| It's Great to Be Alive | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by | Alfred L. Werker |
| Written by | Arthur Kober Paul Perez |
| Starring | Raul Roulien Gloria Stuart Edna May Oliver Herbert Mundin Joan Marsh |
| Cinematography | Robert H. Planck |
| Edited by | Barney Wolf |
| Distributed by | Fox Film Corporation |
| Release date |
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| Running time | 69 minutes |
| Country | United States |
It's Great to Be Alive (1933) is an American Pre-Code science fiction musical comedy film produced by Fox Film Corporation, is a remake of The Last Man on Earth (1924), and later influenced the novel Mr. Adam (1946) by Pat Frank.
Plot
A young aviator, Carlos Martin (played by Raul Roulien), is dumped by his girlfriend (Gloria Stuart), and heads on a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean. He has engine trouble and makes an emergency landing on an uninhabited island out in the Pacific. Shortly afterward, a pandemic of a new disease called "masculitis" kills every fertile male human on the planet. When efforts to cure the disease fail, the human race is doomed. Humanity's institutions are all run by women, including the Chicago underworld. Carlos escapes the island, and once he returns home and hears the news, it now depends on him to continue the human race.
Cast
- Raul Roulien as Carlos Martin
- Edna Mae Oliver as Dr. Prodwell
- Gloria Stuart as Dorothy Wilton
- Herbert Mundin as Brooks
- Joan Marsh as Toots
- Dorothy Burgess as Al Moran
- Emma Dunn as Mrs. Wilton
- Edward Van Sloan as Dr. Wilton
- Robert Greig as Perkins
- Lorraine Bridges as Singer
- Peaches Jackson as Dancer, Cuban Girl
- Claire Rochelle as Dancer, Dutch Girl'
- Alexander Schonberg as Einstein Look-a- Like
Production
The film was shot during April 1933, with location scenes photographed at the Grand Central Airport in Glendale, California.
Other cast members include Edna May Oliver, Joan Marsh, Edward Van Sloan, and Peaches Jackson.
A sequence depicts look-a-likes of the two top scientists of the era, Albert Einstein and Auguste Piccard, trying to find a cure for masculitis. The actor who was the Einstein look-a-like was Alexander Schonberg . Another scene portrays a burlesque show dubbed "Girls of all Nations".
References
- Gevinson, Alan (ed). Within Our Gates: Ethnicity in American Feature Films, 1911-1960. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp 511-512. web December 3, 2015
External links
- It's Great to Be Alive at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
- It's Great to Be Alive at IMDb
- It's Great to Be Alive at AllMovie
- 1933 films
- 1933 musical comedy films
- 1930s science fiction comedy films
- Fox Film films
- American science fiction comedy films
- Remakes of American films
- American musical comedy films
- American black-and-white films
- Films about aviators
- Science fiction musical films
- Films directed by Alfred L. Werker
- Films set in the Pacific Ocean
- Films set on uninhabited islands
- Films shot in California
- American post-apocalyptic films
- Sound film remakes of silent films
- Films about viral outbreaks
- 1930s English-language films
- 1930s American films
- English-language science fiction comedy films
- English-language musical comedy films