International House (1933) on Netflix
Bidders gather at a hotel in Wuhu, China, for Dr. Wong's radioscope, which can watch events anywhere in the world and carry their sound. Professor Quail's autogyro lands there by mistake.
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- Netflix3.9/5
- IMDb6.9/101,673 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes86%
Plot summary
The inventor Dr. Wong is taking bids at the International House, a hotel in Wuhu, China, for his radioscope, a machine with no camera that can watch events anywhere in the world and carry their sound. Tommy, who represents an American electric company, hopes to buy the invention and to marry his sweetheart, Carol. A four-times-divorced American celebrity at the hotel is avoiding one of her ex-husbands, General Petronovich, a violently jealous Russian. Professor Quail, flying his autogyro to Kansas City, has come down off course at the hotel. The resident physician, Doctor Burns, and his aide, Nurse Allen, deal with a quarantine there, and the hotel's manager grows exasperated.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about International House (1933)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- An earthquake struck during production on March 10, 1933 and killed about 120 people; a Paramount newsreel showed what was presented as cast members reacting on set, but W. C. Fields and director A. Edward Sutherland faked that footage for publicity.
- W. C. Fields baited Hollywood censor Will Hays by having his Professor Quail remark that the tiny Austin car he drives "used to belong to the Postmaster General", a jab at the diminutive Hays, who had held that office.
- W. C. Fields proposed that his Professor Quail shoot Rudy Vallee dead on screen during Vallee's televised song, but Vallee objected; in the finished film Quail fires and misses, and a ship sinks instead.
- Top-billed Peggy Hopkins Joyce was famous as a real-life gold-digger rather than an actress; her marriages to wealthy older men earned her millions, and the film has her joke about her profitable divorces, a topic soon barred by the Production Code.
- Cab Calloway performs "Reefer Man" with his band in the film; the song describes a heavy marijuana smoker, played by Calloway's bass player Al Morgan, who performs as if in a trance.
