Studio: A Universal Picture
Running time: 59 minutes
There’s One Born Every Minute (1942)
There’s One Born Every Minute “centers on the wacky family of Lemuel P. Twine, owner of the Twine Tasty Pudding Company. Lester Cadwalader, the town’s political boss, is promoting Twine for mayor, but only to keep a more likely candidate out of the running. When laboratory tests reveal that Twine’s pudding is loaded with Vitamin Z, the resultant publicity insures Twine’s election to office, whereupon Cadwalader does an about-face, pronouncing the pudding a fake and Twine himself a fraud. But Twine fights back, exposing Cadwalader as the real fraud. And he wins the election.” [From The Films of Elizabeth Taylor]
Cast
Lemuel P. Twine: Hugh Herbert
Jimmie Hanagan: Tom Brown
Helen Twine: Peggy Moran
Lester Cadwalader, Sr.: Guy Kibbee
Minerva Twine: Catherine Doucet
Moe Carson: Edgar Kennedy
Lester Cadwalader, Jr.: Scott Jordan
Quisenberry: Gus Schilling
Gloria Twine: Elizabeth Taylor
Trumbull: Charles Halton
Miss Phipps: Renie Riano
Junior: Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer
Crew
Director: Harold Young
Associate Producer: Ken Goldsmith
Screenwriters: Robert B. Hunt and Brenda Weiberg
Based on a Story by: Robert B. Hunt
Cinematographer: John W. Boyle
Art Director: Jack Otterson
Sound Director: Bernard B. Brown
Music Director: H. J. Salter
Gowns: Vera West
Did You Know?
There’s One Born Every Minute was known under the working title of Man or Mouse during production. It was this title Elizabeth would refer to when, years later, she recalled the making of the film:
“When I was nine, a family friend who was head of Universal Studios talked to my parents about allowing an audition. I did a lot of conning of Mother and Dad, and they let me try it. They felt it was a small studio, like a family, and if being in films was spoiling my childhood, they would take me out. I used to sing, if you can believe it, and the casting director instantly disliked me. I was signed anyway, but only did one film. It was called Man or Mouse, and my leading man was named Alfalfa—you know, from Our Gang. We played two brats and, as I remember it, all I did was run around and shoot rubber bands at ladies’ bottoms.”
After filming wrapped, Universal declined to pick up the second option on Elizabeth’s contract. Dan Kelly, presumably the same casting director she recalled as disliking her, said: “The kid has nothing. Her eyes are too old, she doesn’t have the face of a child.” MGM, however, disagreed, and Elizabeth Taylor would spend the next 18 years of her career at the fabled studio that boasted “more stars than there are in heaven”.