Sit Tight is an all-talking musical comedy film. It was originally completed as a full musical. Due to the backlash against musicals, however, all the songs were cut from the film except for one (sung by Winnie Lightner) in all release prints in the United States.

Plot

Winnie Lightner is the head of a health clinic and has Joe E. Brown as one of her employees. Joe E. Brown is a wrestler named JoJo and he is forced to enter the ring and face down a musclebound masked opponent (Frank S. Hagney). Making matters worse, the masked marauder is convinced that his wife has been fooling around with JoJo. JoJo is knocked out early in the proceedings, whereupon he dreams he's a sultan surrounded by harem girls. A romantic subplot involves Paul Gregory and Claudia Dell. Gregory works for Dell's father and Dell asks her father to give Gregory a promotion so that she can spend more time with him. When Gregory refuses to be promoted without earning the position, she threatens to have him fired and Gregory quits his job. Gregory attempts to start a new career as a championship wrestler and is trained by Lightner and Brown. When Dell finds out about this, she attempts to stop him and asks for his forgiveness. She pleads with him to not fight but he has already promised...

Trivia

One of the sets used in Kismet

Kismet (1930 film)

Kismet was a 1930 costume drama photographed entirely in an early widescreen process using 65mm film that Warner Bros. called Vitascope. The film was based on Edward Knoblock's play Kismet, and was previously filmed as a silent film in 1920 which also starred Otis Skinner.-Production:Warner Bros....

(1930), along with some lavish costumes, were used in the dream sequence in this film. This film was a lavish spectacle that took place in the Middle East but is no longer extant.

Paul Gregory and Claudia Dell

Claudia Dell

Claudia Dell was an American showgirl and actress of the stage and Hollywood motion pictures. Her birth name was Claudia Dell Smith. She was born in San Antonio, Texas on January 10, 1910. She attended school in San Antonio and Mexico. Dell was blonde and blue-eyed, with a porcelain face. Her...

 were musical stars who were given contracts by Warner Bros. for their musical talent. They originally sang a number of songs in this film but these numbers were cut in the prints released in the United States.

Pre-Code

Pre-Code

Pre-Code Hollywood refers to the era in the American film industry between the introduction of sound in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines. Although the Code was adopted in 1930, oversight was poor and it did not become rigorously...

Sequences

In one sequence, Joe E. Brown refuses to strip (for wrestling) when asked to by another man and makes comments about "not knowing him well-enough" implying that the man is asking that because he is gay and wants to sleep with him.

Songs

Only a print with the majority of the musical numbers cut seems to have survived. The trailer, which also survives, contains an instrumental of another song which was written for the film
and originally sung by Winnie Lightner. The only surviving song on extant prints of the film is:

"Face It With A Smile" Sung by Winnie Ligntner

Preservation

Only the cut print released in the United States seems to have survived. The complete film was released intact in countries outside the United States where a backlash against musicals never occurred. Newspapers outside the United States noted that Winnie Lightner sang several lively songs throughout the picture. It is unknown whether a copy of this full version still exists.