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Fifty Million Frenchmen (film)
''Fifty Million Frenchmen ''is a 1931 American pre-Code musical comedy film directed by Lloyd Bacon. It was photographed entirely in Technicolor. The film was produced and released by Warner Brothers, and was based on Cole Porter's 1929 Broadway musical ''Fifty Million Frenchmen''. The film was originally intended to be released, in the United States, late in 1930, but was shelved due to public apathy towards musicals. Despite waiting a number of months, the public proved obstinate and the Warner Bros. reluctantly released the film in February 1931 after removing all the music. The film was released outside the United States as a full musical comedy in 1931. Plot Set in Paris, the story concerns the exploits of wealthy Jack Forbes (William Gaxton), who bets his friend Michael Cummings ( John Halliday) that he can woo and win Looloo Carroll (Claudia Dell) without using any of his money or connections. Cummings hires Simon and Peter ( Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson), a pair of erstwh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lloyd Bacon
Lloyd Francis Bacon (December 4, 1889 – November 15, 1955) was an American screen, stage and vaudeville actor and film director. As a director he made films in virtually all genres, including westerns, musicals, comedies, gangster films, and crime dramas. He was one of the directors at Warner Bros. in the 1930s who helped give that studio its reputation for gritty, fast-paced "torn from the headlines" action films. And, in directing Warner Bros.' ''42nd Street (film), 42nd Street'', he joined the movie's song-and-dance-number director, Busby Berkeley, in contributing to "an instant and enduring classic [that] transformed the musical genre." Early life Lloyd Bacon was born on December 4, 1889 in San Jose, California, the son of actor/playwright Frank Bacon (actor), Frank Bacon - the co-author and star of the long-running Broadway show Lightnin' (play), Lightnin' (1918) - and Jennie Weidman. Lloyd Bacon was not, contrary to some accounts, related to actor Irving Bacon, althoug ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fifty Million Frenchmen
''Fifty Million Frenchmen'' is a musical comedy with a book by Herbert Fields and music and lyrics by Cole Porter. It opened on Broadway in 1929 and was adapted for a film two years later. The title is a reference to the hit 1927 song "Fifty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong" by Willie Raskin, Billy Rose, and Fred Fisher, which compared free attitudes in 1920s Paris with censorship and prohibition in the United States. The musical's plot is consistent with the standard boy-meets-girl plots of musical comedies of the first half of the twentieth century. History ''Fifty Million Frenchmen'' was the first of seven Porter musicals to have the book written or co-written by Herbert Fields. This was also the first musical directed by Monty Woolley. Synopsis Peter Forbes, a young American millionaire, journeys to Paris and bets his friends Billy Baxter and Michael Cummins that he can live without his money for a month and, while doing so, get engaged to Looloo Caroll, a young woman he ado ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Musical Comedy Films
American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, people who self-identify their ancestry as "American" ** American English, the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States ** Native Americans in the United States, indigenous peoples of the United States * American, something of, from, or related to the Americas, also known as "America" ** Indigenous peoples of the Americas * American (word), for analysis and history of the meanings in various contexts Organizations * American Airlines, U.S.-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas * American Athletic Conference, an American college athletic conference * American Recordings (record label), a record label previously known as Def American * American University, in Washington, D.C. Sports teams Soccer * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1930s Color Films
Year 193 ( CXCIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Sosius and Ericius (or, less frequently, year 946 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 193 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * January 1 – Year of the Five Emperors: The Roman Senate chooses Publius Helvius Pertinax, against his will, to succeed the late Commodus as Emperor. Pertinax is forced to reorganize the handling of finances, which were wrecked under Commodus, to reestablish discipline in the Roman army, and to suspend the food programs established by Trajan, provoking the ire of the Praetorian Guard. * March 28 – Pertinax is assassinated by members of the Praetorian Guard, who storm the imperial palace. The Empire is auctioned off ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1931 Romantic Comedy Films
Events January * January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics. * January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa. * January 22 – Sir Isaac Isaacs is sworn in as the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia. * January 25 – Mohandas Gandhi is again released from imprisonment in India. * January 27 – Pierre Laval forms a government in France. February * February 4 – Soviet leader Joseph Stalin gives a speech calling for rapid industrialization, arguing that only strong industrialized countries will win wars, while "weak" nations are "beaten". Stalin states: "We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or they will crush us." The first five-year plan in the Soviet Union is intensified, for the industrialization and collectivization of agriculture. * February 10 – O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1931 Musical Comedy Films
Events January * January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics. * January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa. * January 22 – Sir Isaac Isaacs is sworn in as the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia. * January 25 – Mohandas Gandhi is again released from imprisonment in India. * January 27 – Pierre Laval forms a government in France. February * February 4 – Soviet leader Joseph Stalin gives a speech calling for rapid industrialization, arguing that only strong industrialized countries will win wars, while "weak" nations are "beaten". Stalin states: "We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or they will crush us." The first five-year plan in the Soviet Union is intensified, for the industrialization and collectivization of agriculture. * February 10 – O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1931 Films
