|
| |
|
|
20th Century Fox,
1937. Directed by Tay Garnett. Camera: Ernest Palmer.
With Tyrone
Power, Jr.,
Loretta Young, Don Ameche, Slim Summerville, Dudley Digges,
Walter Catlett, Pauline Moore, Jane Darwell, Stepin Fetchit, George Sanders,
Elisha Cook,
Jr., Frank Conroy, Edwin Maxwell, Charles Williams, Julius Tannen,
George Humbert, Frederick Burton, Charles Coleman, Paul McVey, Carol Tevis,
Edgar Dearing, George Offerman, Jr., Art Dupuis, Charles Tannen, Sidney
Fields, Arthur Rankin, Jack Byron, Sterling Campbell, Dick French, Paul
Frawley, Ray Johnson, Al Jensen, Richard Powell, Jack Mulhall, Sam Ash,
Harry Hayden, Harry Depp, Sherry Hall, Charles King, Emmett Vogan, Gladden
James, Babe Green, Paddy O'Flynn, Larry Steers, Dorothy Christy, Eddie
"Rochester" Anderson, Etta McDaniels, John Dilson, Carleton E. Griffin,
Harry Watson, Mugsy Meyers, Jack Baxley, Joe Smith Marba, Pop Byron, Wade
Boteler, Fred Kelsey, Bruce Mitchell, Eddy Chandler, Maidel Turner, Herbert
Ashley, Alan Davis, Lillian West, Antonio Filauri, Davidson Clark, Edward
Cooper, Lynn Bari, Leonard Kibrick, Dot Farley. |
|
After Martin J. Canavan is appointed city editor
of the New York Daily Express, rival reporter Steve Leyton quits.
When a hot tip comes in that the multi-millionaire tin can heiress, Tony
Gateson, will be landing shortly at the Newark airport, Marty accepts a sock
in the jaw from Steve and tricks him into covering the story.
At the airport, Steve gains Tony's confidence
after posing as the leader of a special police detail to help her, and
learns that she has broken with her fiancée, Count Andre de Guyon, whom she
calls a "blue-blooded moron." When Tony learns Steve's identity and
refuses to kill the story about the breakup, she announces to the other
reporters that she and Steve have become engaged, so that he will experience
what it feels like to be a "public freak." Marty fires Steve, who is
hounded by autograph seekers and a horde of salesmen.
Tony then agrees to meet him for lunch to
discuss the situation. Steve brings Marty to prove that the story is
not true, but Tony kisses Steve passionately so that photographers from the
other papers can get pictures of them.
Steve follows Tony into the country, where she
is arrested for speeding and reckless driving. After learning that
Steve has convinced the judge to sentence her to thirty days, Tony sends him
on an errand to her car and then has him arrested for trying to rob it.
She tells the other reporters that "Stevekins" had himself thrown in jail to
be near her.
The next day, after she is released and pays
Steve's fine, she tries to attract his attention by faking an accident in
her car. Steve, however, carries her from the car and drops her in a
pool of mud.
Later, when Tony tells Steve that she plans to
"jilt" him to create more headlines and humiliation for him, Steve says that
he is glad because it will help publicize the vaudeville act he plans to do
to recreate their "romance." Horrified, Tony refuses to jilt him, and
Steve impulsively kisses her passionately, which causes them both to realize
that their charade has gone too far. Tony agrees to call off the
engagement quickly and quietly and to give Marty the exclusive story the
next morning.
The next day, after Tony has not shown up, Steve
bets Marty a sock on the jaw that she will appear by 10:15. However,
Tony, having learned that her friend, Lois Westcott, is about to marry the
count, rushes to city hall to stop them. She convinces the count that
she still loves him and, at 10:15 as Marty socks Steve, calls the Daily
Express with the story that she will marry the count.
After the call, Steve demands repayment and
socks Marty back. At city hall, after the count tells Lois about his
change in wedding plans, Tony admits that she was only pretending so she
could reveal to Lois that the count is really a cad. Tony goes to see
Steve and, when she finds him rehearsing a scene from the vaudeville act,
calls him despicable.
She confides in her wealthy uncle, Cyrus
Jeffrey, who has liked Steve all along, and Cyrus, without her knowledge,
buys a half interest in the newspaper with the condition that Steve be made
managing editor. When Marty learns that Steve is now his boss, he
demands to be taken off the payroll. In the midst of their argument,
the count arrives and offers ten of Tony's love letters for $10,000.
Tony arrives and offers the count $25,000 for them, but Steve keeps them,
stating that he and the count already made a deal. Tony leaves upset
and Marty socks the count, while Steve puts a box marked "Gateson letters"
into a safe. Publisher J. D. Jones then demands the letters and
reveals that Cyrus is half owner of the paper. Steve quits, thinking
that Tony got him his new position.
When the box is opened and Tony sees that Steve
has destroyed the letters, she tearfully vows to "eat crow." She
chases Steve into a drugstore pay phone, demanding an interview and asking
questions such as, "Don't you think Tony Gateson is a human being?" and
"When are you going to act like one yourself?" Steve calls Marty and,
as Marty listens and a crowd watching from outside cheers, Steve kisses
Tony.
Notes
According to Var, Warner Bros. originally bought the screen rights to
the story in June 1936. According to LAEx, Darryl Zanuck, who
wanted
Tyrone Power to do light, romantic comedy, was unsure about his casting
for the role of "Chico" in Seventh Heaven, so he starred him in this
film. Life speculated that this film would probably establish
Power "as the leading contender for the romantic juvenile laurels now worn
by Robert Taylor." The same LAEx news item stated that Otto
Preminger would direct the film. NYT reported that
Loretta Young objected to Preminger as being "too foreign to direct such
an American story," so Tay Garnett was switched from The Last Slaver,
the working title for Slave Ship, to this film. Garnett
directed Slave Ship when this film was completed.
Gavin Muir and Shirley Deane are listed as cast
members in HR production charts, but their participation in the final
film has not been confirmed. A modern source states that this was
Young's only picture in the 1930s to be a top ten moneymaker and that she
was furious that Power was given top billing. Twentieth Century-Fox
remade the film in 1948 as That Wonderful Urge, with
Tyrone Power again and
Gene Tierney, directed by Robert Sinclair. In 1943, Twentieth
Century-Fox produced a film entitled
Sweet Rosie O'Grady, which was taken from stories by Lipman, Stephani
and Edward Van Every and bears some resemblance to this film. That
film starred
Betty Grable and
Robert Young and was directed by Irving Cummings.
Music includes: "Love Is News,"
words by Sidney D. Mitchell, music by Lew Pollack; and "The Prisoners'
Song," words and music by Guy Massey. |
|
American Film Institute
Catalog
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
_01.jpg){kind=small}
_01.jpg){kind=small}
