Thank Your Lucky Stars (film)

Last updated
Thank Your Lucky Stars
ThankYourLuckyStars.jpg
theatrical poster
Directed by David Butler
Screenplay by Norman Panama
Melvin Frank
James V. Kern
Story by Everett Freeman
Arthur Schwartz
Produced by Mark Hellinger
Starring Eddie Cantor
Joan Leslie
Dennis Morgan
Dinah Shore
Cinematography Arthur Edeson
Edited by Irene Morra
Music by Heinz Roemheld
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release date
  • September 25, 1943 (1943-09-25)
Running time
127 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1,568,000 [1]
Box office$3,621,000 [1]
$2.8 million (US rentals) [2]

Thank Your Lucky Stars is a 1943 American musical comedy film made by Warner Brothers as a World War II fundraiser, with a slim plot involving theater producers. The stars donated their salaries to the Hollywood Canteen, which was founded by John Garfield and Bette Davis, who appear in this film. [3] It was directed by David Butler and stars Eddie Cantor, Dennis Morgan, Joan Leslie, Edward Everett Horton and S.Z. Sakall. [4] [5]

Contents

Plot

Two theater producers try to stage a wartime charity extravaganza called Cavalcade of Stars. The egotistical Eddie Cantor has Dinah Shore under contract and will only allow her to appear if he is made chairman of the benefit committee, so he is allowed to take command. Meanwhile, an aspiring singer and his songwriter girlfriend conspire to get into the charity program by replacing Cantor with their lookalike friend, tour bus driver Joe Simpson.

Many of Warner Bros.' stars performed in musical numbers, including several who were not known as singers. The show features the only onscreen musical performances by Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland and Ida Lupino.

Cast

Guest Stars

Musical numbers

Some are performed as part of the plot and others are heard in rehearsal and benefit performance scenes.

Production

Filming for Thank Your Lucky Stars began on October 14, 1942. [8] Producer Mark Hellinger and director David Butler both made cameo appearances in the film. [9] Thank Your Lucky Stars was the film debut of both Dinah Shore and Spike Jones and his City Slickers. [9] [10] Each of the cast members was paid a $50,000 fee, which was then donated to the Hollywood Canteen. [11]

The film used sets that had been built for the Warner Bros. films The Green Pastures and Wonder Bar . [9]

Bette Davis recalled that Conrad Wiedell, who had really won a jitterbug contest, was frightened at the thought of hurting her. She told him "forget about who I am...let your instincts come to the fore, and just do it!" [10]

Olivia de Havilland said that she added the over-the-top gum chewing to the act in order to help with the lip-synching. [12]

The finale was filmed with many of the cast on stage together, but all are shown when the curtain comes down, thanks to special effects that place five acts—Flynn, Sheridan, Davis, the Carson-Hale duo and the trio of de Havilland, Lupino and Tobias—over their glitter-covered stars.[ citation needed ]

Reception

Thank Your Lucky Stars was popular with audiences, and the critic James Agee called it "the loudest and most vulgar of the current musicals. It is also the most fun." [13] Ticket sales, combined with the donated salaries of the performers, raised more than $2,000,000 for the Hollywood Canteen. [14]

The film earned $2,503,000 domestically and $1,118,000 in foreign markets. [1]

At the time, Variety described the film as a "triumph for Eddie Cantor". [15] Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote that "the gag that the true Mr. Cantor would, if he could, gum up the show is so realistically repeated that fiction becomes painful fact...you have a conventional all-star show which has the suspicious flavor of an 'amateur night' at the studio. But at least it is lively and genial...For the sake of variety, the Warners might have worked in a little more dance and a little more femininity. Too many people sing. And too few beautiful girls display their talents. It is also too much (two hours) of a show. But, in straight omnibus entertainment that's what you have to expect." [16]

Leonard Maltin gives the picture three out of four stars, stating "Very lame plot...frames all-star Warner Bros. show, with Davis singing "They're Either Too Young or Too Old,'' Flynn delightfully performing "That's What You Jolly Well Get,'' other staid stars breaking loose." [17]

Awards and honors

The song "They're Either Too Young or Too Old" by Arthur Schwartz (music) and Frank Loesser (lyrics) was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Music, Original Song, but lost to "You'll Never Know" by Harry Warren and Mack Gordon from the film Hello, Frisco, Hello . The song was also a number-one hit on Your Hit Parade . [3]

Notes

  1. In the film, the fictional “Gower Gulch” is a hilltop neighborhood in Los Angeles, where struggling actors and musicians live in caravans and cottages cobbled together from movie sets and gathered around an old house. It is located “only 4 minutes from Vine Street,” according to Tommy Randolph. The Hollywoodland sign blinks in the background on its distant hill. The “real” Gower Gulch was a name given to the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street in Hollywood near several studios, including the what is today the Sunset Gower Studios (then Columbia Pictures).

