The Big Hangover | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Norman Krasna |
Written by | Norman Krasna |
Produced by | Norman Krasna |
Starring | Van Johnson Elizabeth Taylor Fay Holden |
Cinematography | George J. Folsey |
Edited by | Fredrick Y. Smith |
Music by | Adolph Deutsch |
Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date |
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Running time | 82 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $1,026,000 [1] |
Box office | $1,626,000 [1] |
The Big Hangover is a 1950 American comedy film released by MGM. The film starred Van Johnson and Elizabeth Taylor and was written and directed by Norman Krasna. Supporting players include Percy Waram, Fay Holden, Leon Ames, Edgar Buchanan, Selena Royle, Gene Lockhart, and Rosemary DeCamp. [2]
The Big Hangover was one of Elizabeth Taylor's first films to feature her in an "adult character" role, the first being the 1949 British thriller Conspirator .
Despite being released with high hopes, The Big Hangover was a critical and box office disappointment. Home video releases are scarce in any format, as the movie remains largely unknown.
Law school student David Maldon is hired by a prominent law firm. At a birthday party for the senior partner, John Belney, his erratic behavior causes Belney's beautiful daughter, Mary, to accuse David of being drunk.
He is not. David suffers from a rare malady, "liquor recoil", causing him to become intoxicated at the mere taste of alcohol. He hallucinates during these episodes, and Mary, a psychoanalyst, is fascinated at the way David even imagines a talking dog.
City attorney Carl Bellcap is threatening a lawsuit against the firm over the eviction of a Chinese family from their apartment. David intervenes, saving the day, but firm partner Charles Parkford had been responsible for the eviction and is now livid. Parkford slips wine into David's soup, then enjoys watching the younger man make a public spectacle of himself.
At law school graduation, David surprises his colleagues by submitting his resignation, deciding to work instead for Bellcap and the city. Mary hates to see him leave the family firm, but respects David's values and has also fallen in love.
Krasna sold his story to MGM in March 1949 for what he said was more than $100,000. [3]
In July June Allyson was announced for the lead with Montgomery Clift wanted to play her co star. [4] [5] By the end of the month however Van Johnson and Elizabeth Taylor were set as stars. [6]
The film was also known as Drink to Me Only.
According to MGM records the film made $1,320,000 in the US and Canada and $306,000 overseas, leading to a profit of $25,000. [1] [7]
June Allyson was an American stage, film, and television actress, dancer, and singer.
Donna Reed was an American actress. Her career spanned more than 40 years, with performances in more than 40 films. She is well known for her portrayal of Mary Hatch Bailey in Frank Capra's fantasy holiday film It's a Wonderful Life (1946). Reed won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Fred Zinnemann's war drama film From Here to Eternity (1953).
That's Entertainment! is a 1974 American compilation film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to celebrate the studio's 50th anniversary. The success of the retrospective prompted a 1976 sequel, the related 1985 film That's Dancing!, and a third installment in 1994.
Edwin Eugene Lockhart was a Canadian-American character actor, playwright, singer and lyricist. He became an American citizen in 1939.
The Devil and Miss Jones is a 1941 comedy film starring Jean Arthur, Robert Cummings, and Charles Coburn. Directed by Sam Wood from a screenplay by Norman Krasna, the film was the product of an independent collaboration between Krasna and producer Frank Ross. Their short-lived production company released two films through RKO Radio Pictures. The film was well received by critics upon its release and garnered Oscar nominations for Coburn and Krasna.
Ann Marie Blyth is an American retired actress and singer. For her performance as Veda in the 1945 Michael Curtiz film Mildred Pierce, Blyth was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She is one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema, and became the earliest living Academy Award nominee for acting upon the death of Angela Lansbury in October 2022.
Joseph Herman Pasternak was a Hungarian-American film producer in Hollywood. Pasternak spent the Hollywood "Golden Age" of musicals at MGM Studios, producing many successful musicals with female singing stars like Deanna Durbin, Kathryn Grayson and Jane Powell, as well as swimmer/bathing beauty Esther Williams' films. He produced Judy Garland's final MGM film, Summer Stock, which was released in 1950, and some of Gene Kelly’s early breakthrough roles. Pasternak worked in the film industry for 45 years, from the later silent era until shortly past the end of the classical Hollywood cinema in the early 1960s.
