Standing Room Only (1944 film)

Last updated
Standing Room Only
Standing Room Only (1944 film).jpg
Directed by Sidney Lanfield
Written by Darrell Ware
Karl Tunberg
Produced by Buddy DeSylva
Starring Fred MacMurray
Paulette Goddard
Cinematography Charles Lang
Edited byWilliam Shea
Music by Robert Emmett Dolan
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date
January 7, 1944
Running time
81 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Standing Room Only is a 1944 American comedy film directed by Sidney Lanfield and starring Fred MacMurray and Paulette Goddard.

Contents

Plot

Working on the assembly line at the Todd toy manufacturing company, Jane Rogers makes a mistake and is called before company general manager Lee Stevens, a man she has admired from afar. Lee's secretary is fired, at the request of his sweetheart Alice, daughter of factory owner T. J. Todd.

Jane talks her way into the job, pretending to have secretarial skills. Lee is leaving for Washington, D.C., in an effort to save the company from financial ruin. He intends to see government official Glen Ritchie there and propose the Todd factory be used in the war effort.

Jane does everything wrong. She cancels their hotel reservation and the whole town is booked solid. She and Lee end up sleeping outdoors. Ritchie isn't able to see Lee two days in a row, so Jane, under orders to get them any kind of room, makes a deal to stay with Ira Cromwell and his wife, but only by becoming their servants.

Lee is aghast at the idea but desperate to see Ritchie so forced to stay in town. The accident-prone Jane continues to cause problems, forgetting to cook the turkey for the Cromwells' dinner party. One night their guest turns out to be Ritchie, and to further complicate matters, Todd and daughter Alice turn up, too. Dinner is a fiasco, but Ritchie agrees to give the toy factory a government contract and by now Jane and Lee are in love.

Cast

Radio adaptation

Standing Room Only was presented on the October 30th, 1944 episode of Lux Radio Theatre , with Goddard and MacMurray reprising their roles.

It was later presented on the November 23, 1952 episode of Broadway Playhouse; the 30-minute adaptation starred Goddard. [1]

Related Research Articles

<i>Hold Back the Dawn</i> 1941 film by Mitchell Leisen

Hold Back the Dawn is a 1941 American romantic drama film in which a Romanian gigolo marries an American woman in Mexico in order to gain entry to the United States, but winds up falling in love with her. It stars Charles Boyer, Olivia de Havilland, Paulette Goddard, Victor Francen, Walter Abel, Curt Bois, Rosemary DeCamp, and an uncredited Veronica Lake.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fred MacMurray</span> American actor (1908–1991)

Frederick Martin MacMurray was an American actor. He appeared in more than one hundred films and a successful television series in a career that spanned nearly a half-century. His career as a major film leading man began in 1935, but his most renowned role was in Billy Wilder's film noir Double Indemnity. During 1959–1973, MacMurray appeared in numerous Disney films, including The Shaggy Dog, The Absent-Minded Professor, Follow Me, Boys!, and The Happiest Millionaire. He starred as Steve Douglas in the television series My Three Sons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sonny Tufts</span> American actor (1911–1970)

Bowen Charlton "Sonny" Tufts III was an American stage, film, and television actor. He is best known for the films he made as a contract star at Paramount in the 1940s, including So Proudly We Hail!. He also starred in the cult classic Cat-Women of the Moon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paulette Goddard</span> American actress

Paulette Goddard was an American actress and socialite. Her career spanned six decades, from the 1920s to the early 1970s. She was a prominent leading actress during the Golden Age of Hollywood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">June Haver</span> American actress (1926–2005)

June Haver was an American film actress, singer and dancer. Once groomed by 20th Century Fox to be "the next Betty Grable," Haver appeared in a string of musicals, but she never achieved Grable's popularity. Haver's second husband was the actor Fred MacMurray, whom she married after she retired from showbusiness.

<i>Babes in Toyland</i> (operetta) Operetta by Victor Herbert and Glen MacDonough

Babes in Toyland is an operetta composed by Victor Herbert with a libretto by Glen MacDonough, which wove together various characters from Mother Goose nursery rhymes into a musical extravaganza. Following the extraordinary success of their stage musical The Wizard of Oz, which was produced in New York beginning in January 1903, producer Fred R. Hamlin and director Julian Mitchell hoped to create more family musicals. MacDonough had helped Mitchell with revisions to the Oz libretto by L. Frank Baum. Mitchell and MacDonough persuaded Victor Herbert to join the production. Babes in Toyland features some of Herbert's most famous songs – among them "Toyland", "March of the Toys", "Go to Sleep, Slumber Deep", and "I Can't Do the Sum". The theme song "Toyland", and the most famous instrumental piece from the operetta, "March of the Toys", occasionally show up on Christmas compilations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fala (dog)</span> Dog (Scottish Terrier) owned by Franklin D. Roosevelt

