Wonderland Burlesque's Let's All Go To The Movies: I Wanna Be A Star! - Part 3 of 3

Wonderland Burlesque's 

Let's All Go To The Movies: 

I Wanna Be A Star! - Part 3 of 3

This is the final of three Let's All Go To The Movies posts where we'll be going deep in the heart of Hollywood to learn all about the entertainment industry and its dirty, dirty ways via film. What better way to get the real dirt?

Today, it's all about star makers and star power with a little bit of mystery and a dose of rock 'n roll thrown into the mix.

Now, with some of these movies there's a great deal of lore to unpack, so let's get to it!

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Star Of Midnight

(1935)

(When a dancer disappears, her lover asks a criminal lawyer who moonlights as an amateur detective to find her. She'd disappeared mid-run a year earlier without a trace. Accompanied by the lawyer's fiancée, the trio attend a show at the same theatre where the girl was last seen. During the show, the friend recognizes the lead actress, billed under a different name, as his missing girlfriend. When he shouts out her real name, she bolts from the stage and vanishes once again. A reporter claims to know why she's gone in hiding, but before he can spill the beans, he's shot dead! As the lawyer digs deeper into the case, he soon learns there are a number of people looking for the dancer: a couple hoping to save their friend from the electric chair, the show's producer, and a gangster with something to hide. Will the lawyer find her before tragedy strikes?)

(This comedy mystery was directed by Stephen Roberts and stars William Powell, who was on loan from MGM and Ginger Rogers with Paul Kelly, Ralph Morgan and Gene Lockhart.)

(Powell had just enjoyed his biggest box office hit, 1934's The Thin Man, opposite Myrna Loy. It was the first of six movies in that series. And although the pairing of Powell and Rogers proved equally popular, the two never worked together again.)

(Comparisons to The Thin Man, in which Powell plays a similarly suave detective were noted by the critics and public. At one point in this film, Powell's character shares that people consider him "Charlie Chan, Philo Vance, and The Saint all rolled into one." Fact is, Powell had previously played Philo Vance, yet another sophisticated detective, in five films, between 1929 and 1933.)

 (Rogers was very pleased with the gowns designed by Bernard Newman which she wore for in this film. In all, Newman would design her costumes for nine films - this one plus 1933's Rafter Romance, 1935's Roberta, Top Hat, and In Person, 1936's Follow the Fleet and Swing Time, 1938's Vivacious Lady, and 1942's Tales of Manhattan.)

Ginger Rogers

(A consummate workaholic, Rogers started working on this film within a week of finishing Roberta with co-star Fred Astaire. Then, six days after this film wrapped, she went back to work with Astaire in Top Hat. In all, she starred in four films during 1935.)

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The Star Maker

(1939)

(A songwriter without a penny to his name convinces the assistant at an orphanage to marry him. Over a year later, they're happy, but still broke, for the man - who is convinced he's going places - can't sell a song to save his soul. Jobless, he pauses one day to watch a group of newspaper boys singing and dancing in the street. He decides to become their manager, molding the motley crew in one of the hottest kid acts to ever brighten a vaudeville stage. Next up, he launches a talent train, speeding from city to city in search of talented young performers across the United States. In New York, he discovers a 14 year-old girl with an amazing singing voice. Trouble is, she being micromanaged by her stage mother, an ex-Opera singer. To get the girl's mother out of the way, he books the woman on a 40 week vaudeville tour. He then creates Broadway's first all-kiddie musical revue, with the sensational 14-year old girl as the star attraction. It's a huge hit, however it attracts the attention of the Gerry Society, organized to enforce child labor laws, who shuts the show down, causing the songwriter to lose all the money he'd invested. Will that be the end of this 'star maker'?

 

(Loosely based on the life of Gus Edwards, a well-known composer, entertainer, and producer, this movie musical was directed by Roy Del Ruth, written by Frank Butler, Don Hartman and Arthur Caesar, and stars Bing Crosby, Louise Campbell, Linda Ware, Ned Sparks, Laura Hope Crews, Janet Waldo, and Walter Damrosch.)

(Among the many talents Gus Edwards helped discover were: Walter Winchell, Elsie Janis, George Jessel, Eddie Cantor, Groucho Marx, Phil Silvers, Lila Lee, Georgie Price, Eleanor Powell, Hildegarde, Ray Bolger, Sally Rand, Jack Pearl, the Lane Sisters, and Ina Ray Hutton.)

 (Crosby recorded a number of the songs from the film for Decca Records. An Apple for the Teacher, recorded as a duet with Connee Boswell, was a huge hit reaching #2 position on the charts.  Go Fly a Kite and A Man and His Dream also reached the Top 10.)

(This is the only film in which Crosby plays a happily married man!)

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Stardust

(1974)

(The continuing story of the rise and fall of a dynamic rock 'n roll singer in the mid-sixties, as he celebrates and battles with his manager and backing group, The Stray Cats.)

