Hal Roach's Streamliners

2022-04-17T14:59:12Z

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'''Hal Roach's Streamliners''' are a series of [[featurette]] [[comedy film]]s created by [[Hal Roach]] that are longer than a [[short subject]] and shorter than a [[feature film]], not exceeding 50 minutes in length.{{sfn|King|Molloy|Tzioumakis|2012|page=53}} Twenty of the 29 features that Roach produced for [[United Artists]] were in the streamliner format.{{sfn|King|Molloy|Tzioumakis|2012|page=53}} They usually consisted of five 10-minute [[film reel|reel]]s.<ref>[[Bosley Crowther]] review: "'Tanks a Million,' a Hal Roach Comedy About Army Life as It Isn't, at Loew's Criterion," [[The New York Times]], October 9, 1941.</ref>

==History==
Roach's studio initially produced comedy [[short subject]]s, but in 1935, he sensed that short subjects were declining in popularity<ref>[[Leonard Maltin]], ''The Great Movie Shorts: Those Wonderful One- and Two-Reelers of the Thirties and Forties'', Crown, 1972, [[ISBN]] 978-0517504550,, p. 5.</ref> as the [[double feature|double-feature]] format was popular in theaters. By 1939 Roach noticed that Hollywood's major "A" features were becoming longer and more ambitious, creating a problem for theater owners who couldn't fit a second feature into their daily programs. When Roach began producing films for [[United Artists]], he devised the idea of shorter-length featurettes that he called "streamliners" (after the public's infatuation with the modern and fast [[streamliner train]]s). The exhibitors, accustomed to the usual six- or seven-reel "B" feature, could now book a four- or five-reel Hal Roach streamliner ''instead'' of a "B" feature, shaving 20 valuable minutes off an already lengthy double-feature program.<ref>[[Scott MacGillivray]], ''Laurel & Hardy: From the Forties Forward'', iUniverse, 2009, [[ISBN]] 978-1440172373, p. 2.</ref>

United Artists resisted the radical new format at first, because it had already negotiated 5,000 contracts with exhibitors for feature films, not featurettes.<ref>''Variety'', "UA Orders Hal Roach to Tack On Footage to Laurel-Hardy 4-Reelers," Nov. 15, 1939.</ref> Roach had planned to make four four-reel streamliners with [[Laurel and Hardy]] to introduce the featurettes, beginning with ''[[A Chump at Oxford]]'', filmed in 1939. United Artists felt that this picture would be more marketable as a full-length feature film, especially since Laurel and Hardy were an important attraction internationally.<ref>Ibid.</ref> ''A Chump at Oxford'' and the next film, ''[[Saps at Sea]]'', were released in six reels each.

Roach insisted that there would be a ready market for the shorter streamliners. After disposing of the Laurel and Hardy commitment, which lapsed after only the two films, Roach concentrated on making featurettes. Exhibitors welcomed the new format, and the streamliners fit nicely into double-feature programs. "This was just before the second World War," recalled Roach in 1970. "We made 17 45-minute comedies. [Note: Roach also made one musical, ''Fiesta''.] They were accepted as features, and we made a million dollars on that first group."<ref>Hal Roach to authors Bernard Rosenberg and Harry Silverstein, published in ''The Real Tinsel'' (Macmillan, 1970), p. 22,</ref>

Roach's last two Laurel and Hardy features were produced economically, but the budget of a streamliner was set even lower, at $110,000. Roach could produce four streamliners for the cost of two or more feature films, yet profits would yield an estimated 50 to 75% more than would a single feature.{{sfn|Ward|2006|pages=120–121}}

Roach's short subjects of the 1920s and 1930s had been grouped into series, and the new Roach streamliners followed suit. The first and most popular series co-starred [[William Tracy]] and [[Joe Sawyer]] in military comedies. The second revived the 1930s teaming of [[ZaSu Pitts]] and [[Slim Summerville]]. The third was an update of Roach's 1932-33 "Taxi Boys" series, now with [[William Bendix]] and [[Joe Sawyer]] as cab drivers. The fourth series burlesqued the Axis powers, with comedian [[Bobby Watson]] impersonating [[Adolf Hitler]]. The fifth and last was a series of comedy westerns with [[Noah Beery, Jr.]] and Jimmy Rogers (son of humorist [[Will Rogers]]).

