Make 'Em Laugh (The Funny Business of America)
Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker for this site.
Featuring Ted Healy (Solo)
50.5 min. (Feature Film)
Department store salesgirl Joan Sutton suspects that her sister Eve is caught up in trouble involving stolen store merchandise with Carl Briggs. Briggs' mother is the store's advertising manager, and after Joan confides her concerns, Mrs. Briggs is found murdered. Under the command of blustering Capt. Holt (Sidney Toler) and blundering Sgt. Magee (Ted Healy), the police lock down the store with a group of straggling employees, customers, and an unknown killer amongst them. But it's the store's playboy owner Charley Phelps (Robert Young) who rises to the challenge and takes charge of the crisis.
In MGM's production history, THE LONGEST NIGHT is the studio's shortest feature film, released @ 51 minutes. During the main storyline, Ted Healy and 3 Stooges costar Kitty McHugh (HOI POLLOI, GENTS IN A JAM, LISTEN JUDGE) are bickering acquaintances... but in the closing scene, they are engaged. This development infers that THE LONGEST NIGHT's brief running time may be due more to edited footage, than a planned production outcome.
Reworked by MGM as THE BIG STORE (1941), starring The Marx Brothers.
Robert Young
Charley Phelps
Florence Rice
Joan Sutton
Ted Healy
Sgt. Magee
Sidney Toler
Capt. Holt
Julie Haydon
Eve Sutton
Kathryn 'Kitty' McHugh
Midge Riley
Leslie Fenton
Carl Briggs
Janet Beecher
Mrs. Briggs
Catherine Doucet
Mrs. Wilson G. Wilson
Samuel S. Hinds
Mr. Hastings
Tommy Bupp
Albert Wilson
Etienne Girardot
Kendrick Kinney
Victor Adams
Sam Thursday
Paul Stanton
Mr. Grover
John Hyams
Mr. Fergus
Minor Watson
Mr. Hardy
Olin Howland
Mr. Smythe
Sherry Hall
Switchboard operator
Henry Sylvester
Slugged policeman
Gertrude Sutton
Miss Ashforth
Ben Taggart
Patrolman
Baldwin Cooke
Policeman
Richard Powell
Fireman
Eddie Coke
Watchman
Frank Bruno
Gangster
Paul Sutton
Gangster
Mathilde Comont
Fat scrubwoman
Louise Carver
Scrubwoman
Lucien Hubbard
Producer
Samuel Marx
Producer
Errol Taggart
Director
Cortland Fitzsimmons
Story
Robert Hardy Andrews
Screenplay
Lester H. White
Photography
Robert Kern
Film Editor
Douglas Shearer
Recording Director
James Burbridge
Assistant Recording Director
Cedric Gibbons
Art Director
Eddie Imazu
Associate Art Director
Edwin B. Willis
Associate Art Director
Edward Ward
Musical Score
Chet Forrest
Music and Lyrics
Bob Wright
Music and Lyrics
Harry Sharrock
Assistant Director
FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We make such material available in an effort to advance awareness and understanding of the issues involved. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information please visit: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission directly from the copyright owner.