Key to the City | |
---|---|
Directed by | George Sidney |
Screenplay by | Robert Riley Crutcher |
Story by | Albert Beich |
Produced by | Z. Wayne Griffin |
Starring | Clark Gable Loretta Young |
Cinematography | Harold Rosson |
Edited by | James E. Newcom |
Music by | Bronislau Kaper |
Production company | |
Release date |
|
Running time | 99-101 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $1.5 million [1] |
Box office | $2.9 million [1] |
Key to the City is a 1950 American romantic comedy film starring Clark Gable and Loretta Young as mayors who meet in San Francisco, and despite their contrasting personalities and views, fall in love.
Steve Fisk (Clark Gable) is the mayor of a municipality called Puget City. At a convention in San Francisco, he mistakes Clarissa Standish (Loretta Young), the mayor of Wenonah, Maine, for a "balloon dancer" he was expecting.
A former longshoreman, Steve feels that Clarissa might be too refined a woman for him, but he is definitely attracted. He needs to be careful, however, because a crooked city councilman Les Taggart (Raymond Burr) would love to have any hint of scandal to use against Steve politically back home.
Steve proceeds to inadvertently get Clarissa arrested twice - first after a brawl in a Chinatown restaurant, then on their way to a costume party. A photographer clicks a picture of Clarissa making it appear she is at the police station for public drunkenness. She does not think it funny, but her uncle, Judge Silas Standish (Lewis Stone), is privately delighted that the prim Clarissa seems to finally be loosening up.
The balloon dancer, Sheila (Marilyn Maxwell), shows up, causing Clarissa to conclude incorrectly that Steve is going to see her. And she is irate when Steve disappears, unaware that he had to hurry home for a hastily called council vote. The truth is, Steve wants to marry Clarissa, and cannot wait to present her with the key to his city.
It was the final film role of Frank Morgan and Clara Blandick (both of whom were best known for their roles in The Wizard of Oz (1939)).
This film paired Gable and Young for the first time since Call of the Wild (1935), when their tryst produced a secret daughter, Judy Lewis.
During filming of Key to the City, or after its completion (circa 1949-50), Gable visited the Young household and spoke with Judy Lewis for the only time in Lewis' life. Lewis was fifteen at the time and did not know of Gable's role in her conception. When she was 23, Lewis' fiancee told her of the commonly held rumor around Hollywood about Gable being her father. Shortly after Gable died in 1960, Lewis confronted her mother with the rumor and Young confirmed the truth.
In 1999, shortly before her death, Young confirmed to her biographer that Gable was the father of Judith Lewis.
According to MGM records, the film earned $2,296,000 in the US and Canada, and $677,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $298,000. [1]
William Clark Gable was an American film actor. Often referred to as The King of Hollywood, he had roles in more than 60 motion pictures in a variety of genres during a career that lasted 37 years, three decades of which was as a leading man. He was named the seventh greatest male movie star of classic American cinema by the American Film Institute.
The year 1950 in film involved some significant events.
Loretta Young was an American actress. Starting as a child, she had a long and varied career in film from 1917 to 1953. She received numerous honors including an Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and three Primetime Emmy Awards as well as two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her work in film and television.
The Mocambo was a nightclub in West Hollywood, California, at 8588 Sunset Boulevard on the Sunset Strip. It was owned by Charlie Morrison and Felix Young.
Judy Lewis was an American actress, writer, producer, and therapist. She was the secret biological daughter of actors Loretta Young and Clark Gable.
The Misfits is a 1961 American Contemporary Western film written by Arthur Miller, directed by John Huston, and starring Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, and Montgomery Clift. The supporting cast includes Thelma Ritter and Eli Wallach. Adapted by Miller from his own short story of the same name published in Esquire in October 1957, The Misfits was the last completed film for both Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe. For Gable, the film was posthumously released, while Monroe died in August 1962 after its release. The plot centers on Roslyn Tabor (Monroe), a newly divorced woman from Reno, and her relationships with friendly landlady Isabelle Steers, an old-school cowboy Gaylord Langland (Gable), his tow-truck driving and plane-flying best friend (Wallach), and their rodeo-riding, bronc-busting friend (Clift).
