The Singing Marine
The Singing Marine is a 1937 American musical film directed by Ray Enright and Busby Berkeley and starring Dick Powell. It was the last of Powell's trio of service-related Warners films: 1934's Flirtation Walk paid tribute, of sorts, to the Army, 1935's Shipmates Forever to the Navy; this one is distinguished by its two musical sequences directed by Busby Berkeley. Dick Powell as Private Robert Brent Doris Weston as Peggy Randall Lee Dixon as Corporal Slim Baxter Hugh Herbert as Aeneas Phinney / Clarissa Jane Darwell as "Ma" Marine Allen Jenkins as Sergeant Mike Kelly Larry Adler as himself Marcia Ralston as Helen Young Guinn'Big Boy' Williams as Dopey Veda Ann Borg as Diane Jane Wyman as Joan Berton Churchill as J. Montgomery Madison Eddie Acuff as Sam Henry O'Neill as Captain Skinner Addison Richards as Felix Fowler unbilled players include Ward Bond, Richard Loo, Doc Rockwell as himself The Singing Marine on IMDb
Night Flight (1933 film)
Night Flight is a 1933 American pre-Code aviation drama film produced by David O. Selznick and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and directed by Clarence Brown; the film stars John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Clark Gable, Helen Hayes, Robert Montgomery and Myrna Loy. It is based on the 1931 novel of the same name which won the Prix Femina the same year, by French writer and pioneering aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Based on Saint-Exupéry's personal experiences while flying on South American mail routes, Night Flight recreates a 24-hour period of the operations of a fictional airline based on Aéropostale, Trans-Andean European Air Mail. In 1942, Night Flight was withdrawn from circulation as a result of a dispute between MGM and Saint Exupéry, its public re-release had to wait until 2011. In South America, the daunting mountains and dangerous weather have hampered the operations of Trans-Andean European Air Mail, a 1930s-era airline. Charged with delivering a serum to stem an outbreak of infantile paralysis in Rio de Janeiro, Auguste Pellerin conquers his fears, but is reprimanded by the airline's stern director, A. Riviére for coming in late.
Determined to make the night flight program work, Riviére sends pilot Jules Fabian and his wireless operator on another dangerous flight. The pair are caught in a torrential rain storm and when Madame Fabian comes to the headquarters, she realizes that her husband is overdue; the two airmen, flying blind over the ocean, choose to jump, but drown. Riviére refuses to quit and orders a Brazilian pilot to take the mail to Rio, but the pilot's wife pleads with him not to go. Despite the dangers, the night mail is delivered on time; the pilot despairs that his flight only meant that someone in Paris can get a postcard on Tuesday instead of Thursday, but its real value is proven when the serum is delivered and a child is saved. John Barrymore as Managing Director A. Riviére Helen Hayes as Madame Fabian Clark Gable as Jules Fabian Lionel Barrymore as Inspector Robineau Robert Montgomery as Auguste Pellerin Myrna Loy as Brazilian Pilot's Wife William Gargan as Brazilian Pilot C. Henry Gordon as Daudet Leslie Fenton as Fabian's Radio Operator Harry Beresford as Roblet Frank Conroy as Radio Operator Dorothy Burgess as Pellerin's Girlfriend Irving Pichel as Dr. Decosta Helen Jerome Eddy as Worried Mother Buster Phelps as Sick Child Ralf Harolde as Pilot Marcia Ralston as Nightclub Vamp Otto Hoffman as Airport Office Clerk Saint Exupéry's Vol de nuit, based on real-life events in South America, had won the 1931 Prix Femina, one of the main French literary prizes.
Prior to this award, he had been little known outside of the literary sphere, but as a result of the prize, received widespread recognition and attention from Hollywood. Selznick realized that Oliver H. P. Garrett's original treatment was too based on "the ground" and brought in John Monk Saunders, who had worked with him on The Dawn Patrol, to add more flying scenes. Director Clarence Brown was dissatisfied with that version, so Selznick called on writer Wells Root to tighten up the final draft. Brown was interested in an accurate portrayal of aviation, as he had been a World War I pilot. Night Flight utilized both studio and location shooting with the mountainous region around Denver, filling in for the South American Andes; the retired U. S. Mail Douglas M-4 mail planes were featured as the Trans-Andean European Air Mail's primary aircraft. Clarence Brown and John Barrymore had a disagreeable relationship during the film's shooting, as Barrymore was imbibing during filming and reading from cue cards.
Brown wanted to replace Barrymore, but was not allowed to, being overruled by studio head Louis B. Mayer. Helen Hayes felt intimidated by Barrymore; when they filmed their scene together, Barrymore refrained from relying on cue cards, because he said that he didn't want to use a crutch in the presence of a real actress. Hayes remarked that Barrymore's explanation was the greatest review that she received. MGM's choice of an all-star cast was intended to elevate Night Flight to epic status; the film, was sequenced in episodic style with many of the scenes concentrating on one of the sub-plots. Most of the sequences were filmed in isolation with little interaction between the lead actors. Although premiered in a longer two-hour version, the final film was received favorably by critics; the New York Times review called it "a vivid and engrossing production." In a similar vein, Variety considered Night Flight, "a competently done saga". Despite the favorable reviews, Night Flight was considered a disappointment at the box office.
