Wonderland Burlesque's Let's All Go To The Movies: Stage Struck!

Wonderland Burlesque's 

Let's All Go To The Movies: 

Stage Struck!

It's that moment when you're sitting in the audience watching a stage production and suddenly - you want to be part of the action!

Yes, you know you were born to play that part, that role, sing that song, dance that dance!

If wanting it all so badly were enough, why we'd all be taking curtain calls every night. But its not. It takes talent, guts and nerve. You must be driven and determined - let nothing stand in your way!

Today, we take a look at a series of films which all bear the same title - Stage Struck.

But if you think all such vehicles are the same, you'd be oh-so wrong. We are talking variety, folks - from a remade classic, to a technicolor first, to a Busby Berkley extravaganza, to... well, you get the idea.

So, ring up the curtain, and let's take a look at these stories of wannabe stage stars! Do they have what it takes to make it? Only the screenwriters know for sure.

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Stage Struck

(1917)

In a garish theatrical boardinghouse in New York, orphan Ruth Colby, who taught herself to be an actress through a correspondence course, turns for companionship to Jack Martin, the dissolute cast-off son of wealthy philanthropist Mrs. Martin. The two young people fall in love and are married by 'the judge,' a derelict Justice of the Peace. Shortly thereafter, Ruth leaves on a dreadful theatrical tour. When she returns she finds the boardinghouse closed and Jack gone. She is then befriended by Mrs. Martin, who is indignant that Ruth has been deserted by her husband. However, when Jack and Ruth are reunited and Mrs. Martin learns that the girl's missing husband is none other than her son, the dowager is mortified by the fact that her son has married a commoner and seeks to have the marriage annulled. When Ruth reforms Jack, turning him into an upstanding young man, however, Mrs. Morgan accepts Ruth as her daughter-in-law and all ends happily.

This silent drama was directed by Edward Morrissey and stars Dorothy Gish. This film was produced by Fine Arts Films and distributed through Triangle Film Corporation.

Dorothy Gish

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Stage Struck

(1925)

Jennie Hagan, a waitress in a river town restaurant, is in love with Orme Wilson, a popular pancake chef who is fond of actresses. She struggles hard to win him, even studying acting, while dreaming about the stage. Her dreams come true after many trials and tribulations.

This silent comedy was directed by Allan Dwan and stars Gloria Swanson, Lawrence Gray, Gertrude Astor, and Ford Sterling. Released by Paramount Pictures, the opening and ending sequences were filmed in the early two-color Technicolor. The prologue, consisting of a 'Salome' fantasy sequence and the finale, totaled 466 feet of film.

Filming in New Martinsville, WV, on the Ohio River was constantly slowed by the hordes of fans who mobbed Gloria Swanson.

Swanson learned how to flip pancakes like a pro for her role as the hash house waitress.

In 2004, the film, including its Technicolor sequences, was restored by the George Eastman House film archive.

Gloria Swanson

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Stage Struck

(1936)

Broadway dance director George Randall is stuck with staging a Broadway show starring Peggy Revere, a wealthy but untalented performer who is starring only because she is backing the show. Tempers flare during rehearsals, but suave producer Fred Harris smooths things over by telling each combatant that each one secretly loves the other. Trouble is, Randall really has eyes for chorus girl Ruth Williams. On opening night, the tempestuous Peggy storms out of the production, leaving Ruth to play the lead and carry the show. Does she have the moxie to pull it off?

Produced and distributed by Warner Brothers, this American musical comedy was directed by Busby Berkeley and stars Dick Powell, Joan Blondell and Warren William.

Warner Bros. suspended actor Pat O'Brien when he rejected a role in this film.

The movie's box office received a big boost when Dick Powell and Joan Blondell were married shortly before its release. The marriage lasted eight years.

Though the film follows the blueprint of nearly every other Depression-era Warner Bros. musical, Stage Struck broke tradition by utilizing its budgetary and creative resources not for a 'big finish' production number but for a relatively pedestrian specialty number: The Body Beautiful, for which the studio's special effects department outdid itself. In it, the four Yacht Club Boys are suspended and lofted in a series of gravity-defying maneuvers that culminates in the four men being catapulted through the roof.

For the In His Own Quiet Way number, Busby Berkeley costumed Jeanne Madden in a flowing gown that bled into the theatre's proscenium curtain, giving the surreal impression that the material flowed from its leading lady to infinity. Obviously, for the number to work in long shot, the reclining Madden could not move too far in any direction, though she comes to standing in close-ups, for which the dress was temporarily detached from the curtain.

