
Stuart Erwin
Oscar
Anderson Lawler
Horace Baldwin
Charley Grapewin
Simeon Tanner
Clarence Burton
Sergeant Burns (uncredited)
Nora Cecil
Mrs. Partridge (uncredited)
George Chandler
Elevator Operator (uncredited)
G. Pat Collins
Rafferty (uncredited)
Clifford Dempsey
Detective Smith (uncredited)
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