Her First Mate

press release: USA | 1933 | 35mm | 66 min.

Director: William Wyler; Cast: ZaSu Pitts, Slim Summerville, Una Merkel

In the best of seven Universal comedies that teamed Pitts and Summerville, the wife of an Albany ferry’s candy concessionaire risks her family savings to buy her husband his own boat. A contract-fulfilling programmer from auteur-on-the-rise Wyler, this is nonetheless a deft little comedy with terrific performances all-around.

Sunday Cinematheque at the Chazen: It’s a Universal Picture

This lineup of movies released by Universal Pictures from 1928-1936 shows how one of the smallest of the major studios, under the leadership of head honcho Carl Laemmle, Jr., held their own with a variety of fun and fast-paced features that delivered innovation in a number of genres: melodramas, comedies, thrillers, war stories, musicals and horror movies. Our series partly focuses on Universal’s top-flight, best-known directors like William Wyler, John Stahl and James Whale, but you will also have a chance to discover the expressive and riveting work of Edward L. Cahn, Paul Fejos, and others. As a bonus, many of the features will be preceded by animated preludes starring Universal’s top cartoon star of the day, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Special Thanks to Dave Kehr, whose series of Universal discoveries curated for New York’s Museum of Modern Art and Bologna’s Il Cinema Ritrovato provided significant inspiration.

Admission free for all screenings, seating limited. No admission 15 minutes after scheduled start times.