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His Nibs (1921); Feel My Pulse (1928)

Feel My Pulse (1928)
December 15, 2013 - 3:00 pm

Note:  Live musical accompaniment will be provided by Cliff Retallick.

Preserved by UCLA Film & Television Archive

His Nibs (1921)

Directed by Gregory La Cava

One of director Gregory La Cava's first directorial jobs after moving from animation, His Nibs features vaudeville star "Chic" Sale in multiple roles in a film within a film about a movie screening in a small town.

Exceptional Pictures. Screenwriter: Arthur Hoerl.  Cinematographer: A.J. Stout.  Editor: Arthur Hoerl.  Cast: Charles “Chic” Sale, Colleen Moore, Joseph J. Dowling, J.P. Lockney, Walt Whitman. 

35mm, b/w, silent, 59 min.

Feel My Pulse (1928)

Directed by Gregory La Cava

The incomparable Bebe Daniels gets big laughs as a hypochondriac heiress who retreats to a sanitarium that, unbeknownst to her, has become a hideout for bootleggers.  William Powell is the gang’s heavy who plays along until the truth outs in a splendid slapstick crescendo.

Paramount Famous Lasky Corp. Screenwriter: Nicholas T. Barrows, George Marion Jr., Howard Emmett Rogers, Keene Thompson.  Cinematographer: J. Roy Hunt.  Editor: E. Lloyd Sheldon.  Cast: Bebe Daniels, Melbourne MacDowell, George Irving, Charles Sellon, William Powell. 

16mm, b/w, silent, 63 min.

Preceded by

Abie Kabibble Outwitting His Rival (1917)

Directed by Gregory La Cava

In 1917, director Gregory La Cava was hired by William Randolph Hearst to oversee production at International Film Service, a company he had set up to adapt Hearst-controlled comic strips into animated shorts for the big screen.  Abie Kabibble Outwitting His Rival was one of two such shorts based on the Harry Hershfield’s comic “Abie the Agent” which featured the first Jewish character in an American comic strip, Abraham Kabibble, a middle class car salesman.  In the short, La Cava retains the graphic word bubble element of the comics as Abie goes to great lengths to steal a customer from a competing dealership across the street.

35mm, b/w, silent, 7 min.