Mar 161932
 
one reel
GetThatGirl

Ruth Dale (Shirley Grey) is on her way to collect her inheritance, followed by three thugs, two of whom aren’t even given names because in a movie of this quality, names are an unnecessary indulgence. They plan to stop her. By chance she runs into tractor salesman Dick Bartlett (Richard Talmadge) on a train, but the crooks separate them and take her to an evil sanitarium run by mad scientist/drug fiend Dr. Sandro Tito (Fred Malatesta). Mme. Nedra Tito (Geneva Mitchell) is unhappy with her husband… sometimes, perhaps because of his drug habit or perhaps because of his experiments; since the 3-times-credited writer (for original story, screenplay, and dialogue) didn’t seem to know which, there’s no reason for me to know. Bartlett decides that instead of calling the police, or her family, or her lawyer, he’s going to rescue Dale himself. After all, he’s good at flips.

Richard Talmadge was a circus acrobat turned stuntman turned actor. With his limited acting ability, he didn’t have many opportunities for leading roles, and with his German accent and weak voice, even fewer in talkies, so he made his own, producing a string of very low budget D-level pictures. They had limited success in the US, though did better overseas, particularly in the Soviet Union where his ability to leap about was more important than being able to speak a line. By 1934, he’d moved on to become a successful stunt coordinator.

As a movie, Get That Girl is the worst thing I’ve seen from the 1930s. As a goofy background to a party or a drinking game, it’s fun, provided your plan is to laugh at it.

No explanation is given for why a tractor salesman is so good at acrobatics, but then no explanation is given for what Tito is doing, nor how the inheritance works, nor why every woman screams whenever they see the gardener. But at least Talmadge being skilled in somersaults means someone had a skill who was involved in the movie. The cameraman and soundman didn’t.

Like many low budget thrillers of the era, it overlaps with horror, this time due to a mad scientist who uses hypnotism, and apparently turns women into wax figures. Playing that up might have added some needed cheap thrills, but that wasn’t the point. The movie exists so Talmadge can swing around a tree branch and jump off a balcony, and he does those quite well, so I suppose on that level, Get That Girl is a success.