Smarting from some critics' reviews of his novel, professing that he hated the film adaptation, Saint Exupéry refused to renew his author's rights, which he had granted to MGM only for a 10-year period. In 1942, Night Flight was pulled from circulation. Following its first public showing at the 2011 TCM Classic Film Festival, a first-time home video of the picture was released on DVD on June 7, 2011, over 75 years after its original release; the movie's world television premiere was on TCM on August 10, 2012. According to MGM records, Night Flight earned $576,000 in the U. S. and Canada and $503,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $176,000. The film was a box office disappointment for MGM. Only Angels Have Wings Night Flight at the TCM Movie Database Night Flight on IMDb Night Flight at AllMovie The AFI Catalog of
Call It a Day
Call It a Day is a 1937 American comedy film directed by Archie Mayo and starring Olivia de Havilland, Ian Hunter, Anita Louise, Alice Brady, Roland Young, Frieda Inescort. Based on the 1935 play Call It a Day by Dodie Smith, the film is about a day in the life of a middle-class London family whose lives are complicated by the first romantic signs of spring. "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" performed by Ian Hunter "Isn't It Romantic?" Performed by Marcia Ralston The First Day of Spring Call It a Day on IMDb Call It a Day at the TCM Movie Database Call It a Day at AllMovie 1946 Theatre Guild on the Air radio adaptation of original play at Internet Archive
Système universitaire de documentation
The système universitaire de documentation or SUDOC is a system used by the libraries of French universities and higher education establishments to identify and manage the documents in their possession. The catalog, which contains more than 10 million references, allows students and researcher to search for bibliographical and location information in over 3,400 documentation centers, it is maintained by the Bibliographic Agency for Higher Education. Official website
Fly-Away Baby
Fly-Away Baby is a 1937 American crime-mystery film starring Glenda Farrell as Torchy Blane, solving a murder and smuggling case during a round-the-world flight. This is the second film in the Torchy Blane movie series by Warner Bros, it was released on June 19, 1937. The film is followed by The Adventurous Blonde; when jeweler Milton Devereux is murdered and his collection of diamonds is stolen, reporter Torchy Blane is assigned to the case. Her boyfriend detective Steve McBride is investigating the case, Torchy tags along as he hunts for the murder weapon. Torchy finds the gun hidden in a drainpipe in the alley behind the store, she learns that Milton had a confrontation with Sonny Croy over a loan and that he is the son of a rival newspaper owner. Sonny becomes a prime suspect, but he has an alibi from the victim's business partner Guy Allister that they were having lunch at the time of the murder. Torchy and Steve find a clue on a menu, they trace Sonny to the apartment of nightclub dancer Ila Sayre who insists that Sonny was on the phone with her at the time of the murder.
Sonny explains the notes on the menu, saying that he is taking a zeppelin flight around the world as a publicity stunt. Torchy decides to follow Sonny and talks her newspaper into sending her around the world in a race against Sonny and another reporter Hughie Sprague; when the airship lands in Hawaii, Torchy searches Sonny's room and finds a message indicating that some items will be exchanged in Frankfurt. Sonny discovers her investigation after finding a lipstick Torchy accidentally lost in his room. Ila admits that she didn't talk to Sonny on the phone. Steve who has joined Torchy on board the airship decides to arrest Sonny after Torchy points out that the back door of the restaurant is opposite to the back door of the jewelry store. However, Sonny is found dead himself and it is discovered that the diamonds hidden in the false bottom of his suitcase are not real. Torchy puts the various clues together and determines that Guy Allister was the real murderer, Sonny was working for him to pay off his debt.
After further investigation, they learn. When he tries to parachute out of the airship, he falls to his death when his parachute fails to open. Glenda Farrell as Torchy Blane Barton MacLane as Steve McBride Gordon Oliver as Lucien'Sonny' Croy Hugh O'Connell as Hughie Sprague Marcia Ralston as Ila Sayre Tom Kennedy as Gahagan Joe King as Mr. Guy Allister Warner Archive released a boxed set DVD collection featuring all nine Torchy Blane films on March 29, 2011. Fly-Away Baby on IMDb Fly-Away Baby at the TCM Movie Database
Crime Takes a Holiday
Crime Takes a Holiday is a 1938 American crime film directed by Lewis D. Collins and written by Jefferson Parker, Henry Altimus and Charles Logue; the film stars Jack Holt, Marcia Ralston, Russell Hopton, Douglass Dumbrille, Arthur Hohl, Thomas E. Jackson and John Wray; the film was released on October 1938, by Columbia Pictures. Jack Holt as Walter Forbes Marcia Ralston as Margaret'Peggy' Stone Russell Hopton as Jerry Clayton Douglass Dumbrille as J. J. Grant Arthur Hohl as Joe Whitehead Thomas E. Jackson as Brennan John Wray as Howell William Pawley as Spike Paul Fix as Louie Harry Woods as Stoddard Joseph Crehan as Gov. Bill Allen Crime Takes a Holiday on IMDb
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break is a 1941 Universal Pictures comedy film starring W. C. Fields. Fields wrote the original story, under the pseudonym "Otis Criblecoblis". Fields plays himself, searching for a chance to promote a surreal screenplay he has written, whose several framed sequences form the film's center; the title is derived from lines from two earlier films. In Poppy, he tells his daughter, "If we should separate, my little plum, I want to give you just one bit of fatherly advice: Never give a sucker an break!" In You Can't Cheat an Honest Man, he tells a customer that his grandfather's last words, "just before they sprung the trap" were, "You can't cheat an honest man. This was Fields's last starring film. By he was 61 years old, alcohol and illness had taken their toll: he was much heavier than he had been six or seven years earlier when he had made eight films in the space of two years and was reasonably physically fit. Fields fought with studio producers and writers over the content of his films.
