Only Saps Work poster

Movie · 1930

Only Saps Work

Released 5 December 1930 More from 1930 → Letterboxd ↗ · TMDB ↗

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.

FR·01

How old were they?

Oldest first
G. Pat Collins
as Rafferty (uncredited)
34
George Chandler
as Elevator Operator (uncredited)
32
Richard Arlen
as Larry Payne
31
Stuart Erwin
as Oscar
27
FR·02

The numbers

Computed from the cast above
7years between the oldest and youngest billed
34G. Pat Collins — oldest on the call sheet
27Stuart Erwin — youngest billed
31average age of the credited cast
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