''The Medicine Man'' is a 1930 American

pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorshi ...

comedy-drama film Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

directed by

Scott Pembroke Scott Pembroke (September 13, 1889 – February 21, 1951) was an American director, actor and screenwriter. He directed more than 70 films between 1920 and 1937. He was born in San Francisco, California and died in Pasadena, California. P ...

, released by

Tiffany Pictures Tiffany Pictures, which also became Tiffany-Stahl Productions for a time, was a Hollywood motion picture studio in operation from 1921 until 1932. It is considered a Poverty Row studio, whose films had lower budgets, lesser-known stars, and overal ...

, and starring

Jack Benny Jack Benny (born Benjamin Kubelsky, February 14, 1894 – December 26, 1974) was an American entertainer who evolved from a modest success playing violin on the vaudeville circuit to one of the leading entertainers of the twentieth century with ...

Betty Bronson Elizabeth Ada Bronson (November 17, 1906 – October 19, 1971) was an American film and television actress who began her career during the silent film era. Early years Bronson was born in Trenton, New Jersey, to Frank and Nellie Smith Bronso ...

and

Eva Novak Eva Barbara Novak (February 14, 1898 – April 17, 1988) was an American film actress, who was quite popular during the silent film era. Biography On February 14, 1898, Eva Barbara Novak was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to Joseph Jerome Nov ...

. This was an early role for Jack Benny. After

talking pictures A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...

took over the

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

died, and Benny and many other comedians went to motion pictures. The film was adapted from a play by Elliot Lester. A print is preserved in the Library of Congress.''Catalog of Holdings The American Film Institute Collection and The United Artists Collection at The Library of Congress'' p. 114, c. 1978 by The American Film Institute

Synopsis

The son and daughter of a shopkeeper fall in with the leader of a traveling

medicine show Medicine shows were touring acts (traveling by truck, horse, or wagon teams) that peddled "miracle cure" patent medicines and other products between various entertainments. They developed from European Charlatan, mountebank shows and were common i ...

Cast

as Dr. John Harvey *

as Mamie Goltz * E. Alyn Warren as Goltz *

as Hulda * Billy Butts as Buddy * Adolph Millar as Peter *

George E. Stone George E. Stone (born Gerschon Lichtenstein; May 18, 1903 – May 26, 1967) was a Polish-born American character actor in films, radio, and television. Life and career Stone was born Gerschon Lichtenstein in Łódź, Congress Poland, into ...

as Steve * Tom Dugan as Charley *

Vadim Uraneff Vadim Uraneff (6 February 1895 – 5 April 1952) was a Russian actor and librettist who helped John Barrymore and Katharine Hepburn when it was hoped they would appear in '' The Song of Solomon''. He was also a mime who played Lucianus in ''Haml ...

as Gus * Caroline Rankin as Hattie *

Dorothea Wolbert Dorothea Wolbert (April 12, 1874 – September 15, 1958) was an American film actress. She appeared in more than 140 films between 1916 and 1957. She appeared on the television series ''I Love Lucy'' (with her character named Dorothea Wolbe ...

as Sister Wilson

References

External links

* * *
''The Medicine Man'' at BFI Database
1930 films American romantic comedy films 1930 romantic comedy films American black-and-white films American films based on plays Tiffany Pictures films Films directed by Scott Pembroke 1930s English-language films 1930s American films {{1930s-romantic-comedy-film-stub