Fala, a Scottish Terrier, was the dog of United States president Franklin D. Roosevelt. One of the most famous presidential pets, Fala was taken to many places by Roosevelt. Given to the Roosevelts by a cousin, Fala knew how to perform tricks; the dog and his White House antics were mentioned frequently by the media and often referenced by Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor. Fala outlived Roosevelt by seven years and was buried near him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hillary Brooke</span> American actress (1914–1999)

Hillary Brooke was an American film actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geoffrey Keen</span> English actor (1916–2005)

Geoffrey Keen was an English actor who appeared in supporting roles in many films. He is well known for playing British Defence Minister Sir Frederick Gray in the James Bond films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Marshall (director)</span> American actor, screenwriter, and film director (1891–1975)

George E. Marshall was an American actor, screenwriter, producer, film and television director, active through the first six decades of film history.

<i>The Ghost Breakers</i> 1940 comedy film directed by George Marshall

The Ghost Breakers is a 1940 American mystery/horror comedy film directed by George Marshall and starring Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard. It was adapted by screenwriter Walter DeLeon as the third film version of the 1909 play The Ghost Breaker by Paul Dickey and Charles W. Goddard.

<i>Remember the Night</i> 1940 film by Mitchell Leisen

Remember the Night is a 1940 American Christmas romantic comedy trial film starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray and directed by Mitchell Leisen. The film was written by Preston Sturges and was the last of his scripts shot by another director, as Sturges began his own directorial career the same year with The Great McGinty.

Standing Room Only may refer to:

<i>Alice Adams</i> (1935 film) 1935 film by George Stevens

Alice Adams is a 1935 romantic drama film directed by George Stevens and starring Katharine Hepburn. It was made by RKO and produced by Pandro S. Berman. The screenplay was by Dorothy Yost, Mortimer Offner, and Jane Murfin. The film was adapted from the novel Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington. The music score was by Max Steiner and Roy Webb, and the cinematography by Robert De Grasse. The film received Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and Best Actress.

<i>Practically Yours</i> 1944 film by Mitchell Leisen

Practically Yours is a 1944 comedic film made by Paramount Pictures, directed by Mitchell Leisen, written by Norman Krasna and starring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray.

<i>On Our Merry Way</i> 1948 film by King Vidor, Leslie Fenton

On Our Merry Way is a 1948 American comedy film produced by Benedict Bogeaus and Burgess Meredith and released by United Artists. At the time of its release, King Vidor and Leslie Fenton were credited with its direction, although the DVD lists John Huston and George Stevens, who assisted with one of the segments, as well. The screenplay by Laurence Stallings and Lou Breslow, based on an original story by Arch Oboler, is similar in style to that of Tales of Manhattan (1942), another anthology film made up of several vignettes linked by a single theme. The picture stars Paulette Goddard, Burgess Meredith, James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Harry James, Dorothy Lamour, Victor Moore and Fred MacMurray. It marks the first joint movie appearance of Stewart and Fonda, who play a pair of musicians in their section of the film.

<i>Pot o Gold</i> (film) 1941 film by George Marshall

Pot o' Gold is a 1941 American romantic musical comedy film starring James Stewart and Paulette Goddard, directed by George Marshall, and based on the radio series Pot o' Gold. The film was released April 3, 1941, eight months before the NBC radio series came to an end. Paulette Goddard's singing voice was dubbed by Vera Van. The film was known as The Golden Hour in the United Kingdom.

<i>The Scarlett OHara War</i> 1980 television film by John Erman

The Scarlett O'Hara War is a 1980 American made-for-television drama film directed by John Erman. It is based on the 1979 novel Moviola by Garson Kanin. Set in late 1930s Hollywood, it is about the search for the actress to play Scarlett O'Hara in the much anticipated film adaptation of Gone with the Wind (1939). This film premiered as the finale of a three-night TV miniseries on NBC called Moviola: A Hollywood Saga.

<i>Murder, He Says</i> 1945 film by George Marshall

Murder, He Says is a 1945 American black comedy film directed by George Marshall and starring Fred MacMurray about a murderous rural family and the hapless pollster who becomes entangled in their hunt for a cache of money.

<i>Babes in Bagdad</i> 1952 American film by Edgar George Ulmer, Jerónimo Mihura Santos

Babes in Bagdad is a 1952 American comedy film directed by Edgar G. Ulmer and starring Paulette Goddard and Gypsy Rose Lee.

References

  1. Kirby, Walter (November 23, 1952). "Better Radio Programs for the Week". The Decatur Daily Review. p. 48. Retrieved June 16, 2015 via Newspapers.com. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg