Conceited actor Emery Slade, on a mission to recruit a Broadway star for Fox, picks unknown Julie Clarke instead.Conceited actor Emery Slade, on a mission to recruit a Broadway star for Fox, picks unknown Julie Clarke instead.Conceited actor Emery Slade, on a mission to recruit a Broadway star for Fox, picks unknown Julie Clarke instead.
Robert Adler
- Studio Gate Guard
- (uncredited)
Erville Alderson
- Emery's Neighbor
- (uncredited)
Louis Bacigalupi
- Masseur
- (uncredited)
Joe Bautista
- Filipino
- (uncredited)
George Beranger
- Waiter
- (uncredited)
John Berkes
- Marshall
- (uncredited)
Ralph Brooks
- Man Sleeping on Plane
- (uncredited)
Helen Brown
- Esther
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaCrossman's office is a replica of producer Darryl F. Zanuck's.
- Quotes
Mrs. Schlaghammer: You! You! Just who do you think you are?
Emery Slade: I know who I am, Mrs. Schlaghammer. What's more, I know who my father was. And that, around here, is a unique distinction.
- ConnectionsReferenced in To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995)
- SoundtracksDancing in the Dark
(uncredited)
Music by Arthur Schwartz
Lyrics by Howard Dietz
Sung by chorus behind credits
Performed by Betsy Drake (dubbed by Bonnie Lou Williams)
Played often in the score
Featured review
What a strange little oddity
This is basically a ninety minute piece of shameful self promotion by 20th Century Fox.
Emery Slade (William Powell) was a great star in films but is now getting on in years and down and out. Nobody wants to work with him because he was always such a self involved jerk and a budget buster when he was on top. Jean Hersholt (as himself) sees Slade on the street one day, and in spite of his bravado, Hersholt sees through it all and can tell he is broke. He brings Slade up to the Actor's Aid society he heads, and this leads to Slade being hired by 20th Century Fox to go to New York and talk the daughter of an old vaudeville partner into coming to work for the studio in their new musical "Bandwagon" (no not THAT Bandwagon). Complications ensue.
The question is - Why is this film here? Fox certainly knew how to make musicals. They made great ones before this and after this movie. This was just not one of them. There is the very odd casting of Betsy Drake as the fabulous new singing sensation. Drake was an OK actress, but she never had much screen presence and was definitely not believable as a musical star. The one musical number is a boring waltz/tableau bit with Betsy Drake's voice obviously dubbed.
What's good about it? Adolphe Menjou as a frustrated Fox producer, Jean Hersholt as himself, and, of course, William Powell in the lead. Powell makes this film with his authentic portrayal of an urbane proud has-been actor whose picture should be next to the word "insufferable" in the dictionary, yet finds himself dropped into the role of righting a past wrong and actually becoming enthusiastic about it.
I have to believe that this was made just to remind the growing TV audience at the time that 20th Century Fox was still out there. You see such rather experimental films at the end of the 1940s that are as ponderous as some of the early sound films were at the end of the 1920s.
I'd recommend this to the William Powell completists out there as his performance was excellent as always.
Emery Slade (William Powell) was a great star in films but is now getting on in years and down and out. Nobody wants to work with him because he was always such a self involved jerk and a budget buster when he was on top. Jean Hersholt (as himself) sees Slade on the street one day, and in spite of his bravado, Hersholt sees through it all and can tell he is broke. He brings Slade up to the Actor's Aid society he heads, and this leads to Slade being hired by 20th Century Fox to go to New York and talk the daughter of an old vaudeville partner into coming to work for the studio in their new musical "Bandwagon" (no not THAT Bandwagon). Complications ensue.
The question is - Why is this film here? Fox certainly knew how to make musicals. They made great ones before this and after this movie. This was just not one of them. There is the very odd casting of Betsy Drake as the fabulous new singing sensation. Drake was an OK actress, but she never had much screen presence and was definitely not believable as a musical star. The one musical number is a boring waltz/tableau bit with Betsy Drake's voice obviously dubbed.
What's good about it? Adolphe Menjou as a frustrated Fox producer, Jean Hersholt as himself, and, of course, William Powell in the lead. Powell makes this film with his authentic portrayal of an urbane proud has-been actor whose picture should be next to the word "insufferable" in the dictionary, yet finds himself dropped into the role of righting a past wrong and actually becoming enthusiastic about it.
I have to believe that this was made just to remind the growing TV audience at the time that 20th Century Fox was still out there. You see such rather experimental films at the end of the 1940s that are as ponderous as some of the early sound films were at the end of the 1920s.
I'd recommend this to the William Powell completists out there as his performance was excellent as always.
helpful•50
- AlsExGal
- Apr 15, 2022
Details
- Runtime1 hour 32 minutes
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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