This witty screwball comedy revolves around seven quirky professors who have been given a year to write an encyclopedia. This playful comedy, culminating in a battle of intellect versus brutality, features Homolka as Professor Gurkakoff, one of his few sympathetic roles. If the plot seems slightly familiar it is because it is a rewriting of the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs fairy tale.
US, 1941, 111 mins, English, directed by Howard Hawks
Cineclub celebrates the remarkable but relatively unknown career of Austrian-born actor Oscar Homolka with a dedicated season. Born in Vienna in 1898, Homolka performed on stage and in films across Europe and fled to Paris and then London when the Nazis came to power. He ended up in Hollywood playing the cruel or bumbling European until returning to London in the mid-1960s.