Based on the lackluster rushes of this film, particularly leading lady Jeanne Madden's lack of star quality, studio chief Jack L. Warner withdrew further funds, making this the only entry in Busby Berkeley's canon of 1930s backstage musicals that does not culminate in a spectacular production number as its finale.

The casting of Jeanne Madden was an obvious attempt to recreate the screen chemistry Dick Powell had shared with Ruby Keeler. Not only did Madden bear a resemblance to Keeler, but the fact that she was a trained singer made it quite obvious Warner Brothers was trying to make them into a musical team. As with Doris Weston, who was paired with Powell in The Singing Marine (1937), the public did not take to her, and it became clear that Keeler could not be replaced.

Largely owing to her bubbly personality, Joan Blondell appeared in many Busby Berkeley-directed musicals of the Depression era despite the fact that she possessed no singing or dancing talents whatsoever. Blondell usually figured heavily in the plots of these films, leaving the musical chores to the likes of James Cagney, Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler or Ginger Rogers. When her characters were called upon to sing, Blondell was either dubbed or she 'talk-sang' her way through her portions of the number, as in All's Fair in Love and War from Gold Diggers of 1937 (1937). The only musical number ever staged around her specifically was The Girl at the Ironing Board in Dames (1934), which Blondell sang herself.

Joan Blondell and Dick Powell

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Stage Struck 

(1948)

The police find the body of hostess Helen Howard, disposed of by petty racketeer Nick Mantee after she was shot in his Bluejay night club by Benny Nordick because she knew too much about Mantee's rackets. Police Lieutenant Williams and police Sergeant Tom Ramey inform the dead girl's parents and sister Nancy of the run-away's death. Nancy, impatiently waiting for the police to get a solid case together, signs with the Mercer Agency operated by Nordick, training girls for an excessive sum which they work off as hostesses at the Bluejay Club. Nancy becomes a hostess at the club and after a party for Latin-American night club owner Barda, she uncovers evidence that places her sister Helen at the club. She accuses Nick and Benny of the murder and the two mobsters realize they must do away with her, just as they did away with her sister.

This American crime suspense drama was directed by William Nigh and starring Kane Richmond, Audrey Long and Conrad Nagel.

Final film of veteran director William Nigh. An actor and screenwriter, Nigh directed a total of 119 films during his impressive career.

Audrey Long was an American stage and screen actress of English descent, who performed mainly in low-budget films during the 1940s and early 1950s. Some of her more notable film performances include: Tall in the Saddle (1944) with John Wayne, Wanderer of the Wasteland (1945), Born to Kill (1947), and Desperate (1947). She was married to Leslie Charteris, the British novelist best known for his works chronicling the adventures of Simon Templar in the literary series The Saint.

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Stage Struck

(1958)

New Englander Eva Lovelace, an ingenue intent on conquering the Broadway stage, is willing to sacrifice everything, including her love for suave producer Lewis Easton, to achieve her goal. Her trials and tribulations ultimately lead to a moment of triumph when she successfully steps in for temperamental, Tallulah Bankhead-like, leading lady Rita Vernon.

This drama was directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Henry Fonda, Susan Strasberg and Christopher Plummer. The screenplay, by Augustus and Ruth Goetz, is based on the stage play Morning Glory by Zoë Akins, which also served as the basis for the 1933 film Morning Glory starring Katharine Hepburn, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Adolphe Menjou.

Christopher Plummer's film debut.

Jean Simmons, nine years senior to Susan Strasberg, was first announced for the Eva Lovelace role.

Eva Lovelace is told to join the Actors Studio to learn her craft. In real life, Strasberg is the daughter of Lee Strasberg, the famed acting coach and director of the studio.

Filmed entirely on location in New York City, the film was produced by RKO Radio Pictures and distributed by Walt Disney Productions' then new distribution arm Buena Vista Film Distribution Co., Inc., which replaced RKO as Disney's distributor. This was one of the last movies theatrically released by RKO Radio Pictures.

Almost twenty years later, co-stars Henry Fonda and Susan Strasberg would co-star in the disaster film, Rollercoaster (1977). In the interim, Strasberg would co-star with Fonda's son Peter in The Trip (1967).

Henry Fonda and Susan Strasberg

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And that's all for now.

Tune in next time...

Same place, same channel.

Stage Struck - 1958 

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