''Goodnight, Vienna'' is a 1932
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
musical film directed by
Herbert Wilcox
Herbert Sydney Wilcox CBE (19 April 1890 – 15 May 1977) was a British film producer and director.
He was one of the most successful British filmmakers from the 1920s to the 1950s. He is best known for the films he made with his third wif ...
and starring
Jack Buchanan
Walter John Buchanan (2 April 1891 – 20 October 1957) was a Scottish theatre and film actor, singer, dancer, producer and director. He was known for three decades as the embodiment of the debonair man-about-town in the tradition of George G ...
,
Anna Neagle
Dame Florence Marjorie Wilcox (''née'' Robertson; 20 October 1904 – 3 June 1986), known professionally as Anna Neagle, was an English stage and film actress, singer, and dancer.
She was a successful box-office draw in the British cinema ...
and
Gina Malo
Gina Malo (born Janet Flynn; June 1, 1909 – November 30, 1963) was an American film actress, born Janet Flynn in Cincinnati, Ohio. She appeared in a number of British films in the 1930s, often playing an American.
Early career
Though born i ...
. Two lovers in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
are separated by the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, but are later reunited.
Based on a radio
operetta written by
Eric Maschwitz, it features the song "Good-night, Vienna". Wilcox reportedly cast Neagle, whom he would later marry and direct in many films, after discovering her by chance in a stage show.
[Street p.165]
Plot
Max is an Austrian officer in the army and son of a highly placed general. His father wants him to marry a Countess but he has fallen in love with Vicki. Attending a party given in his honour, they are informed that war has broken out. Max writes a note to Vicki and goes off to war. Unfortunately the note is lost. Some time after the war, Max is just a shoe shop assistant while Vicki is now a famous singer. They meet and at first she snubs him but then falls in love with him again.
Cast
*
Jack Buchanan
Walter John Buchanan (2 April 1891 – 20 October 1957) was a Scottish theatre and film actor, singer, dancer, producer and director. He was known for three decades as the embodiment of the debonair man-about-town in the tradition of George G ...
- Captain Maximilian Schletoff
*
Anna Neagle
Dame Florence Marjorie Wilcox (''née'' Robertson; 20 October 1904 – 3 June 1986), known professionally as Anna Neagle, was an English stage and film actress, singer, and dancer.
She was a successful box-office draw in the British cinema ...
- Vicki
*
Gina Malo
Gina Malo (born Janet Flynn; June 1, 1909 – November 30, 1963) was an American film actress, born Janet Flynn in Cincinnati, Ohio. She appeared in a number of British films in the 1930s, often playing an American.
Early career
Though born i ...
- Frieda
* Clive Currie - General Schletoff
*
William Kendall - Ernst
*
Joyce Bland
Joyce Bland (10 May 1906 – 24 August 1963) was a Welsh film actress.
Early life
Joyce Bland was born in 1906, at Caerleon, Wales. She trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Career
Bland made her stage debut on tour in 1927 in '' T ...
- Countess Helga
*
Gibb McLaughlin
George McLoughlin (19 July 1879 – 30 June 1961), known professionally as Gibb McLaughlin, was an English film and stage actor.
Early days
McLaughlin was born in Sunderland, County Durham, England in 1879. For about 10 years he was a sales ...
- Max's Orderly
* Herbert Carrick - Johann
*
Clifford Heatherley
Clifford Heatherley Lamb (8 October 1888 in Preston, Lancashire – 15 September 1937 in London) was an English stage and film actor.
Filmography
* ''Henry VIII'' (1911)
* ''Bleak House'' (1920)
* '' The Tavern Knight'' (1920)
* '' The Mys ...
- Donelli
*
O. B. Clarence - Theatre Manager
*
Peggy Cartwright - Greta
*
Muriel Aked
Muriel Aked (9 November 1883 – 21 March 1955) was an English film actress.
Early life, family and education
Aked was born in Bingley, West Riding of Yorkshire, England to George Henry Aked and his wife Emma (née Bairstow).
She was a studen ...
- Marya
*
Aubrey Fitzgerald - Waiter
Production
Herbert Wilcox was played the score by Eric Maschwitz and
George Posford
George Posford, born Benjamin George Ashwell (23 March 1906 – 24 April 1976), was an English composer and conductor.
Early life
Benjamin George Ashwell was born in 1906 in Folkestone, Kent. He was educated at Downside School in Somerset a ...
. He liked it and bought the rights. Within a week Wilcox persuaded
Jack Buchanan
Walter John Buchanan (2 April 1891 – 20 October 1957) was a Scottish theatre and film actor, singer, dancer, producer and director. He was known for three decades as the embodiment of the debonair man-about-town in the tradition of George G ...
to play the lead. He wanted
Lea Seidl or
Evelyn Lane to play the female lead but neither was available. He went to tell Buchanan that the film was going to be postponed; Buchanan was playing in a show ''Stand Up and Sing'' with Anna Neagle. Wilcox was impressed by Neagle and cast her at a fee of £150. The film was shot in three weeks before Buchanan had to leave to appear in ''Stand Up and Sing'' at Liverpool. During the making of the film, Wilcox and Neagle fell in love
Reception
The film was Wilcox's most commercially successful until that time.
Cultural References
* In the TV Series
Rising Damp
Structural dampness is the presence of unwanted moisture in the structure of a building, either the result of intrusion from outside or condensation from within the structure.
A high proportion of damp problems in buildings are caused by ambient ...
the lead character Rigsby often puts his cat Vienna out with the phrase Goodnight, Vienna
* The phrase is used in the TV Movie
Housewife, 49
''Housewife, 49'' is a 2006 television film based on the wartime diaries of Nella Last. Written by and starring English actress and comedian Victoria Wood, it follows the experiences of an ordinary housewife and mother in the Northern English t ...
when someone passes away
*
Goodnight Vienna is the title of the fourth album by ex-Beatle
Ringo Starr
* In the opening scene of the ''
Jeeves and Wooster
''Jeeves and Wooster'' is a British comedy-drama television series adapted by Clive Exton from P. G. Wodehouse's "Jeeves" stories. It aired on the ITV network from 22 April 1990 to 20 June 1993, with the last series nominated for a Britis ...
'' episode ''
The Purity of the Turf'',
Hugh Laurie
James Hugh Calum Laurie (; born 11 June 1959) is an English actor, comedian, writer, and musician. He first gained recognition for his work as one half of the comedy double act Fry and Laurie with Stephen Fry. The two men acted together in ...
, in the character of
Bertie Wooster
Bertram Wilberforce Wooster is a fictional character in the comedic Jeeves stories created by British author P. G. Wodehouse. An amiable English gentleman and one of the "idle rich", Bertie appears alongside his valet, Jeeves, whose intelligenc ...
, sings fragments of the film's title song
* In the BBC's
Sherlock, "The Great Game" (Series 1: Episode 3), Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock examines a corpse, saying, "Nasty wound. Tetanus bacteria enters the bloodstream... Good night, Vienna."
*In the video game
Bloons Tower Defense 6, upon seeing a B.A.D, the hero Benjamin will simply say "Goodnight, Vienna."
References
;Notes
;Bibliography
* Street, Sarah. ''British National Cinema''. Routledge, 2009.
External links
*
1932 films
1932 musical films
British musical films
Films directed by Herbert Wilcox
Operetta films
Films set in the 1910s
Films set in Vienna
British World War I films
British black-and-white films
British and Dominions Studios films
Films shot at Imperial Studios, Elstree
1930s British films
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