The following is an overview of 1931 in film, including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths. Top-grossing films (U.S.) The top ten 1931 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows: Events * January 5: RKO acquires the producing and distribution arm of Pathé for $4.6 million. * June 20: Monogram Pictures releases its first film, ''Ships of Hate''. * July 7: Anti-competitive practices disclosed about certain distributors and producers in Canada. * November 17: E. R. Tinker elected president of Fox Films replacing Harley L. Clarke. * December 14: RKO refinancing plan approved. Best money stars ''Variety'' reported the following as the biggest male stars in the U.S. in alphabetical order although grouped George Arliss and Ronald Colman together as having equal ranking. The following were the biggest women names in the U.S. in alphabetical order but again grouped two actresses together to denote they were ranked t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Early Color Feature Films
This is a list of early feature-length color films (including primarily black-and-white films that have one or more color sequences) made up to about 1936, when the Technicolor three-strip process firmly established itself as the major-studio favorite. About a third of the films are thought to be lost films, with no prints surviving. Some have survived incompletely or only in black-and-white copies made for TV broadcast use in the 1950s. Background The earliest attempts to produce color films involved either tinting the film broadly with washes or baths of dyes, or pains-takingly hand-painting certain areas of each frame of the film with transparent dyes. Stencil-based techniques such as Pathéchrome were a labor-saving alternative if many copies of a film had to be colored: each dye was rolled over the whole print using an appropriate stencil to restrict the dye to selected areas of each frame. The Handschiegl color process was a comparable technique. Because transparent dyes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vera Gordon
Vera Pogorelsky Gordon (June 11, 1886 – May 8, 1948) was a Russian-born American stage and screen actress. Early life Vera Pogorelsky was born in Ekaterinoslav, Russia, on June 11, 1886, the daughter of Boris Pogorelsky and Teigan Nemirovsky. She emigrated with her family to the United States when she was seven. Career Pogorelsky was a child actor but she was fired by the directors of the Shevchenko Imperial Company when they learned she was of Jewish heritage. After emigrating to the United States, Pogorelsky, now Gordon, appeared in smaller theater like the Liberty and the Lyric in New York’s Lower East Side. In 1916 Gordon went on a tour in England, appearing in vaudeville and theatre. Gordon starred in several motion pictures such as ''Humoresque (1920 film), Humoresque'' and ''The Cohens and Kellys''. She represented the archetypical Jewish mother. She contributed to newspapers and magazines on marriage and children, and supported Jewish children orphanages. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nat Carr
Nat Carr (August 12, 1886 – July 6, 1944) was an American character actor of the silent and early talking picture eras. During his eighteen-year career, Carr appeared in over 100 films, most of them features. Life and career Carr was born on August 12, 1886, in Poltava in the Russian Empire (now part of Ukraine). In 1887, his family emigrated to the United States. Carr entered the film industry in the 1925 film, ''His People'', in the featured role of Chaim Barowitz. Although he may have appeared in an earlier film, 1923's ''Little Johnny Jones''. He appeared in the featured role of Levi in ''The Jazz Singer'' in 1927. In 1929 Carr co-wrote the story (with Mark Sandrich) for the film, ''The Talk of Hollywood'', in which he also starred. Other notable films in which he appeared include: as a waiter in Raoul Walsh's 1939 crime drama, ''The Roaring Twenties'', starring James Cagney, Priscilla Lane, and Humphrey Bogart; in the role of Crocker in the 1939 Western, ''Dodge City'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carmelita Geraghty
Carmelita Geraghty (March 21, 1901 – July 7, 1966) was an American silent-film actress and painter. Early life The daughter of screenwriter Tom Geraghty, she was the sister of writers Maurice and Gerald Geraghty. Her father wrote scenarios for Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and others."Carmelita Geraghty Dies at 65; Painter Played in Silent Films", ''The New York Times''. July 8, 196 Geraghty was born on March 21, 1901, in Rushville, Indiana, attended schools in New York, and graduated from Hollywood High School. Although her parents wished her to stay at home, she went off to become a movie star. Her father was slow to approve of his daughter's new employment. Geraghty achieved a measure of success as a Mack Sennett featured player. Career Geraghty worked as a continuity clerk before she appeared on film. She started work out as an extra in the early 1920s, using a fictitious name until getting her big break. She was selected as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars of 1924. She soon becam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Judels
Charles Judels (August 17, 1882 - February 14, 1969) was a Dutch-born American actor. Early years Judels was born on August 17, 1882, in Amsterdam as a third generation in a family of actors. His grandfather owned several theatres throughout the Netherlands and starred in his own plays. Judels' father combined his love of theatre and music and was a stage manager for the Metropolitan Opera in New York for 35 years. Career Judels appeared in more than 130 films from 1915 to 1949. In 1928, he was signed by 20th Century Fox to direct Movietone and did extensive work as a voice-over actor in animated films, including the voices of Stromboli and The Coachman in Walt Disney's ''Pinocchio'' (1940). In 1909, he became a member of The Lambs. Judels died in San Francisco, California in 1969, aged 86. Selected filmography * '' My Old Dutch'' (1915) - Jules Joubert * '' The Commuters'' (1915) - Prof. Anatole 'Sammy' Vermouth * '' Little Old New York'' (1923) - Delmonica * '' Under the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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