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Murder At The Vanities
''Murder at the Vanities'' is a 1934 American Pre-Code musical film based on the 1933 Broadway show with music by Victor Young. It was released by Paramount Pictures. It was directed by Mitchell Leisen, stars Victor McLaglen, Carl Brisson, Jack Oakie, Kitty Carlisle, Gertrude Michael, Toby Wing, and Jessie Ralph. Duke Ellington and His Orchestra are featured in the elaborate "Ebony Rhapsody" number. The film is primarily a musical, based on Earl Carroll's long-running Broadway revue ''Earl Carroll's Vanities'', combined with a murder mystery. Songs featured in the film by Arthur Johnston and Sam Coslow include "Cocktails for Two" sung by Brisson, "Sweet Marijuana" sung by Michael, "Where Do They Come From (and Where Do They Go)" sung by Carlisle, and "Ebony Rhapsody" performed by Duke Ellington and His Orchestra and sung by Michael. In the film, Lucille Ball, Ann Sheridan, and Virginia Davis had small roles as chorines. It was released on DVD (as part of a six-disc set entitled ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mitchell Leisen
James Mitchell Leisen (October 6, 1898 – October 28, 1972) was an American director, art director, and costume designer. Film career He entered the film industry in the 1920s, beginning in the art and costume departments. He directed his first film in 1933 with '' Cradle Song'' and became known for his keen sense of aesthetics in the glossy Hollywood melodramas and screwball comedies he turned out. His best known films include Alberto Casella's adaptation of ''Death Takes a Holiday'' and ''Murder at the Vanities'', a musical mystery story (both 1934), as well as ''Midnight'' (1939) and ''Hold Back the Dawn'' (1941), both scripted by Billy Wilder. '' Easy Living'' (1937), written by Preston Sturges and starring Jean Arthur, was another hit for the director, who also directed ''Remember the Night'' (1940), the last film written by Sturges before he started directing his scripts as well. ''Lady in the Dark'' (1944), '' To Each His Own'' (1946), and '' No Man of Her Own'' (1950 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Musical Film
Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate "production numbers". The musical film was a natural development of the stage musical after the emergence of sound film technology. Typically, the biggest difference between film and stage musicals is the use of lavish background scenery and locations that would be impractical in a theater. Musical films characteristically contain elements reminiscent of theater; performers often treat their song and dance numbers as if a live audience were watching. In a sense, the viewer becomes the diegetic audience, as the performer looks directly into the camera and performs to it. With the advent of sound in the late 1920s, musicals gained popularity with the public and are exemplified by the films of Busby Ber ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fourth Wall
The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this ''wall'', the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th century onward, the rise of illusionism in staging practices, which culminated in the realism and naturalism of the theatre of the 19th century, led to the development of the fourth wall concept. The metaphor suggests a relationship to the mise-en-scène behind a proscenium arch. When a scene is set indoors and three of the walls of its room are presented onstage, in what is known as a box set, the fourth of them would run along the line (technically called the proscenium) dividing the room from the auditorium. The ''fourth wall'', though, is a theatrical convention, rather than of set design. The actors ignore the audience, focus their attention exclusively on the dramatic world, and remain absorbed in its fiction, in a state that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stage Left
In theatre, blocking is the precise staging of actors to facilitate the performance of a play, ballet, film or opera. Historically, the expectations of staging/blocking have changed substantially over time in Western theater. Prior to the movements toward "realism" that occurred in the 19th century, most staging used a "tableau" approach, in which a stage picture was established whenever characters entered or left the stage, ensuring that leading performers were always shown to their best advantage. In more recent times, while nothing has changed about showing leading performers to their best advantage, there have been changing cultural expectations that have made blocking/staging more complicated. There are also artistic reasons why blocking can be crucial. Through careful use of positioning on the stage, a director or performer can establish or change the significance of a scene. Different artistic principles can inform blocking, including minimalism and naturalism. Etymology Bo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chorine
A chorus line is a large group of dancers who together perform synchronized routines, usually in musical theatre. Sometimes, singing is also performed. Chorus line dancers in Broadway musicals and revues have been referred to by slang terms such as ''ponies'', ''gypsies'' and ''twirlies''. A chorus girl or chorine is a performer in a chorus line (i.e. the chorus of a theatrical production), in contrast to terms such as ''chorist'' or ''chorister'' (a member of a choir). While synchronized dancing indicative of a chorus line (often composed of chorus girls) was vogue during the first half of the 20th century, modern theatre uses the terms "ensemble" or "chorus" to indicate all supporting players in a stage production. These supporting players often also play minor characters, move set pieces, and support the production in other unique ways. History In the mid-1800s, chorus lines of cartwheeling, synchronized dancing can-can girls began sprouting up throughout Paris with eve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virginia Davis
