Fifth Avenue Girl | |
---|---|
Directed by | Gregory La Cava |
Written by | Allan Scott Gregory La Cava (uncredited) Morrie Ryskind (uncredited story outline) [1] |
Produced by | Gregory La Cava |
Starring | Ginger Rogers Walter Connolly Verree Teasdale James Ellison |
Cinematography | Robert De Grasse |
Edited by | William Hamilton Robert Wise [1] |
Music by | Robert Russell Bennett |
Production company | |
Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 82-83 minutes [1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $607,000 [2] |
Box office | $1,370,000 [2] |
Fifth Avenue Girl, sometimes stylized as 5th Ave Girl, is a 1939 RKO Radio Pictures comedy film directed by Gregory La Cava and starring Ginger Rogers, Walter Connolly, Verree Teasdale, and James Ellison. The screenplay was written by Allan Scott with uncredited contributions by La Cava and Morris Ryskind.
The film is about a rich industrialist with business problems who feels neglected by his family and hires a young woman to stir things up.
Wealthy industrialist Timothy Borden has problems both at work and at home. His employees at Amalgamated Pump are making demands that may drive the business that he has built from nothing into bankruptcy. His son Tim, who prefers playing polo, has neglected and lost a major customer. On his birthday, when Timothy returns to his Fifth Avenue mansion, he finds nobody there but the servants. His unfaithful wife Martha, his daughter Katherine and Tim have all forgotten, are busy or do not care.
Feeling lonely, Timothy takes the advice of his butler and visits Central Park, where he meets Mary Grey, a young unemployed woman. He invites her to dine with him at a fancy nightclub. They get drunk, dance and run into Timothy' wife, who is on a date with her usual beau. The next morning, he wakes with a hangover and a black eye, discovering that he had invited Mary to spend the night in a guest room.
Seeing the reaction this elicits from his formerly indifferent family, he hires Mary to pretend to be his mistress. He intentionally neglects his company, thereby forcing his son, Tim who develops fresh new ideas, to save the firm. Timothy and Mary go out every night, pretending to cavort for hours, although they are actually driven around by the ardently communist chauffeur Mike, whom Katherine loves.
Embarrassed by the newspaper gossip columns and shunned by her friends, Martha consults a psychiatrist who finds nothing wrong with her suddenly cheerful and carefree husband. She starts staying home, plotting ways to drive Mary away. Tim, who shows contempt for Mary, unsuccessfully tries to buy her off and eventually falls in love with her. Mary tries to help Katherine with Mike, who does not pay any attention to her. Finally, Martha tries to convince Mary that she has surrendered and that they should all be friends.
In Central Park, Tim kisses Mary, who is upset the next day and wants to leave but is confronted by Tim. Martha and Timothy dine together in the kitchen, which reminds them of when they were young and poor. They page through old photographs, reminiscing about their life together.
Katherine announces that she has married Mike, who has decided to quit and open a repair shop. Martha is aghast, but Timothy reminds her that they had started their own marriage in a similar fashion, and she grudgingly accepts her new son-in-law. When Mary and Tim enter, Timothy feigns rage, but Mary can no longer continue with the charade and tearfully confesses the truth about her arrangement with Timothy. When she leaves, Tim chases her and carries her back into the mansion. When a policeman tries to interfere, Mary tells him to mind his own business.
|
Cast notes:
Production on Fifth Avenue Girl took place from May 20 to June 28, 1939. Retakes took place on August 9, 1939. [1] [3] Principal photography was completed 12 days earlier than scheduled. Working titles for the film were My Fifth Avenue Girl and The Other Half. [1]
Louis Calhern, who plays Dr. Kessler, was originally slated to play the role of Tommy Hopkins that was taken by Cornelius Keefe. [1]
The film as presented to preview audiences included a different, unhappy ending with Mary leaving the house and walking down Fifth Avenue. According to Ginger Rogers' autobiography Ginger: My Story, Rogers vacationed in Honolulu after the filming of Fifth Avenue Girl. A new ending was shot when she returned. [1]
The New York Times critic Frank Nugent described the film as "cheerful and cheerfully unimportant. It may not be a strikingly good comedy, but then it isn't militantly bad either." [4]
The film was a box-office hit and earned a profit of $314,000. [2]
Fifth Avenue Girl was presented on Lux Radio Theater in 1940, starring Ginger Rogers and Edward Arnold. [1] Another version was presented on Hollywood Players on January 1, 1947, with Paulette Goddard playing Mary Gray. [5]
Stage Door is a 1937 American drama film directed by Gregory La Cava. Adapted from the play of the same name, it tells the story of several would-be actresses who live together in a boarding house at 158 West 58th Street in New York City. The film stars Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou, Gail Patrick, Constance Collier, Andrea Leeds, Samuel S. Hinds and Lucille Ball. It was produced and distributed by RKO Pictures. Eve Arden and Ann Miller, who became notable in later films, play minor characters.
Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer and singer during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her starring role in Kitty Foyle (1940), and performed during the 1930s in RKO's musical films with Fred Astaire. Her career continued on stage, radio and television throughout much of the 20th century.
