The Good Old Soak

The Good Old Soak is a 1937 American drama film starring Wallace Beery and directed by J. Walter Ruben from a screenplay by A. E. Thomas based upon the 1922 stage play of the same name by Don Marquis. The picture's supporting cast features Una Merkel, Eric Linden, Betty Furness, and Ted Healy. Screenwriter Thomas was disturbed that MGM changed the title from the original "The Old Soak," to the "Good Old Soak." MGM did that because it felt Wallace Beery's fans considered the word "good" synonymous with Beery. Rollin Kirby, a distinguished political cartoonist on the New York World newspaper, and good friend of Don Marquis, got a laugh from Marquis when he suggested how appropriate it was that a man named Beery would portray the Old Soak himself. The story was previously made as a silent film by Universal in 1926 called The Old Soak starring Jean Hersholt. Cast Wallace Beery as Clem Hawley Una Merkel as Nellie Eric Linden as Clemmie Hawley Judith Barrett as Ina Heath Betty Furness as Lucy Hawley Ted Healy as Al Simmons Janet Beecher as Matilda Hawley George Sidney as Kennedy Robert McWade as Webster Parsons James Bush as Tom Ogden Margaret Hamilton as Minnie