''Good News'' is a 1930 American
pre-Code 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 brea ...
directed by
Nick Grinde, and starring
Bessie Love,
Cliff Edwards, and
Penny Singleton. The film was shot in black-and-white, although the finale was in
Multicolor.
The film is preserved at the
UCLA Film and Television Archive
The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a visual arts organization focused on the preservation, study, and appreciation of film and television, based at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Also a nonprofit exhibition venue, the a ...
. The surviving print lacks the color finale; no footage is known to survive.
The film was based on the 1927
stage production of the same name. Another film based on the musical, also called ''
Good News'', was released in 1947. By the 1940s, the 1930 production was not shown in the United States due to its
Pre-Code content, which included sexual innuendo and lewd suggestive humor.
Plot
College student Connie Lane (Lawlor) falls for campus football star Tom Marlowe (Smith), but his bad grades threaten to make him miss the big game. Professor Kenyon (McGlynn) helps Tom academically, and Tom is able to play in the big game and lead the team to victory.
Cast
Songs
* "He's a Lady's Man" by
Lew Brown,
B.G. DeSylva, and
Ray Henderson
Ray Henderson (born Raymond Brost; December 1, 1896 – December 31, 1970) was an American songwriter.
Early life
Born in Buffalo, New York, United States, Henderson moved to New York City and became a popular composer in Tin Pan Alley. He was o ...
* "
The Best Things in Life Are Free" by Lew Brown, B.G. DeSylva, and Ray Henderson
* "Varsity Drag" by Lew Brown, B.G. DeSylva, and Ray Henderson
* "Good News" by Lew Brown, B.G. DeSylva, and Ray Henderson
* "Tait Song" by Lew Brown
* "Students Are We" by Lew Brown
* "If You're Not Kissing Me" by
Arthur Freed and
Nacio Herb Brown
* "Football" by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown
* "I Feel Pessimistic" by
J. Russel Robinson
Joseph Russel Robinson (July 8, 1892 – September 30, 1963) was an American ragtime, dixieland, and blues pianist and composer who was a member of the Original Dixieland Jass Band.
Career
Robinson was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. In his teen ...
and
George Waggner
* "I'd Like to Make You Happy" by Reggie Montgomery
Reception
Although it received mixed reviews
– deemed "trivial and unreal" by one reviewer
and "inferior to the stage production" by another – the cast received positive reviews,
particularly Bessie Love.
See also
*
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 fa ...
*
List of incomplete or partially lost films
References
External links
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1930 films
1930 musical comedy films
1930s color films
American football films
American musical comedy films
American black-and-white films
1930s English-language films
Films based on musicals
Films directed by Nick Grinde
Films set in the 1920s
Films set in universities and colleges
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films
Transitional sound films
1930s American films
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