Too Busy to Work (1932) User Reviews

A delight on the "Restored" DVD

[martylee13045burlsink342 · 7/10 · 24 December 2007]

This may be one of Roger's most "acceptable" films for modern audiences...(yes Louise Beavers is referred to as "Mammy"...but she is one of the funniest, smartest, and bossiest character's in the film...and this wonderful actress is delightful in the role...).

There is as much pathos and human drama as there is roguish humor...and Rogers gives a deeply affecting performance as the wronged man who has become a bum while searching for the family he always knew he was unworthy of...but couldn't stand to live without.

His scenes with the pretty Marian Nixon are very moving....He uses very subtle gestures and words to convey the desire to be part of her life and the knowledge that he never can be without disrupting her charmed existence.

Dick Powell also comes off well playing with the homespun master....handling suspense and romance with a stalwart conviction that he was seldom able to display during his reedy Warner brother's tenor days...(he seems much more like the later Tough guy Powell of the 40's here)...

The Restoration seems to have added a few minutes to the running time...(the film runs 77.17 on disc...including a few seconds of exit music...)...and it appears that the technicians have wiped away as many of the scratches and glitches as they can...(the soundtrack...with a great deal of hissing and humming...is still in pretty rough shape...)...

Anyone unfamiliar with this unique (and VERY American) star should check out the wit and wisdom that made him such an icon in some of this country's darkest hours.

(I felt I had to correct a misstatement that I read in a previous comment on this title. Powell plays Nixon's STEP brother NOT half brother...a major plot point since their characters are the film's romantic leads).

On the road again

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 9 May 2013]

Too Busy To Work casts Will Rogers as a hobo who has decided to look up his former wife. It seems that while he was away during the World War in France, she ran off with a guy who has now become a judge and his aiming for higher office like Senator. The wife also took their daughter with her and Rogers has been on the open road since.

When he arrives at the house he finds his former wife has been dead a few years now and the daughter has grown up to be Marian Nixon who is engaged to the judge's son by his first wife Dick Powell.

Before he knew who he was Will watched a holdup where Powell got snookered into driving the getaway car. Seeing how Nixon loves him he covers for him until things work out and Powell is no longer in a jackpot. It also saves the career of Frederick Burton, Powell's father and the object of Rogers vengeance should it come to that.

Too Busy To Work is a decent enough film and for those fans of America's most beloved entertainer and humorist it should satisfy. The most famous of quotations from Will Rogers is that he never met a man he didn't like. It was a statement of his philosophy and how he lived. Try as you might you could never accept Rogers as a man seeking vengeance. It's what weakens Too Busy To Work.

Dick Powell sings no songs, but does give a good account of himself as the juvenile lead. Louise Beavers plays the maid and this woman has a lot of sass in her, unusual for the time.

Rogers fans will like Too Busy To Work.

Jubilo talks!

[wmorrow59 · 6/10 · 20 May 2018]

The film career of Will Rogers began in the silent days, with a series of feature films produced by Sam Goldwyn. 'Jubilo,' released in 1919, was the biggest box office success of them all, so when sound technology came to Hollywood a decade later it was only natural this property would be dusted off and remade as a talkie. Retitled 'Too Busy to Work,' the new version was released in 1932, at the height of Rogers' popularity as a star of stage, screen, and radio. I've seen both versions ('Jubilo' is one of three features Rogers made for Goldwyn that survives), and while I prefer the silent original each has its merits.

Our central character is Jubilo, a middle-aged hobo with no fixed address, no prospects, and a decided aversion to work. For reasons that are initially unclear he seeks a judge named Hardy (NOT Lewis Stone!), a prosperous man running for high office who Jubilo blames for his lowly condition. He travels to Hardy's town and gets a job at the judge's home as a hired hand. Aside from his antagonistic relationship with the hired man already employed there, Jubilo manages to charm everyone else, especially the judge's pretty stepdaughter, Rose (Marian Nixon). Eventually we learn that years earlier, when Jubilo was away at war, Hardy stole his wife and daughter away. The wife has since died, and daughter Rose doesn't recognize her true father. After various complications involving Rose's fiancée, who is also her step-brother (young Dick Powell in a non-singing role), and a dramatic confrontation with the judge, Jubilo resolves his unfinished business with the Hardy family and moves on.

