''Queen for a Day'' is a 1951 American

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by

Arthur Lubin Arthur Lubin (July 25, 1898 – May 11, 1995) was an American film director and producer who directed several ''Abbott & Costello'' films, ''Phantom of the Opera'' (1943), the ''Francis the Talking Mule'' series and created the talking-horse TV se ...

and written by

Seton I. Miller Seton Ingersoll Miller (May 3, 1902 – March 29, 1974) was an American screenwriter and producer. During his career, he worked with film directors such as Howard Hawks and Michael Curtiz. Miller received two Oscar nominations and won once f ...

. The film stars Jack Bailey, Jim Morgan, Fort Pearson, Melanie York, Cynthia Corley, Kay Wiley and

Helen Mowery Helen Emily Inkster (April 25, 1922 – July 14, 2008)Helen Emily Webster in the U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014, retrieved froAncestry.com/ref> was a former Miss Wyoming who acted on the stage, in films, and on television. Ea ...

. The film was released on July 7, 1951 by

United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the studi ...

. The film is related to ''

Queen for a Day ''Queen for a Day'' is an American radio and television game show that helped to usher in American listeners' and viewers' fascination with big-prize giveaway shows. ''Queen for a Day'' originated on the Mutual Radio Network on April 30, 1945, in ...

'', an American quiz show that aired on radio beginning in 1945 and on television, hosted by Bailey, from 1956–64. The film marked the screen debut of

Leonard Nimoy Leonard Simon Nimoy (; March 26, 1931 – February 27, 2015) was an American actor, famed for playing Spock in the ''Star Trek'' franchise for almost 50 years. This includes originating Spock in the original ''Star Trek'' series in 1966, then ...

Plot

Quiz show producer Jim Morgan reads letters from radio listeners to host Jack Bailey, telling their stories of the impact appearing as contestants on ''

'' had on their lives. The stories are ''The Gossamer World'', ''The High Diver'' and ''Horsie''. In ''The Gossamer World'' Marjorie Watkins writes to the show thanking them for sending a toy engine to their six-year-old son Pete. Pete has a rampant imagination and is always telling stories. Marjorie tells her husband Dan she is worried Pete has no friends his own age. Pete meets Charles but hits him with a rock. Pete introduces his imaginary friend "Shun", short for "distinction", to his parents and blames Shun for his own accidents. Marjorie worries Pete will not take responsibility and Dan and he have a chat about this. Pete attends his first day at school and makes a friend, Jim, and says Shun was a silly game. Pete then contracts polio. Marjorie tells the show that the train means everything to him because it will be the only way he can get around until he walks again someday. In ''The High Diver'' the son of immigrant parents attempts to raise money for college by doing a dangerous high dive. ''Horsie'' tells of an elderly woman, childless and never married, who takes up nursing other peoples children in order to feel she still has a place in the world.

Cast

Broadcast Studio

* Jack Bailey as Jack Bailey *Jim Morgan as Jim Morgan *Fort Pearson as Ford Pearson *Melanie York as First Contestant *Cynthia Corley as Second Contestant *Kay Wiley as Third Contestant *

as Jan *Dian Fauntelle as Helena

"The Gossamer World"

Phyllis Avery Phyllis Avery (November 14, 1922-May 19, 2011) was an American actress. Early life Phyllis Avery was born to screenwriter Stephen Morehouse Avery and his wife Evelyn Martine Avery.

as Marjorie *

Darren McGavin Darren is a masculine given name of uncertain etymological origins. Some theories state that it originated from an Anglicisation of the Irish first name Darragh or Dáire, meaning "Oak Tree". According to other sources, it is thought to come from ...

as Dan *Rudy Lee as Pete *

Frances E. Williams Frances Elizabeth Williams (September 17, 1905 – January 2, 1995) was an American actress, activist, theatre producer, organizer, and community worker. Williams was the first black woman to run for the California State Assembly in 1948 on the Pr ...

as Anna *

Joan Winfield Joan Winfield (born Joan Marie Therese MacGillicuddy; 24 September 1918 – 16 June 1978) was an Australian-born actress and talented violinist, who appeared in Hollywood films in the 1940s, mostly in uncredited roles. She married director ...

as Laura *

Lonnie Burr Lonnie Burr (born May 31, 1943) is an American entertainer and writer best known as one of nine of the original thirty-nine Mouseketeers who remained under a seven-year contract for the complete filming (1955–1959) of Walt Disney’s children� ...

as Charles *

Tris Coffin Tristram Chockley Coffin (August 13, 1909 – March 26, 1990) was a film and television actor from the latter 1930s through the 1970s, usually in westerns or other B-movie action-adventure productions. Early years Coffin's mother was actre ...

as Doctor *Jiggs Wood as Mr. Beck *Casey Folks as Jim *George Sherwood as Mr. Garmes

"High Diver"

