''The Girl from Calgary'' is a 1932 American

pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorshi ...

musical comedy Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movemen ...

film directed by Phil Whitman, and starring

Fifi D'Orsay Fifi D'Orsay (born Marie-Rose Angelina Yvonne Lussier; April 16, 1904 – December 2, 1983) was a Canadian-American actress and singer. Early life Fifi D'Orsay was born Yvonne Lussier in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to a father who was a postal cl ...

and Paul Kelly.

Plot summary

A French-Canadian girl is a champion bronc rider and is also a

nightclub singer A nightclub act is a production, usually of nightclub music or comedy, designed for performance at a nightclub, a type of drinking establishment, by a nightclub performer such as a nightclub singer or nightclub dancer, whose performance may ...

. An ambitious young man sees her act one night and is struck by her talent, realizing that she is good enough to become a Broadway star. He convinces her to accompany him to New York, where she indeed does become a Broadway star. However, the young man finds himself being squeezed out by greedy Broadway producers who see the talented young girl as their own personal gold mine.

Cast

as Fifi Follette * Paul Kelly as Larry Boyd *

Robert Warwick Robert Warwick (born Robert Taylor Bien, October 9, 1878 – June 6, 1964) was an American stage, film and television actor with over 200 film appearances. A matinee idol during the silent film era, he also prospered after the introduction ...

as Bill Webster * Edwin Maxwell as Earl Darrell *

Astrid Allwyn Astrid Allwyn (born Astrid Christofferson; November 27, 1905 – March 31, 1978) was an American stage and film actress. Early years Allwyn was born in South Manchester, Connecticut, part of a family that included four sisters and a brothe ...

as Mazie Williams *Edward Fetherston as Monte Cooper *

Adrienne Dore Adrienne Dore (born Elizabeth Himmelsbach; May 22, 1907 – November 26, 1992) was an American actress, model, and beauty pageant winner. She was first runner-up in the Miss America 1925 pageant, competing as Miss Los Angeles. Dore went on to ...

as Lulu, Darrell's secretary (uncredited)

Production background

* The first reel, with an elaborate musical number, is taken from ''

The Great Gabbo ''The Great Gabbo'' is a 1929 American Pre-Code early sound musical drama film directed by James Cruze, based on Ben Hecht's 1928 short story "The Rival Dummy", and starring Erich von Stroheim and Betty Compson. The film features songs by Lynn Co ...

'' (1929) which had at least one sequence filmed in

Multicolor Multicolor is a subtractive two-color motion picture process. Multicolor, introduced to the motion picture industry in 1929, was based on the earlier Prizma Color process, and was the forerunner of Cinecolor. For a Multicolor film, a scen ...

. * When originally released, the first reel of ''The Girl From Calgary'', approximately seven minutes including the title credits, was in 2-strip

Magnacolor Magnacolor was a color motion picture process owned by Consolidated Film Industries. Magnacolor was an offshoot of William Van Doren Kelley's 1918 subtractive color process Prizma and utilized the same bi-pack color process. Magnacolor was succ ...

. Reviewers at the time commented on the poor quality of the color, registration problems, and lack of focus. In surviving prints, this sequence is in black-and-white, with a replaced title card that includes a 1951 copyright statement.

External links

* * * 1932 films 1932 musical comedy films 1932 romantic comedy films 1930s color films American musical comedy films American romantic comedy films American romantic musical films American black-and-white films Monogram Pictures films 1930s romantic musical films Films directed by Phil Whitman 1930s English-language films 1930s American films {{romantic-musical-film-stub