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20th Century Fox, 1943.
Directed by Irving Cummings. Camera: Ernest Palmer. With
Betty Grable, Robert Young,
Adolphe Menjou, Reginald Gardiner,
Virginia
Grey, Phil Regan, Sig Ruman, Alan Dinehart, Hobart Cavanaugh, Frank Orth,
Jonathan Hale, Hermes Pan, Stanely Clements, Byron Foulger, Lilyan Irene,
Milton Parsons, Hal K. Dawson, George Chandler, Charles Trowbridge, St.
Brendan Boys Choir, Leo Diamond, Abe Diamond, Dick Hayman, Harry Roller,
Pete Maggio, John Kelly, Billy Wayne, Douglas Scott, John Rogers, Louis
Mason, Paul Burns, Eddy Waller, Ken Lundy, Robert Homans, Walter Baldwin, Al
Hill, Walter Fenner, Gus Glassmire, Oliver Prickett, Herbert Vigran, Perc
Launders, Cyril Ring, Milton Kibbee, Don Brodie, Sherry Hall, George
Sherwood, Charles Jordan, Fred Walburn, Dorothy Granger, Charles Cockerill,
Mary Gordon, Connie Leon, James Metcalfe, Bruce Warren, John Dilson, Edward
Earle, Paul Maxey, Sam Wren, Hooper Atchley, William Joy, Charles Latorre,
Edward Keane, Bert Hicks, Joe King, Charles Irwin, Alphonse Martell, Ronnie
Page, Gerald Pierce, Gabriel Canzona, Lillian West, Herbert Ashley, Edward
Clark, Beverly Masterman, Allan Cooke, John Deauville, Valerie Traxler,
Grace Davies, Jean Lucius, Dona La Barr, Lee Morrison, Margaret Kays, Jerry
Franks, Jr., Merrill Long, Bob Mascagno, Herb Lurie, Milton Chisholm, John
Stanley, Clair Freeman, Bea Allen, Evelyne Eager, Beverly Weaver, Dolly
Perrin, Dorothee Jarnac, Louise Allen, Jon Pierce, Mary Stewart, Jack
Barnett, Fred Velasco, Riley Thompson, Emil Zarek. |
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In the 1880s, American Madeleine Marlowe, called
Madge by her friends, is the toast of the London musical comedy set and is
engaged to Charles, the Duke of Trippingham. Although Madge wants to
become a duchess immediately, Charles assures her that they will be married
in a month, when he joins her in New York, where she is to star in a new
show.
After boarding a ship bound for the United
States, Madge's manager, Arthur Skinner, and best friend, Edna Van Dyke,
show her a copy of the notorious American tabloid The Police Gazette,
which has been running a series on Madge. The current article reveals
that her real name is Rosie O'Grady, and that she started out as a singer in
Joe Flugelman's beer garden. The article's writer, Samuel A. Magee,
then implies that Madge is only interested in the duke's title and that the
duke, in turn, is after Madge's money. Furious that her humble origins
have been exposed, Madge vows to confront Sam in New York.
When Madge's boat docks, a swarm of reporters
awaits her. Sam "rescues" her from the competition and pumps her for
information about her engagement but, when Madge learns his identity from
another reporter, she tells the crowd waiting at her hotel that she and Sam
are engaged and that, after their marriage, he will live off her income.
Other newspapers print the story, and the Police Gazette's
cantankerous editor, Tom Morgan, fires Sam for making a laughingstock of
their paper. Sam sends a message to Madge, begging for a truce but,
when they meet for lunch, Madge again humiliates him by playing up their
"romance" to Morgan and other waiting reporters.
Fed up with being labeled a fortune hunter, Sam
decides to turn the tables on Madge and publicly serenades her with a song
he has written called "Sweet Rosie O'Grady." Sam then insists that he
accompany her to Flugelman's and, although she is reluctant at first, Madge
enjoys singing at her old stomping grounds.
Sam and Madge, who have called off their feud,
are drunk when they return to her hotel, and Charles, who has come to New
York to surprise Madge, is furious to see them together. Madge becomes
angry that Charles does not trust her and, after she breaks off the
engagement, Charles and Sam commiserate in the hotel bar. Sam suggests
that Charles pursue the wealthy Edna and, shortly after, Charles and Edna
become engaged.
Meanwhile, Skinner persuades Madge to take
advantage of the publicity and stage a new show around Sam's "Sweet Rosie
O'Grady" song. Sam attends the show's opening night, and is horrified
by the lampooning of him during the second act. Madge, who now
realizes that she loves Sam, is hurt when he disappears after the show, and
enraged when it appears that he has stolen her love letters to the duke,
which were returned by Charles after his engagement to Edna. When
Madge goes to the Gazette 's office, however, she finds Sam beating
up Morgan for stealing the letters. Pleased that Sam is defending her,
Madge gets him to admit that he loves her and, after Morgan agrees to rehire
him, Madge accepts Sam's proposal of marriage.
