By Richard Harland Smith
The Tin Man
Brief Synopsis
In this comedic short, two friends find themselves at a house owned by a mad scientist with a robot.
Cast & Crew
Read More
James Parrott
Director
Thelma Todd
Patsy Kelly
Billy Bletcher
Voice
Matthew Betz
Cy Slocum
Film Details
Genre
Comedy
Short
Release Date
1935
Production Company
Hal Roach Studios, Inc.
Distribution Company
MGM Distribution Company; Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.
Technical Specs
Duration
14m
Synopsis
In this comedic short, two friends find themselves at a house owned by a mad scientist with a robot.
Director
James Parrott
Director
Film Details
Genre
Comedy
Short
Release Date
1935
Production Company
Hal Roach Studios, Inc.
Distribution Company
MGM Distribution Company; Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.
Technical Specs
Duration
14m
Articles
The Tin Man -
Bearing no relationship whatsoever to The Wizard of Oz (1939), which the studio would release four years later, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's The Tin Man (1935) was a two-reel comedy produced by Hal Roach, who attempted to achieve with female comics the success he had enjoyed with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Roach had initially paired Thelma Todd with Zasu Pitts for 17 shorts made between 1931 and 1933, at which point Pitts left Roach Studios and was replaced by Patsy Kelly. The Tin Man is a slapstick take on the Old Dark House formula, which had helped Hollywood transition from silent to sound films via such madman-in-the-mansion melodramas as The Bat and The Cat and the Canary (1927) and their all-talking remakes - a style of filmmaking parodied by James Whale in The Old Dark House (1932). Directed by James Parrott, who had helmed the Academy Award-winning Laurel and Hardy short The Music Box (1932), The Tin Man strands party girls Thelma and Patsy during the course of a dark and stormy night in a creepy country mansion, where they are bedeviled by both an escaped lunatic (Matthew Betz) and an inventor (Clarence Wilson) with a grudge against women. The film's highlight is its eponymous automaton, a flat-topped robot in the Frankenstein mold who treats the heroines to an uncomfortable dinner before a literally electrifying climax. The Tin Man's mechanical chatter was provided by actor Billy Bletcher, also the voice of the Big Bad Wolf in Disney's Three Little Pigs (1933).
By Richard Harland Smith
By Richard Harland Smith
The Tin Man -
Bearing no relationship whatsoever to The Wizard of Oz (1939), which the studio would release four years later, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's The Tin Man (1935) was a two-reel comedy produced by Hal Roach, who attempted to achieve with female comics the success he had enjoyed with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Roach had initially paired Thelma Todd with Zasu Pitts for 17 shorts made between 1931 and 1933, at which point Pitts left Roach Studios and was replaced by Patsy Kelly. The Tin Man is a slapstick take on the Old Dark House formula, which had helped Hollywood transition from silent to sound films via such madman-in-the-mansion melodramas as The Bat and The Cat and the Canary (1927) and their all-talking remakes - a style of filmmaking parodied by James Whale in The Old Dark House (1932). Directed by James Parrott, who had helmed the Academy Award-winning Laurel and Hardy short The Music Box (1932), The Tin Man strands party girls Thelma and Patsy during the course of a dark and stormy night in a creepy country mansion, where they are bedeviled by both an escaped lunatic (Matthew Betz) and an inventor (Clarence Wilson) with a grudge against women. The film's highlight is its eponymous automaton, a flat-topped robot in the Frankenstein mold who treats the heroines to an uncomfortable dinner before a literally electrifying climax. The Tin Man's mechanical chatter was provided by actor Billy Bletcher, also the voice of the Big Bad Wolf in Disney's Three Little Pigs (1933).
By Richard Harland Smith
