Film About Bad Acting

[30's fan]

About 25 years ago I saw a film about lots of comedy skits. I remember someone (Arthur Askey???) singing "The Love Bug will Get You If You Don't Watch Out and if he gets you you'll scream and shout" and then does a buzzing sound. Then they show a scene of dreadful acting with a man on a ship saying " The Ship has 2 Hours To Live" very slowly.

This has haunted me for years. Can anyone assist me?

This is my first post- I don't know how to do technical things like Avatar, but I have many 30's films on tape lucky me as in Australia we see lots of Britmovies late at night!

I like Aldwych Farces, Will Hay and I particularly like the film "Wild Boy" which nobody seems to know much about. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img]

[Ascoyne D'Ascoyne]

(30's fan @ Feb 21 2006, 01:06 PM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>

About 25 years ago I saw a film about lots of comedy skits. I remember someone (Arthur Askey???) singing "The Love Bug will Get You If You Don't Watch Out and if he gets you you'll scream and shout" and then does a buzzing sound. Then they show a scene of dreadful acting with a man on a ship saying " The Ship has 2 Hours To Live" very slowly.

This has haunted me for years. Can anyone assist me?

This is my first post- I don't know how to do technical things like Avatar, but I have many 30's films on tape lucky me as in Australia we see lots of Britmovies late at night!

I like Aldwych Farces, Will Hay and I particularly like the film "Wild Boy" which nobody seems to know much about. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img]

[/b]

Are you sure you aren't confusing the "Love Bug" song with arthur Askey's "Busy Bee" number where he used to make buzzing sounds? Also if the film shows a scene of bad acting(at which we might laugh today but was meant to be terribly serious then) it doesn't sound like a collection of comedy skits. Could this possibly have been a compilation of '30s pieces made for TV shown with attendant audience reaction (live or canned)? We used to have a programme in the UK in which Dennis Norden introduced "nostalgia" clips with a guest panel present; perhaps it was something like that.

[D Cairns]

Could this possibly have been a compilation of '30s pieces made for TV shown with attendant audience reaction (live or canned)? We used to have a programme in the UK in which Dennis Norden introduced "nostalgia" clips with a guest panel present; perhaps it was something like that.



I think you've hit the nail more or less on the head. "The ship has two hours to live" is from ATLANTIC, a Titanic-based drama from the early sound era. Askey does not feature. That same clip of the ship line, complete with MASSIVE pause, appears in the documentary Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood, which includes a look at early talking cinema in the UK.



Also, I remember seeing the same clip on some kind of archival show back in the seventies, maybe the same one you sae, though Askey made no impression on me at the time, I'm afraid.

[30's fan]

(D Cairns @ Feb 22 2006, 08:27 AM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>

Could this possibly have been a compilation of '30s pieces made for TV shown with attendant audience reaction (live or canned)? We used to have a programme in the UK in which Dennis Norden introduced "nostalgia" clips with a guest panel present; perhaps it was something like that.



I think you've hit the nail more or less on the head. "The ship has two hours to live" is from ATLANTIC, a Titanic-based drama from the early sound era. Askey does not feature. That same clip of the ship line, complete with MASSIVE pause, appears in the documentary Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood, which includes a look at early talking cinema in the UK.



Also, I remember seeing the same clip on some kind of archival show back in the seventies, maybe the same one you sae, though Askey made no impression on me at the time, I'm afraid.

[/b]

Hello and thanks, but...

I meant that it WAS a compilation film. One scene is "The Ship Has 2 hours to Live", and then in another scene there is this song. I think it might have been that American actor with the big eyes from the 30s- NOT Al Jolson, but similar doing "The Love Bug". Am I totally confusing you? Can anybody help??!!

[Ascoyne D'Ascoyne]

(30's fan @ Feb 22 2006, 09:18 AM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>

Hello and thanks, but...

I meant that it WAS a compilation film. One scene is "The Ship Has 2 hours to Live", and then in another scene there is this song. I think it might have been that American actor with the big eyes from the 30s- NOT Al Jolson, but similar doing "The Love Bug". Am I totally confusing you? Can anybody help??!!

[/b]

I think you must be talking about Eddie Cantor- my favourite screen star. I've collected just about everything available of Cantor's and haven't got that clip; I don't recall him ever doing that song. If it WAS a clip of Cantor I would like know what this film is too!

[30's fan]

(Jeff @ Feb 22 2006, 10:08 PM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>

I think you must be talking about Eddie Cantor- my favourite screen star. I've collected just about everything available of Cantor's and haven't got that clip; I don't recall him ever doing that song. If it WAS a clip of Cantor I would like know what this film is too!