Virginia Davis (December 31, 1918 – August 15, 2009) was an American child actress in films. She is best known for working with Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks on the animated short series Alice Comedies, in which she portrayed the protagonist Alice. Biography Davis was born on December 31, 1918 in Kansas City, Missouri. Her father, a furniture salesman, was often away on business. Alice Comedies Davis began working for Walt Disney's Kansas City company, Laugh-O-Gram Studio, in 1923. She was hired to act in a film called ''Alice's Wonderland'', which combined live action with animation. When Laugh-O-Gram failed and Disney moved to Los Angeles, on the basis of ''Alice's Wonderland'' Winkler Pictures signed Disney for a series known as the ''Alice Comedies'', or ''Alice in Cartoonland.'' Disney convinced Davis' family to bring her from Missouri to Los Angeles to star in the series. During this time, Davis resided at the La Brea Apartments in Hollywood, California. ''The Greater Glo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ann Sheridan
Clara Lou "Ann" Sheridan (February 21, 1915 – January 21, 1967) was an American actress and singer. She is best known for her roles in the films ''San Quentin'' (1937) with Humphrey Bogart, ''Angels with Dirty Faces'' (1938) with James Cagney and Bogart, '' They Drive by Night'' (1940) with George Raft and Bogart, ''City for Conquest'' (1940) with Cagney and Elia Kazan, ''The Man Who Came to Dinner'' (1942) with Bette Davis, ''Kings Row'' (1942) with Ronald Reagan, ''Nora Prentiss'' (1947), and ''I Was a Male War Bride'' (1949) with Cary Grant. Early life Clara Lou Sheridan was born in Denton, Texas, on February 21, 1915, the youngest of five children (Kitty, Pauline, Mabel and George) of George W. Sheridan and Lula Stewart (née Warren). According to Sheridan, her father was a grandnephew of Civil War Union general Philip Sheridan. She was active in dramatics at Denton High School and at North Texas State Teachers College. She also sang with the college's stage band and p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American actress, comedienne and producer. She was nominated for 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning five times, and was the recipient of several other accolades, such as the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award and two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She earned many honors, including the Women in Film Crystal Award, an induction into the Television Hall of Fame, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Kennedy Center Honors, and the Governors Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Ball's career began in 1929 when she landed work as a model. Shortly thereafter, she began her performing career on Broadway using the stage name Diane (or Dianne) Belmont. She later appeared in films in the 1930s and 1940s as a contract player for RKO Radio Pictures, being cast as a chorus girl or in similar roles, with lead roles in B-pictures and supporting roles in A-pictures. During this time, she met Cuban bandlea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cocktails For Two
"Cocktails for Two" is a song from the Big Band era, written by Arthur Johnston and Sam Coslow. The song debuted in the movie ''Murder at the Vanities'' (1934), where it was introduced by the Danish singer and actor Carl Brisson. Duke Ellington's version of the song was recorded in 1934 and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2007. The song alludes to Repeal, the ending of Prohibition in the United States. The introduction begins with: Oh what delight to Be given the right to Be carefree and gay once again. No longer slinking, Respectably drinking Like civilized ladies and men. The song was written in 1934, and the 21st Amendment, which ended Prohibition, was ratified in December of the previous year. Renditions Early recordings in 1934 of "Cocktails for Two" were also made by Johnny Green and Will Osborne, but possibly its best known version is the comedic sound effects-laden version by Spike Jones and His City Slickers. The Slickers first recorded it in 1944 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sam Coslow
Sam Coslow (December 27, 1902 – April 2, 1982) was an American songwriter, singer, film producer, publisher and market analyst. Coslow was born in New York City. He began writing songs as a teenager. He contributed songs to Broadway revues, formed the music publishing company Spier and Coslow with Larry Spier and made a number of recordings as a performer. With the explosion of film musicals in the late 1920s, Hollywood attracted a number of ambitious young songwriters, and Coslow joined them in 1929. Coslow and his partner Larry Spier sold their publishing business to Paramount Pictures and Coslow became a Paramount songwriter. One of his first assignments for the studio was the score for the 1930 film ''The Virtuous Sin''. He formed a successful partnership with composer Arthur Johnston and together they provided the scores for a number of films including Bing Crosby vehicles. Coslow became a film producer in the 1940s and won the Academy Award for Best Short Film for hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Johnston (composer)
Arthur James Johnston (January 10, 1898 – May 1, 1954) was an American composer, conductor, pianist and arranger. Life and career Born in New York City, he began playing piano in movie houses, and went to work for Fred Fisher's music publishing company at the age of 16. He met, and was soon hired by, Irving Berlin, becoming Berlin's personal arranger, and director of early '' Music Box Revues''. His first hit song was "Mandy Make Up Your Mind", co-written with George W. Meyer, Roy Turk and Grant Clarke for Florence Mills to sing in the show ''Dixie to Broadway''. Biography by Jason Ankeny, ''Allmusic.com'' Retrieved 12 January 2021 In 1929, he moved to Hollywood, where he o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Earl Carroll Vanities
''The Earl Carroll Vanities'' was a Broadway revue that Earl Carroll presented in the 1920s and early 1930s. Carroll and his show were sometimes controversial. Distinguishing qualities In 1923, the ''Vanities'' joined the ranks of New York’s other popular revues: ''The Greenwich Village Follies'', ''George White's Scandals'', and ''The Ziegfeld Follies''. At a time when Florenz Ziegfeld was hailed as “The Great Glorifier of the American Girl,” Carroll bragged that “the most beautiful girls in the world” passed through the stage door of his theatre. As many as 108 women were onstage in Carroll's show at one time. Critics often insinuated that Carroll's performers were provocatively dressed. Carroll frequently sublimated public scrutiny into free publicity. Though Carroll boasted of presenting larger casts than his peers, his fare was frequently regarded as somewhat unsophisticated. One critic in the ''New York Times'' described the show's comedy bits, which featured ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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