Laughing at Life (1933) User Reviews

Fair...but at least there are some original aspects to the plot.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 22 October 2010]

Victor MacLaglen stars as a very odd character is this cheap B-movie. He's a screwy guy who is addicted to danger and taking unnecessary risks. Specifically, he loves to travel the world selling arms to fund various revolutions! It's not idealogical with him--he just likes the action, the risk and the chaos.

Early in the film, MacLaglen is nearly caught doing his dangerous 'craft' and is forced to flee--leaving his wife and young son behind. He never returns to claim them and loses track of them--all the time he's continuing his disreputable life. Eventually, his past catches up to him when he meets another cocky but younger man who also loves this mercenary life....and it turns out to be his son!!! There's a lot more to it than this and it's decent entertainment. However, the characters aren't exactly likable and the film looks cheap--because it is.

My verdict--adequate entertainment and since it's in the public domain and downloadable from links on this site, it's worth a look...but certainly not a must-see!

Cheap and Cheerful

[JoeytheBrit · 4/10 · 17 September 2009]

The phrase cheap and cheerful was made for Poverty Row programmers like this. Filmed on a shoestring budget, written off the cuff, filmed quickly and economically and churned out at a rate of dozens per month, they have no qualities worth admiring, but they do possess a certain enthusiasm and energy of spirit that at least make it possible to sit through their brief running times.

This one manages to span twenty years in less than fifteen minutes as it introduces us to Pat (aka Captain Easter), played in typical two-fisted fashion by big Victor McLaglen. Watching Big Vic always reminds me of the first car I ever owned – a white '77 Opel Manta; it was weather-beaten and past its best but it knew how to take a knock and kept going no matter what obstacles it came up against. McLaglen's a typically lovable gun-running rogue here who seems to get himself into a jam wherever he goes. And he certainly does go places, as the slowly spinning plastic globe and use of stock footage repeatedly tells us. 1913, 1924, 1917, 1918: the years pass and the globe slowly turns until we reach 1933 and find Pat in the South American state of Alturas.

Pat's adoring wife dies sometime during this whirl of years. Pat knows this because he receives a letter from his little son which beseeches, 'Can't you please come home? Mama died Sunday…' But when Pat returned home he found only a smouldering shell of a house and no people. Of course his sorely neglected son hasn't perished, and fifteen years later they meet up in Alturas, where Pat, now known as Captain Easter, is supplying the weapons to arm a revolution.

Laughing at Life certainly has a large cast for such a small film, but its production values are zero and there are a number of sub-standard performances. McLaglen's the best of the lot, but he doesn't exactly cover himself in glory. Also, the print I saw was atrocious and the sound quality appalling

Enter Laughing at Your Own Risk

[wes-connors · 4/10 · 4 April 2011]

This poorly executed production stars Victor McLaglen (as Dennis Patrick McHale), a smiling rogue who does the titular "Laughing at Life" from the 1913 mining scene opening until 1933. It's interesting to consider Mr. McLaglen is the same impressive actor from Raoul Walsh's "What Price Glory" (1926) who would find his footing in more sound pictures with director John Ford. While McLaglen handles most of the action, Regis Toomey (as Pat Collins) and Frankie Darro (as Chango) emerge from the lengthy cast as important story and screen-time significant co-stars. The woefulness here is may not be suggested by an illustrious supporting cast, headed by veteran Henry B. Walthall.

**** Laughing at Life (7/12/33) Ford Beebe ~ Victor McLaglen, Regis Toomey, Frankie Darro, Henry B. Walthall

Stella Dallas this ain't

[mark.waltz · 1/10 · 7 November 2011]

This is the opposite of the "mother love" movies made famous by such films as "Madame X", "Stella Dallas", "Confession" (actually almost everything starring Kay Francis), and "The Old Maid". This is "father love", the story of an adventurer (Victor McLaglen) who travels around the world from adventure to adventure, promising to send for his wife and son, who suddenly learns that his wife has died. He returns to the United States only to find out that his son is missing after a house fire, and no trace of a body was found by the firemen. Suddenly, McLaglen (called "Captain Easter" here) is one of the most influential men in a fictional Latin country, and involved in its revolution. Guess who shows up to help "Captain Easter" through his ridiculous adventures.

This is a groaner from the beginning to the end, yet fun to laugh at because of its absurdities. McLaglen, on loan to a poverty row studio in the same year he would appear in his Oscar Winning performance in "The Informer", seems to be having a field day, yet there is no plausibility in the film. Every single adventure he goes through seems even more ridiculous than things happening in the weekly serials of the era. Add on a typically spitfire Latina lass, cowardly officers feigning courage and the extremely dull Regis Toomey as the film's "romantic hero", and you end up with a real dog.

A lot of doublecrossing

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 18 November 2015]

For a poverty row outfit Mascot Pictures put together quite a list of familiar players to co-star with Victor McLaglen in Laughing At Life. The film has elements of Raffles, The Scarlet Pimpernel with a lot of McLaglen's familiar Captain Flagg from What Price Glory and a series of other films with that character.

