The House That Shadows Built (1931) is a short feature film, roughly 55 minutes long, from Paramount Pictures, made to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the studio's founding in 1912. The film was a promotional film for exhibitors and never had a regular theatrical release. The film includes a brief history of Paramount, interviews with various actors, and clips from upcoming projects (some of which never came to fruition). The title comes from a biography of Paramount founder Adolph Zukor, The House That Shadows Built (1928), by William Henry Irwin.

Marx Brothers segment

The film is most notable for a six-minute segment starring the Marx Brothers—with Ben Taggart playing Mr. Lee, Theatrical Producer—intended to promote their forthcoming film Monkey Business. The segment, containing material which was never included in any other Marx Brothers film, is a re-working of the first scene of their first successful Broadway play I'll Say She Is—which Groucho considered to have been the funniest work in the Brothers' career. Except for a few name changes and additional gags, the scene is almost completely the same as the script used for the stage production. Some of the gags were worked into the lobby scene in The Cocoanuts (1929), and a bit involving a series of Maurice Chevalier imitations was incorporated into the script of Monkey Business (1931).

The Marx Brothers' segment is currently available as a special feature on the direct-to-DVD documentary film Inside the Marx Brothers, albeit in poor condition. Recently, Marx Brothers fans have begun referring to their segment simply as I'll Say She Is, in light of its source material.

Promotional scenes from silent Paramount films

George M. Cohan, George Beban, Elsie Ferguson, Dorothy Dalton, Marguerite Clark, Billie Burke, Ethel Clayton, Lila Lee, Pauline Frederick, Bryant Washburn and Irene Castle also appear in unidentified films.

The Lon Chaney Sr. segment is the only surviving footage from the film The Miracle Man (1919). The scene shows Chaney acting as a contortionist

Then-current Paramount stars

The film moves on to show segments with Paramount players of the 1931-32 season, including Harold Lloyd, George Bancroft, Nancy Carroll, the Four Marx Brothers, Charles Rogers, Clive Brook, Phillips Holmes, Sylvia Sidney, Eleanor Boardman, Frances Dee, Jackie Searl, Kay Francis, Judith Wood, Regis Toomey, Peggy Shannon, Jackie Coogan, Lilyan Tashman, Eugene Pallette, Anna May Wong, Juliette Compton, Stuart Erwin, William Boyd, Miriam Hopkins, Wynne Gibson, Jack Oakie, Ginger Rogers, Robert Coogan, Carmen Barnes, Charlie Ruggles, Skeets Gallagher, Mitzi Green, Richard Arlen, Carole Lombard, Fredric March, Claudette Colbert, Paul Lukas, Tallulah Bankhead, Gary Cooper, Ruth Chatterton, Marlene Dietrich, and Maurice Chevalier.

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