Film

Quick (1932)

Director: Robert Siodmak

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

No intersections whatever between this and the distinguished films noirs Siodmak made in the '40s. Albers is Quick the singing clown, Harvey a rich divorcée living in a health clinic (cue some mild satire). She is a fan of the clown but doesn't recognise him out of character and he, for no better reason than that he's in a comedy, pretends to be Herr Direktor Henkel - and so on, and on. The contrast between Albers/Henkel, beefy Germanic he-man, and Albers/Quick, epicene refugee from Cabaret, is more spooky than funny. Quick's big number, in which he skids down the neck of a giant banjo then cavorts around the auditorium, is well staged. But the appeal of Harvey, who combined Home Counties prettiness with the manic manner of early Mickey Rooney, seems to have been mislaid over the years.

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