McLaglen plays a promising engineer who does a little smuggling and gun running on the side. The law catches up to him at the Panama Canal dig, but McLaglen eludes the man who would prove to be his Colonel Chauvelin, William 'Stage' Boyd. Boyd was always billed like that to distinguish him from the William Boyd who would soon become Hopalong Cassidy. But McLaglen is forced to abandon his wife and child. She dies and the kid who grows up to be Regis Toomey never knows him growing up, but starts on a vagabond like soldier of fortune existence.

Fate has them meet in a mythical South American republic called Asturas where the natives are revolting against President Henry B. Walthall. In fact speaking of familiar characters Walthall's role is a lot like his characterization of Francisco Madero in Viva Villa. And Boyd is now working for the State Department and looking to nail McLaglen who's with the revolution.

I won't go further except to say there's a whole lot of doublecrossing going on in this story. The ending is quite out of Raffles with Toomey and McLaglen finally getting to know each other. It looks like Toomey is going to become every bit the rogue his father is.

That in itself is significant and it distinguishes Laughing At Life as a before the Code film. After the Code was in place there would have to have been some scenes of redemption by McLaglen for his criminal ways,he might even had to die.

Sad to say that the film print I saw had some horrible sound which made it inaudible at times. But fans of the players should enjoy this.

VictorMcLaglen -- Gunrunner, Coup Plotter, Hero, Man of Good Cheer

[alonzoiii-1 · 7/10 · 13 May 2009]

Victor McLaglen, a promising engineer working on the Panama Canal, mixes himself up in gun running and other dubious activities and is separated from his family. So, when he shows up in an imaginary banana republic, working to overthrow decent presidente Henry B. Walthall, why is he LAUGHING AT LIFE?

This is the just exactly the sort of movie you expect a rootin, tootin he-man like Victor McLaglen to be in (Clark Gable or John Wayne would have been even better). It's just that this one, instead of being made at a large studio that could have afforded exotic sets and stylized direction, was made at Mascot Studios. Which means, except for McLaglen and Walthall, the supporting roles are filled with mediocre actors, or downright lousy ones. (The woman playing the requisite Spanish vixen is horrible.) Additionaly, the musical score is badly recorded, drones on and on, and does not always seem particularly related to the goings on on screen. But, if you can withstand these flaws -- which would apply to ALL of Mascot's product in 1933-34 -- you've got a pretty good plot, and a perfectly respectable leading man performance out of McLaglen. You also have the strengths of Mascot -- good stunt work, and a plot that moves quickly. You also have one unexpected strength -- a nicely done story and script, which makes McLaglen a far more well-rounded character than you'd ordinarily expect. (Also, the credit sequence that introduces him is, perhaps, one of the best of this early 30s mini-genre. It establishes his character before the movie even starts.) In other words -- this is worth seeing if you have any affection to 30s cinema, and can live without big studio production values. But, since it is public domain, be prepared for a lousy print.

Here's One For All You McLaglen Fans!

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 12 August 2012]

This public domain movie exists in two separate versions. The original 72 minutes version is available from Alpha, the 62 minute version from Grapevine. Unfortunately, the Alpha version is a very poor dupe of what was undoubtedly an extremely worn – and even damaged – print to begin with. The Grapevine disc is of much higher quality. The only thing I noticed missing from Grapevine was the earlier material introducing the "comic" duo of Guinn "Big Boy" Williams and Dewey Robinson. The strange cut after Noah Beery's close-up is missing in both versions. Evidently this sequence was not filmed at all, but it was decided to use Beery's introductory remarks anyway.

One contemporary reviewer noted that B-grade's legendary producer Nat Levine had evidently signed up every free-lance actor in Hollywood for parts that would normally be handled by innocuous bit players. Another pointer in the film's favor is that even in the full-length version, it sure moves fast. Super-fast! Blink – and you can forget about trying to follow the plot. I had to run the Grapevine DVD twice myself, because I kept getting distracted by all the familiar faces. Also it's one of those pre-code movies where the hero is the bad guy and the villains just happen to be people who are presumably even less scrupulous. Nevertheless, it's obvious that Victor McLaglen is having a grand time (even if Yakima Canutt is doing the actual stunting for him). In fact, he's in his element. If there's one thing Vic really liked doing, it was hogging the camera. I'm sure that Levine signed him up simply by assuring Vic that his role was ten times as large as anyone else's. Conchita Montenegro wouldn't be in the movie for more than five minutes. William "Stage" Boyd, ditto! In fact, the only actor who enjoys even a tenth as much screen time is Regis Toomey. He's pretty much as dull as usual – although he does strike a spark here and there. But, as I say, the movie moves so fast, it really doesn't matter.

Fast paced action flick.

[cobram-1 · 8/10 · 30 June 2006]

I found this to be a fun movie to watch. It is an action film, and a manly film about a manly man, who lives by his own rules. The star is a cross between an Indiana Jones and an Ernest Hemmingway. The title is, although not the greatest, a reflection of how the main character deals with the dangers and situations he gets himself into. This is a man who chose to live outside the law, and seeks danger wherever he can find it, he lives life with gusto, and he lives his life like a real man, no politically correct baloney in this movie, no apologies or touchy feely nonsense either. It's a rough and tumble action movie, with a good plot, a couple of plot twists, and even some decent acting on occasion! It has some comical interactions too. If you get the chance to download this (it's a public domain film, available from a few sites on the internet) or see it on DVD or TV, do it, you'll have yourself an enjoyable, light hour of entertainment.