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Zenobia (film)

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Director
  
Gordon Douglas

Music director
  
Marvin Hatley

Duration
  

Language
  
English

6/10
IMDb

Genre
  
Comedy

Producer
  
Hal Roach

Country
  
United States

Zenobia (film) movie poster

Release date
  
1939 (1939)

Writer
  
Corey Ford (screen play), Walter DeLeon (original story), Arnold Belgard (original story)

Cast
  
Oliver Hardy
(Dr. Henry Tibbett),
Harry Langdon
(Professor McCrackle),
Billie Burke
(Mrs. Tibbett),
Alice Brady
(Mrs. Carter),
James Ellison
(Jeff Carter),
Jean Parker
(Mary Tibbett)

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,
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,
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Tagline
  
She Brought a New Kind of Love to the South!

Zenobia (also known as Elephants Never Forget (UK) and It's Spring Again) is a 1939 comedy film starring Oliver Hardy, Harry Langdon, Billie Burke, Alice Brady, James Ellison, Jean Parker, June Lang, Stepin Fetchit and Hattie McDaniel. It is one of the few films after the teaming of Laurel and Hardy that features Hardy without Stan Laurel, the result of a contract dispute between Laurel and producer Hal Roach, who maintained separate contracts for each performer, rather than a team contract, which would have offered them more control over their careers. Zenobia was Roach's attempt to create a new comedic pair without Laurel, and a series of films with Hardy and Langdon was planned. The dispute was short-lived, however, and Laurel and Hardy were reunited shortly thereafter.

Contents

Zenobia (film) movie scenes

Plot

Hardy plays Dr. Henry Tibbett, a country doctor who is called on by a travelling circus trainer to cure his sick elephant. After the doctor heals the grateful beast, the elephant becomes so attached to him that it starts to follow him everywhere. This leads to the trainer suing Dr. Tibbett for alienation of affection.

Cast

  • Oliver Hardy as Dr. Tibbett
  • Harry Langdon as Prof. McCrackle
  • Billie Burke as Mrs. Tibbett
  • Alice Brady as Mrs. Carter
  • James Ellison as Jeff Carter
  • Jean Parker as Mary Tibbett
  • June Lang as Virginia
  • Olin Howland as Attorney Culpepper
  • J. Farrell MacDonald as the Judge
  • Stepin Fetchit as Zero
  • Hattie McDaniel as Dehlia
  • Philip Hurlic as Zeke (Declaration of Independence)
  • Hobart Cavanaugh as Mr. Dover
  • Clem Bevans as the Sheriff
  • Tommy Mack as the Butcher
  • Robert Dudley as the Court Clerk
  • Zenobia as 'Miss Zenobia' - the Elephant
  • The Hall Johnson Choir

    • Reception

    Oliver Hardy enacted his role in straight comedic leading man fashion, eschewing most of his trademark "Ollie" mannerisms.

    The film, itself, enjoyed some success. The reviewer for The New York Times wrote on May 15, 1939, that the film:

    "...[was] a rough idea of what would happen to Gone With the Wind if Hal Roach had produced it...[it was] an antebellum, costume romance in slapstick...".

    Then—playing on the potential for a new comedy team of Hardy and Langdon—the reviewer said:

    "...Harry Langdon has adopted the partnership prerequistes formerly reserved for Stan Laurel...Harry Langdon's pale and beautifuly [sic?] blank countenance...has probably already excited the professional jealousy of Mr. Laurel..."

    When seen today, though, Langdon's role is not so much that of a teammate to Hardy as simply a comic co-star.

    The source of the film was the novel Zenobia's Infidelity by H.C. Bunner and was originally purchased by Roach as a vehicle for Roland Young. Other points of interest about Zenobia include the fact that the music was by Marvin Hatley, the composer of "The Cuckoo Song," Laurel and Hardy's famous theme song.

    References

    Zenobia (film) Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA

    Zenobia (film) IMDb Zenobia (film) themoviedb.org