Bachelor Mother (1939) is an American romantic comedy film directed by Garson Kanin, and starring Ginger Rogers, David Niven, and Charles Coburn. The screenplay was written by Norman Krasna from an Academy Award-nominated story by Felix Jackson written for the 1935 Austrian-Hungarian film Little Mother. With a plot full of mistaken identities, Bachelor Mother is a light-hearted treatment of the otherwise serious issues of child abandonment.
Gregory La Cava was an American film director of Italian descent best known for his films of the 1930s, including My Man Godfrey and Stage Door, which earned him nominations for Academy Award for Best Director.
Charles John "Tim" Holt III was an American actor. He was a popular Western star during the 1940s and early 1950s, appearing in forty-six B westerns released by RKO Pictures.
John Elmer Carson, known as Jack Carson, was a Canadian-born American film actor. Carson often played the role of comedic friend in films of the 1940s and 1950s, including The Strawberry Blonde (1941) with James Cagney and Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) with Cary Grant. He appeared in such dramas as Mildred Pierce (1945), A Star is Born (1954), and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958). He worked for RKO and MGM, but most of his notable work was for Warner Bros.
Follow the Fleet is a 1936 American RKO musical comedy film with a nautical theme starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in their fifth collaboration as dance partners. It also features Randolph Scott, Harriet Hilliard, and Astrid Allwyn, with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin. Lucille Ball and Betty Grable also appear, in supporting roles. The film was directed by Mark Sandrich with script by Allan Scott and Dwight Taylor based on the 1922 play Shore Leave by Hubert Osborne.
Carefree is a 1938 American musical comedy film directed by Mark Sandrich and starring Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and Ralph Bellamy. With a plot similar to screwball comedies of the period, Carefree is the shortest of the Astaire-Rogers films, featuring only four musical numbers. Carefree is often remembered as the film in which Astaire and Rogers shared a long on-screen kiss at the conclusion of their dance to "I Used to Be Color Blind," all previous kisses having been either quick pecks or simply implied.
Vivacious Lady is a 1938 American black-and-white romantic comedy film directed by George Stevens and starring Ginger Rogers and James Stewart. It was released by RKO Radio Pictures. The screenplay was written by P.J. Wolfson and Ernest Pagano and adapted from a short story by I. A. R. Wylie. The music score was by Roy Webb and the cinematography by Robert De Grasse.
Waikiki Wedding is a 1937 American musical film directed by Frank Tuttle and starring Bing Crosby, Bob Burns, Martha Raye, and Shirley Ross. Crosby plays the part of Tony Marvin, a PR man charged with extolling the virtues of the Territory of Hawaii. The female lead, played by Shirley Ross is a local beauty queen who makes unhelpful comments about the islands. Bob Burns, along with Martha Raye, are the "comic relief". Amongst the supporting cast was a young Anthony Quinn. It was made by Paramount Pictures as a rival to the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers films then being made by RKO Pictures.
Kitty Foyle, subtitled The Natural History of a Woman, is a 1940 drama film starring Ginger Rogers, Dennis Morgan and James Craig, based on Christopher Morley's 1939 bestseller Kitty Foyle. Rogers won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of the title character, and the dress she wore in the film became known as a Kitty Foyle dress.
Rafter Romance is an American 1933 pre-Code romantic comedy film directed by William A. Seiter and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The film, which was based on the 1932 novel of the same name by John Wells, stars Ginger Rogers, Norman Foster and George Sidney, and features Robert Benchley, Laura Hope Crews and Guinn Williams.
Once Upon a Honeymoon is a 1942 romantic comedy/drama starring Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, and Walter Slezak, directed by Leo McCarey, and released by RKO Radio Pictures. It was nominated for the Oscar for Best Sound Recording.
Tom, Dick and Harry is a 1941 comedy film directed by Garson Kanin, written by Paul Jarrico, and starring Ginger Rogers, George Murphy, Alan Marshal, Phil Silvers, and Burgess Meredith. It was released by RKO Radio Pictures.
Dorothy Wilson was an American movie actress of the 1930s.
The Women is a 1939 American comedy-drama film directed by George Cukor. The film is based on Clare Boothe Luce's 1936 play of the same name, and was adapted for the screen by Anita Loos and Jane Murfin, who had to make the film acceptable for the Production Code for it to be released.
Star of Midnight is a 1935 American mystery comedy film directed by Stephen Roberts. William Powell was loaned to RKO Pictures from MGM to star with Ginger Rogers.
Heartbeat is a 1946 American romantic comedy drama film directed by Sam Wood and starring Ginger Rogers, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Adolphe Menjou and Basil Rathbone. It is a direct remake of the French romantic drama Battement de cœur, released in 1940. It was produced by the Hakim Brothers for distribution by RKO Pictures.
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were dance partners in a total of 10 films, nine of them released by RKO Radio Pictures from 1933 to 1939, and one, The Barkleys of Broadway, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1949, their only film in Technicolor.
Professional Sweetheart is a 1933 American pre-Code romantic comedy directed by William A. Seiter from a screenplay by Maurine Watkins. It stars Ginger Rogers in her first film for RKO Radio Pictures, with Norman Foster, ZaSu Pitts and Frank McHugh. The film is a satire of the radio industry.