Classic 40s Movie: “The Sin of Harold Diddlebock”
September is Classic 40s Movie month. Today’s guest post comes from David Joyner.
Movie Title: The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (also released as “Mad Wednesday”)
Year: 1947
Writer: Preston Sturges
Lead Actors: Harold Lloyd, Jimmy Conlin
Director: Preston Sturges
Plot Summary: A madcap comedy following the ups and downs of Harold Diddlebock.
After scoring the winning touchdown for his college football team mild-mannered Harold Diddlebock (Harold Lloyd), gets a job offer from a football fanatic and business-owner, “Chief”. For 22 years, Harold works a dull, dead-end book-keeping job for the man. The story begins with Harold being called into the Chief’s office and being fired, with nothing but a tiny pension. Diddlebock bids farewell to the beautiful girl at the desk down the aisle, Miss Otis, whom he had hoped to marry — just as he had hoped to marry six of her older sisters before that. The depressed Diddlebock wanders aimlessly through the streets, his life’s savings in hand, and falls in with a con-man Wormy (Jimmy Conlin). They go to a bar for a drink. When he tells the bartender that he’s never had a drink in his life, Wormy has the barkeep create a potent cocktail he calls “The Diddlebock”. One sip of this concoction is enough to release Diddlebock from all his inhibitions, setting him off on a day-and-a-half binge of spending and carousing. He awakes to find that he has a garish new wardrobe, a ten-gallon hat, a Hansom cab complete with driver, and ownership of a bankrupt circus. Trying to sell the circus to bank owners, Diddlebock and Wormy bring along Jackie the Lion (yes, a real lion, on a leash) to get past the bank guards and presumably to make the point that they do indeed own a circus. The lion incites panic and Diddlebock, Wormy and the lion end up on the ledge of a skyscraper. They are arrested and thrown in jail, but Miss Otis bails them out. Diddlebock learns that the publicity has attracted the Ringling Brothers, who bought their circus for $175,000. Miss Otis also tells him that they got married during his first drinking binge.
Why I Think This Is A Classic 40s Movie
While not Sturges’ greatest film, I think it is a classic due to its zany comedic plot ideas. It was nominated for Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival that same year. Harold Lloyd, in comic top form, was nominated for a best actor Golden Globe.
This film brought silent film star Harold Lloyd out of retirement, however, the two apparently had creative differences on set. This was a “collaboration” between Howard Hughes and Preston Sturges. They also had their differences. Hughes did not like the film and the copyright wasn’t renewed. It is now in the public domain.
My Favorite Moment In The Movie
I’m a sucker for sentimental but funny. Check out the film-ending scene with Harold Diddlebock and Miss Otis (now Mrs Diddlebock).
My Favorite Dialogue In the Movie
Harold Diddlebock bids farewell to Miss Otis.
Harold Diddlebock: Miss Otis, I —
Miss Otis: Yes, Mister Diddlebock.
Harold Diddlebock: Miss Otis, when your eldest sister Hortence came to work here seventeen or eighteen years ago, I fell in love with her. She was a lovely girl.
Miss Otis: Yes, I know, I mean that you fell in love with her. She told me.
Harold Diddlebock: Well, she swept me off my feet. My circumstances at that time did not permit even the contemplation of marriage.
Miss Otis: Yes, I know, she told me.
Harold Diddlebock: She very wisely stopped waiting for me and married the gentleman whose life she has illuminated. I felt that my own life had ended, that I would never love again. That the sunshine would withdraw permanently behind the clouds.
Miss Otis: Yes, I know.
Harold Diddlebock: But I was mistaken.
Miss Otis: Of course.
Harold Diddlebock: Because when your next eldest sister Ermine came to work here, I fell even more deeply in live with her that I had with Hortence.
Miss Otis: Yes, I know, she told me. Hortence even got a little burned about it.
Harold Diddlebock: Well, she needed have because when Ermine, in her turn, got married she was replaced by your next eldest sister Harriet, I felt that everything that had gone before was merely an appetizer.
Miss Otis: Yes, I know, she told me too.
Harold Diddlebock: They were getting better and better. Your mother seemed to be making them nicer every year.
Miss Otis: Thank you.
Harold Diddlebock: I haven’t come to you yet. … When Harriet ran away with the head-stone salesman, I was inconsolable.
Miss Otis: None of us felt very good about it.
