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Only Saps Work

5.5 77 mins Comedy   Crime   1930
Paramount Pictures   Paramount Publix Corp.  
Director(s): Cyril Gardner Edwin H. Knopf

Rubber-legged comedian Leon Errol made his talkie starring bow in Paramount's Only Saps Work. Based on a play by Owen Davis Sr., the film casts Errol as James Wilson, a kleptomaniac who starts with picking pockets and ends up robbing a bank. Wilson's friend Lawrence Payne (Richard Arlen) inadvertently aids our hero during one of his heists, ending up in deep doo-doo with the law. Before Wilson is able to extricate Payne from his dilemma for the sake of heroine Barbara Tanner (Mary Brian), he pauses long enough to pose as a private eye -- and even gives bellboy Oscar (Stu Erwin) tips on how to spot a crook! If only all of Leon Errol's feature films had been as consistently hilarious as Only Saps Work.

Casts of Only Saps Work

Leon Errol

as James Wilson

Richard Arlen

as Larry Payne

Mary Brian

as Barbara Tanner

Stuart Erwin

as Oscar

Anderson Lawler

as Horace Baldwin

Charley Grapewin

as Simeon Tanner

Clarence Burton

as Sergeant Burns (uncredited)

Nora Cecil

as Mrs. Partridge (uncredited)

George Chandler

as Elevator Operator (uncredited)

G. Pat Collins

as Rafferty (uncredited)

Clifford Dempsey

as Detective Smith (uncredited)

Charles Giblyn

as Dr. Jasper (uncredited)

Charlie Hall

as Waiter (uncredited)

George Irving

as Dr. White (uncredited)

Fred Kelsey

as Murphy (uncredited)

Jack Richardson

as Chef (uncredited)

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