My Grandfather's Clock
At Phwitterby-on-Thames, England, a murder has occurred and Philo Holmes and Dr. Watkins are out to investigate it. It seems as though there was a second will and changes have been made as to who will receive what. Philo is the ace detective, and he brings everyone from the nightclub to see him solve the case.
-
- Cast：
- Franklin Pangborn , Charles Judels , William Tannen , Mischa Auer , Phil Dunham , Sarah Edwards , Otto Hoffman
Similar titles
Reviews
Best movie of this year hands down!
Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
Just perfect...
Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.
This is a murder mystery sung all the way through. The two heroes are Vance & Holmes. After the murder is committed, Franklin Pangborn answers the call to the detective agency and sings his answers ( in a good tenor--who knew he could sing?). The main detective is in a nightclub, and when informed of events, he sings his goodbye, and then the nightclub employees and patrons all troop out to help solve the mystery (nobody forgets their drinks!). I won't say anymore so I don't spoil it, but the entire thing is well worth watching. Enjoy trying to identify the music- MGM's orchestra was good at mysteries!
In the 1930s, MGM made a string of so-called 'Colortone Musicals' and the ones I have seen are among the strangest and most watchable films of the era. The weirdest are among the best, such as "The Devil's Cabaret" as well as "What Price Jazz?"...but even the slightly less weird ones like "My Grandfather's Clock" are enjoyable...albeit strange!!This entire film is told through song. Most of the songs are very familiar public domain tunes and the lyrics are occasionally pretty funny. It begins with the murder of an old man...as the killer was hiding inside the grandfather clock! So, they phoned for Philo Holmes and Dr. Watkins and they come to investigate...and sing!This is a film that doesn't work completely. It's a bit more conventional than the really weird ones...but still keeps your interest. What also kept my interest was the color. While the films in this series were all made with the two-color process (producing a somewhat limited array of colors), this one looks MUCH better than I would ever expect. In particular, the blues you don't see in Cinecolor and Two-Color Technicolor are actually very blue. The purples are also very nice...so nice I actually think this IS an early form of Technicolor using the three-strip process. I had no idea any of the Colortones were truly full-color...but it sure seems more colorful than usual.
A great little musical short which shows how incredibly versatile an actor Franklin Pangborn was.Pangborn is probably best known for appearing with W.C. Fields in The Bank Dick. He also appeared in several Hal Roach produced comedies in the 1930s, most notably as photographer "Otto Phocus" in the Our Gang comedy, "Wild Poses" in 1933.Probably the only place you can see this particular film is on one of those "short/filler" slots on the Turner Classic Movies channel, but if you do catch it, consider yourself truly lucky!What also struck me as quite interesting was that, unlike in later musicals, the actors were not lip syncing to a previously recorded musical and vocal track. It's their own voices, captured on the soundtrack live as the cameras rolled.
Certainly one of the most unusual short films I've seen. A 20-minute long comic operetta farce of a Sherlock Holmes murder mystery. It was seen on Turner Movie Classics, and hopefully I will have an oportunity to tape it the next time.