Harold Diddlebock: I was going to propose the very next day.
Miss Otis: I didn’t know that.
Harold Diddlebock: I had the ring in my pocket. I just made the last payment on it. The one I started for Hortence.
Miss Otis: You came so close.
Harold Diddlebock: I never felt so defeated in my life. I never thought I’d smile again.
Miss Otis: Then you met Margie.
Harold Diddlebock: That’s right. She was better than the others.
Miss Otis: Mother had more practice.
Harold Diddlebock: Practice makes perfect. By then, of course, I’d been wiped out in the market.
Miss Otis: Oh, was that it? She never knew.
Harold Diddlebock: That’s right. I started to get on my feet again when your sister Claire came to work here.
Miss Otis: Why didn’t you ask her? Didn’t you like her?
Harold Diddlebock: Like her? I worshipped her. Only then, that irresponsible lout that married my sister choose that time to kick the bucket, er, pass on, without leaving even a dime’s worth of insurance. So, I found myself with a ready-made family.
Miss Otis: Poor Mister Diddlebock. I suppose you were in love with Rosemary too, while she was here.
Harold Diddlebock: Naturally. Of course, I was so in the habit of being in love with your mother’s daughters that it would be impossible for me to even see one of them without … without —
Miss Otis: Without what, Mister Diddlebock?
Harold Diddlebock: I presume you know I’ve adored you since the first morning you punched the time card… You knew it, didn’t you?
Miss Otis: Well, I suspected it. My sisters had warned me.
Harold Diddlebock: Of course. Imagine being exposed to seven Miss Americas and muffing all seven of them.
Miss Otis: Poor Mister Diddlebock.
Harold Diddlebock: I’m leaving here today.
Miss Otis: Oh no, Mister Diddlebock.
Harold Diddlebock: That’s what I really want to tell you. I don’t know where I’m going and I very probably won’t see you again. Why don’t you just take this?
Harold Diddlebock hands Miss Otis a ring box.
Harold Diddlebock: It’s all paid for. Someday when you meet some young man who’s really worthy of you, who has everything but the engagement ring, you can take that excuse away from him.
Harold Diddlebock shuffles out.
Key Things You Should Look For When Watching This Movie
The scene between Harold Diddlebock and Wormy when they first meet is brilliant. The final scene with Harold Diddlebock and Miss Otis (now Mrs Diddlebock) is funny and very touching. Look for Sturges’ stock company of actors playing the minor roles.
Thanks, David! To show our gratitude for your guest post, here’s a dash of creative juju for you. Whoosh!
We already have a set of classic 5os movies, 60s Movies, 70s movies, 80s Movies and 90s Movies. This month, we’re working on 40s movies. And thanks to the GITS community, we’ve got 30 movies in the works, one for each day of the month!
Those who I put in bold have already sent me their posts. If you haven’t sent yours to me, please do so as soon as you can!!!
Act of Violence — Eric Rodriguez
Arsenic and Old Lace — Katha
Bicycle Thieves — Megaen Kelly
Brief Encounter — Emily Bonkoski
Casablanca — Paul Graunke
Double Indemnity — Susan Winchell
Five Graves to Cairo — Jeff Gibson
Foreign Correspondent — Doc Kane
His Girl Friday — John Henderson
It’s a Wonderful Life — David Laudenslager
Key Largo — Will King
Laura — Melinda Mahaffey Icden
Les enfants du paradis — Brendan Howley
Mrs. Miniver — Traci Nell Peterson
Notorious — Christine Henton
Now Voyager — Melissa Privette
Out of the Past — Brantley Aufill
Rope — Lance Morgan
The Bank Dick — Bob Saenz
The Best Years of Their Lives — Shaun Parker
The Big Sleep — Ipsita Barik
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir — Annie Wood
The Long Voyage Home — Vincent Martini
The Lost Weekend — Liz Warner
The Maltese Falcon — Roy Gordon
The Ox-Bow Incident — Clay Mitchell
The Philadelphia Story — Kristen Demaline
The Sin of Harold Diddlebock — David Joyner
The Third Man — Harry Cooke
To Have and Have Not — Felicity Flesher
Thanks to everyone who steps up for this ongoing project!
For the original post explaining the series, go here.
For all of the 40s movies featured in the series, go here.
Click REPLY and see you in comments about today’s classic 40s movie!