Little Women is a 1949 American comedy-drama film with script and music taken directly from the earlier 1933 Hepburn version. Based on Louisa May Alcott's 1868–69 two-volume novel of the same name, it was filmed in Technicolor and directed by Mervyn LeRoy. The screenplay was written by Sally Benson, Victor Heerman, Sarah Y. Mason, and Andrew Solt. The original music score was composed by Adolph Deutsch and Max Steiner. The film also marked the American film debut of Italian actor Rossano Brazzi. Sir C. Aubrey Smith, whose acting career had spanned four decades, died in 1948; Little Women was his final film.
The Opposite Sex is a 1956 American musical romantic comedy film shot in Metrocolor and CinemaScope. The film was directed by David Miller and stars June Allyson, Joan Collins, Dolores Gray, Ann Sheridan, and Ann Miller, with Leslie Nielsen, Jeff Richards, Agnes Moorehead, Charlotte Greenwood, Joan Blondell, and Sam Levene.
Duchess of Idaho is a musical romantic comedy produced in 1950 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Directed by Robert Z. Leonard, it was the fourth film pairing Esther Williams and Van Johnson. It was filmed at the MGM Studios lot and exteriors shot in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Jeff Richards was an American minor league baseball player with the Portland Beavers, who later became an actor. He was sometimes credited as Dick Taylor and Richard Taylor.
Norman Krasna was an American screenwriter, playwright, producer, and film director who penned screwball comedies centered on a case of mistaken identity. Krasna directed three films during a forty-year career in Hollywood. He garnered four Academy Award screenwriting nominations, winning once for 1943's Princess O'Rourke, which he also directed.
Beau Brummell is a 1954 British historical film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed by Curtis Bernhardt and produced by Sam Zimbalist from a screenplay by Karl Tunberg, based on the 1890 play Beau Brummell by Clyde Fitch. The play was previously adapted as a silent film made in 1924 and starring John Barrymore as Beau Brummell, Mary Astor, and Willard Louis as the Prince of Wales.
A Date with Judy is a 1948 American comedy musical film starring Wallace Beery, Jane Powell, and Elizabeth Taylor. Directed by Richard Thorpe, the film was based on the radio series of the same name.
Big Jack is a 1949 American Western film starring Wallace Beery, Richard Conte and Marjorie Main. The movie was directed by Richard Thorpe, and the screenplay was written by Gene Fowler and Otto Eis from the novel by Robert Thoeren. The picture is a comedy-drama, set on the American frontier in the early 1800s, about outlaws who befriend a young doctor in legal trouble for acquiring corpses for anatomical research.
Courage of Lassie is a 1946 Technicolor MGM feature film starring Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Morgan, and dog actor Pal in a story about a collie named Bill and his young companion, Kathie Merrick. When Bill is separated from Kathie following a vehicular accident, he is trained as a war dog, performs heroically, and, after many tribulations, is eventually reunited with his beloved Kathie.
Selena Royle was an American actress of stage, radio, television and film and later, an author.
Dorothy Fay Hammerton, known professionally as Fay Holden, was a British-born, American-based actress. She was known as Gaby Fay early in her career.
Andy Hardy Comes Home is a 1958 comedy film directed by Howard W. Koch. It is the 16th and final film in the Andy Hardy series, with Mickey Rooney reprising his signature role. It was produced 12 years after the previous Hardy film, and was an attempt to revive what had once been an enormously popular film series. Because the film fell short of box office projections, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer did not resume the series.
Percy Thomas Carne Waram was a British-born stage and film actor who spent much of his career in the United States. His career lasted 55 years on the American stage, and he had memorable roles in The Shanghai Gesture, Elizabeth the Queen, Mary of Scotland, Pride and Prejudice, and Anne of the Thousand Days. He starred in the Chicago production of Life With Father for three years, setting box office and attendance records, after which he took the production on the road for another 38 weeks. He starred in the Broadway production of The Late George Apley for a year, and then spent another 80 weeks with the show's national tour.