(A sequel to 1973's That'll Be the Day, this British musical drama was directed by Michael Apted and stars David Essex, Adam Faith, and Larry Hagman, and features a number of other pop/rock performers, including: Keith Moon, Marty Wilde, Dave Edmunds, Paul Nicholas and Edd Byrnes.)

(The prequel, That'll Be the Day - which introduced all the main characters, save Larry Hagman's - was directed by Claude Whatham. Unfortunately for Whatham, he and producer David Puttnam clashed during filming, so, despite that film's success,  Apted got the job instead!)

(Director Michael Apted said the film is "about the media, success, drugs, isolation, and a lot of other things... We merely put up the idea that pop heroes are often created by other people, not themselves, and the whole awful business is usually deceiving and self destructive.")

(David Essex, Rosalind Ayres, and Keith Moon all reprised their roles from That'll Be the Day. After the making of that film in 1973, Essex became  a pop star himself with the international hit Rock On.)

(To save money and time and capture a bit of reality, footage of screaming crowds at actual David Essex concerts were used in the film.)

(Originally, the film was rated X! However, in order to allow millions of David Essex fans to see the film, it was slightly altered in order to reduce the certification to AA, allowing limited admission to 14 years and older unless accompanied by an adult.)

(According to screenwriter Ray Connolly, the role of the band's American manager was written as an Italian-American from the Bronx with Tony Curtis in mind. However, when Curtis turned out to be too expensive, Larry Hagman was cast and the part was rewritten as a Texan. Hagman credited his work in Stardust with helping him develop his later character of oil baron J.R. Ewing on the popular nighttime soap Dallas.)

(Regarding Essex and Keith Moon, Connolly said "For David Essex, it can't have been easy to play a rock star as his own rock fame was growing by the day. But it wasn't easy for Keith Moon either, who would now be central to our fictional band. With The Who he was used to fan adoration as he played to stadiums, but to us he was just another actor playing a small part – which didn't always sit well with his ego.")

(Connelly said that Adam Faith was brought in to replace Ringo Starr, who'd originated the role of 'Mike' in That'll Be the Day, when Starr had second thoughts due to a key subplot which bore similarities to drummer Pete Best's departure from the Beatles. Connolly said of Starr, "having lived through the experience in reality as a member of the Beatles he wasn't keen to revisit it.")

(Adam Faith's limping throughout the film was due to injuries sustained from a severe car accident just prior to filming. However, the limp was consistent with his character having been beaten badly at the conclusion of the previous film.)

(Although 'backed' in the film by the five piece band, The Stray Cats, the film's backing tracks were all recorded by a multi-tracked Dave Edmunds.)

David Essex

(Later, Essex wrote that he didn't feel Stardust was as "truthful" as That'll Be the Day, which he felt "had been a very British film whereas I think, with Stardust, the producers had one eye on doing well in America, which may have been partly why we went to film there. It was a good movie, but it ended up being a little bit mid-Atlantic.")

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Hanging On A Star

(1978)

(Chronicles the comedic rise of a hot rock band trying to get on the road to stardom and find their way up the charts.)

(This rock music comedy was produced and directed by Mike McFarland and stars Deborah Raffin, Lane Caudell and Wolfman Jack.)

(An album by Lane Caudell featuring music from the film was released on MCA, with the the title track released as a single. Neither charted. As for the movie? It was a regular on the drive-in circuit for a time, but failed to generate any real heat.)

Lane Caudell had starred in Mike McFarland's previous film, 1978's Good-bye Franklin High and would go on to form a relationship with NBC-TV, where he appeared in a pair of pilots - one featuring Jerry Reed, the other with William Conrad - before eventually starring in the short-lived sci-fi weekly Archer: Fugitive From The Empire. He ended his tenure at NBC spending a year on the popular daytime soap, Days Of Our Lives.

He'd also release a second solo album on MCA, 1979's Midnight Hunter.

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The Star Maker

(1981)

(A famed Hollywood director has a history of molding sexy starlets into superstar actresses, and then marrying them! A habit  his latest conquest, with the help of his former wives, hopes to change. Has our tinsel town lothario met his match?)

(This made-for-television drama was directed by Lou Antonio and stars Rock Hudson, Suzanne Pleshette, and Melanie Griffith with Teri Copley, Jeffrey Tambor, Brenda Vacarro, Fred Dryer, and Jack Scalia.)

(This film aired on NBC on May 11, 1981.)

Rock Hudson and Suzanne Pleshette

(After her successful career as a sassy Hollywood starlet, Suzanne Pleshette became a familiar face on television. She is chiefly remembered for her stint as Emily on The Bob Newhart Show – for which she received two Emmy nominations. She's also remembered for a slew of made-for-television movies, including 1975's The Legend Of Rudolph Valentino - opposite Frank Nero, 1983's Dixie: Changing Habits and, most notably, 1985's Leona Helmsley: The Queen of Mean - for which she was nominated for both an Emmy and a Golden Globe Award.)

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And that's all for now.

Tune in next week.

Same time, same channel!

Get Ready For Love  - Lane Caudell

from the 1978 motion picture Hanging On A Star

Stardust - David Essex