Philip St. John Basil Rathbone MC was an Anglo-South African actor. He rose to prominence in the United Kingdom as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in more than 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers, and, occasionally, horror films.
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1937.
The year 1939 in film is widely considered the greatest year in film history. The ten films nominated for Best Picture at the 12th Academy Awards —Dark Victory, Gone with the Wind, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Love Affair, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Ninotchka, Of Mice and Men, Stagecoach, The Wizard of Oz, and Wuthering Heights—range in genre and are considered classics.
Marc Shaiman is an American composer and lyricist for films, television, and theatre, best known for his collaborations with lyricist and director Scott Wittman, actor Billy Crystal, and director Rob Reiner. Shaiman has received numerous accolades including two Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Tony Award. He has also received seven Academy Awards nominations.
Billy Lee was an American child actor who appeared in many films from the mid-1930s through the early 1940s. He is probably best remembered for his performance in The Biscuit Eater.
If I Were King is a 1938 American biographical and historical film starring Ronald Colman as medieval poet François Villon, and featuring Basil Rathbone and Frances Dee. It is based on the 1901 play and novel, both of the same name, by Justin Huntly McCarthy, and was directed by Frank Lloyd, with a screenplay adaptation by Preston Sturges.
Hugh Martin was an American musical theater and film composer, arranger, vocal coach, and playwright. He was best known for his score for the 1944 MGM musical Meet Me in St. Louis, in which Judy Garland sang three Martin songs, "The Boy Next Door", "The Trolley Song", and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas". The last of these has become a Christmas season standard in the United States and around the English-speaking world. Martin became a close friend of Garland and was her accompanist at many of her concert performances in the 1950s, including her appearances at the Palace Theater.
The Garden of Allah is a 1936 American adventure drama romance film directed by Richard Boleslawski, produced by David O. Selznick, and starring Marlene Dietrich and Charles Boyer. The screenplay was written by William P. Lipscomb and Lynn Riggs, who based it on the 1904 novel of the same title by Robert S. Hichens. Hichens's novel had been filmed twice before, as silent films made in 1916 and 1927. The supporting cast of the sound version features Basil Rathbone, C. Aubrey Smith, Joseph Schildkraut, John Carradine, Alan Marshal, and Lucile Watson. The music score is by Max Steiner.
Isadore Borsuk, better known as Bobby Breen, was a Canadian-born American actor and singer. He was a popular male child singer during the 1930s and reached major popularity with film and radio appearances.
Crazy House is a 1943 comedy film starring Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson.
On the Town is a 1949 American Technicolor musical film with music by Leonard Bernstein and Roger Edens and book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. It is an adaptation of the Broadway stage musical of the same name produced in 1944, although many changes in the script and score were made to the original stage version; for instance, most of Bernstein's score was dropped in favor of new songs by Edens, who felt that the majority of Bernstein's music was too complex and too operatic for film audiences. This caused Bernstein to boycott the film.
Rhythm on the River is a 1940 American musical comedy film directed by Victor Schertzinger and starring Bing Crosby and Mary Martin as ghostwriters whose songs are credited to a composer played by Basil Rathbone. Crosby and Martin sang "Only Forever", for which James V. Monaco (music) and Johnny Burke (lyrics) were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
Frenchman's Creek is a 1944 adventure film adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's 1941 novel of the same name, about an aristocratic English woman who falls in love with a French pirate. The film was released by Paramount Pictures and starred Joan Fontaine, Arturo de Córdova, Basil Rathbone, Cecil Kellaway, and Nigel Bruce. Filmed in Technicolor, it was directed by Mitchell Leisen. The musical score was by Victor Young, who incorporated the main theme of French composer Claude Debussy's Clair de Lune as the love theme for the film.
The Lady of Scandal is a 1930 American pre-Code romance-comedy-drama film directed by Sidney Franklin, based on the 1927 play The High Road by Frederick Lonsdale, and starring Ruth Chatterton, Basil Rathbone and Ralph Forbes. Its plot follows a British actress who becomes involved with a member of an aristocratic family, who try desperately to thwart the match. It also is known by the alternative title The High Road.
Hawaii Calls is a 1938 American musical drama film directed by Edward F. Cline, produced by Sol Lesser Productions and Bobby Breen Productions, and released by RKO Radio Pictures.
Way Down South is a 1939 American musical film directed by Leslie Goodwins and Bernard Vorhaus, and produced by Sol Lesser. It was written by Clarence Muse, who also acted in the film, and Langston Hughes. Victor Young was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Music, Scoring.
The Mad Doctor is a 1941 American crime thriller film directed by Tim Whelan and starring Basil Rathbone as a physician whose successive wealthy wives die. Ellen Drew plays his latest bride. John Howard plays her ex-fiancé, who grows increasingly suspicious of her new husband. It was produced and distributed by Hollywood studio Paramount Pictures.
Rio is a 1939 American crime film directed by John Brahm and starring Basil Rathbone and Victor McLaglen. The film's title sequence doesn't credit a producer.
Johnny Doughboy is a 1942 American black-and-white musical comedy film directed by John H. Auer for Republic Pictures. It stars Jane Withers in a dual role as a 16-year-old actress who is sick of playing juvenile roles, and her lookalike fan who is persuaded by a group of "has-been" child stars to perform with them in a U.S. troop show. The film features cameos by ex-child stars Bobby Breen, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, George "Spanky" McFarland, Baby Sandy, and others. It received an Academy Award nomination for Best Musical Score.
Navy Blues is a 1941 American musical comedy film directed by Lloyd Bacon and written by Jerry Wald, Richard Macaulay, Arthur T. Horman and Sam Perrin. The film stars Ann Sheridan, Jack Oakie, Martha Raye, Jack Haley, Herbert Anderson, Jack Carson, Jackie Gleason and William T. Orr. The film was released by Warner Bros. on September 13, 1941.
