Wonderland Burlesque's Let's All Go To The Movies: Gold Diggers Edition

Wonderland Burlesque's 

Let's All Go To The Movies: 

Gold Diggers Edition

Today we take a look at the 'Gold Diggers' films - six in all.

What? You say you've seen most of this before?

Why... I never!

I tell you what - just think of this as one of those clips shows they used to do on television back in the day. You know, recycled scenes you've already seen and know, mixed with one or two you haven't.

What can I say? I am a completist. And I figured if we did a post on the 'Broadway Melody' films, then we also had to do one on the 'Gold Diggers' films.

And... you're welcome! 

Enjoy!

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The Gold Diggers

(1923)

Stephen Lee doesn't want his nephew Wally Sanders to marry chorus girl Violet Dayne, for he believes all chorus girls to be ruthless gold diggers, always chasing after men with money. Violet's friend, Jerry La Mar, decides to 'gold dig' Stephen, in order to show him what a decent and unselfish girl Violet truly is, but things get complicated when Jerry comes to realize that she, herself, has fallen in love with Stephen Lee!

With a screenplay by Grant Carpenter, based on the play The Gold Diggers by Avery Hopwood, this Warner Bros. silent comedy was directed by Harry Beaumont and stars Hope Hampton, Wyndham Standing, and Louise Fazenda. Both the play and the film were produced by David Belasco.

For the longest time, there were no prints of The Gold Diggers located in any archive and for decades it was presumed to be a lost film. However, in 2021, a collector found a near-complete nitrate 35mm Belgian print in England, which has since been uploaded to YouTube.

The original stage production opened on Sept. 30, 1919, at the Lyceum Theatre in New York and ran for 282 performances.

Hope Hampton

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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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Gold Diggers Of 1933

(1933)

Chorus girls Polly, Carol, and Trixie are ecstatic when they learn that Broadway producer Barney Hopkins is putting on a new show. He promises all of the girls parts in the new show and even hires their neighbor Brad Roberts, an unknown composer, to write some of the music. There's only one problem: he doesn't have the money to bankroll it all. That problem is solved when Brad turns out to be quite rich but he insists that he not perform. When opening night comes, the juvenile lead can't go on forcing Brad to take the stage. He's recognized, of course, and his upper-crust family wants him to quit. When he refuses, they tell him to end his relationship with Polly or face having his income cut off. When Brad's snobbish brother Lawrence mistakes Carol for Polly, the girls decide to have a bit of fun and teach him a lesson.

This American pre-Code musical was directed by Mervyn LeRoy with songs by Harry Warren and Al Dubin. The film's numbers were staged and choreographed by Busby Berkeley. It stars Warren William, Joan Blondell, Aline MacMahon, Ruby Keeler, and Dick Powell, with featured appearances by Guy Kibbee, Ned Sparks and Ginger Rogers.

Gold Diggers of 1933 was originally to be called High Life, and George Brent was an early casting choice for the role played by Warren William. It was also not originally supposed to be a musical, but with the success of the film 42nd Street, that changed everything.

During rehearsals of  We're in the Money, Ginger Rogers began goofing around and singing in pig Latin. Studio executive Darryl F. Zanuck overheard her, and insisted she do it for real in the movie.

At 5:55 PM PST on March 10, 1933, the Long Beach earthquake hit southern California, measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale. When the earthquake hit, Busby Berkeley was filming the Shadow Waltz dance sequence on a sound stage on the Warner Brothers lot in Burbank. The earthquake caused a blackout on the sound stage and short-circuited some of the neon-tubed violins. Berkeley was almost thrown from a camera boom and dangled by one hand until he could pull himself back up. Since many of the chorus girls in the dance number were on a 30-foot-high scaffold, Berkeley yelled for them to sit down and wait until the stage hands and technicians could open the sound stage doors and let in some light.

Cut from the release print was Ginger Rogers' version of I've Got to Sing a Torch Song (music by Harry Warren, lyrics by Al Dubin), warbled atop a white piano in a nightclub, where she can still be spotted briefly in a long shot of the orchestra. Ginger's prerecording still exists.