Love Happy is a 1949 American musical comedy film, released by United Artists, directed by David Miller and starring the Marx Brothers in their 13th and final feature film, as well as a memorable walk-on by a relatively unknown Marilyn Monroe.
Broadway Melody of 1938 is a 1937 American musical film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and directed by Roy Del Ruth. The film is essentially a backstage musical revue, featuring high-budget sets and cinematography in the MGM musical tradition. The film stars Eleanor Powell and Robert Taylor and features Buddy Ebsen, George Murphy, Judy Garland, Sophie Tucker, Raymond Walburn, Robert Benchley and Binnie Barnes.
The Hollywood Palace is an hourlong American television variety show broadcast Saturday nights on ABC from January 4, 1964, to February 7, 1970. Titled The Saturday Night Hollywood Palace for its first few weeks, it began as a midseason replacement for The Jerry Lewis Show, another variety show, which lasted only three months.
Sally Blane was an American actress who appeared in more than 100 movies.
Gene Raymond was an American film, television, and stage actor of the 1930s and 1940s. In addition to acting, Raymond was also a singer, composer, screenwriter, director, producer, and decorated military pilot.
These Old Broads is a 2001 American made-for-television comedy film directed by Matthew Diamond, written by Carrie Fisher and Elaine Pope, and starring Fisher's mother Debbie Reynolds, as well as Shirley MacLaine, Joan Collins, and Elizabeth Taylor in her final film role. In a 2001 BBC Omnibus documentary about Taylor, MacLaine says that Julie Andrews and Lauren Bacall were originally planned to be in the film. The role of Miriam Hodges was originally offered to June Allyson, who ended up in a cameo instead.
The Key to the City is an honor bestowed by a city upon esteemed residents and visitors.
Dance, Girl, Dance is a 1940 American comedy-drama film directed by Dorothy Arzner and starring Maureen O'Hara, Louis Hayward, Lucille Ball, and Ralph Bellamy. The film follows two dancers who strive to preserve their own integrity while fighting for their place in the spotlight and for the affections of a wealthy young suitor.
Peter Charles Lewis is one of the founding members of the band Moby Grape. Three of his better known songs with Moby Grape are "Fall on You" and "Sitting by the Window" from the self-titled first Moby Grape album and "If You Can't Learn from My Mistakes" from Moby Grape '69.
Call of the Wild is a 1935 American adventure western film an adaptation of Jack London's 1903 novel The Call of the Wild. The film is directed by William A. Wellman, and stars Clark Gable, Loretta Young and Jack Oakie. The screenplay is by Gene Fowler and Leonard Praskins. This is the last film to be released under the 20th Century Pictures banner before being merged with the Fox Film Corporation to create 20th Century-Fox.
Girl 27 is a 2007 documentary film by writer/director David Stenn about the 1937 rape of dancer and occasional movie extra Patricia Douglas (1917–2003) at an M-G-M exhibitors' convention, the front-page news stories that followed, and the studio's subsequent cover-up of the crime. Also covered in the film are a similar assault on singer Eloise Spann and her subsequent suicide, and the better-known scandal involving actress Loretta Young and her "adopted" daughter Judy Lewis, the product of her date rape by Clark Gable during the production of The Call of the Wild.
Christopher Paul Lewis was an American writer and film producer, primarily for television, also known for his involvement in a child pornography scandal in 1973.
A Cry in the Night is a 1956 American film-noir dramatic thriller film starring Edmond O'Brien, Brian Donlevy, Natalie Wood and Raymond Burr. The film was produced and narrated by Alan Ladd. A Cry in the Night was directed by Frank Tuttle. The film also has Richard Anderson, Irene Hervey, Anthony Caruso, and Peter Hansen in supporting roles. A Cry in the Night was based on the 1955 novel by Whit Masterson titled All Through the Night.
The Lady from Cheyenne is a 1941 American comedy western film directed by Frank Lloyd and starring Loretta Young, Robert Preston and Edward Arnold.