Stolen Harmony

Last updated

Stolen Harmony
Stolen Harmony.jpg
Directed by Alfred L. Werker
Written by Claude Binyon
Lewis R. Foster
Leon Gordon
Produced by Albert Lewis
Starring George Raft
Ben Bernie
Grace Bradley
Cinematography Harry Fischbeck
Edited by Otho Lovering
Music by John Leipold
Production
company
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • April 20, 1935 (1935-04-20)
Running time
80 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Stolen Harmony is a 1935 American crime film directed by Alfred L. Werker and starring George Raft, Ben Bernie and Grace Bradley. [1] It is a semi-musical, featuring Big Band numbers. [2] It was produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures.

Contents

Plot

A saxophone-player/dancer joins a Big Band upon his release from jail. [3]

Cast

Production

The film was based on an original story by Leon Gordon and was announced in December 1934. From the beginning it was envisioned as a vehicle for George Raft and bandleader Ben Bernie. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ann Sheridan</span> American actress and singer (1915–1967)

Clara Lou "Ann" Sheridan was an American actress and singer. She is best known for her roles in the films San Quentin (1937) with Humphrey Bogart, Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) with James Cagney and Bogart, They Drive by Night (1940) with George Raft and Bogart, City for Conquest (1940) with Cagney and Elia Kazan, The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942) with Bette Davis, Kings Row (1942) with Ronald Reagan, Nora Prentiss (1947), and I Was a Male War Bride (1949) with Cary Grant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Hale Sr.</span> American actor (1892–1950)

Alan Hale Sr. was an American actor and director. He is best remembered for his many character roles, in particular as a frequent sidekick of Errol Flynn, as well as films supporting Lon Chaney, Wallace Beery, Douglas Fairbanks, James Cagney, Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, and Ronald Reagan. Hale was usually billed as Alan Hale and his career in film lasted 40 years. His son, Alan Hale Jr., also became an actor and remains most famous for playing "the Skipper" on the television series Gilligan's Island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raoul Walsh</span> American film director and actor (1887–1980)

Raoul Walsh was an American film director, actor, founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), and the brother of silent screen actor George Walsh. He was known for portraying John Wilkes Booth in the silent film The Birth of a Nation (1915) and for directing such films as the widescreen epic The Big Trail (1930) starring John Wayne in his first leading role, The Roaring Twenties starring James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart, High Sierra (1941) starring Ida Lupino and Humphrey Bogart, and White Heat (1949) starring James Cagney and Edmond O'Brien. He directed his last film in 1964. His work has been noted as influences on directors such as Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Jack Hill, and Martin Scorsese.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerry Wald</span> American screenwriter and producer (1911–1962)

Jerome Irving Wald was an American screenwriter and a producer of films and radio programs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Raft</span> American actor (1895–1980)

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George "Gabby" Hayes</span> American actor (1885–1969)

George Francis "Gabby" Hayes was an American actor. He began as something of a leading man and a character player, but he was best known for his numerous appearances in B-Western film series as the bewhiskered, cantankerous, but ever-loyal and brave comic sidekick of the cowboy stars Roy Rogers and John Wayne.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Pawley</span> American actor (1901–1988)

Edward Joel Pawley was an American actor of radio, films and Broadway. The full name on his birth certificate is Edward Joel Stone Pawley; he never used the Stone name, which derived from a Stone family in Illinois.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mae Clarke</span> American actress (1910–1992)

Mae Clarke was an American actress. She is widely remembered for playing Henry Frankenstein's bride Elizabeth, who is chased by Boris Karloff in Frankenstein, and for being on the receiving end of James Cagney's halved grapefruit in The Public Enemy. Both films were released in 1931.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ben Bernie</span> American jazz violinist and radio personality

Benjamin Anzelevitz, known professionally as Ben Bernie, was an American jazz violinist, bandleader, and radio personality, often introduced as "The Old Maestro". He was noted for his showmanship and memorable bits of snappy dialogue, being part of the first generation of "stars" of American popular music, alongside other artists such as Paul Whiteman, Ted Lewis and Al Jolson.

<i>The Glass Key</i> (1935 film) 1935 film by Frank Tuttle

The Glass Key is a 1935 American crime drama film directed by Frank Tuttle starring George Raft, Edward Arnold, Claire Dodd, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams and Ray Milland. Ann Sheridan has a brief speaking role as Raft's character's nurse in their first film together. Produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures, it was based upon the 1931 suspense novel The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett,

<i>Winner Take All</i> (1932 film) 1932 film

Winner Take All is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring James Cagney as a boxer. The film also features a single scene of George Raft conducting a band that had been lifted from Queen of the Nightclubs, an earlier film and lost film. Cagney and Raft would not make a full-fledged film together until Each Dawn I Die seven years later.

<i>Taxi!</i> 1932 film

Taxi! is a 1932 American pre-Code film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring James Cagney and Loretta Young.

<i>Rumba</i> (1935 film) 1935 film by Marion Gering

Rumba is a 1935 American musical drama film starring George Raft as a Cuban dancer and Carole Lombard as a Manhattan socialite. The movie was directed by Marion Gering and is considered an unsuccessful follow-up to Raft and Lombard's smash hit Bolero the previous year.

<i>City for Conquest</i> 1940 film by Anatole Litvak

City for Conquest is a 1940 American epic drama film directed by Anatole Litvak and starring James Cagney, Ann Sheridan and Arthur Kennedy. The picture is based on the 1936 novel of the same name by Aben Kandel. The supporting cast features Elia Kazan, Anthony Quinn, Donald Crisp, Frank McHugh, Frank Craven and Lee Patrick.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albert Lewis (producer)</span> American film producer

Albert E. Lewis was a Polish-born Broadway and film producer. His family emigrated to the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York when he was a boy. He became a vaudeville comedian, then started a partnership producing one-act plays for vaudeville. Around 1930 he moved to Hollywood and worked as a film producer with Paramount, RKO, and MGM until after World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Barbier (actor)</span> American actor (1864–1945)

George W. Barbier was an American stage and film actor who appeared in 88 films.

Charles Farrell was an Irish stage, film and television actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grace Bradley</span> American actress (1913–2010)

Grace Bradley was an American film actress who was active in Hollywood during the 1930s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Noel Francis</span> American actress (1906–1959)

Noel Francis was an American actress of the stage and screen during the 1920s and 1930s. Born in Texas, she began her acting career on the Broadway stage in the mid-1920s, before moving to Hollywood at the beginning of the sound film era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adrian Morris (actor)</span> American actor (1907–1941)

Adrian Michael Morris was an American actor of stage and film, and a younger brother of Chester Morris.

References

  1. Stolen Harmony Monthly Film Bulletin; London Vol. 2, Iss. 13, (Jan 1, 1935): 72.
  2. Vagg, Stephen (February 9, 2020). "Why Stars Stop Being Stars: George Raft". Filmink.
  3. Everett Aaker, The Films of George Raft, McFarland & Company, 2013 p 57
  4. Studio Workers to Be Kept Busy During Holidays Los Angeles Times 14 Dec 1934: 7.