Notes
The working titles of this film were Police Gazette Man and Police
Gazette Girl. The MPHPD review lists The Girl on the
Police Gazette as another working title, and a July 1942 HR news
item erroneously listed the film as Police Gazette Woman. The
picture's written title cards, "Twentieth Century-Fox presents
Betty Grable,
Robert Young,
Adolphe Menjou in Sweet Rosie O'Grady," are also sung by an
off-screen chorus.
Information in the Twentieth Century-Fox Records
of the Legal Department and Produced Scripts Collection, located at the UCLA
Arts - Special Collections Library, indicate that when the studio purchased
an unpublished story and two books by Edward Van Every in early 1941, it
intended to produce a fictionalized account of the formation of the
Police Gazette newspaper and of its most successful publisher, Richard
Fox. The materials purchased from Van Every were: the
unpublished story "The Police Gazette Man," Sins of New York as
Exposed by the Polize Gazette (New York, 1930) and Sins of America as
Exposed by the Police Gazette (New York, 1931). According to
internal documents, however, the studio had difficulty obtaining clearances
from Fox's children, and was reluctant to publicize its work on the project
until the clearances had been obtained. In order to postpone any
publicity about the Police Gazette project, Twentieth Century-Fox
announced that Van Every was working on the screenplay for
Coney Island, another
Betty Grable film that was in pre-production. It is unlikely,
however, that Van Every directly contributed to
Coney Island, or that his literary materials were used for that film.
The legal files also indicate that only Van Every's unpublished story, and
not his published books, were used as a basis for Sweet Rosie O'Grady.
In June 1942, after it became clear that the
studio would not be able to obtain the necessary clearances from Fox's
heirs, producer William Perlberg suggested that the story be changed, with
the framing device of the newspaper being kept, but the main plot being
adapted from the 1937 Twentieth Century-Fox picture Love Is News,
which was based on a story by William R. Lipman and Frederick Stephani.
(Love Is News , which was directed by Tay Garnett and starred
Tyrone Power and
Loretta Young, was remade in 1948 as That Wonderful Urge.)
According to the script files, Morrie Ryskind,
Valentine Davies and Dwight Taylor worked on different drafts of the
screenplay for Sweet Rosie O'Grady. The extent of their
contributions to the completed picture has not been determined, however.
Memos in the studio files indicate that there were disputes concerning which
writers would receive onscreen credit, and that one of the writers wanted to
use the pseudonym "Allan House." The matter was sent to the Screen
Writers' Guild for arbitration, and the Guild decided that Ken Englund
should be awarded sole credit for the screenplay.
According to a June 23, 1942 LAEx news
item,
Victor Mature was sought to play the role of "Richard Fox" before the
story was changed, and a November 1942 HR news item noted that the
studio was in negotiations with
George Raft to star in the picture. Although a March 1943 HR
news item includes Mildred Harris, Maurice Costello, Henry Otto and
Philo McCullough in the cast, their appearance in the released film has not
been confirmed. Another March 1943 HR news item noted that "The
Bagpipers of Buckingham" was one of the songs composed by Mack Gordon
and Harry Warren for the picture, although it was not in the finished film.
Production on the picture, for which
Robert Young was borrowed from MGM, was temporarily halted when
Betty Grable suffered a knee injury and had to undergo surgery.
The film became the object of two lawsuits, the
first of which was filed by Van Every, who claimed that the studio owed him
$5,700 from the purchase of his literary materials. Twentieth
Century-Fox asserted that the monies were contingent upon Van Every's
ability to obtain the clearances from Richard Fox's children, however, and
that he was not entitled to further payment because the clearances were not
provided. The owners of the Police Gazette joined Van Every's
claim, stating that their waiver for the use of the newspaper's title was
reliant on the film being based on Van Every's books or unpublished story.
Because the picture was largely based on the earlier film Love Is News,
the Police Gazette 's owners believed that their name had been
improperly used. The claim was settled out of court in May 1946 for
$11,500. In April 1944, songwriter Maude Nugent, the composer of "Sweet
Rosie O'Grady," filed a lawsuit against Twentieth Century-Fox, claiming
that the studio had unlawfully used her song. The studio countered
that it had properly acquired the rights, and the case was dismissed in July
1946. Nugent's appeal of the case was dismissed in February 1948.
On March 13, 1947, The Hallmark Playhouse
presented a radio broadcast of Sweet Rosie O'Grady.
Music includes: "Sweet Rosie O'Grady,"
music and lyrics by Maude Nugent; "Where, Oh Where, Oh Where Is the Groom,"
"My Heart Tells Me So," "The Wishing Waltz," "Get Your
Police Gazette," "Goin' to the County Fair" and "My Sam,"
music by Harry Warren, lyrics by Mack Gordon; "Waiting at the Church,"
music Henry E. Pether, lyrics by Fred W. Leigh; "Two Little Girls in Blue,"
music and lyrics by Charles Graham; "Heaven Will Protect the Working Girl,"
music by A. Baldwin Sloane, words by Edgar Smith; "Little Annie Rooney,"
music and lyrics by Michael Nolan; "Throw Him Down McClosky," music
and lyrics by John W. Kelly. |
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American Film Institute
Catalog
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Poster artwork courtesy of Ivan |
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