Report from Cinesation 2006: THEIR BIG MOMENT (***) A 1934 RKO comedy-mystery directed by James Cruze, which apparently is kept off TCM by rights problems with the original play. William Gaxton (a big stage star), Zasu Pitts and Slim Summerville are a magician and his assistants who get hired as fake mediums to try to get a rich widow out of the clutches of another fake (Ralph Morgan). The plot meanders and needed some ironing out, but some genuinely funny bits and a good cast made this a pleasant find. (I was especially taken with the actress playing the widow, Julie Haydon, and wondered if she'd ever done anything else; she sure did-- she originated the daughter in The Glass Menagerie on Broadway.)
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bkoganbing26 March 2018Zasu Pitts and Slim Summerville star as a pair of stooges in a fake medium act that William Gaxton has in this RKO B film. Pitts and Summerville were teamed on a few occasions and this is typical of their work.
But the real reason for seeing Their Big Moment is the appearance of both William Gaxton and Tamara Geva, a pair of Broadway stars making a most infrequent film appearance. Tamara plays the fake medium and when she quits, Zasu Pitts gets her star billing.
The act gets hired by Bruce Cabot to help expose the malevolent influence that Dr. Ralph Morgan has over the widow of his former client Julie Haydon. But of course Cabot very much has his own agenda.
It's a neat little comedy with both Pitts and Summerville doing their respective shticks. -
Peter2206025 November 2001An interesting thirties film with the better character actors of that decade. As usual Ralph Morgan plays the heavy, while Zasu Pitts and Slim Summerville give the laughs to a light motion picture.
Actually the plot concept was better developed in, THE NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES, 1948, in a more involved story written by Cornell Woolrich. -
When her sister becomes involved with shady psychic Dr. Portman, Eve Farrington enlists the help of rag-tag magician the Great LaSalle (Gaxton) to debunk Portman, but his assistant Tillie (who becomes Madame Marvel) actually has psychic abilities she's never been aware of and together with some detective skills of LaSalle, the murder of Eve's brother-in-law is solved. ZaSu Pitts steals the show in this average offering.
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When you see the names Zasu Pitts and Dlim Summerville at the top of the credits, you automatically assume that it's going to be a comedy. Certainly with her ability to say lines in a funny manner as she acts frazzled or flattered in an amusing way and his hound dog face, the laughs are automatically there. But the basic plot deals with a murder and apparent fake mediums, with Pitts tossed into the mix to replace the nasty Tamara Geva when the later wants Pitts fired from William Gaxton's psychic show. It's very clear who has the last laugh now, especially when Pitts becomes involved in a murder investigation and utilizes Kay Johnson to contact her dead husband through a seance.
Julie Haydon, Bruce Cabot and Ralph Morgam co-star In this film version of a London theatrical hit, and while streamlined from the obvious original play, it is still intriguing and compact andtite, filled with a great art deco set, Intense supernatural moments and occasional bits of humor from the two stars, certainly not a laugh riot like other teamings that they made over their decade working together. Overall an intriguing little B film that works in spite of the various moods that it impacts the viewer with, and a great opportunity to see musical stage comic William Gaxton at his peak, just a few years after he scored as a musical comedy president in "Of Tgee I Sing" and the same year that he romanced Ethel Merman in "Anything Goes". The ensemble works together to create a film where everybody gets good material and no one is sidelined. -
boblipton28 November 2023Julie Haydon's husband died in a plane crash. She has since come under the domination of fake spiritualist Ralph Morgan. Her sister Kay Johnson and brother-in-law Bruce Cabot hire stage magician William Gaxton and his company of Slim Summerville and Zasu Pitts to destroy morgan's authority. It does not go as planned.
Gaxton tries to play it big and stagy, yet doesn't really succeed. His is odd, because he was a stage performer who had a big Broadway career, often starring with Victor Moore. That explains his infrequent movie appearances. Here, however, I was subject to the thought that this was a role intended for Edmund Lowe..... who was working for Fox.
Which leaves us with Summerville and Miss Pitts. Enjoying them is, I understand, a matter of individual taste. Happily, I enjoy them a great deal. -
For a film that deals with an interesting subject like fake mediums, this '34 mystery/comedy fails to hit the mark. It's not particularly impressive as a mystery and the comedy is on the weak side.
It's a B-film programmer with ZASU PITTS and SLIM SUMMERVILLE providing the comic relief while others carry the straight plot line. Pitts and Summerville play WILLIAM GAXTON's assistants in a magic act where he bills himself as The Great La Salle. BRUCE CABOT hires them to take part in a fake seance at a wealthy woman's home where a young woman has been receiving messages from a dead husband. RALPH MORGAN is suspected of being a swindler trying to deceive the woman at her swanky home on Long Island.
Unfortunately, ZASU PITTS is saddled with a ditzy role beyond belief. And to make matters worse, nobody else in the cast has lines that are any smoother or wittier.
"Not a very friendly fellow," says Gaxton.
"About as friendly as a rattlesnake," says Summerville.
That gives you an idea of the wit and sophistication. The suspense, of course, lies in finding out how the fake seance will go and who the real culprits are in the household. Not hard to guess the predictable outcome.
Summing up: A clumsy mystery/comedy hardly worth bothering about. -
planktonrules27 February 2021The Great La Salle is a stage mentalist who impresses audiences with his routine. A man sees their act and impressed by their vaudeville act..and offers them money to expose a faker...Dr. Portman (Ralph Morgan). It seems that Portman has an unusual hold over a widow and he seems to be a con man...and La Salle and his friends go to see her and, hopefully, stop Portman. But something odd happens when La Salle's partner (Zasu Pitts) is in her trance...she REALLY does receive a message from the dead husband! What's next? And, what's RALLY going on here?! And, could the woman who is being bilked actually be in dancer?!
During the 1930s, Hollywood made hundreds or, perhaps, thousands of B-mystery movies. Most have a very strong sameness about them...but not "Their Big Moment"...which turns out to be very well written, very well acted and is much better than I might have expected. And, most importantly, it's a very smart film that doesn't rely on the usual cliches!