''Presenting Lily Mars'' is a 1943 American
musical
Musical is the adjective of music.
Musical may also refer to:
* Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance
* Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...
comedy film directed by
Norman Taurog
Norman Rae Taurog (February 23, 1899 – April 7, 1981) was an American film director and screenwriter. From 1920 to 1968, Taurog directed 180 films. At the age of 32, he received the Academy Award for Best Director for '' Skippy'' (1931). He i ...
, produced by
Joe Pasternak
Joseph Herman Pasternak (born József Paszternák; September 19, 1901 – September 13, 1991) was a Hungarian-American film producer in Hollywood. Pasternak spent the Hollywood "Golden Age" of musicals at MGM Studios, producing many successfu ...
, starring
Judy Garland
Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. While critically acclaimed for many different roles throughout her career, she is widely known for playing the part of Dorothy Gale in '' The ...
and
Van Heflin
Emmett Evan "Van" Heflin Jr. (December 13, 1908 – July 23, 1971) was an American theatre, radio and film actor. He played mostly character parts over the course of his film career, but during the 1940s had a string of roles as a leading man. H ...
, and based on the novel by
Booth Tarkington
Newton Booth Tarkington (July 29, 1869 – May 19, 1946) was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his novels '' The Magnificent Ambersons'' (1918) and '' Alice Adams'' (1921). He is one of only four novelists to win the Pulitz ...
. The film is often cited as Garland's first film playing an adult type role (although ''
For Me and My Gal'', released the previous year, is also often credited thus).
Tommy Dorsey
Thomas Francis Dorsey Jr. (November 19, 1905 – November 26, 1956) was an American jazz trombonist, composer, conductor and bandleader of the big band era. He was known as the "Sentimental Gentleman of Swing" because of his smooth-toned trombo ...
and
Bob Crosby
George Robert Crosby (August 23, 1913 – March 9, 1993) was an American jazz singer and bandleader, best known for his group the Bob-Cats, which formed around 1935. The Bob-Cats were a New Orleans Dixieland-style jazz octet. He was the young ...
appear with their orchestras in this
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...
production.
__TOC__
Plot
Lily Mars (
Judy Garland
Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. While critically acclaimed for many different roles throughout her career, she is widely known for playing the part of Dorothy Gale in '' The ...
) is a small-town girl with big-city ambitions. She contrives to audition for a Broadway producer whose father was the local physician and whose family piano her father also happened to tune. However, the producer wants nothing to do with her. She then heads to
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
hoping to convince him to cast her, but after a series of disappointments, the best she can manage is an understudy job.
Cast
*
Judy Garland
Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. While critically acclaimed for many different roles throughout her career, she is widely known for playing the part of Dorothy Gale in '' The ...
as Lily Mars
*
Van Heflin
Emmett Evan "Van" Heflin Jr. (December 13, 1908 – July 23, 1971) was an American theatre, radio and film actor. He played mostly character parts over the course of his film career, but during the 1940s had a string of roles as a leading man. H ...
as John Thornway
*
Fay Bainter
Fay Okell Bainter (December 7, 1893 – April 16, 1968) was an American film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for ''Jezebel'' (1938) and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Early life
Bainter wa ...
as Mrs. Thornway
*
Richard Carlson as Owen Vail
*
Spring Byington
Spring Dell Byington (October 17, 1886 – September 7, 1971) was an American actress. Her career included a seven-year run on radio and television as the star of '' December Bride''. She was a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player who appeared in ...
as Mrs. Mars
*
Marta Eggerth as Isobel Rekay
*
Connie Gilchrist
Rose Constance Gilchrist (July 17, 1895 – March 3, 1985) was an American stage, film, and television actress. Among her screen credits are her roles in the Hollywood productions '' Cry 'Havoc (1943), ''A Letter to Three Wives'' (1949), ...
as Frankie
*
Leonid Kinskey
Leonid Kinskey (1893/1894 – September 8, 1998) was a Russian-born American film and television actor, best known for his role as "Sascha" in the film ''Casablanca'' (1942). His last name was sometimes spelled Kinsky.
Life and career
Kinskey ...
as Leo
* Patricia Barker as Poppy
*
Janet Chapman as Violet
*
Annie Ross
Annabelle McCauley Allan Short (25 July 193021 July 2020), known professionally as Annie Ross, was a British-American singer and actress, best known as a member of the jazz vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross.
Early life
Ross was born in Surr ...
as Rosie
*
Douglas Croft
Douglas Croft (born Douglas Malcolm Wheatcroft, August 12, 1926 – October 24, 1963) was an American child actor and a soldier who is best remembered for being the first person to portray the DC Comics character Robin, the Boy Wonder, as we ...
as Davey
*
Ray McDonald
Raymondo Antoine McDonald (born September 2, 1984) is a former American football defensive end. He was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in the third round of the 2007 NFL Draft. He played college football at Florida, where he was a member o ...
as Charlie Potter
*
Charles Walters as Lily's Dance Partner in Finale
*
Lillian Yarbo
Lillian "Billie" Yarbo (March 17, 1905 – June 12, 1996) was an American stage and screen comedienne, dancer, and singer.
Early life
Born Lillian Yarbough as Rosa, Isobel's maid (uncredited)
Soundtrack
The soundtrack includes:
* "
Every Little Movement (Has a Meaning All Its Own) Sheet music cover, 1910
"Every Little Movement (Has a Meaning All Its Own)" is a popular song. Its music was written by Karl Hoschna and its lyrics by Otto Harbach for their musical, ''Madame Sherry'', which opened on Broadway on August 30, 1910. ...
"
* "When I Look At You"
* "Tom, Tom The Piper's Son"
* "
Three O'Clock in the Morning
"Three O'Clock in the Morning" is a waltz composed by Julián Robledo that was extremely popular in the 1920s. Robledo published the music as a piano solo in 1919, and two years later Dorothy Terriss wrote the lyrics. Paul Whiteman's instrument ...
" and
* "Broadway Rhythm" featuring
Tommy Dorsey
Thomas Francis Dorsey Jr. (November 19, 1905 – November 26, 1956) was an American jazz trombonist, composer, conductor and bandleader of the big band era. He was known as the "Sentimental Gentleman of Swing" because of his smooth-toned trombo ...
and His Orchestra.
The finale, "Where There's Music", originally included parts of "
St. Louis Blues
The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Louis. The Blues compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference. The franchise was founded in 1967 as one of the ...
", "In The Shade of the Old Apple Tree", and "
It's a Long Way to Tipperary
"It's a Long Way to Tipperary" (or "It's a Long, Long Way to Tipperary") is an English music hall song first performed in 1912 by Jack Judge, and written by Judge and Harry Williams, though authorship of the song has long been disputed.
It ...
", which were deleted from the final version.
Reception
According to MGM records the film earned
USD
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
$2,216,000 in the US and Canada and $1,039,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $1,211,000.
"Top Grossers of the Season", ''Variety'', 5 January 1944 p 54
/ref>
References
External links
*
*
*
*
1943 films
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films
American black-and-white films
Films directed by Norman Taurog
1940s romantic musical films
1940s English-language films
Films based on American novels
Films based on works by Booth Tarkington
American romantic musical films
Films produced by Joe Pasternak
American musical comedy films
1943 musical comedy films
1940s American films
{{romantic-musical-film-stub