Look for the Silver Lining (film)

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Look for the Silver Lining
Look for the Silver Lining poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by David Butler
Screenplay by Phoebe Ephron
Henry Ephron
Marian Spitzer
Story by Bert Kalmar
Harry Ruby
Produced by William Jacobs
Starring June Haver
Ray Bolger
Gordon MacRae
Charlie Ruggles
Rosemary DeCamp
Lee and Lyn Wilde
Cinematography J. Peverell Marley
Edited by Irene Morra
Music by David Buttolph
Ray Heindorf
Color process Technicolor
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release date
  • June 23, 1949 (1949-06-23)(New York City)
Running time
106 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2.5 million [1] or $1,780,000 [2]
Box office$4,130,000 [2]

Look for the Silver Lining is a 1949 American biographical musical film directed by David Butler and written by Phoebe Ephron, Henry Ephron and Marian Spitzer. A fictionalized biography of Broadway singer-dancer Marilyn Miller, it stars June Haver and Ray Bolger. It was nominated for an Academy Award for best scoring for a musical picture in 1950.

Contents

Although the film was popular and made a profit, Haver's performance of Marilyn Miller has been somewhat overlooked in comparison to the more memorable portrayal of Miller by Judy Garland in Till the Clouds Roll By , the 1946 MGM musical biography of the composer Jerome Kern. [ citation needed ]

Plot

Marilyn Miller is rehearsing for a revival of the musical Sally. She has to stop because of pain or dizziness: She keeps pressing her hands to her head. While she rests in her dressing room, a man from her hometown comes to show her a poster of the Miller family, beginning a flashback to how she joined her parents vaudeville act, even though she is underage.

It is Jack Donahue who first spots Marilyn's talents, picking her "at random" from the audience one night and they ad-lib their way through a duet. Donahue keeps turning up on the same bills as the Miller Family, to Papa Miller's great annoyance. Marilyn reads too much into the relationship and thinks Donohue is going to propose. She is stunned to find out he is happily married---and that his "surprise" is an introduction to a British impresario who can give her her big break.

Marilyn gets a role in Profiles of 1914, where she is partnered with Frank Carter. Will Rogers tells her she will be a hit. When a representative from the authorities tries to stop Marilyn (who is under sixteen) from going on, Carter steps in and spins a yarn about their being engaged. He gives her one of his good luck elephants. They are a hit. He continues a tradition of giving her an elephant for each opening. Years pass. Ziegfeld invites Marilyn to discuss a role in his coming Follies. Frank has enlisted in the Army. She asks him to marry her, They elope as soon as he returns home from World War I.

Frank persuades her to take the lead in “Sally”. On opening night, Marilyn expects an elephant, but it does not come. Jack finds the package: the elephant is broken in two pieces. Marilyn goes on and is a huge success. In her dressing room, the people who love her tell her that Frank has been killed in a car crash.

Marilyn takes a break after Sally closes, on doctor's orders, but cannot stand doing nothing. She meets Producer Henry Doran II and appears in Sunny, another hit, with Jack. Henry keeps proposing. He loves her enough for both of them. They kiss.

Dissolve to the opening scene. Jack is at the dressing room door. She lies to Henry about what the doctor said. but tells Jack she must not dance. Marilyn insists that, without performing, her life would feel meaningless. She goes out to rehearse. Cut to a performance which concludes the film with “Look for the Silver Lining”.

Cast

Release

The film opened at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on June 23, 1949 together with a Fourth of July pageant. [3] It grossed $142,000 in its opening week. [4] In its sixth week of release, it grossed over $370,000 and was the number one film in the United States. [5] It returned to number one two weeks later. [6]

Reception

Bosley Crowther condemned the film with faint praise in his June 24, 1949 review for The New York Time s, opening with :”A couple of lively tap dances out of Ray Bolger's talented feet and three or four pleasant renditions of old familiar songs are the only rewards of any consequence that the patron is counseled to expect… Otherwise this Technicolored picture, based on the late Marilyn Miller's career, is a slow, unimaginative romance cut to obvious formula. The least of its several shortcomings is the fact that it doesn't begin to tell the story of Miss Miller, who was a rare personality. Instead, it follows the standard vaudeville-to-musical stardom plot,… So far as the details are presented, this could be the story of Tillie Doaks.” [7]

According to Warner Bros. records, the film earned theatrical rentals of $3,089,000 in the United States and Canada and $1,041,000 internationally for a worldwide total of $4,130,000. [2]

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References

  1. ↑ "109-Million Investment by H'wood In Current Technicolor Features". Variety. 18 February 1948. pp. 7, 14.
  2. 1 2 3 Warner Bros financial information in The William Schaefer Ledger. See Appendix 1, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, (1995) 15:sup1, 1-31 p 29 DOI: 10.1080/01439689508604551
  3. ↑ "Rita's Revival Dual Hot B.O. Stuff On B'way, $20,000; Palace Vaudfilm OK $21,000, Hope-Prima Jivey 75G, 2d". Variety . June 22, 1949. p. 11.
  4. ↑ "'Silver Lining' Golden $142,000 On B'way; 'Red Menace' in the Black with $18,000; Palace Vaudfilm $23G". Variety . June 29, 1949. p. 9.
  5. ↑ "National Boxoffice Survey". Variety. August 3, 1949. p. 3. Retrieved November 4, 2024– via Archive.org.
  6. ↑ "National Boxoffice Survey". Variety. August 17, 1949. p. 3. Retrieved November 4, 2024– via Archive.org.
  7. ↑ Crowther, Bosley (1949-06-24). "Movie Review - Look for the Silver Lining - THE SCREEN IN REVIEW; ' Look for Silver Lining,' Story of Marilyn Miller, New Film at Radio City Music Hall". The New York Times . Retrieved 2015-06-19.


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