He was determined to make a movie his way, with his own script and staging, his choice of supporting players. Universal gave him the chance, the resulting film, Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, is a masterpiece of absurd humor in which Fields appeared as himself, "The Great Man". Universal's singing star Gloria Jean played opposite Fields, his cronies Leon Errol and Franklin Pangborn served as his comic foils, but the film Fields delivered was so surreal that Universal recut and reshot parts of it quietly released both the film and Fields. Sucker was Fields' last starring film. Fields hand-picked most of the supporting cast, he chose Universal's young singing star Gloria Jean to play his niece, got two of his favorite comedians, Leon Errol and Franklin Pangborn, to play supporting roles. Margaret Dumont, familiar as the Marx Brothers' matronly foil, was cast as the haughty "Mrs. Hemogloben"; the zany film is today considered one of Fields's classics. It has been called "a thinly disguised attack on the Hollywood studio system."
At Hollywood's Esoteric Pictures studios, W. C. Fields, playing himself, is seen admiring a billboard advertising The Bank Dick, he encounters various hecklers and minor calamities, including a classic scene with a rude, sassy diner waitress. His doting niece, Gloria Jean playing herself, is on her way to rehearse some songs at the studio, where she demonstrates her classically trained coloratura soprano. Fields himself is there to pitch a script to Franklin Pangborn, playing a producer named "Mr. Pangborn". Fields and Pangborn read through the script, which comes to life in a series of scenes: Fields and Gloria Jean are flying to an exotic location on an airplane, which Fields specifies has an open-air rear observatory platform. Fields has run-ins with a couple of eccentric characters in which he tangles with a large, angry man in the lower berth and manages to hit him with a mallet and convince him that someone else did it. At one point Gloria Jean asks Uncle Bill why he never married, he answers, "I was in love with a beautiful blonde once, dear.
She drove me to drink. That's the one thing I'm indebted to her for." Fields jumps out of the plane after his flask falls out the open window, his niece cries out in horror. But he lands safely in a "nest" high atop a cliff, a home populated by a beautiful, naive girl and her cynical mother. Meanwhile, the plane lands, Gloria Jean sings a traditional Russian song to a group of peasants, she reunites with Fields in the village, they return to the "nest" when Fields learns the older woman is wealthy. Fields is about to marry her when Gloria Jean takes him aside and convinces him that this is a bad idea, they make a swift exit. At this point, Pangborn has had enough of the absurdity of the script and tells Fields to leave the studio. Fields goes to an ice cream parlor to drown his sorrows. In a rare aside to the camera, Fields remarks, "This scene is supposed to be in a saloon, but the censor cut it out!" At the studio, when Gloria Jean learns Fields has been sent away, she tells the flustered Pangborn that if her uncle is fired she quits.
She and Fields make plans to travel, she goes into a shop to buy some new clothes. Fields is illegally parked and had banged into the bumper of a police car. Just a middle-aged woman asks for help getting to the Maternity Hospital, where her daughter is about to give birth. Fields volunteers, the woman gets into his car, Fields speeds through the streets and expressways of Los Angeles, where he tangles with pedestrians, a hook-and-ladder fire truck; when his passenger passes out, Fields drives more urgently. He arrives at the hospital, wrecking his car in the process, his passenger is shaken but unhurt. Gloria Jean, who has just arrived by taxi, asks Uncle Bill, he replies, "Lucky I didn't have an accident. I'd have never gotten here." Gloria Jean smiles and says to the audience, "My Uncle Bill... but I still love him!" Sources: Cast notes: Carlotta Monti, who plays Pangborn's receptionist, was Fields' mistress. She wrote an autobiography, made into the 1976 film W. C. Fields and Me, which starred Rod Steiger and Valerie Perrine.
Gloria Jean sings the following songs in this film: "Estrellita" - in Spanish and lyrics by M. M. Ponce "Voices of Spring" "Hot Cha Cha" ""Очи чёрные" - in Russian, traditional Russian folk song Fields' preferred title for the film was "The Great Man", his original title for The Bank Dick, b
