Night Life of The Gods (1935)

Directed by Lowell Sherman and starring Alan Mowbray, Peggy Shannon, and Florine McKinney, Night Life of The Gods represents a trimmed branch on the cinematic tree that gave rise to screwball comedies. It is based on the 1931 novel by Thorne Smith, a well-read comedic novelist of the 30’s, who passed away in 1934. Movie watchers will know him for much better films like Topper (1937) and I Married a Witch (1942) that were also produced from his novels.

In this part-fantasy/part- comedy, Mowbray plays an eccentric inventor, Hunter Hawk, who comes up with a device that can turn people into statues and vice versa. Hooking up with a cute 900-year old leprechaun (!) (McKinney), he turns the statues of various Greek gods and goddesses into humans to prove that, although they are gods, they cannot adapt to modern 1930’s society. Pursued by the police, and aided by his unflappable butler (Gilbert Emery) and his niece, Daphne (Peggy Shannon), Hunter leads all concerned on a merry lark through New York, turning anyone who gets in his way of having fun into a statue.

Despite having all of the ingredients for a classic screwball comedy, the film come up short, perhaps because it was made a couple of years too late to avoid the censor’s knife that must have excised the more ribald and satiric sections of Smith’s original novel. The antics that the resurrected gods get up to are feeble at best, and miss every opportunity to poke holes in modern morels. When Neptune starts a fish fight in a market, I was reminded of the much funnier, classic fish-slapping dance performed by John Cleese and Michael Palin in Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

The film is buoyed by the performances of Mowbray and Shannon who have excellent chemistry as the oddball uncle and his witty, supportive niece. Unfortunately, this much more interesting relationship is nipped in the bud when McKinney’s Meg sets her eyes on Hunter. Meg is right to be jealous of Daphne – Mowbray and Shannon generate more sparks in their scenes together than the rest of the film produces. One can only imagine what the film could have risen to with these roles filled by Cary Grant and Constance Bennett, who made such an excellent comic team in Topper.

Peggy Shannon and Alan Mowbray

Night Life of the Gods is a rare starring role for Mowbray who usually played droll supporting characters (e.g., the butler in Topper; a lawyer in My Man Godfrey (1936)). Here he mostly hits the right, over-the-top comedic tone as the slightly cracked ringmaster for the proceedings.

Troubled red-headed Shannon is a delight, with too little screen time. Once heralded as ‘the new Clara Bow’, during her brief career she also starred in Hotel Continental (1932) and the until recently lost Deluge (1933), but by the late 30’s her career was largely over. She died from complications of alcoholism in 1941 at age 34.

Other ‘notables’ in the cast include ‘Crash’ Corrigan as Apollo, taking a break from wearing apes suits and a number of years before starring as the titular character in It! The Terror From Beyond Space (1958); Irene Ware as Diana, a Universal horror starlet also ran (she starred in the The Raven (1935) with Karloff and Lugosi); and Pat DiCicco as Perseus, best known for his short marriage to Thelma Todd.

Is Night Life of The Gods worth my time? A qualified yes. Although it would have to be considered a failed film, like Barbara Stanwyck’s screwball misfire, The Mad Miss Manton (1938), it has enough interesting bits to it to keep one thinking about it well after the screen has faded to black. Mowbray and Shannon are fun together, and Gilbert as the butler, Betts, steals all the brief scenes that he is in.

Availability: Night Life of the Gods was a lost film until a 35mm print was donated to the UCLA Film Archives in the 80’s. I watched a really terrible copy on YouTube. I’d happily rewatch a better version (Warner Archives, I’m talking to you).