Payne & Hilliard (1931)

Titles read: ’WARNER BROTHERS present - Payne & Hilliard - the celebrated Royal Command Performance comedy couple. A Pathetone production - RCA Recording’. Probably filmed at Pathe Studio, London. Tom Payne enters street set and performs rhyming monologue to music on how women are attracted to him (’The Women I’ve Had At My Feet’). He is dressed in top hat and tails, carries a cane and wears a small moustache. He mentions several 1930s film stars - John Gilbert, Princess Olga (?), Greta Garbo, Mary Pickford. Vera Hilliard joins him, playing the part of his fiance, dressed in chiffony dress and fur jacket. She is rich, he is pretending to be. Cross talk act ensues. She asks “Are you in position to keep me?“ Ted replies “It depends on how long you’ll keep - ’course, I can’t guarantee anything during the hot weather“! They reminisce about a night they spent together - Vera remembers Tom looking like “a gorgeous Sheik... now you look like a frost-bitten tomato!“. Eventually she goes into a