This was the second of Sturges' plays to be adapted into a film, after Strictly Dishonorable. "Most of the wittier and more pungent lines were lost in translation."[1] "As Andrew Horton notes, Sturges appears to have had a fascination with [...] inter-class narratives, and a number of his plays, screenplays, and films contain 'sudden transitions in socioeconomic status'. [...] "His 1932 play Child of Manhattan, subsequently made into a movie by Columbia Pictures (Edward Buzzell, 1933), involves the relationship of the son of the immensely wealthy Paul Vanderkill with a dime-a-dance girl".[2]
Plot
Taxi dancer Madeleine McGonegle (Nancy Carroll) attracts the attention of millionaire Paul Vanderkill (John Boles), and when she becomes pregnant, they marry to avoid a scandal. When the baby dies at birth, Madeleine runs away to Mexico, to give Paul the divorce she thinks he wants. There, she meets "Panama Canal" Kelly (cowboy star Buck Jones), an old friend who proposed to her before he went west. Undeterred by her recent past, he asks her again to marry, and she eventually agrees. When Paul discovers where she is, he shows up just as the couple is about to be wed. When Panama overhears Madeleine confess her love to Paul, he bows out of the picture.[1][3][4]
This film was in production from November 12 through December 6, 1932.[5] The movie shot for two weeks with Neil Hamilton playing the part of "Paul", before he was replaced by John Boles.[6]
The film had a limited release on February 4, 1933, and went into general release in New York on February 11.[7] It was marketed with the taglines: The World called her BAD because she dared to LOVE! and Women called her Sinner! Men called her Siren! He called her Sweetheart![8]
↑ Andrew Horton, ed., Three More Screenplays by Preston Sturges (Berkeley: Univ. of CA Press, 1998), 17; quoted in Christopher Beach, " 'These Are Troubled Times': Social Class in the Comedies of Preston Sturges", in Jeff Jaeckle and Sarah Kozloff, eds., ReFocus: The Films of Preston Sturges (Edinburgh Univ. Press, 2015). ISBN9781474406550
The Lady Eve is a 1941 American screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda.
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek is a 1944 American screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring Eddie Bracken and Betty Hutton, and featuring Diana Lynn, William Demarest and Porter Hall. Brian Donlevy and Akim Tamiroff reprise their roles from Sturges' 1940 film The Great McGinty.
The Palm Beach Story is a 1942 screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, and starring Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor and Rudy Vallée. Victor Young contributed the musical score, including a fast-paced variation of the William Tell Overture for the opening scenes. Typical of a Sturges film, the pacing and dialogue of The Palm Beach Story are very fast.
Vendetta is a 1950 American crime film based on the 1840 novella Colomba by Prosper Mérimée, about a young Corsican girl who pushes her brother to kill to avenge their father's murder.
Esther Howard was an American stage and film character actress who played a wide range of supporting roles, from man-hungry spinsters to amoral criminals, appearing in 108 films in her 23-year screen career.
Helen Mack was an American actress. She started her career as a child actress in silent films, moving to Broadway plays and touring one of the vaudeville circuits. Her greater success as an actress was as a leading lady in the 1930s. She made the transition to performing on radio and then into writing, directing, and producing shows during the Golden Age of Radio. She later wrote for Broadway, stage and television. Her career spanned the infancy of the motion picture industry, the beginnings of Broadway, the final days of vaudeville, the transition to sound movies, the Golden Age of Radio, and the rise of television.
Remember the Night is a 1940 American Christmas romantic comedy trial film starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray and directed by Mitchell Leisen. The film was written by Preston Sturges and was the last of his scripts shot by another director, as Sturges began his own directorial career the same year with The Great McGinty.
Edward Buzzell was an American film actor and director whose credits include Child of Manhattan (1933); Honolulu (1939); the Marx Brothers films At the Circus (1939) and Go West (1940); the musicals Best Foot Forward (1943), Song of the Thin Man (1947), and Neptune's Daughter (1949); and Easy to Wed (1946).
Port of Seven Seas is a 1938 drama film starring Wallace Beery and featuring Frank Morgan and Maureen O'Sullivan. The movie was written by Preston Sturges based on the plays of Marcel Pagnol and the films based on them, and was directed by James Whale, the director of Frankenstein (1931) and The Invisible Man (1933). The cinematography is by Karl Freund, who filmed Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927) and I Love Lucy (1951-1957).
Christmas in July is a 1940 comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges based on his 1931 play A Cup of Coffee. It was Sturges' second film as writer-director, after The Great McGinty, and stars Dick Powell and Ellen Drew.
Thirty Day Princess is a 1934 pre-Code comedy film directed by Marion Gering and starring Sylvia Sidney, Cary Grant and Edward Arnold. The film was based on a story of the same name by Clarence Budington Kelland, adapted by Sam Hellman and Edwin Justus Mayer, and written by Preston Sturges and Frank Partos.
Robert Greig was an Australian-American actor who appeared in more than 100 films between 1930 and 1949, usually as the dutiful butler. Born Arthur Alfred Bede Greig, he was the nephew of Australian politician and solicitor William Bede Dalley. He was commonly known as "Bob".
Strictly Dishonorable is a 1931 American pre-Code romantic comedy film directed by John M. Stahl and starring Paul Lukas, Sidney Fox and Lewis Stone, George Meeker, and Sidney Toler. It was written by Gladys Lehman and based on Preston Sturges' 1929 hit Broadway play of the same name. Strictly Dishonorable was Sturges' second play on Broadway, and his first to be filmed.
Child of Manhattan is a 1932 play by Preston Sturges, his fifth to be produced on Broadway and his last for almost twenty years as his career took him to Hollywood. It was adapted into a film of the same name, released in 1933 by Columbia Pictures, the second play of Sturges' to make it to the silver screen, after 1929's Strictly Dishonorable.
The Good Fairy is a 1935 romantic comedy film written by Preston Sturges, based on the 1930 play A jó tündér by Ferenc Molnár as translated and adapted by Jane Hinton, which was produced on Broadway in 1931. The film was directed by William Wyler and stars Margaret Sullavan, Herbert Marshall, Frank Morgan and Reginald Owen.
The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend is a 1949 romantic comedy Western film starring Betty Grable and featuring Cesar Romero and Rudy Vallee. It was directed by Preston Sturges and written by him based on a story by Earl Felton.
New York Town is a 1941 American romantic comedy film directed by Charles Vidor and starring Fred MacMurray, Mary Martin, Akim Tamiroff, and Robert Preston. The film was written by Lewis Meltzer and an uncredited Preston Sturges based on a story by Jo Swerling.
I'll Be Yours is a 1947 American musical comedy film directed by William A. Seiter and starring Deanna Durbin. Based on the play A jó tündér by Ferenc Molnár, the film is about a small-town girl who tells a fib to a wealthy businessman, which then creates complications. The play had earlier been adapted for the 1935 film The Good Fairy by Preston Sturges.
Paris Holiday is a 1958 comedy film starring Bob Hope, which was directed by Gerd Oswald, and written by Edmund Beloin and Dean Riesner from a story by Hope. The film also features French comedian Fernandel, Anita Ekberg and Martha Hyer, and a rare appearance by writer/director Preston Sturges. The film was shot in Technirama and Technicolor in Paris and in the French village of Gambais.
Safari is a 1940 American adventure film directed by Edward H. Griffith and starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Madeleine Carroll and Tullio Carminati.
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