Topic: Dance With Me, Henry (1956) - Abbott and Costello

[HomokHarcos]

I’ve heard that Mabel Normand’s work with Hal Roach is enjoyable. I haven’t heard seen her work there, though.

[Freddie Sanborn]

Mabel’s last, Should Married Men Walk Home? is one of her best but, as with Charley Chase, her’s was more of a case of dying prematurely than fading away.

[metaldams]

It’s interesting to think what Mabel would have done in talkies.  Hollywood tended not to make leading ladies pushing forty, but I wonder how she would have done in character or supporting parts or perhaps she would have went the Mae Busch route.  Plus we don’t know what she sounded like, so maybe talkies would have ended her?  Yeah, she’s a case of dying too young.

[Umbrella Sam]

Thank you very much for the information on Chase, GreenCanaries. Yes, very much a “what could have been” situation with him has he lived (I assume he would have continued directing Three Stooges comedies too).

I didn’t realize Mabel Normand never made a talkie; I guess since she died in 1930, I must have assumed she was working until the very end. I’m curious, does anyone know if any recordings of Mabel Normand’s voice were ever made? I know Rudolph Valentino made a record of himself singing, so I wouldn’t imagine it’s entirely out of the question that she could have made some type of recording or done a radio broadcast at some point, even if it doesn’t survive.

[metaldams]

As far as ai know, no recordings of her voice exist, but I’d love to be proven wrong.  Unfortunately, Mabel was sick for years so in spite of her young death, I doubt she recorded anything.

[Freddie Sanborn]

She spent the last couple of years of her life in a sanitarium.

[metaldams]

She spent the last couple of years of her life in a sanitarium.

Yeah, incredibly unfortunate.

[Umbrella Sam]

I wasn’t aware Mabel had been that sick for that long. Very sad; even just reading her Wikipedia page, it seems like she was cursed with bad luck both personally and professionally.

[Dr. Mabuse]

It just dawned on me that Clark & McCullough ended their film career on a high note with "Alibi Bye Bye" (1935). However, if McCullough had lived, they would have been diminished by the Production Code in the same manner as Wheeler & Woolsey.

[metaldams]

It just dawned on me that Clark & McCullough ended their film career on a high note with "Alibi Bye Bye" (1935). However, if McCullough had lived, they would have been diminished by the Production Code in the same manner as Wheeler & Woolsey.

That’s another case where the partnership ended prematurely, unfortunately. 

Speaking of RKO and production code, Wheeler and Woolsey also ended prematurely but their last films were lesser than their earlier efforts anyway.

[Big Chief Apumtagribonitz]

I brought up the point with the Besser Stooges how much they seemed influenced by '50's TV sitcoms, and Dance With Me Henry seems every bit as much if not more.  If DWMH had a laugh track it would seem exactly the same look, style, and tone as Leave it to Beaver or Ozzie and Harriet.  Rusty Hammer later played Danny Thomas's son in Make Room For Daddy.  Real comedy seems secondary to a gentle kidding of the '50's suburban lifestyle.