Plot
 | This article needs a plot summary.(January 2023) |
| The Boys from Syracuse | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | A. Edward Sutherland |
| Screenplay by | Leonard Spigelgass Paul Gerard Smith Charles Grayson |
| Produced by | Jules Levey |
| Starring | Allan Jones |
| Cinematography | Joseph A. Valentine |
| Edited by | Milton Carruth |
| Music by | Charles Previn |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release dates |
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Running time | 73 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Boys from Syracuse is a 1940 American musical film directed by A. Edward Sutherland, based on the 1938 stage musical by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, which in turn was loosely based on the play The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards; one for Best Visual Effects (John P. Fulton, Bernard B. Brown, Joe Lapis) and one for Best Art Direction (Jack Otterson). [3] [4]
| This article needs a plot summary.(January 2023) |
The film received mixed reviews from critics.
Bosley Crowther of The New York Times called the film "a light-weight story of mistaken identities which brushes quickly over the more intriguing implications of bedroom farce and relies in the main for its humors upon familiar low-comedy mugging and anachronistic gags. Some of them are funny—the first two or three times, anyhow ... But a lot of modern slapstick and confusion only goes so far in ancient dress—and, in this case, it isn't far enough." [5]
Variety wrote, "Sophisticated audiences will find the gags too unsubtle and the action too obvious, but the greater part of the film audience will relish the out-and-out screwiness of the whole idea." [6] Harrison's Reports wrote that the film "should, for the most part, prove satisfying to the masses, for it has plentiful gags, a few good songs, and romance." [7] Film Daily called it "packed with laughs" and "definitely timely as escapist entertainment." [8] In a review for The New Yorker , Sally Benson reported that the film had revived the stage musical "not very successfully." However, she wrote, "if you can stand seeing double, and don't mind hearing American slang in ancient Greece, and can even smile feebly over chariots equipped with taximeters, you may be able to totter out of your nearest air-cooled theater with a sultry sort of satisfaction." [9]
The Bank Dick, released as The Bank Detective in the United Kingdom, is a 1940 American comedy film starring W. C. Fields. Set in Lompoc, California, Fields plays Egbert Sousé, a drunk who accidentally thwarts a bank robbery and ends up a bank security guard as a result.
Knute Rockne, All American is a 1940 American biographical film that tells the story of Knute Rockne, Notre Dame's legendary football coach. It stars Pat O'Brien as Rockne and Ronald Reagan as player George Gipp, as well as Gale Page, Donald Crisp, Albert Bassermann, Owen Davis Jr., Nick Lukats, Kane Richmond, William Marshall and William Byrne. The film also includes cameos by legendary football coaches "Pop" Warner, Amos Alonzo Stagg, William H. Spaulding and Howard Jones, playing themselves.
Meet Me in St. Louis is a 1944 American Christmas musical film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Divided into a series of seasonal vignettes, starting with Summer 1903, it relates the story of a year in the life of the Smith family in St. Louis leading up to the opening of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in the spring of 1904. The film stars Judy Garland, Margaret O'Brien, Mary Astor, Lucille Bremer, Tom Drake, Leon Ames, Marjorie Main, June Lockhart and Joan Carroll.
The Comedy of Errors is one of William Shakespeare's early plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play. It has been adapted for opera, stage, screen and musical theatre numerous times worldwide. In the centuries following its premiere, the play's title has entered the popular English lexicon as an idiom for "an event or series of events made ridiculous by the number of errors that were made throughout".
The Boys from Syracuse is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Lorenz Hart, based on William Shakespeare's play The Comedy of Errors, as adapted by librettist George Abbott. The score includes swing and other contemporary rhythms of the 1930s. The show was the first musical based on a Shakespeare play. The Comedy of Errors was itself loosely based on a Roman play, The Menaechmi, or the Twin Brothers, by Plautus.
Phantom of the Opera is a 1943 American romantic horror film directed by Arthur Lubin, loosely based on Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel The Phantom of the Opera and its 1925 film adaptation starring Lon Chaney. Produced and distributed by Universal Pictures, the film stars Nelson Eddy, Susanna Foster and Claude Rains, and was composed by Edward Ward.
Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews were sometimes regarded as unnecessarily harsh. Crowther was an advocate of foreign-language films in the 1950s and 1960s, particularly those of Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, Ingmar Bergman, and Federico Fellini.
The Son of Monte Cristo is a 1940 American black-and-white swashbuckling adventure film from United Artists, produced by Edward Small, directed by Rowland V. Lee, that stars Louis Hayward, Joan Bennett, and George Sanders. The Small production uses the same sets and many of the same cast and production crew as his previous year's production of The Man in the Iron Mask. Hayward returned to star in Small's The Return of Monte Cristo (1946).
In the Navy is a 1941 film starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello. It was the second service comedy based on the peacetime draft of 1940. The comedy team appeared in two other service comedies in 1941, before the United States entered the war: Buck Privates released in January and Keep 'Em Flying released in November.
Keep 'Em Flying is a 1941 film starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello. The film was their third service comedy based on the peacetime draft of 1940. The comedy team had appeared in two previous service comedies in 1941, before the United States entered the war: Buck Privates, released in January, and In the Navy, released in May. Flying Cadets, along with Keep 'Em Flying were both produced by Universal Pictures in 1941.
Without Love is a 1945 romantic comedy film directed by Harold S. Bucquet and starring Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, and Lucille Ball. Based on a 1942 play by Philip Barry, the film's screenplay was written by Donald Ogden Stewart.
The Comedy of Errors is a musical with a book and lyrics by Trevor Nunn and music by Guy Woolfenden. It is based on the William Shakespeare play, The Comedy of Errors, which had previously been adapted for the musical stage as The Boys from Syracuse by Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart and George Abbott in 1938. The London production won the Olivier Award for Best New Musical in 1977.
Cry for Happy is a 1961 American CinemaScope comedy film directed by George Marshall and starring Glenn Ford and Donald O'Connor. It is a service comedy set in Japan and largely filmed there. The title song is sung during the opening credits by Miyoshi Umeki, who has a major role in the movie.
The Story of Will Rogers is a 1952 American Comedy Western film biography of humorist and movie star Will Rogers, directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Will Rogers Jr. as his father. The supporting cast features and Jane Wyman. The film's screenplay was based on the true short story "Uncle Clem's Boy" by Rogers' widow Betty Blake, which was published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1940.
Call Me Madam is a 1953 American Technicolor musical film directed by Walter Lang, with songs by Irving Berlin, based on the 1950 stage musical of the same name.
Four Jills in a Jeep is a 1944 American comedy-drama musical film starring Kay Francis, Carole Landis, Martha Raye and Mitzi Mayfair as themselves, reenacting their USO tour of Europe and North Africa during World War II.
They Got Me Covered, also known as Washington Story and The Washington Angle, is a 1943 comedy film directed by David Butler and starring Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour. Otto Preminger appears in a supporting role.
Young People is a 1940 American musical drama film directed by Allan Dwan and starring Shirley Temple and Jack Oakie. This would be Shirley's final film as a child actress.
Victory is a 1940 American adventure film directed by John Cromwell and starring Fredric March, Cedric Hardwicke and Betty Field. It was based on the popular 1915 novel by Joseph Conrad. On the eve of the American entry into World War II, Conrad's story of a hermit on an island invaded by thugs was refashioned into a call for intervention in the war in Europe at the height of American isolationism.
Around the World is a 1943 American musical comedy film produced and directed by Allan Dwan from an original screenplay by Ralph Spence. RKO Radio Pictures premiered the film at the Globe Theater in New York on November 24, 1943. The film has a large cast, and stars Kay Kyser and his band, Mischa Auer, Joan Davis, Marcy McGuire, Wally Brown, and Alan Carney. The picture follows Kyser and his troupe on a tour of U.S. military bases around the world. The film is full of one-liners, sight-gags, double-talk, running gags, and the kind of antic humor that made Kyser's band—actually a large, versatile orchestra—famous.
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