Related Research Articles

<i>The Adventures of Robin Hood</i> 1938 film by Michael Curtiz

The Adventures of Robin Hood is a 1938 American Technicolor epic swashbuckler film from Warner Bros. Pictures. It was produced by Hal B. Wallis and Henry Blanke, directed by Michael Curtiz, and stars Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains, Patric Knowles, Eugene Pallette, and Alan Hale. The film is particularly noted for its Academy Award-winning score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bette Davis</span> American actress (1908–1989)

Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress with a career spanning more than 50 years and 100 acting credits. She was noted for playing unsympathetic, sardonic characters, and was famous for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical films, suspense horror, and occasional comedies, although her greater successes were in romantic dramas. A recipient of two Academy Awards, she was the first thespian to accrue ten nominations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Errol Flynn</span> Australian actor (1909–1959)

Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn was an Australian actor who achieved worldwide fame during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles, frequent partnerships with Olivia de Havilland, and reputation for his womanising and hedonistic personal life. His most notable roles include Robin Hood in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), which was later named by the American Film Institute as the 18th greatest hero in American film history, the lead role in Captain Blood (1935), Major Geoffrey Vickers in The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), and the hero in a number of Westerns such as Dodge City (1939), Santa Fe Trail (1940), and San Antonio (1945).

<i>Yankee Doodle Dandy</i> 1942 film by Michael Curtiz

Yankee Doodle Dandy is a 1942 American biographical musical film about George M. Cohan, known as "The Man Who Owned Broadway". It stars James Cagney, Joan Leslie, Walter Huston, and Richard Whorf, and features Irene Manning, George Tobias, Rosemary DeCamp, Jeanne Cagney, and Vera Lewis. Joan Leslie's singing voice was partially dubbed by Sally Sweetland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olivia de Havilland</span> British and American actress (1916–2020)

Dame Olivia Mary de Havilland was a British-American actress. The major works of her cinematic career spanned from 1935 to 1988. She appeared in 49 feature films and was one of the leading actresses of her time. At the time of her death in 2020 at age 104, she was the oldest living and earliest surviving Academy Award winner and was widely considered as being the last surviving major star from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema. Her younger sister was Oscar-winning actress Joan Fontaine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eddie Cantor</span> American comedian and actor (1892–1964)

Eddie Cantor was an American comedian, actor, dancer, singer, songwriter, film producer, screenwriter and author. Familiar to Broadway, radio, movie, and early television audiences, this "Apostle of Pep" was regarded almost as a family member by millions because his top-rated radio shows revealed intimate stories and amusing anecdotes about his wife, Ida, and five daughters. Some of his hits include "Makin' Whoopee", "Ida ", "If You Knew Susie", "Ma! He's Making Eyes at Me", “Mandy”, "My Baby Just Cares for Me”, "Margie", and "How Ya Gonna Keep 'em Down on the Farm ?" He also wrote a few songs, including "Merrily We Roll Along", the Merrie Melodies Warner Bros. cartoon theme.

<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.

<i>The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex</i> 1939 American historical romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz

The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, for a time also entitled Elizabeth the Queen, is a 1939 American historical romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, and Olivia de Havilland. Based on the play Elizabeth the Queen by Maxwell Anderson—which had a successful run on Broadway with Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt in the lead roles—the film fictionalizes the historical relationship between Queen Elizabeth I and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex. The screenplay was written by Norman Reilly Raine and Aeneas MacKenzie.

<i>Roman Scandals</i> 1933 film by Frank Tuttle

Roman Scandals is a 1933 American black-and-white pre-Code musical film starring Eddie Cantor, Ruth Etting, Gloria Stuart, Edward Arnold and David Manners. It was directed by Frank Tuttle. The film features a number of intricate production numbers choreographed by Busby Berkeley. The song "Keep Young and Beautiful" is from this film. In addition to the starring actors in the picture, the elaborate dance numbers are performed by the "Goldwyn Girls". The title of the film is a pun on Roman sandals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joan Leslie</span> American actress (1925–2015)

Joan Leslie was an American actress and vaudevillian, who during the Hollywood Golden Age, appeared in such films as High Sierra (1941), Sergeant York (1941), and Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Carson</span> Canadian-American actor (1910–1963)

John Elmer Carson, known as Jack Carson, was a Canadian-born American film actor. Carson often played the role of comedic friend in films of the 1940s and 1950s, including The Strawberry Blonde (1941) with James Cagney and Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) with Cary Grant. He appeared in such dramas as Mildred Pierce (1945), A Star is Born (1954), and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958). He worked for RKO and MGM, but most of his notable work was for Warner Bros.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dennis Morgan</span> American actor (1908–1994)

Dennis Morgan was an American actor-singer. He used the acting pseudonym Richard Stanley before adopting the name under which he gained his greatest fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bette Davis filmography</span> List of film appearances of actress Bette Davis

This is a complete filmography of Bette Davis. Davis began acting in films in 1931, initially as a contract player with Universal Studios, where she made her film debut in Bad Sister. She was initially seen as unappealing by studio executives, and was assigned to a string of B-movies early in her career.