==Wartime streamliners==
* ''[[Tanks a Million]]'' was the first official streamliner, 50 minutes in length, released on September 12, 1941. It is the first of seven military comedies directed by [[Fred Guiol]] and starring [[William Tracy]] and [[Joe Sawyer]].
* ''[[Niagara Falls (1941 film)|Niagara Falls]]'' (43 minutes, October 17, 1941) starring [[ZaSu Pitts]] and [[Slim Summerville]], directed by Guiol.
* ''[[All-American Co-Ed]]'' (53 minutes, October 31, 1941), a musical comedy starring [[Frances Langford]] and directed by [[LeRoy Prinz]].
* ''[[Miss Polly]]'', (45 minutes, November 14, 1941), the second and final Pitts-Summerville teaming, directed by Guiol.
* ''[[Fiesta (1941 film)|Fiesta]]'' (45 minutes, November 28, 1941), a [[Technicolor]] musical comedy set in [[Mexico City]] and directed by Prinz.
* ''[[Hay Foot]]'' (48 minutes, January 2, 1942), a Tracy and Sawyer military comedy directed by Guiol.
* ''[[Brooklyn Orchid]]'' (50 minutes, January 31, 1942) with William Bendix and Joe Sawyer, directed by [[Kurt Neumann (director)|Kurt Neumann]]
* ''[[Dudes Are Pretty People]]'' (43 minutes, March 13, 1942) with Jimmy Rogers and Noah Beery, Jr., directed by [[Hal Roach Jr.]]
* ''[[About Face (1942 film)|About Face]]'' (43 minutes, April 16, 1942) with Tracy and Sawyer, directed by Kurt Neumann.
* ''[[Flying with Music]]'' (46 minutes, May 22, 1942), a musical comedy nominated for two [[Academy Award]]s, directed by [[George Archainbaud]].
* ''[[The Devil with Hitler]]'' (44 minutes, October 22, 1942), a wartime burlesque with Bobby Watson, directed by [[Gordon Douglas (director)|Gordon Douglas]].
* ''[[The McGuerins from Brooklyn]]'' (45 minutes, December 31, 1942) with Bendix and Sawyer, directed by Neumann.
* ''[[Calaboose (film)|Calaboose]]'' (45 minutes, January 29, 1943) with Rogers and Beery, directed by Roach, Jr.
* ''[[Fall In]]'' (45 minutes, March 5, 1943) with Tracy and Sawyer, directed by Neumann.
* ''[[Taxi, Mister]]'' (46 minutes, April 16, 1943) with Bendix and Sawyer, directed by Neumann.
* ''[[Prairie Chickens]]'' (48 minutes, May 21, 1943) with Rogers and Beery, directed by Roach, Jr.
* ''[[Yanks Ahoy]]'' (50 minutes, June 29, 1943) with Tracy and Sawyer, directed by Neumann.
* ''[[That Nazty Nuisance]]'' (43 minutes, August 6, 1943) with Watson, a sequel to ''The Devil with Hitler'' directed by [[Glenn Tryon]].

[[World War II]] interrupted Roach's Hollywood film production, as he departed for war as a major in the [[Signal Corps (United States Army)|Army Signal Corps]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1992/11/03/movie-great-hal-roach-dies/71b3ac7c-bc13-4f85-b8ba-6e2a23fe8cb8/|title=MOVIE GREAT HAL ROACH DIES|last=Barnes|first=Bart|date=1992-11-03|work=Washington Post|access-date=2017-12-06|language=en-US|issn=0190-8286}}</ref> The Hal Roach studio was later used for military training films, and the facility was known as "Fort Roach."

==Postwar streamliners==
Hal Roach rebuilt and updated his studio facilities in 1946, and resolved to make his new films entirely in color, using the [[Cinecolor]] process. He resumed production with slightly longer films, still running under an hour each:

* ''[[Curley (1947 film)|Curley]]'' (53 minutes, released August 23, 1947), directed by Bernard Carr, an attempt to reformulate an [[Our Gang]] kid-comedy format.
* ''[[The Fabulous Joe]]'' (59 minutes, August 29, 1947), starring [[Walter Abel]] and directed by Harve Foster.
* ''[[Here Comes Trouble (1948 film)|Here Comes Trouble]]'' (55 minutes, March 15, 1948), following the William Tracy and Joe Sawyer team into civilian life, directed by Fred Guiol.
* ''[[Who Killed Doc Robbin]]'' (55 minutes, April 9, 1948), a sequel to ''Curley'' directed by Bernard Carr.

United Artists packaged these as ready-made double features. ''The Hal Roach Comedy Carnival'' combined ''Curley'' and ''The Fabulous Joe''. ''Lafftime'' combined ''Here Comes Trouble'' and ''[[Who Killed Doc Robbin]]''. Similarly, but with more continuity, in 1948 Roach and director Kurt Neumann compiled the feature-length ''[[Two Knights from Brooklyn]]'' from the streamliners ''The McGuerins from Brooklyn'' and ''Taxi, Mister''.

Hal Roach gave up on the streamliner format in 1948. "They should have cost $150,000 apiece, but they ran from $300,000 to $400,000, and they weren't worth that much money. We lost about a million dollars," recalled Roach. "The second batch of streamliners, instead of being a success, was a flop and the result was that we went into television."<ref>Hal Roach to Rosenberg and Silverstein, p. 23.</ref> Roach's film ''Sadie and Sally'' has been misidentified as a theatrical streamliner; it was actually a half-hour [[television pilot]] conceived in 1948.

The Tracy and Sawyer team would reappear in two films produced by Hal Roach Jr. in a [[Korean War]] setting: ''As You Were'' (1951) and ''Mr. Walkie Talkie'' (1952), released by [[Lippert Pictures]], both directed by Fred Guiol.

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

===Sources===
{{Refbegin|30em}}

* {{cite book|editor-first1=Geoff |editor-last1=King|editor-first2=Claire |editor-last2=Molloy|editor-first3=Yannis |editor-last3=Tzioumakis|title=American Independent Cinema: indie, indiewood and beyond|year=2012|isbn=978-0415684293|publisher=[[Routledge]]|location=[[Abingdon-on-Thames]]|edition=1st|page=53}}
* {{cite book|last=Maltin|first=Leonard|title=The Great Movie Shorts: Those Wonderful One- and Two-Reelers of the Thirties and Forties|year=1972|publisher=[[Crown Publishing Group]]|location=[[New York City]]|isbn=978-0517504550|page=5}}
* {{cite book|last=Ward|first=Richard Lewis|title=A History of the Hal Roach Studios|publisher=[[Southern Illinois University Press]]|location=[[Carbondale, Illinois]]|year=2006|pages=120–121|isbn=978-0809327270}}

{{Refend}}

[[Category:Short film series]]
[[Category:Comedy film series]]
[[Category:Hal Roach Studios]]
[[Category:Featurettes]]

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Hal Roach's Streamliners