[/b]

I looked on Google and someone called Pinky Tomlinwrote the song. Here it is:



THE LOVE BUG WILL BITE YOU (Tomlin)



Jimmy Dorsey & His Orch. (vocal: Ray McKinley) - 1937

Pinky Tomlin - 1937

Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians - 1937

Teddy Hill & His NBC Orch. - 1937

Ambrose & His Orch. (vocal: Vera Lynn) - 1937

The Mills Brothers - 1937

Fats Waller - 1937

Louis Prima & His New Orleans Gang - 1937

Billy Cotton & His Band - 1937



The love bug will bite you if you don't watch out

If he ever bites you then you'll sing and shout

You'll go (da-dee-da-dee-da-dee da and whoa dee doe dee doe)

That's what love is all about



The love bug will bite you if you don't watch out

If he ever bites you, then you'll sing and shout

You'll go (da-dee-da-dee-da-dee da and whoa dee doe dee doe)

That's what love is all about



You can't eat, you can't sleep, you'll go crazy

You'll just la dee da dee la all day

If someone wants to know why you're crazy

You'll answer (da da da doo with a ho ho hay-hay)



The love bug will bite you if you don't watch out

If he ever bites you, then you'll sing and shout

You'll go (da-dee-da-dee-da-dee da and whoa dee doe dee doe)

That's what love is all about



Maybe the movie was a compilation of old films and some music filmclips. My memory is rusty ( I am only 43 now anyway) so I might be mixing a couple films into one and maybe it wan't Eddie Cantor- but ta for trying to help me. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ermm.gif[/img]

[Ascoyne D'Ascoyne]

(30's fan @ Feb 23 2006, 12:55 PM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>

I looked on Google and someone called Pinky Tomlinwrote the song. Here it is:



THE LOVE BUG WILL BITE YOU (Tomlin)



Jimmy Dorsey & His Orch. (vocal: Ray McKinley) - 1937

Pinky Tomlin - 1937

Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians - 1937

Teddy Hill & His NBC Orch. - 1937

Ambrose & His Orch. (vocal: Vera Lynn) - 1937

The Mills Brothers - 1937

Fats Waller - 1937

Louis Prima & His New Orleans Gang - 1937

Billy Cotton & His Band - 1937



The love bug will bite you if you don't watch out

If he ever bites you then you'll sing and shout

You'll go (da-dee-da-dee-da-dee da and whoa dee doe dee doe)

That's what love is all about



The love bug will bite you if you don't watch out

If he ever bites you, then you'll sing and shout

You'll go (da-dee-da-dee-da-dee da and whoa dee doe dee doe)

That's what love is all about



You can't eat, you can't sleep, you'll go crazy

You'll just la dee da dee la all day

If someone wants to know why you're crazy

You'll answer (da da da doo with a ho ho hay-hay)



The love bug will bite you if you don't watch out

If he ever bites you, then you'll sing and shout

You'll go (da-dee-da-dee-da-dee da and whoa dee doe dee doe)

That's what love is all about



Maybe the movie was a compilation of old films and some music filmclips. My memory is rusty ( I am only 43 now anyway) so I might be mixing a couple films into one and maybe it wan't Eddie Cantor- but ta for trying to help me. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ermm.gif[/img]

[/b]

It's very easy to confuse things which we've seen many years ago-I do it often. Interesting that you mention Fats Waller in the list of people who performed "The Love Bug" as he was well known to add a touch of comedy to his musical talents-which were considerable - by pulling faces, rolling his eyes and making various extra-musical noises (which might well include buzzing sounds if appropriate). Quite a difference in appearance between Cantor (even in minstrel make-up!) and Fats, though.

[shinerchina]

The film you are after is "To See Such Fun" - a 1977 compilation

that includes Albert Whelen performing "The Love Bug" in the style of Wallace Beery and Donald Duck. Also The Bee song sung by Arthur Askey.



Don't recall 'The Ship has three hours to live' which is John Longden's line from

'Atlantic' (30) but, it seems just the sort of thing the late Dick Vosborough would have included, in this sort of comedy concoction.



The Whelen and Askey clips are from Pathe and can be viewed on the ITN/Reuters

website



Alex G.

[Steve Crook]

And there I was thinking that this was a thread about Braveheart

[Nick Dando]

Could it have been something by Clive James? I seem to remember him showing the Titanic clip. This would have been in the mid '80s, possibly.



Nick