The My Forgotten Man number that serves as this film's finale is a rare example of an escapist 1930s musical actually acknowledging the deprivations suffered by most Americans during the Great Depression. Inspired by the Bonus Marchers who came to Washington, D.C., by the thousands to protest the broken promises made to veterans of World War I, the number serves as a statement of solidarity with the former soldiers' cause. It is also an early example of Warner studio executive Darryl F. Zanuck's well known liberal political beliefs.

They originally planned to end the film with the production number Petting in the Park, but after seeing the completed numbers, the studio added the politically charged My Forgotten Man at the end, pointing out that while the cast is 'in the money', many others in Depression-era America were not.

This film was shot with two separate units. Mervyn LeRoy's unit, which handled the non-musical parts of the story, worked on a 30-day schedule from February 16th through March 23rd, 1933. Busby Berkeley oversaw the shooting of the musical numbers between March 6th and April 13th. Sol Polito was the cinematographer for both units, with Sidney Hickox filling in for any schedule conflicts.

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Gold Diggers 1935

(1935)

In a luxury hotel, stage director Nicoleff produces a show in order to get the money to pay his bills. Mrs. Prentiss, the financial backer, wants her daughter Ann to marry the millionaire T. Mosely Thorpe, but Ann falls in love with Dick Curtis, while Dick's girl friend marries Ann's brother, Humbolt. It looks like the show may get it's backing pulled, but the hotel stenographer, Betty saves the day; she knows a way to avoid difficulties with old Mrs. Prentiss!

Based on a story by Robert Lord, who also produced the film, and Peter Milne, this American musical was directed and choreographed by Busby Berkeley and stars Dick Powell, Adolphe Menjou, Gloria Stuart, Alice Brady, Hugh Herbert, Glenda Farrell, and Frank McHugh, and features Joseph Cawthorn, Grant Mitchell, Dorothy Dare, and Winifred Shaw. The songs were written by Harry Warren and Al Dubin the film is best known for its famous Lullaby of Broadway production number. That song, sung by Wini Shaw, won an Academy Award for Best Original Song. The screenplay was by Manuel Seff and , .

This movie was the fourth in the 'Gold Diggers' series, after the silent film The Gold Diggers (1923), the partially lost 'talkie' Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929), and Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933). The first three films, all financially successful, were all based on the 1919 play The Gold Diggers. Gold Diggers of 1935 was the first one based on a wholly original story. It was followed by Gold Diggers of 1937 and Gold Diggers in Paris.

 Although Busby Berkeley's had his own unit at Warner Bros. - to execute the elaborate production numbers he conceived, designed, staged and directed, this film was the first where he sat in the director's chair.  

Leading lady Gloria Stuart would have many successes in the 1930s, before disappearing from movie screens until her triumphant return in 1997, playing 'Old Rose' in the mega-hit Titanic. That film reigned for several years as the biggest grossing movie of all time, won eleven Oscars - including Best Picture - and Stuart herself was nominated as Best Supporting Actress.

This film was made one year before the Academy Awards created the Best Supporting Actress category, so Alice Brady's performance as the dithery rich matron did not earn her an Oscar nomination. However, the following year, Brady portrayed an essentially similar character in My Man Godfrey, and became one of the first five women ever to be nominated in that new category.

Wini Shaw's recording of Lullaby Of Broadway was an unlikely hit in Britain in 1976, reaching #42 on the charts!

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Gold Diggers Of 1937

(1936)

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Stage-producer J.J. Hobart, a hopeless hypochondriac, is going to put on a new show, unaware that his two partners lost all the backing money in the stock market. Insurance salesman Rosmer Peek falls in love with ex-chorus girl Joan Blondell, who's friend Genevieve makes a play for one of J.J Hobart's partners. Together, they come up with the idea to insure J.J. - who is always falling ill with this or that - for $1 million, which will be awarded them when he dies. Rosmer sells him the policy. However, once they find out that he's only a hypochondriac, an attempt to kill him 'accidentally' fails. Things are further complicated when Genevieve falls in love with J.J. But when J.J. is informed that he is putting on a show with no money, he has a nervous breakdown and it turns out the only possible way to restore J.J.'s health is to put on the show, in spite of the lack of money.

