American Spoken Here (1940)

Genre :

Runtime : 11M

Director : Basil Wrangell

Synopsis

This MGM John Nesbitt's Passing Parade series short takes a look at the origins of North American slang.

Actors

John Nesbitt
John Nesbitt
Narrator (voice)
Barbara Bedford
Barbara Bedford
Corset Buyer (uncredited)
Don Brodie
Don Brodie
Fast Talker (uncredited)
John Butler
John Butler
Man on Subway (uncredited)
Edgar Dearing
Edgar Dearing
Mike Fink (uncredited)
Harry Depp
Harry Depp
Customer (uncredited)
George Guhl
George Guhl
Bartender (uncredited)
John Harmon
John Harmon
Soda Jerk (uncredited)
Hank Mann
Hank Mann
Drunk (uncredited)
Steve Pendleton
Steve Pendleton
Young Marksman (uncredited)
Ray Teal
Ray Teal
Bartender (uncredited)

Crews

Basil Wrangell
Basil Wrangell
Director
John Nesbitt
John Nesbitt
Producer
Robert Lopez
Robert Lopez
Writer
Clyde De Vinna
Clyde De Vinna
Director of Photography

Similar

Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood
When Ashtray moves to South Central L.A. to live with his father (who appears to be the same age he is) and grandmother (who likes to talk tough and smoke reefer), he falls in with his gang-banging cousin Loc Dog, who along with the requisite pistols and Uzi carries a thermo-nuclear warhead for self-defense. Will Ashtray be able to keep living the straight life?
Snatch
Unscrupulous boxing promoters, violent bookmakers, a Russian gangster, incompetent amateur robbers and supposedly Jewish jewelers fight to track down a priceless stolen diamond.
The N Word
The film explores the history of the word throughout its inception to present day. Woven into the narrative are poetry, music, and commentary from celebrities about their personal experiences with the word and their viewpoints. Each perspective is unique, as is each experience... some are much more comfortable with the word than others.
Ball of Fire
A group of academics have spent years shut up in a house working on the definitive encyclopedia. When one of them discovers that his entry on slang is hopelessly outdated, he ventures into the wide world to learn about the evolving language. Here he meets Sugarpuss O’Shea, a nightclub singer, who’s on top of all the slang—and, it just so happens, needs a place to stay.
Crooks in Clover
An aging gangster, Fernand Naudin is hoping for a quiet retirement when he suddenly inherits a fortune from an old friend, a former gangster supremo known as the Mexican. If he is ambivalent about his new found wealth, Fernand is positively nonplussed to discover that he has also inherited his benefactor’s daughter, Patricia. Unfortunately, not only does Fernand have to put up with the thoroughly modern Patricia and her nauseating boyfriend, but he also had to contend with the Mexican’s trigger-happy former employees, who are determined to make a claim.
Games of Love and Chance
A group of teenagers living in a housing project in the outskirts of Paris rehearse a scene from Marivaux's play of the same name. Krimo is determined not to take part, but after developing feelings for Lydia, he quickly assumes the main role and love interest in the play.
In My Blood It Runs
The story of Dujuan, a 10-year-old Aboriginal boy living in Alice Springs, Australia, who is struggling to balance his traditional Arrernte/Garrwa upbringing with a state education.
They Never Come Back
Prizefighter Jimmy Nolan, facing an opportunity to get a championship fight, is knocked out when he sustains what is apparently a permanent injury to his arm. From there, Nolan's path leads downhill. He is drawn into a romance with a nightclub entertainer, then is framed on a theft charge by a jealous suitor. After his prison term, Nolan makes a spectacular comeback in a fight which proves his courage and integrity, while disproving the fallacy about the old sports adage that "they never come back."
Murder by Invitation
The relatives of a rich old woman unsuccessfully try to have her declared insane, so they can divide up her money. To show them that there are no hard feelings, she invites them to her estate for the weekend so she can decide to whom she actually will leave her money when she dies. Soon, however, family members begin turning up dead.
An A to Z of English
From A for accent to Z for zero - everything you wanted to know about the English language.
Mandatory Swedish
A story about a relationship with problems. She is upset at how Swedish speaking Finns are treated in their home country. He is seriously constipated. Will the relationship survive when her idealism clashes with his biological needs?
Red Haired Alibi
A young woman new to the big city gets a job as a man's companion. What she doesn't know is that the man is a notorious gangster.
What's Cookin'?
J. P. Courtney wants to update the music on the radio program he sponsors, but his wife, Agatha Courtney, is the final authority and addicted to the classics and won't allow him to replace Professor Bistell and his symphonic orchestra. Conspiring with his daughter Sue and her friends, Marvo the Great, the Andrews Sisters, Anne Payne and bandleader Woody Herman, they devise a sabotage plot that gets rid of Professor Bistell, and a new sound is soon heard on the program.
A Woman Like Me
A deafblind Danish woman travels to Nepal to meet a woman with the same condition in the hopes of communicating and engaging in a cultural exchange. A Woman Like Me is a remarkable demonstration of the delicacy and complexity of human communication, and how susceptible it is to privilege, preconceptions and misunderstandings.
Speechless
Richard Alwyn's intensely moving film, inspired by the experience of his brother-in-law, follows two stroke survivors who can no longer take language for granted.
Notes
A blind man and a mute girl are in a room. How will they communicate?