It's Great to Be Alive (film)
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.
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 Planck |
Edited by | Barney Wolf |
Distributed by | Fox Film Corporation |
Release date | July 8, 1933 |
Running time | 69 minutes |
Country | United States |
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 global epidemic 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
Production
The film was shot during April, 1933, with location scenes photographed at the Grand Central Airport in Glendale, California.[1]
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. 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 3 December 2015