
Monte Collins
1898 - 1951Monte Collins (also credited as Monty Collins; December 3,
1898 – June 1, 1951) was an American film actor and screenwriter. He appeared
in 167 films between 1920 and 1948. He also wrote for 32 films between 1930 and
1951.
Dapper, pencil-mustached Collins starred in silent short
comedies in the late 1920s. These were produced by Educational Pictures and
often directed by Jules White. The coming of sound in movies had no ill effect
on Collins's career; he was not as big a name as Buster Keaton or Laurel and
Hardy, so Collins had no preconceived screen image that could be shattered by
talkies. Although Collins took to talkies easily (he and Vernon Dent sing
together in the early sound short Ticklish Business), he never established
himself as a major comedy star. Throughout the 1930s he appeared in secondary
roles (businessmen, butlers, soldiers, salesmen, etc.) in both feature films
and short subjects.
One of his last credits was supplying material for Laurel
and Hardy's final film, Atoll K (1951). Filmed in France by French and Italian
cast and crew members, the production was hectic and chaotic for the
English-speaking stars. The finished film carries the unique credit, "Gags
by Monty Collins."
Collins was about to launch a career in television when he
died of a heart attack in 1951, at age 52.
Techno-Crazy
Charles Lamont
Billy Bevan, Monte Collins
TECHNO-CRAZY has to be one of the strangest comedy shorts of the 1930's. Starring Monte Collins as a young man who dreams of technological progress in society bringing a "technocracy" that's a utopia and Billy Bevan as the Mayor, whose daughter Collins wants to marry, the short begins with a dream sequence where Collins is running a factory on his own and explaining to someone how no one needs to work in this new utopia and everything operates automatically.
Techno-Crazy
Shall We Dance
Mark Sandrich
Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers
Ballet star Petrov arranges to cross the Atlantic aboard the same ship as the dancer and musical star he's fallen for but barely knows. By the time the ocean liner reaches New York, a little white lie has churned through the rumour mill and turned into a hot gossip item—that the two celebrities are secretly married.
Shall We Dance
Three Missing Links
Jules White
Curly Howard, Larry Fine
The stooges are janitors working in a movie studio. After wrecking the bosses office, they get jobs as actors in an African movie. Curly plays a gorilla and Moe and Larry are primitive natives. On location in Africa, the stooges have a confrontation with a witch doctor from whom Curly buys some "love candy" with hopes of attracting the films leading lady. When a female gorilla disrupts the movie set, Curly eats some of the candy and chases after her.
Three Missing Links
New News
Charles Lamont
Monte Collins, Tom Kennedy
Aa Columbia 2-reel comedy starring Tom Kennedy and Monty Collins in NEW NEWS (1937). Fans of the 3 Stooges will recognize the exact same plot and situations from their short CRASH GOES THE HASH (1944). Yes, this version came out BEFORE the Stooges version...so anyone that says these guys are ripping the Stooges off, they are wrong! Columbia made 526 slapstick two-reelers between 1933-1958...190 starred the Stooges...336 others starred a variety of comedians.
New News
The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok
Mack V. Wright, Sam Nelson
Bill Elliott, Monte Blue
A group of "Phantom Raiders" interfere with a cattle drive from Texas to Abilene; fortunately, U.S. Marshal Wild Bill Hickok is appointed to ensure the success of the mission.
The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok
Buck Benny Rides Again
Mark Sandrich
Jack Benny, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson
Radio star Jack Benny, intending to stay in New York for the summer, is forced by the needling of rival Fred Allen to prove his boasts about roughing it on his (fictitious) Nevada ranch. Meanwhile, singer Joan Cameron, whom Jack's fallen for and offended, is maneuvered by her sisters to the same Nevada town. Jack's losing battle to prove his manhood to Joan means broad slapstick burlesque of Western cliches.
Buck Benny Rides Again