''The Go Getter'' is a 1937 film directed by

Busby Berkeley Busby Berkeley (born Berkeley William Enos; November 29, 1895 – March 14, 1976) was an American film director and musical choreographer. Berkeley devised elaborate musical production numbers that often involved complex geometric patterns. Berke ...

and starring

George Brent George Brent (born George Brendan Nolan; 15 March 1904 – 26 May 1979) was an Irish-American stage, film, and television actor. He is best remembered for the eleven films he made with Bette Davis, which included '' Jezebel'' and '' Dark Victo ...

, Anita Louise, and

Charles Winninger Charles J. Winninger (May 26, 1884 – January 27, 1969) was an American stage and film actor, most often cast in comedies or musicals. Life and career Winninger was born in Athens, Wisconsin, the son of Rosalia (Grassler) and Franz Winninger ...

. A determined discharged US Navy veteran succeeds in the lumber business. The film was produced by

Cosmopolitan Productions Cosmopolitan Productions, also often referred to as Cosmopolitan Pictures, was an American film company based in New York City from 1918 to 1923 and Hollywood until 1938. History Newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst formed Cosmopolitan in co ...

and released through

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

Plot

When the US Navy rigid

airship An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air. In early ...

''Macon'' is damaged in a storm and crashes into the water (as the real did in 1935), helmsman Bill Austin stays with his commanding officer until the rest of the crew has gotten safely away. Bill loses a leg as a result of the crash and leaves the Navy. He goes looking for employment, but jobs are scarce in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. He tries a lumber company run by Lloyd Skinner, interrupting a meeting between Skinner and his fiancee Margaret Ricks. Skinner orders him to leave his office. Matt Peasely, head of a shipping firm in the same building, is more polite, but the answer is still the same. Undeterred, Bill seeks out Cappy Ricks, the retired founder of both companies. While waiting in the reception area, he encounters Margaret again. He assumes she is also a job seeker and makes a date with her, unaware she is Cappy's only offspring. She sees her father first, and asks him to give Bill a chance. Cappy, who is frustrated with the way Skinner and Peasely have been running the businesses he built up, is quite willing to countermand them. He and Skinner decide to give Bill the hardest task they can think of: selling a half million feet of unwanted skunk spruce Cappy bought years ago as a favor to a friend. Not only does Bill sell all of the spruce, he also generates orders for all of the lumber the company has and more, all in a single business trip across the western United States, forcing Cappy to send him to Seattle to buy the shortfall from a hard-negotiating competitor. Meanwhile, Bill and Margaret fall in love. With his commission from his trip, he buys an engagement ring. When he tells Cappy of his plans, however, the widowed Cappy is adamantly opposed to losing Margaret's company. He and Skinner go ahead with the "blue vase" test, a test everybody has failed, including Skinner. Cappy telephones Bill and tells him he saw a vase he liked, but could not spare the time to purchase it. He gives Bill instructions to buy it whatever the cost and bring it to him at the railway station by eight o'clock. Cappy and Skinner have pre-arranged all sorts of obstacles to make the task impossible, but Bill overcomes them all, and by hocking Margaret's ring to help pay the $1000 price of the vase and persuading a Navy pilot friend (on his honeymoon night, no less) to fly him ahead of the already departed train, he succeeds. Cappy is so impressed, he offers Bill a promotion to manager of his

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

office. When Bill insists on marrying Margaret immediately so she can accompany him, Cappy does his best to stop him. He buys up all the staterooms in the ship Bill is to take, but Bill and Margaret get married and manage to sneak aboard the ship anyway. Then Cappy receives word that his men have gone on strike, and they trust and will only negotiate with Bill. Cappy sends him an urgent radiogram. When the captain of the ship refuses Bill's request to turn around, Bill jumps overboard. Margaret follows him, and the captain drops a lifeboat. Cappy finds them rowing back to land. Bill negotiates an end to the strike, and Cappy decides to send Skinner to Shanghai instead. For Cappy's sake, the couple agree to live in his mansion.

Cast

as Bill Austin * Anita Louise as Margaret Ricks *

as Cappy Ricks *

John Eldredge John Eldredge (born June 6, 1960 in Los Angeles) is an American author, counselor, and lecturer on Christianity. He is known for his best-selling book '' Wild at Heart''. Life and work Eldregde received his undergraduate degree in theater from ...

as Lloyd Skinner * Henry O'Neill as Commander Tisdale *

Joseph Crehan Joseph A. Creaghan (July 15, 1883 – April 15, 1966) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 300 films between 1916 and 1965, and notably played Ulysses S. Grant nine times between 1939 and 1958, most memorably in ''Union Paci ...

as Karl Stone *

Gordon Oliver Gordon Oliver (April 27, 1910 – January 26, 1995) was an American actor and film producer. He appeared in more than 40 films and television shows between 1933 and 1972. Biography Oliver began working in films in 1936, eventually working ...

as Luce *

Eddie Acuff Edward DeKalb Acuff (June 3, 1903 – December 17, 1956) was an American stage and film actor. He frequently was cast as a droll comic relief, in the support of the star. His best-known recurring role is that of Mr. Beasley, the postman, in ...

as Bob Blair *

Willard Robertson Willard Robertson (January 1, 1886 – April 5, 1948) was an American actor and writer. He appeared in more than 140 films between 1924 and 1948. He was born in Runnels, Texas, and died in Hollywood, California. Biography Robertson first ...

as Matt Peasely * Pierre Watkin as Browne * Joan Valerie as Skinner's Secretary (as Helen Valkis) *

Herbert Rawlinson Herbert Banemann Rawlinson (15 November 1885 – 12 July 1953) was an English-born stage, film, radio, and television actor. A leading man during Hollywood's silent film era, Rawlinson transitioned to character roles after the advent of sound f ...

as Lester * George Chandler as Business Card Printer * Helen Lowell as Mrs. Luce *

Harry Beresford Harry J. Beresford (4 November 1863 – 4 October 1944) was an English-born actor on the American stage and in motion pictures. He used the professional name Harry J. Morgan early in his career. Career Harry Beresford began his acting career i ...

as M. M. Barker *

Minerva Urecal Minerva Urecal (born Florence Minerva Dunnuck; September 22, 1894 – February 26, 1966) was an American stage and radio performer as well as a character actress in Hollywood films and on various television series from the early 1950s to 1 ...

as Cappy Ricks' Secretary *

Mary Treen Mary Treen (born Mary Louise Summers, March 27, 1907 – July 20, 1989) was an American film and television actress. A minor actress for much of her career, she managed to secure a plain, unassuming niche for herself in the Hollywood of the 1 ...

as Mrs. Blair

Reception

Ann Ross wrote in a short review in ''

Maclean's ''Maclean's'', founded in 1905, is a Canadian news magazine reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events. Its founder, publisher John Bayne Maclean, established the magazine to provide a uniquely Canadian persp ...

'' magazine that "Charles Winninger’s energetic performance as Cappy keeps things moving".

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Go Getter, The American business films American romance films American black-and-white films Films based on short fiction Films directed by Busby Berkeley Films set in San Francisco 1930s business films 1930s romance films 1930s American films Films scored by Bernhard Kaun Films about veterans