Based on the play Sweet Mystery of Life by Richard Maibaum, Michael Wallach and George Haight, this Warner Bros. movie musical was directed by Lloyd Bacon with musical numbers created and directed by Busby Berkeley, and stars Dick Powell and Joan Blondell, who were married at the time, with Glenda Farrell and Victor Moore.

The film features songs by the teams of Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg, and Harry Warren and Al Dubin. Originally, all the songs for the film were to have been written by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg, but Berkeley was dissatisfied and brought in Harry Warren and Al Dubin, who had contributed songs to his previous Warner Bros. films. Their song With Plenty of Money and You (The Gold Diggers' Lullaby) became a hit.

Although Busby Berkeley had directed Gold Diggers of 1935, for this film the director's chair was occupied by Warner Bros. comedy veteran Lloyd Bacon, who had collaborated with Berkeley on 42nd Street. This film marked Victor Moore's return to the screen after a two-year absence following Gift of Gab, during which he starred in Anything Goes on Broadway.

This is the fifth movie in Warner Bros.' series of 'Gold Digger' films.

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Gold Diggers In Paris

(1938)

When the representative of the Paris International Dance Exposition arrives in New York to invite the Academy Ballet of America to compete for monetary prizes, the taxi driver mistakenly brings him to the Club Ballé, a nightclub on the brink of declaring bankruptcy. The owners, Terry Moore and Duke Dennis, jump at the chance to go, despite being aware of the mistake. They hire ballet teacher Luis Leoni and his only pupil Kay Morrow to join the group, hoping to teach their two dozen show girls ballet en route to Paris by ship. Also going along and rooming with Kay is Mona, Terry's ex-wife, who wants to keep an eye on her alimony checks. Naturally, Kay and Terry fall in love. After the ship is underway, Padrinsky, the head of the real ballet academy, reads about the departure and also heads to Paris, bringing with him his ballet loving gangster patron Mike Coogan, with orders to eliminate the pair of impostors. Things look bleak for Terry as Kay becomes angry and severs her relationship with Terry when she learns that Mona was once married to him and he never told her that. And Padrinsky gets a deportation order for the whole group on the day they were to perform in the contest.

This Warner Bros. movie musical was directed by Ray Enright with musical numbers created and directed by Busby Berkeley. It stars Rudy Vallee, Rosemary Lane, Hugh Herbert, and Allen Jenkins.

Majestic Pictures attempted to cash in on the 'Gold Diggers' concept by naming a feature Gold Diggers of Paris, but Warner Bros. prevented this through legal action, and the filming and release of this film may have been a part of the effort to protect what Warner Bros. considered to be their trademark. The film was known as The Gay Impostors in the U.K.

The Schnickelfritz Band, whose oddball comical numbers were interpolated into this film after principal production was completed, were fore-runners of one of the most popular comedy acts of the 1940s and 50s, Spike Jones and His City Slickers. Jones and his merry band specialized in slapstick parodies of popular songs, which included silly sound effects, frequent use of slide trombones and snidely melodramatic vocals. The Schnickelfritz Band broke up shortly after doing this film, with founding member Fritts taking some of the members east to become the Korn Kobblers, and founding member Fisher staying in Hollywood to open a nightclub, where he appeared billed as 'The Original Colonel of Corn'. Although the Schnickelfritz Band only appeared in two more films years later, Fisher appeared in several others as a band leader.

Edward Brophy, who plays pistol-packing patron-of-the-arts Mike Coogan, enjoyed a long and varied career as a character actor, and is probably best remembered for his voice over work as Timothy Mouse, who gives the title character - a shy, big-eared circus elephant - the courage to fly in the Walt Disney classic Dumbo (1941).

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And that's all for now.

Tune in next week.

Same place, same channel.

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Gold Diggers Of Paris - Trailer

1938