One reason I prefer the silent version of this material is that the story was much simpler there. Too Busy to Work is, well, a little too busy: over-plotted that is, with a lot of backstory concerning events which took place long before the action begins. We hear about these events, but have to fill in some significant info ourselves, which strikes me as a drawback. But this film is really more about character and atmosphere than plot. There are moments of low-key charm along the way, as well as a mildly amusing sequence when Rose attempts to teach Jubilo how to drive a car, although the humor is undercut by rather obvious rear-screen projection effects.

Rogers is a performer who requires a bit of adjustment for some viewers, as he tends to mumble and throw away his lines. He's very offhand, seemingly unfocused, although I believe he knew exactly what he was doing. At any rate, once you adapt to this star's approach he can be quite appealing; audiences of his era certainly thought so! Too Busy to Work, while not the best movie he ever made, is a pretty good example of a typical Will Rogers vehicle. If you enjoy this one, you might want to try some of the others, such as Life Begins at 40 or Doctor Bull. You may find that the Will Rogers style grows on you.

The cow has the best scene

[F Gwynplaine MacIntyre · 6/10 · 21 December 2002]

In the early days of talking pictures, many silent stars eased their transition into talkies by remaking some of their silent hits. Will Rogers had starred in the silent film 'Jubilo'. He reprised the role for 'Too Busy to Work', a talkie remake with some minor plot differences which are improvements over the silent original.

Rogers plays a tramp, nicknamed Jubilo for his habit of singing the old spiritual song 'In the Land of Jubilo'. (This song shows up on the soundtrack of almost every Civil War film.) But he was a respectable man once. Back in 1918, Jubilo enlisted in the American Expeditionary Force and went off to fight the Kaiser; he reluctantly parted company with his wife and infant daughter, promising to return. After the Armistice, Jubilo came home to discover that his wife ran off with another man, taking her daughter along. Now, years later, Jubilo roams the byways of America in search of his daughter and wife.

Jubilo comes to the home of Judge Hardy (no; not the one in the Andy Hardy movies). Judge Hardy is a respectable widower with an attractive daughter named Rose (Marian Nixon) and a handsome son, Dan (Dick Powell in an early role). There's a touching scene between Rogers and Nixon when he teaches her to sing 'Jubilo'. Unfortunately, in this sound film Will Rogers proves that his singing is perfect for silent movies.

By now, Jubilo has learnt the truth: Judge Hardy is the man who ran off with Jubilo's wife, who died soon after bearing the judge's son Dan. Rose is Jubilo's long-lost daughter, now an adult. While Jubilo is trying to figure out what to do with this information, he witnesses a bank robbery ... and he sees that Dan Hardy is the driver of the getaway car. As a stranger in town and a vagrant, Jubilo is afraid that the local sheriff will pin the robbery on him, so he leaves.

SPOILER COMING. Dan Hardy is arrested for his role in the bank robbery. To save Rose's half-brother, Jubilo comes forward and reveals the truth: the robbers hijacked Dan's car and forced him at gunpoint to drive it during the robbery. By now, Jubilo realises that Judge Hardy has given Rose a good home, and that Rose sincerely loves the judge as her father (not suspecting the truth). Unwilling to disturb his daughter's happiness, Jubilo takes up his tramping ways again and heads for the next town.

'Too Busy to Work' has more plot (and a better plot) than is typical for a Will Rogers movie, and in many ways it's not a typical Rogers film. Several other actors from this period could have played the role just as well, if not better: in fact, the ending of this movie is very similar to the ending of 'Poppy', starring W.C. Fields ... itself a remake of Fields's silent film 'Sally of the Sawdust'. The ending of 'Too Busy to Work' could have tipped into sentiment, but Rogers and director John Blystone wisely avoid this.

