''Radio City Revels'' is a 1938 American
musical comedy 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 ...
directed by
Benjamin Stoloff and starring
Bob Burns,
Jack Oakie
Jack Oakie (born Lewis Delaney Offield; November 12, 1903 – January 23, 1978) was an American actor, starring mostly in films, but also working on Theatre, stage, radio and television. He portrayed Napaloni in Charlie Chaplin, Chaplin's ''T ...
and
Ann Miller
Ann Miller (born Johnnie Lucille Collier; April 12, 1923 – January 22, 2004) was an American retired actress and former dancer. She is best remembered for her work in the Classical Hollywood cinema musicals of the 1940s and 1950s. Her early ...
.
The film's sets were designed by the
art director
Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games.
It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ...
Van Nest Polglase
Van Nest Polglase (August 25, 1898 – December 20, 1968) was an American art director. He was nominated for six Academy Awards in the category Best Art Direction. Best remembered as head of the design department at RKO Pictures, he worked ...
. Although set in New York City, specifically at
Radio City, much of the film was shot in
RKO
RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheu ...
's
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
studios. The company had originally planned to make the film in 1934 starring
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz; May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, choreographer, actor, and singer. He is often called the greatest dancer in Hollywood film history.
Astaire's career in stage, film, and tele ...
and
Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers (born Virginia Katherine McMath; July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an American actress, dancer and singer during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her starri ...
. In 1937 the project was revived with a new cast.
Plot
A struggling song-writing team strike gold when an aspiring writer arrives in New York as he composes masterpieces in his sleep. They begin to appropriate his work under their own name, scoring major hits.
Cast
*
Bob Burns as Lester Robin
*
Jack Oakie
Jack Oakie (born Lewis Delaney Offield; November 12, 1903 – January 23, 1978) was an American actor, starring mostly in films, but also working on Theatre, stage, radio and television. He portrayed Napaloni in Charlie Chaplin, Chaplin's ''T ...
as Harry Miller
*
Kenny Baker as Kenny Baker
*
Ann Miller
Ann Miller (born Johnnie Lucille Collier; April 12, 1923 – January 22, 2004) was an American retired actress and former dancer. She is best remembered for her work in the Classical Hollywood cinema musicals of the 1940s and 1950s. Her early ...
as Billie Shaw
*
Victor Moore
Victor Fred Moore (February 24, 1876 – July 23, 1962) was an American actor of stage and screen, a major Broadway star from the late 1920s through the 1930s. He was also a writer and director, but is best remembered today as a comedian, play ...
as Paul Plummer
*
Milton Berle
Milton Berle (born Mendel Berlinger; ; July 12, 1908 – March 27, 2002) was an American actor and comedian. His career as an entertainer spanned over 80 years, first in silent films and on stage as a child actor, then in radio, movies and tel ...
as Teddy Jordan
*
Helen Broderick
Helen Broderick (August 11, 1891 – September 25, 1959) was an American actress known for her comic roles, especially as a wisecracking sidekick.
Career
Broderick began on Broadway as a chorus girl in the ''Follies of 1907'', the first ...
as Gertie Shaw
*
Jane Froman
Ellen Jane Froman (November 10, 1907 – April 22, 1980) was an American actress and singer. During her thirty-year career, she performed on stage, radio and television despite chronic health problems due to injuries sustained in a 1943 plane cra ...
as Jane Froman
*
Buster West as Squenchy
*
Melissa Mason
Melissa is a female given name. The name comes from the Greek word μέλισσα (''mélissa''), "bee", which in turn comes from μέλι (''meli''), "honey". In Hittite, ''melit'' signifies "honey".
''Melissa'' also refers to the plant ''Me ...
as Lisa
*
Richard Lane as Crane
*
Marilyn Vernon
Marilyn may refer to:
* Marilyn (given name)
* Marilyn (singer) (born 1962), English singer
* Marilyn (hill), a type of mountain or hill in the British Isles with a prominence above 150 m
* 1486 Marilyn, a Main-belt asteroid
* ''Marilyn'' (1953 f ...
as Delia Robin
*
Charles Coleman as The Butler
*
Don Wilson as Don Wilson - Radio Station Announcer
*
Hal Kemp
James Hal Kemp (March 27, 1904 – December 21, 1940) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, bandleader, composer, and arranger.
Biography
Hal Kemp was born in Marion, Alabama. He formed his first band in high school, and by the a ...
and His Orchestra as Themselves
* William Brisbane as Mr. Ipswich
*
Rosalind Marquis
Rosalind Marquis (September 11, 1915 – June 12, 2006) was an American actress.
Early life and career
She was born Rosalind Saindon on 11 September 1915 in Chicago. She was the sixth of eight children of Leopold Saindon, an usher of modest ...
as Singer
*
Kirby Grant
Kirby Grant (November 24, 1911 – October 30, 1985), born Kirby Grant Hoon Jr., was a long-time B movie and television actor, mostly remembered for having played the title role in the Western-themed adventure television series ''Sky King''. B ...
as Singer
*
Bobby Barber as Waiter
Reception
According to RKO records, the film made a loss of $300,000.
It got a mixed reception from critics at ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' and ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' who were negative about aspects of the film while praising the performance of rising star Ann Miller.
[Shellley p.22]
References
Bibliography
* Shelley, Peter. ''Ann Miller: Her Life and Career''. McFarland, 2020.
External links
''Radio City Revels''at
TCMDB
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of Atl ...
*
1938 films
RKO Pictures films
1938 romantic comedy films
1938 musical comedy films
American romantic musical films
American musical comedy films
American black-and-white films
1930s romantic musical films
Films directed by Benjamin Stoloff
Films set in New York City
1930s English-language films
1930s American films
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