International House (1933) is a comedy film, directed by A. Edward Sutherland and released by Paramount Pictures. The tagline of the film was "the Grand Hotel of comedy".
The film is a mix of numerous acts and bits, like a vaudeville variety show, interlaced with a plot line, in the style of the Big Broadcast pictures that were also released by Paramount during the 1930s
The ostensible plot line concerns a Chinese inventor trying to sell a "radio...
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International House (1933) is a comedy film, directed by A. Edward Sutherland and released by Paramount Pictures. The tagline of the film was "the Grand Hotel of comedy".
The film is a mix of numerous acts and bits, like a vaudeville variety show, interlaced with a plot line, in the style of the Big Broadcast pictures that were also released by Paramount during the 1930s
The ostensible plot line concerns a Chinese inventor trying to sell a "radioscope", an early version of television. Unlike real television, this imagined mechanism did not need a camera, but its monitor could zoom in on acts around the world. In addition to the typical Fieldsian comic lunacy, it also provides a snapshot of some popular stage and radio acts of the era.
The setting is a large hotel in Wuhu, China (from the dialogue, "Wuhu" was clearly chosen as a pun on the greeting "Yoo hoo") and the "international" in the title resonates with the real-life International Settlement in Shanghai. It was actually filmed...
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