Love Is a Racket | |
---|---|
Directed by | William A. Wellman |
Written by | Courtney Terrett (adaptation) |
Based on | Love Is a Racket 1931 novel by Rian James |
Starring | Douglas Fairbanks Jr. |
Cinematography | Sidney Hickox |
Edited by | William Holmes |
Music by | Leo F. Forbstein (Vitaphone Orch cond) |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
|
Running time | 72 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Love Is a Racket (UK title: Such Things Happen) is a 1932 American pre-Code romantic comedy-drama film, starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Ann Dvorak. The movie was written by Courtney Terrett from the novel by Rian James, and directed by William A. Wellman.
In this drama based on Rian James' novel, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. plays a sophisticated Broadway gossip columnist. He finds himself smitten with Broadway starlet Frances Dee. However, her ties to a notorious gangster, who often covers her debts, complicates things. The plot thickens when Dee's aunt murders the gangster, prompting Dee to desert Fairbanks for a producer promising her a role in his upcoming play. Despite risking everything to save her, the columnist is left in solitude, reflecting on his heartbreak. Additionally, Lee Tracy, despite having a limited role in this movie, would soon become a cinematic icon as the epitome of the sharp-witted, rapid-fire journalist. [1]
George Raft was an American film actor and dancer identified with portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s. A stylish leading man in dozens of movies, Raft is remembered for his gangster roles in Quick Millions (1931) with Spencer Tracy, Scarface (1932) with Paul Muni, Each Dawn I Die (1939) with James Cagney, Invisible Stripes (1939) with Humphrey Bogart, and Billy Wilder's comedy Some Like It Hot (1959) with Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon; and as a dancer in Bolero (1934) with Carole Lombard and a truck driver in They Drive by Night (1940) with Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino and Bogart.
William Lee Tracy was an American stage, film, and television actor. He is known foremost for his portrayals between the late 1920s and 1940s of fast-talking, wisecracking news reporters, press agents, lawyers, and salesmen. From 1949 to 1954, he was also featured in the weekly radio and television versions of the series Martin Kane: Private Eye, as well as starring as the newspaper columnist Lee Cochran in the 1958–1959 British-American crime drama New York Confidential. Later, in 1964, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and a Golden Globe for his supporting role in the film The Best Man.
Douglas Fowley was an American movie and television actor in more than 240 films and dozens of television programs, He is probably best remembered for his role as the frustrated movie director Roscoe Dexter in Singin' in the Rain (1952), and for his regular supporting role as Doc Fabrique and Doc Holiday in The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. He was the father of rock and roll musician and record producer Kim Fowley.
Mark John Hellinger was an American journalist, theatre columnist and film producer.
Dancers in the Dark is a 1932 American pre-Code film about a taxi dancer, a big band leader, and a gangster.
Having Wonderful Time is a 1938 American romantic comedy film adapted from Arthur Kober's 1937 Broadway play of the same name, directed by Alfred Santell and starring Ginger Rogers and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. along with Lucille Ball and Eve Arden. It was Red Skelton's film debut.
Edgar Warren Hymer was an American theatre and film actor.
I Like Your Nerve is a 1931 American pre-Code romantic comedy film directed by William C. McGann, starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Loretta Young. Boris Karloff has a small role.
Rian James(néJulian Herbert Rothschild; October 3, 1899 – April 26, 1953) was an American screenwriter and author. He wrote for more than 30 films between 1932 and 1947.
Angels Over Broadway is a 1940 American drama film noir starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Rita Hayworth, Thomas Mitchell and John Qualen. Ben Hecht, who co-directed, co-produced and wrote the screenplay, was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. It was produced and distributed by Columbia Pictures.
Charles R. Moore was an American actor who appeared in over 100 films in his acting career, and was sometimes credited as Charles Moore or Charlie Moore.
The Housekeeper's Daughter is a 1939 comedy/drama film directed and produced by Hal Roach. The film stars Joan Bennett, Adolphe Menjou and John Hubbard. The screenplay was written by Rian James, Gordon Douglas, Jack Jevne and Claude Martin, based on a novel by Donald Henderson Clarke.
Loose Ankles is a 1930 pre-Code romantic comedy with songs, produced and released by First National Pictures, which had become a subsidiary of Warner Bros. The film was directed by Ted Wilde and stars Loretta Young, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Louise Fazenda and Edward Nugent. It was a remake of the 1926 silent film titled Ladies at Play, which had been produced by First National Pictures. Both versions were adapted by Gene Towne from the 1926 play Loose Ankles by Sam Janney. Sam Janney was to direct the film but died in a car crash during production.
Hollywood Without Make-Up is a 1963 American film produced by Ken Murray and directed by Rudy Behlmer, Loring d'Usseau and Ken Murray (uncredited).
Broadway Through a Keyhole, also billed as Broadway Thru a Keyhole, is a 1933 American pre-Code musical film produced by Twentieth Century Pictures and released by United Artists.
Don't Bet on Blondes is a 1935 American romantic comedy film.
Phantom Raiders is a 1940 film, the second in the series starring Walter Pidgeon as detective Nick Carter. The film was part of a movie trilogy based on original stories featuring the character from the long-running Nick Carter, Detective literary series. In the heightened tensions prior to World War II, Hollywood produced many films in the spy film genre such as Phantom Raiders.
Arthur Pat West, born in Paducah, Kentucky, was an American character actor. He had parts in over 100 films from 1928 to 1945.
Henry Otho was an American actor. He has worked in The Big Stampede (1932), Mary Stevens (1933), Hard to Handle (1933), The Mayor of Hell (1933), Baby Face (1933), Mandalay (1934), Wonder Bar (1934), Stranded (1935), My Bill (1938), The Fighting Devil Dogs (1938), Overland Stage Raiders (1938), Each Dawn I Die (1939).
The Ziegfeld Follies of 1919 was a revue produced by Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. Billed as the thirteenth edition of the Ziegfeld Follies series, it had a tryout at Nixon's Apollo Theatre in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on June 10, 1919 and opened at Broadway's New Amsterdam Theatre on June 16, 1919 and closed on December 6, 1919. It is often considered to be the best and most successful of the Follies series produced by Ziegfeld.