Spotlight Scandals

Famed vaudevillian Frank Fay finds himself stranded in the Midwest, penniless and out of gas. Fortunately he runs into comic Billy Gilbert, who gives him a lift back to New York. Once on the Great White Way, the pair's vigorous bickering catches the ear of big time-agent John Blondell. He lands them a residency on Broadway, and soon "Gilbert and Fay" are selling out to huge crowds. But success leads to misfortune for the duo. Frank goes on trial for manslaughter after an obsessed fan falls off a building, leaving Billy to bomb as a solo act. It'll take one last gig to restore Gilbert and Fay to their former glory.

Spotlight Scandals was meant to be the first of a series of comedy-dramas co-starring Frank Fay and Billy Gilbert from Monogram Pictures. Frank Fay had legitimate vaudeville credentials, but attempts to launch him as a Hollywood star had repeatedly failed. One such endeavor, God's Gift To Women (1931), preposterously cast Fay as a prissy "ladies' man" fawned over by the likes of Joan Blondell and Louise Brooks. He was better known for his stormy seven-year marriage to Barbara Stanwyck, which many believe to be the basis for A Star is Born (1937). Billy Gilbert was actually the more successful of the two, having served as comic foil to Laurel & Hardy in several of their shorts. He also played a parody of Hermann Goring in Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940). Gilbert's trademark was his hilarious "sneeze" routines, which is why Walt Disney cast him as the voice of Sneezy in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Owing to Fay's temperamental personality, he dropped out of the series after Spotlight Scandals, to be replaced by Three Stooges legend Shemp Howard. BONUS: Blue of the Night (1932) Marjorie "Babe" Kane jilts fiance Franklin Pangborn for crooner Bing Crosby in this uproarious short subject from Mack Sennett. Directed by Leslie Pearce.

• musical