<i>In This Our Life</i> 1942 film by John Huston

In This Our Life is a 1942 American drama film, the second to be directed by John Huston. The screenplay by Howard Koch is based on the 1941 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same title by Ellen Glasgow. The cast included the established stars Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland as sisters and rivals in romance and life. Raoul Walsh also worked as director, taking over when Huston was called away for a war assignment after the United States entered World War II, but he was uncredited. This film was the third of six films that de Havilland and Davis starred in together.

<i>The Bride Came C.O.D.</i> 1941 film by William Keighley

The Bride Came C.O.D. is a 1941 American screwball romantic comedy starring James Cagney as an airplane pilot and Bette Davis as a runaway heiress, and directed by William Keighley. Although the film was publicized as the first screen pairing of Warner Bros.' two biggest stars, they had actually made Jimmy the Gent together in 1934, and had wanted to find another opportunity to work together.

<i>Princess ORourke</i> 1943 film by Norman Krasna

Princess O'Rourke is a 1943 American romantic comedy film directed and written by Norman Krasna, and starring Olivia de Havilland, Robert Cummings and Charles Coburn. Krasna won the 1944 Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

<i>Hollywood Canteen</i> (film) 1944 film by Delmer Daves

Hollywood Canteen is a 1944 American musical romantic comedy film starring Joan Leslie, Robert Hutton, Dane Clark and features many stars in cameo roles. and produced by Warner Bros. The film was written and directed by Delmer Daves and received three Oscar nominations.

<i>The Hard Way</i> (1943 film) 1943 film by Vincent Sherman

The Hard Way is a 1943 Warner Bros. musical drama film directed by Vincent Sherman and starring Ida Lupino. The film was based on a story by Irwin Shaw which was reportedly based on Ginger Rogers' relationship with her first husband, Jack Pepper and her own mother, Lela.

<i>Up in Arms</i> 1944 film directed by Elliott Nugent

Up in Arms is a 1944 musical film directed by Elliott Nugent and starring Danny Kaye and Dinah Shore. It was nominated for two Academy Awards in 1945.

<i>Montana</i> (1950 film) 1950 film by Ray Enright

Montana is a 1950 American Western film directed by Ray Enright and starring Errol Flynn. It was only the second time Flynn played an Australian on screen, the first time being Desperate Journey (1942).

References

  1. 1 2 3 Warner Bros financial information in The William Shaefer Ledger. See Appendix 1, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, (1995) 15:sup1, 1-31 p 25 DOI: 10.1080/01439689508604551
  2. "Top Grossers of the Season", Variety, 5 January 1944 p 54
  3. 1 2 3 4 Landazuri, Margaret. "Articles: Thank Your Lucky Stars"." Turner Classic Movies (TCM.com). Retrieved: January 26, 2015.
  4. Film review: 'Thank Your Lucky Stars'." Variety , August 18, 1943, p. 10.
  5. Film review: 'Thank Your Lucky Stars'." Harrison's Reports , August 21, 1943, p. 136.
  6. "Pop Chronicles 1940s Program #9". 1972.
  7. Using pieces from two Warner Bros. films, Green Pastures (1936) and Wonder Bar (1934) See TCM.com.
  8. The New York Times, August 29, 1942, p. 18.
  9. 1 2 3 "Notes: Thank Your Lucky Stars." Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved: January 26, 2015.
  10. 1 2 "Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943) - Articles - TCM.com". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 2020-03-13.
  11. Spada 1993, p. 194.
  12. "Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943) - Articles - TCM.com". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 2020-03-13.
  13. Ringgold and Quirk 1966, p. 123.
  14. Spada 1993, p. 195.
  15. "Thank Your Lucky Stars". Variety. 1943-01-01. Retrieved 2020-03-13.
  16. Crowther, Bosley (1943-10-02). "' Thank Your Lucky Stars,' an Omnibus Entertainment With Warner Actors, at Strand -- 'The Silent Village' at World". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-03-13.
  17. "Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943) - Overview - TCM.com". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 2020-03-13.

Bibliography