Wonderland Burlesque's Let's All Go To The Movies: All The World Is A Stage - Part 7 of 12

Wonderland Burlesque's 

Let's All Go To The Movies: 

All The World Is A Stage

Part 7 of 12

This is the seventh of a twelve-part series of posts dealing with show business, be it the stage or soundstage.

Yes, show people, their tawdry little lives - in the theatre or movie studio - in all their glory, projected up there on the big screen, bigger than life; and they wouldn't have it any other way. For you see, they live for the stuff; the imitation glamor, the insufferable players, the exhausting rehearsals, and the oh-so important reviews - but above all else - they do it for the applause.

So hit the lights, for today, all the world is, indeed, a stage!

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The Butter And Egg Man

(1928)

Peter Jones is a young man who arrives on Broadway from Chillicothe, Ohio, hoping to invest $20,000 in a play and turn a profit sufficient to buy a local hotel back home. He is conned by Joe Lehman and Jack McClure into backing their play with a 49% stake. The play opens out-of-town in Syracuse and bombs. Lehman and McClure want out, and Jones buys them out, revamps the play, and turns it into a huge hit. After learning of claims the play was stolen, Jones then sells it back to Lehman and McClure at a huge profit, returning home to buy the hotel he wanted in the first place.

Based on the play of the same title by George S. Kaufman, this American silent comedy was directed by Richard Wallace and stars Jack Mulhall, Greta Nissen, and Sam Hardy.

   

It was remade by the studio's successor company Warner Brothers as a sound film Hello, Sweetheart in 1935.

A 1920s slang term popularized by Texas Guinan, a butter-and-egg man is a traveling businessman eager to spend large amounts of money in the big city, so someone wealthy and unwary.

Sadly, this film is presumed lost.

Jack Mulhall, and Greta Nissen

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Broadway Scandals

(1929)

When the road-show that Ted Howard, a singer, and Mary, a chorus-dancer, goes broke and the company is stranded in the sticks, Ted Uses his own savings to get them all back to New York. Ted and Mary form a team and are doing well when Valenska, a musical comedy queen, asks Ted to join her as an act. Since the offer doesn't include Mary, Ted refuses. But, Mary, who loves Ted, knows this is Ted's big chance, and she instigates a situation that leads to the break-up of their team. Ted does do well, but is also used by Valenska as her boy-toy. When they open a big show, Mary is there as a member of the chorus. This does not set well with Valenska and a whole lotta drama ensues.

This American Pre-Code musical was directed by George Archainbaud and stars Sally O'Neill, Carmel Myers and Jack Egan.

Photoplay Magazine was unenthusiastic in its review of Broadway Scandals: "If this picture appeared six months ago, it would have looked better, for it is a late entrant in the line of love stories back of the theater curtain." Egan and Myers did well in their roles, while "Sally O'Neil tries hard."

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God Diggers Of Broadway

(1929)

Three Broadway chorus girls seek rich husbands.

Based on the 1919 play The Gold Diggers (which was also turned into a silent film of the same name in 1923), this American pre-Code musical comedy was directed by Roy Del Ruth and stars Winnie Lightner and Nick Lucas.

Gold Diggers of Broadway became a box office sensation, making Winnie Lightner a worldwide star and boosting guitarist crooner Nick Lucas to further fame as he sang two songs that became 20th-century standards: Tiptoe Through the Tulips and Painting the Clouds with Sunshine.

This was Warner Bros.' second 'All Talking, All Singing, All Color' musical, the first being On With The Show! (1929).

It was chosen as one of the ten best films of 1929 by Film Daily. As with many early Technicolor films, no complete print survives, although the last twenty minutes do, but missing are a bridging sequence and the last minute of the film. The film was remade in 1933 as Gold Diggers of 1933.

Winnie Lightner became one of Warner Bros. biggest stars in 1930. She starred in two lavish Technicolor features in that year: Hold Everything and The Life of the Party. Her flapper, care-free demeanor became decidedly dated as the conservatism of the 1930s took its course and this probably explains why she retired from films in 1934.

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I'll Love You Always

(1935)

Nora Clegg, an actress, marries Carl Brent, an unemployed young engineer, whose estimation of his worth and ability keeps him from getting a job. He finally acquires a position that will require him to go to Russia for a period of time, while Nora goes back to the stage during his absence. But he loses out on the job at the last minute, and rather than tell Nora he has failed again, he steals a roll of money from his prospective employer to buy some things for Nora and go out and have a good time before his supposed departure. He ends up taking a trip to jail instead of Russia and hides the truth from Nora by having an acquaintance mail his letters from Russia. But everything changes when he finds finds out that Nora is pregnant!

This American drama was directed by Leo Bulgakov and stars Nancy Carroll, George Murphy and Raymond Walburn.

In the supporting cast of this film, you will find Lucille Ball, Jean Dixon, and radio broadcaster Paul Harvey.

Nancy Carroll and George Murphy

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Bowery To Broadway

(1944)

In the Gay 90s, Michael O'Rourke (Jack Oakie) and Dennis Dugan (Donald Cook) are owners of rival night spots in the Bowery. They both move uptown and continue to compete in establishments, each tossing many trials and tribulations and dirty tricks each other's way, before joining forces to produce a long series of hit Broadway shows.

This American musical film was directed by Charles Lamont and stars Maria Montez, Jack Oakie, Susanna Foster. Donald O'Connor and Peggy Ryan.

The movie was made to showcase the singing talent at Universal Studios. And even though she receives top billing, Montez has only a small role.

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And that's all for now.

Tune in next time.

Same place, same channel.

 

Bowery To Broadway - Movie Trailer