Rogers has one splendid scene of visual comedy. When he tries to mooch a meal at Judge Hardy's house, he's told he'll be fed if he does some work: then he's given a milking-stool and a pail, and ordered to fetch some milk from the cow. The look on Rogers's face is priceless as he reveals that he's utterly ignorant of how to get milk from a cow. He stares at the stool, he stares at the pail, he stares at the cow and tries to figure out where the milk comes from. Hilarious! Unfortunately, Rogers's folksy image works against him here: it's difficult to believe that someone so obviously rural could really be ignorant of how to milk a cow. On the other hand, Dick Powell's slight Arkansas accent (which grated slightly when he played opposite Ruby Keeler in those Warner Bros musicals) stands Powell in good stead here as Dan Hardy.

I'm not much of a Will Rogers fan, but this is one of his better films. I'll rate 'Too Busy to Work' 6 points out of 10. I might have given it a 7, if not for the annoying scenes featuring Louise Beavers as a stereotypical black servant.

Will Rogers Works in a Lazy Plot

[wes-connors · 6/10 · 31 December 2010]

After fifteen years as a tramp, shuffling Will Rogers (as Jubilo) hops a train to California and locates the man who ran away with his wife, while Mr. Rogers was at war. Though his wife is now deceased, Rogers meets pretty blonde daughter Marian Nixon (as Rose). En route, he witnessed her step-brother and romantic interest Dick Powell (as Dan Hardy) was involved in a bank robbery. Not knowing he is her real father, Ms. Nixon helps Rogers get a job as handyman for successful politician Frederick Burton (as Judge Hardy), the man who stole Rogers' wife. Rogers can either take Burton's life, or forgive him...

Rogers returns to one of his most successful silent film impressions. Explaining, "My assets are temporarily frozen," he easily and expertly drawls his "Jubilo" character. "Too Busy to Work" was a sound re-make for Rogers and Fox Films, but the addition of talking does not enhance the story. Charlie Chaplin's lesson holds true; tramps are more endearing in silence. Still, you get a marvelous example of Rogers' ability to characterize. From a rabbit hunt to a car chase, he is excellent. Conveying a shared heritage, Rogers and Louise Beavers (as "Mammy") take some offense out of the "politically incorrect".

****** Too Busy to Work (12/2/32) John G. Blystone ~ Will Rogers, Marian Nixon, Dick Powell, Frederick Burton

Not one of Rogers' best, but still very watchable!

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 29 June 2017]

Comedy is often forced to take a back seat to a fleet of none-too- believable plot developments, but Rogers manages to hold it all together, despite the fact that his character is none too likable. Admittedly, he's the man who has been wronged, but he goes about getting his revenge in a sloppy and somewhat unconvincing manner. In fact, the guy whom he most humiliates had absolutely nothing to do with the sorry "business" at all.

Although Ben Ames Wiliiams wrote the original published story, it has obviously been considerably embellished by screenwriters Barry Conners and Philip Klein. All the gag material, for example, would be the work of either or both Conners and Klein.

The film script that emerges from these three writers lacks solid unity and it's really left to the actors - and most particularly Will Rogers - to cement it all together. I'd certainly agree that Rogers does his level best, there's no doubt about that, but the film still doesn't hold together very well. In fact, it's hard to decide if the Rogers character is a man seeking revenge and/or answers, or is simply being deliberately obtuse or just satisfying his curiosity. It's hinted more than once that the latter is the fact - and a poor conclusion it is!

Indeed, the screenplay actually raises more questions than it actually answers. Fortunately, most audiences won't notice, although I think some would feel short-changed! "Too Busy to Work" (sic) is certainly watchable and even moderately entertaining, but a top- flight vehicle it is obviously not!

