Make 'Em Laugh (The Funny Business of America)
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Featuring Shemp Howard (Solo)
66 min. (Feature Film)
Babe Laval manages a group of call girls in an Atlantic City hotel. Her boyfriend Bill runs a backroom gambling hall. Nephew Tommy is unemployed, looking to make a quick buck any way he can, and gets mixed up with racketeer Dan Higgins (Shemp Howard). When wealthy businessman Ward Hollister enlists Babe's help to sober up one of his executives, he becomes infatuated with her. Babe is torn between Ward and Bill, and the three become targets of Dan's and Tommy's blackmail scheme.
Shemp plays it straight in this vintage drama as a small time hood who resorts to extortion and attempted murder for money.
Filmed on location... "Drink in those nostalgic, amazing location shots of 1930s Atlantic City! The diving horse at Steel Pier, the rolling chairs, the big beaches, and the back room gambling."
Rose Hobart
Cynthia 'Babe' Laval
Weldon Heyburn
Bill Bradley
Herbert Rawlinson
Ward Hollister
Toni Reed
Tommy Laval
Shemp Howard
Dan Higgins
Nell O'Day
Daisy Miller
Ruth Gillette
Helen Shalton
James Spottswood
John 'Cupid' Pettijohn
Sally O'Neil
Gracie
Nancy Kelly
Betty
Alan Brooks
Ernest
William H. White
Penrod
Laliva Brownell
Mrs. Pettijohn
Isham Jones
Himself
Woody Herman
Band member
Ned Wayburn Dancing Girls
Chorus girls
David M. Thomas
Producer
Luther Reed
Director
George Boyle
Novel
George Boyle
Screenplay
Max Lief
Additional Dialogue
Nicholas J. Rogalli
Photography
Emma Hill
Film Editor
Charles P. Nasca
Art Director
Daniel J. Bloomberg
Sound Engineer
Isham Jones
Musical Director
Ned Wayburn
Dances
Arthur Swanstrom
Songs
Louis Alter
Songs
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