Zeus

When's Your Birthday? (1937)

• Directors
  • Harry Beaumont
  • Robert Clampett(animation sequences)
• Writers
  • Harry Clork(screenplay)
  • John Frederick Ballard(from a play by)
  • Harvey Gates(adaptation)
• Stars
  • Joe E. Brown
  • Marian Marsh
  • Fred Keating

  On the whole, Joe E. Brown's vehicles for independent producer David L. Loew were distinct retrogressions from his films at Warner Bros., but When's Your Birthday? still contains some very funny moments. This time, Joe plays Douglas Willoughby, a mild-mannered astrologer who through a series of incredible plot twists becomes a prizefighter. Though he's a most unprepossessing figure in the ring, Douglas manages to box his way up to the championship -- but refuses to don gloves unless the stars are "right." This gets him mixed up with several shady characters and also plants him at the apex of a romantic triangle, with Marian Marsh and Suzanne Kaaren as his two sweeties. Original prints of When's Your Birthday include a Technical animated opening-credits sequence, courtesy of the cartoonmakers of "Termite Terrace" at Warner Brothers.