Chasing Rainbows (1930 film)

Last updated

Chasing Rainbows
Chasing Rainbows1930.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Charles Reisner
Written by Al Boasberg
Wells Root
Kenyon Nicholson
Charles Reisner
Based onRoad Show
by Robert E. Hopkins
Bess Meredyth
Starring Bessie Love
Charles King
Cinematography Ira H. Morgan
Edited by George Hively
Music by Milton Ager
Jack Yellen
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • February 23, 1930 (1930-02-23)(U.S.)
Running time
106 minutes (complete but lost) [1]
90 minutes (extant)
85 minutes (TCM print)
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$700,000 [2] (equivalent to $12,800,000in 2023)

Chasing Rainbows (also known as The Road Show) [3] is a 1930 American Pre-Code romantic musical film directed by Charles Reisner, and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Contents

The film reunites The Broadway Melody stars Bessie Love and Charles King, with a supporting cast of Jack Benny, Marie Dressler, and Polly Moran. [4] This was Jack Benny's first dramatic role in a motion picture.

Filmed in July and August 1929, it was not released for months later, missing an opportunity to capitalize on the success of its song "Happy Days Are Here Again", which by then had already been a major hit. [2]

Plot

Carlie (Love) and Terry (King) are in a traveling vaudeville troupe with Eddie (Benny), the stage manager; Bonnie (Dressler), a comedian; and Polly (Moran), the wardrobe mistress. Terry constantly falls in love with his leading ladies, and marries Daphne (Martan), a two-timing songstress. When he finds her with another man, Terry threatens to kill himself, but Carlie reassures him that "Happy Days Are Here Again," and the show goes on. [1] [5]

Cast

Reception

The film was commercially successful, [2] but not as much as expected. [7]

Love, Dressler, and Benny all received positive reviews for their performances. [1] [5]

Preservation status

Chasing Rainbows was mostly filmed in black and white, but had two sequences shot in Technicolor. The film survives, but the color scenes are lost, having been removed for a re-release in 1931 and were destroyed in the 1965 MGM vault fire. The audio from the missing technicolor scenes still exists on Vitaphone disks, including "Happy Days Are Here Again". [8]

The film has been issued on DVD in the Warner Archive Collection.

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>The Hollywood Revue</i> 1929 film

The Hollywood Revue of 1929, or simply The Hollywood Revue, is a 1929 American pre-Code musical comedy film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was the studio's second feature-length musical, and one of their earliest sound films. Produced by Harry Rapf and Irving Thalberg and directed by Charles Reisner, it features nearly all of MGM's stars in a two-hour revue that includes three segments in Technicolor. The masters of ceremonies are Conrad Nagel and Jack Benny.

<i>The Broadway Melody</i> 1929 film

The Broadway Melody, also known as The Broadway Melody of 1929, is a 1929 American pre-Code musical film and the first sound film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. It was one of the early musicals to feature a Technicolor sequence, which sparked the trend of color being used in a flurry of musicals that would hit the screens in 1929–1930. Today, the Technicolor sequence survives only in black and white. The film was the first musical released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and was Hollywood's first all-talking musical.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bessie Love</span> American actress (1898–1986)

Juanita Horton, better known as Bessie Love, was an American-British actress who achieved prominence playing innocent, young girls and wholesome leading ladies in silent and early sound films. Her acting career spanned nearly seven decades—from silent film to sound film, including theatre, radio, and television—and her performance in The Broadway Melody (1929) earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daphne Pollard</span> Australian-born actress, singer, and dancer (1891–1978)

Daphne Pollard was an Australian-born vaudeville performer and dancer, active on stage and later in American films, mostly short comedies. Between 1928 and 1935 she had almost 60 screen credits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polly Moran</span> American actress (1883–1952)

Pauline Theresa Moran billed as Polly Moran, was an American actress of vaudeville, stage and screen and a comedian.

<i>The Show of Shows</i> 1929 film

The Show of Shows is a 1929 American pre-Code musical revue film directed by John G. Adolfi and distributed by Warner Bros. The all-talking Vitaphone production cost almost $800,000 and was shot almost entirely in Technicolor.

<i>Sally</i> (1929 film) 1929 film

Sally is a 1929 American Pre-Code film. It is the fourth all-sound, all-color feature film made, and it was photographed in the Technicolor process. It was the sixth feature film to contain color that had been released by Warner Bros.; the first five were The Desert Song (1929), On with the Show! (1929), Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929), Paris (1929) and The Show of Shows (1929).. Although exhibited in a few theaters in December 1929, Sally entered general release on January 12, 1930.

