Plot
It's Tess's graduation day from Miss Drake's School for Girls. During the choir's performance at the ceremony, Tess notices that her beautiful divorcée mother, Louise Rayton Morgan, isn't there. Louise, an editor for Modern Design magazine, is in Dr. Cannon's office after fainting due to being overworked and stressed.
At home after the graduation ceremony, Dr. Cannon has a talk with Louise's three daughters, Tess, Ilka and Alix. He tells them that their mother needs a vacation badly, but the only way she can relax is if she goes without the girls. Louise is reluctant, but the girls convince her to go. They see their mother off on a one-month Cuban cruise. The girls then discuss whether they could bring their father back home and make their mom happy and healthy again.
In reality, Louise has kept the truth about their father from them. He was actually a very uncaring man, who left Louise to raise the girls on her own. They go to see their father's boss, Robert Nelson, to locate their father. Meanwhile, on Louise's cruise, she meets famed pianist and conductor José Iturbi. José is immediately taken by Louise, but she plays hard to get, while having the time of her life. When Louise finally returns home, she has a secret to tell the girls.
Kings Row is a 1942 film starring Ann Sheridan, Robert Cummings, and Ronald Reagan that tells a story of young people growing up in a small American town at the turn of the twentieth century. The picture was directed by Sam Wood.
Anchors Aweigh is a 1945 American Technicolor musical comedy film directed by George Sidney and starring Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, and Gene Kelly, with songs by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn. In the film, two sailors go on a four-day shore leave in Hollywood, meet a young boy and his aunt, an aspiring young singer, and the sailors try to help her get an audition at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In addition to a live-action Kelly dancing with Jerry Mouse the cartoon mouse, the film also features José Iturbi, Pamela Britton, Dean Stockwell, and Sharon McManus.
Jeanette Anna MacDonald was an American singer and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier and Nelson Eddy. During the 1930s and 1940s she starred in 29 feature films, four nominated for Best Picture Oscars, and recorded extensively, earning three gold records. She later appeared in opera, concerts, radio, and television. MacDonald was one of the most influential sopranos of the 20th century, introducing opera to film-going audiences and inspiring a generation of singers.
Louise is a “musical novel,” or “roman musical,” in four acts and five scenes by Gustave Charpentier. It can be considered an opera. The composer himself penned the French libretto with contributions from Saint-Pol-Roux, a symbolist poet and inspiration of the surrealists. It is an atmospheric story of working-class life in Paris, with the city itself invoked along the way: young Louise, a seamstress living with her parents, loves Julien, an artist; she desires freedom, associated in her mind with him and the city. Musically the work is verismo.
Tracy Kristine Nelson is an American actress, dancer and writer. From a long line of entertainers, she is the daughter of musician Ricky Nelson and actress and painter Kristin Nelson.
Anne Gwynne was an American actress and model who was known as one of the first scream queens because of her numerous appearances in horror films. Gwynne was also one of the most popular pin-ups of World War II. She is the grandmother of actor Chris Pine.
Thousands Cheer is a 1943 American musical comedy film directed by George Sidney and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Produced at the height of the Second World War, the film was intended as a morale booster for American troops and their families.
I Saw What You Did is a 1965 American thriller film released by Universal Pictures and starring Joan Crawford and John Ireland. The plot follows two teenage girls who find themselves in serious danger after making a prank phone call to a man who just murdered his wife. The screenplay by William P. McGivern was based upon the 1964 novel Out of the Dark by Ursula Curtiss. The film was produced and directed by William Castle.
Dame Amparo Iturbi Báguena was a Spanish pianist.
Raphael Kuhner Wuppermann, known professionally as Ralph Morgan, was a Hollywood stage and film character actor, and the older brother of Frank Morgan.
Incest is a popular topic in English erotic fiction; there are entire collections and websites devoted solely to incest, and there exists an entire genre of pornographic pulp fiction known as "incest novels". Incest is sometimes mentioned or described in mainstream, non-erotic fiction. Connotations can be negative, positive, or neutral.
Rose Margaret Guthrie Kerr was a British pioneer of the Guiding movement.
Nana Irene Bryant was an American film, stage, and television actress. She appeared in more than 100 films between 1935 and 1955. She was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and died in Hollywood, California.
Tess is a 1979 drama film directed by Roman Polanski and starring Nastassja Kinski, Peter Firth, and Leigh Lawson. It is an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's 1891 novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles. The screenplay was written by Gérard Brach, John Brownjohn, and Roman Polanski. The film received positive critical reviews upon release and was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, winning three for Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design.
Inang Yaya is a 2006 film directed by Pablo Biglang-awa and Veronica Velasco and stars Maricel Soriano as Norma, a nanny who has to choose between Ruby or Louise. The film won Best Film and Best Performance, awards given by the Young Critics Circle.
Holiday in Mexico is a 1946 Technicolor musical directed by George Sidney and starring Walter Pidgeon, Jane Powell, and Ilona Massey.
José Iturbi Báguena was a Spanish conductor, pianist and harpsichordist. He appeared in several Hollywood films of the 1940s, notably playing himself in the musicals Thousands Cheer (1943), Music for Millions (1944), Anchors Aweigh (1945), That Midnight Kiss (1949), and Three Daring Daughters (1948), his only leading role.
What Price Innocence? is a 1933 American Pre-Code drama film written and directed by, and co-starring, Willard Mack. Produced on a low budget for Columbia Pictures, it has been classed as an exploitation film and "sex hygiene film" because it touches on teenage pregnancy and morality in a didactic manner. The film features Betty Grable in an early starring role.
Eleanor Lyon Duke was a professor of biology at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), known for her 78-year association with the school and for her sex-discrimination lawsuit against the university. In 1974 she was named UTEP's "Outstanding Ex".
A Girl of the Limberlost is a 1934 American drama film, directed by Christy Cabanne. It stars Louise Dresser, Ralph Morgan and Marian Marsh, and was released on October 15, 1934. This is the second film adaption of Gene Stratton-Porter's 1909 novel of the same name. The first film adaptation had been released in 1924, and a third was released in 1945.