While Away the Hour with Will Rogers

[JLRMovieReviews · 9/10 · 1 October 2014]

"Too Busy to Work" features Will Rogers at his charming best. But, interestingly enough, this film feels a little different than his usual type of film. It seems years ago he was married and had a child, but after having been away serving his country, he comes back only to find his wife had left him for another man. After being a drifter for years now, he decides to find out what ever happened to his wife and the man who stole his life. He finds his daughter, who is of course very sweet and naive, and she takes to him, despite him looking like a bum and a loser. But he doesn't tell her who he is, and the rest of the film is how he fits himself into their lives, including her half-brother Dick Powell. The film moves along with its usual Will Rogers lackadaisical pace, but it is captivating at the same time and it possesses a certain poignancy and sensitiveness to it with the quiet personality of the daughter and the tender scenes between Will Rogers and her. But what does Will do about it? Watch "Too Busy to Work" and see how Will can grab you with his disposition and how he can spend time doing something close to nothing.

Heartwarming soaper with Will Rogers at his best.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 3 January 2011]

Will Rogers is a World War I veteran who went off to fight and came back to discover that his wife had divorced him, took his daughter away, and married a wealthy judge. This judge (ironically named Judge Hardy, no relation to Andy's pop in that MGM series) has raised her (Marian Nixon) even though she knows she's adopted, and has approved her engagement to his own son, her step-brother (Dick Powell). Along comes Will ready to spill the beans. He gets involved with their lives and eventually confronts the Judge. Will he turn their lives upside down? Will he accept the Judge's offer to get justified revenge? Or will he simply pack up and move away not to disturb everybody's lives? It's interesting to see Will Rogers basically playing Stella Dallas. Rogers is presented as a lazy lout, more interested in finding ways for others to do the chores and eat rather than work. But even being lazy, you can't help but like this guy. He's wiser than most of the hard working people I know, has an uncanny way of bringing sunshine into everybody's life, and does what he can to make it through life honestly while not earning a dime of his own. No wonder Rogers was so popular in films. No matter how creaky they seem, he makes them fun to watch. Add on Louise Beavers as the housekeeper and you've got a sweet drama to dab a handkerchief on your eyes with.

The plot is all over the place in this one...and that's why it's not even close to being Rogers' best.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 1 June 2014]

I have seen quite a few of Will Rogers' films and would consider "Too Busy to Work" among the least of his films. Most of the problem is that it looks almost like three sort of films all combined into one--with no clear and distinct tone or theme. It's quite odd and I cannot recall another Rogers film like it.

When the film begins, Jubilo (Rogers) is a bum and he's been on the road for many years. Now, inexplicably, he's decided to go look for his wife and daughter. It seems that the wife left him 18 years ago...and NOW he decides to look them up for some unknown reason.

When Jubilo arrives as his daughter's home, he learns that his ex-wife has died and the daughter lives with her step-father, the judge. You learn that Jubilo is a bum who hates to work and is a nice fellow despite this. The daughter (Marian Nixon) takes an instant liking to Jubilo and invites him to stay as a hired hand--not knowing it's her father.

So far, this is a reasonably good film--a man coming to visit his daughter and deciding exactly what to tell her--if anything. However, two other plot elements arise--and they have no place in the film. The first is about a robbery where the judge's son (Dick Powell) is implicated even though he's innocent. What's shocking about this is that first Jubilo recommends to the young man that he lie his head off to the police. Then, later in the film when the gang comes looking for the guy, Jubilo gets into a gun battle and shoots the gang boss!! Huh?! I thought this was a comedy! Another plot, and this one was disturbing, was when Jubilo met the judge. Jubilo appeared to be threatening the judge--threatening to expose him as a home wrecker. Huh?! Again, I thought this was supposed to be a comedy. How all this works out is just fine--but overall it's a very dissatisfying melange--one that should have been a lot better. The writing is simply the problem with this one despite some strong characters.