<i>Hollywood Party</i> (1934 film) 1934 musical film collaboration

Hollywood Party, also known under its working title of The Hollywood Revue of 1933 and Star Spangled Banquet, is a 1934 American pre-Code musical film starring Laurel and Hardy, The Three Stooges, Jimmy Durante, Lupe Vélez and Mickey Mouse. It was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Each sequence featured a different star with a separate scriptwriter and director assigned.

<i>Showgirl in Hollywood</i> 1930 film

Showgirl in Hollywood is a 1930 American pre-Code all-talking musical film with Technicolor sequences, produced and distributed by First National Pictures, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. The film stars Alice White, Jack Mulhall and Blanche Sweet. It was adapted from the 1929 novel Hollywood Girl by J.P. McEvoy.

<i>Children of Pleasure</i> 1930 film by Harry Beaumont

Children of Pleasure is a 1930 American pre-Code MGM musical comedy film directed by Harry Beaumont, originally released with Technicolor sequences. It was adapted from Crane Wilbur's 1929 play, The Song Writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tiffany Pictures</span> Defunct Hollywood motion picture studio

Tiffany Pictures, which also became Tiffany-Stahl Productions for a time, was a Hollywood motion picture studio in operation from 1921 until 1932. It is considered a Poverty Row studio, whose films had lower budgets, lesser-known stars, and overall lower production values than major studios.

Hollywood on Parade (1932–1934) is a series of short subjects released by Paramount Pictures.

Lord Byron of Broadway (1930), also known as What Price Melody?, is an American Pre-Code musical drama film, directed by Harry Beaumont and William Nigh. It was based on a best selling book by Nell Martin, which "was widely praised by critics as an extremely true and amusing romance of stage life." It was filmed in black and white with two-color Technicolor sequences.

The March of Time is the title of an unreleased 1930 American pre-Code musical film directed by Charles Reisner. The film was originally scheduled to be released in September 1930 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) but was shelved. The March of Time would have been one of the many musicals partially filmed in two-color Technicolor.

<i>Paramount on Parade</i> 1930 pre-Code revue film

Paramount on Parade is a 1930 all-star American pre-Code revue released by Paramount Pictures, directed by several directors including Edmund Goulding, Dorothy Arzner, Ernst Lubitsch, Rowland V. Lee, A. Edward Sutherland, Lothar Mendes, Otto Brower, Edwin H. Knopf, Frank Tuttle, and Victor Schertzinger—all supervised by the production supervisor, singer, actress, and songwriter Elsie Janis.

They Learned About Women is a 1930 American Pre-Code sports drama musical film directed by Jack Conway and Sam Wood, and starring Van and Schenck in their final film appearance together.

<i>The Girl Said No</i> (1930 film) 1930 film by Sam Wood

The Girl Said No is a 1930 pre-Code American romantic comedy film starring William Haines and Leila Hyams. In the film, a young college graduate goes to extreme lengths to win the girl he loves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vitaphone Varieties</span>

Vitaphone Varieties is a series title used for all of Warner Bros.', earliest short film "talkies" of the 1920s, initially made using the Vitaphone sound on disc process before a switch to the sound-on-film format early in the 1930s. These were the first major film studio-backed sound films, initially showcased with the 1926 synchronized scored features Don Juan and The Better 'Ole. Although independent producers like Lee de Forest's Phonofilm were successfully making sound film shorts as early as 1922, they were very limited in their distribution and their audio was generally not as loud and clear in theaters as Vitaphone's. The success of the early Vitaphone shorts, initially filmed only in New York, helped launch the sound revolution in Hollywood.

<i>Naughty Baby</i> (film) 1928 film by Mervyn LeRoy

Naughty Baby is a 1928 American synchronized sound comedy film directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Alice White and Jack Mulhall. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the sound-on-disc Vitaphone process. It was released on December 16, 1928, by First National Pictures.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Chasing Rainbows". The Film Daily. 1930. p.  9.
  2. 1 2 3 Bradley, Edwin M. (August 11, 2004). "There's a Tear for Every Smile in Hollywood". The First Hollywood Musicals: A Critical Filmography of 171 Features, 1927 through 1932. McFarland. p. 213. ISBN   978-0-7864-2029-2.
  3. "New M-G-M Release Schedule". Hollywood Filmograph. June 22, 1929. p.  23.
  4. Hall, Mordaunt (February 22, 1930). "Movie Review: Chasing Rainbows (1929)". The New York Times . Retrieved September 11, 2014.
  5. 1 2 Lusk, Norbert (June 1930). "The Screen in Review". Picture Play. pp.  64–5.
  6. Dickstein, Martin (February 24, 1930). "The Cinema Circuit". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle . Brooklyn . Retrieved June 6, 2014.
  7. "W.B. Hollywood Does Top Figure for Current Year". Inside Facts of Stage and Screen . April 5, 1930. p. 3.
  8. "Chasing Rainbows (1930)". Turner Classic Movies . Retrieved September 14, 2014.