Two rare Clark & McCullough films presented for first time since the 1930s

Two short films starring the comedy team of Bobby Clark and Paul McCullough that have not been seen since their theatrical release in the 1930s have been made available online.

The Academy Award-nominated “Scratch as Catch Can” (1931) and “Flying Down to Zero” (1935) were produced and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Over the years, however, prints of the films disappeared, with the only known surviving copies being held by the British Film Institute (BFI). The British Broadcasting Corp. has arranged for the BFI prints to be made available for free viewing on two YouTube channels, Geno”™s House of Rare Films and Joseph Blough.

Clark and McCullough were top stars on Broadway in the 1920s and 1930s, and they also appeared in a series of short comedies produced by the Fox and RKO studios. The majority of their Fox films are believed to have been destroyed in a 1937 fire at a New Jersey vault that stored the studio”™s silent and early sound films. The RKO films are believed to be extant, but some are in archives and private collections and are not easily accessible to the general public.

Photo: Paul McCullough and Bobby Clark in the Academy Award-nominated “Scratch as Catch Can.” Photo courtesy of the BFI.