* Adam Williams as Chuck *Kasia Orzazewski as Mrs. Nalawak *Ben Astar as Mr. Nalawak * Tracey Roberts as Peggy *Larry Johns as Deacon McAllister *Bernard Szold as Daredevil Rinaldi *Joan Sudlow as Mrs. McAllister *Grace Lenard as Mrs. Rinaldi *

as Chief *Danny Davenport as Satchelbutt *

Madge Blake Madge Blake (née Cummings; May 31, 1899 – February 19, 1969) was an American character actress best remembered for her role as Larry Mondello's mother, Margaret Mondello, on the CBS/ ABC sitcom '' Leave It to Beaver'', as Flora MacMichael on ...

as Mrs. Kimpel

"Horsie"

Edith Meiser Edith Meiser (May 9, 1898 – September 26, 1993) was an American author and actress, who wrote mystery novels, stage plays, and numerous radio dramas. She is perhaps best known for bringing adaptations of Sherlock Holmes stories to radio in the ...

as Miss Wilmarth *

Dan Tobin Daniel Malloy Tobin (October 19, 1910 – November 26, 1982) was an American supporting actor on the stage, in films and on television. He generally played gentle, urbane, rather fussy, sometimes obsequious and shifty characters, often with a ...

as Owen Cruger *Jessie Cavitt as Camilla Cruger * Douglas Evans as Freddy Forster *Don Shelton as Jack Minot *

Louise Currie Louise Currie (born Louise Gunter; April 7, 1913 – September 8, 2013) was an American film actress, active from 1940 into the early 1950s. Biography Currie was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the daughter of Charles W. Gunter, a banker, ...

as Secretary *Sheila Watson as Mary *Minna Phillips as The Cook * Byron Keith as The Chauffeur

Production

''Queen for a Day'' was a popular radio quiz show in the 1940s and 1950s with an audience of five million. Film rights to the show had been optioned by

Seymour Nebenzal Seymour Nebenzal (22 July 1899 – 23 September 1961) was an American-born Jewish-German film producer. He produced 46 films between 1927 and 1961. Biography Germany He got into film production through his father Heinrich Nebenzahl (1870– ...

and

Jesse L. Lasky Jesse Louis Lasky (September 13, 1880 – January 13, 1958) was an American pioneer motion picture producer who was a key founder of what was to become Paramount Pictures, and father of screenwriter Jesse L. Lasky Jr. Early life Born in to ...

but neither had exercised the option. In September 1949 Robert Stillman, a former associate of

Stanley Kramer Stanley Earl Kramer (September 29, 1913February 19, 2001) was an American film director and producer, responsible for making many of Hollywood's most famous "message picture, message films" (he would call his movies ''heavy dramas'') and a libera ...

, bought the screen rights from the Raymond B Morgan advertising company. Stillman had been looking to make an American anthology film along the lines of '' Trio'' (1950) and felt by using the quiz show as a framing device, "We found a commercial hook for a picture we didn't have to compromise with." Stillman was going to make the film as his first under a deal with

but then decided to make ''The Condemned'' (which became '' The Sound of Fury'') instead. ''Queen for a Day'' would be the second in a proposed slate of six films. In November 1949 Seton I Miller signed to be an associate producer and to write the script. The original plan was to film four stories. In January 1950 Stillman bought the screen rights to the story "The High Diver" by John Ainsworth, which he intended use as one of the stories in the movie. The same month he bought the rights to Faith Baldwin's 1948 magazine story "This Gossamer World". The third story, "Horsie" was written by

Dorothy Parker Dorothy Parker (née Rothschild; August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) was an American poet, writer, critic, and satirist based in New York; she was known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles. From a conflicted and unhap ...

, was purchased in June. In the end, these were the only stories used, with Miller adapting them into a script. Lubin signed to make the film in February 1950. Unlike many anthology series, one person, Lubin, directed every episode.

Casting

Most of the 36 cast were relative unknowns to film, although some had theatre experience. Darren McGavin, then best known for appearing on stage in ''Death of a Salesman'' was cast in September. Stillman reportedly wanted

Mickey Rooney Mickey Rooney (born Joseph Yule Jr.; other pseudonym Mickey Maguire; September 23, 1920 – April 6, 2014) was an American actor. In a career spanning nine decades, he appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last surviving stars of the ...

's son Mickey Rooney Jr to play a role in "This Gossamer World" but Mickey refused.

Filming

Filming started September 1950. A slightly different version of the film was made for release in France, where the quiz show was formatted differently.

Reception

The film had its world premiere in Waycross Georgia because it sent in the most requests to have a premiere, per ratio. The ''Los Angeles Times'' praised the "exceptionally capable" younger actors. ''Diabolique'' magazine said the third segment "was based on a story by Dorothy Parker, whose satirical point about beauty is muted in this adaptation – perhaps Lubin was too "nice" a director to do it justice. The other stories are warmly done... but put together they don't t quite work as a movie – maybe it would’ve been better had Lubin been restricted to a 65-minute running time like in the old days." The film was released in some markets as ''Horsie''. Stillman was meant to follow it with an adaptation of '' Island in the Sky'' written by Miller.

References

External links

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Review of film
at Variety {{Arthur Lubin 1951 films American black-and-white films 1950s English-language films United Artists films American comedy films 1951 comedy films Films based on radio series Films scored by Hugo Friedhofer 1950s American films