''Top of the Town'' is a 1937 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
Ralph Murphy
Ralph Murphy (May 1, 1895 – February 10, 1967) was an American film and television director. Born in Rockville, Connecticut, Murphy was active in films from 1931 through 1962, with some work in television. From 1941 to 1944 he was married to ...
,
Sam White and
Walter Lang
Walter Lang (August 10, 1896 – February 7, 1972) was an American film director.
Early life
Walter Lang was born in Tennessee. As a young man he went to New York City where he found clerical work at a movie studio, film production company. The ...
and starring
Doris Nolan
Doris Nolan (July 14, 1916 – July 29, 1998) was an American actress best known for her Broadway roles and her appearance in the 1938 movie ''Holiday''. She appeared in plays and films during the 1930s and 1940s. Later she moved to the UK, w ...
.
Cast
*
Doris Nolan
Doris Nolan (July 14, 1916 – July 29, 1998) was an American actress best known for her Broadway roles and her appearance in the 1938 movie ''Holiday''. She appeared in plays and films during the 1930s and 1940s. Later she moved to the UK, w ...
as Diana Borden
*
George Murphy
George Lloyd Murphy (July 4, 1902 – May 3, 1992) was an American dancer, actor, and politician. Murphy was a song-and-dance leading man in many big-budget Hollywood musicals from 1930 to 1952. He was the president of the Screen Actors Guild fro ...
as Ted Lane
*
Ella Logan
Ella Logan (born Georgina Armour Allan; 6 March 1913 – 1 May 1969) was a Scottish-American actress and singer who appeared on Broadway, recorded and had a nightclub career in the United States and internationally.
Early years
Logan was bor ...
as Dorine
*
Hugh Herbert
Hugh Herbert (August 10, 1885 – March 12, 1952) was an American motion picture comedian. He began his career in vaudeville and wrote more than 150 plays and sketches.
Career
Born in Binghamton, New York, Herbert attended Cornell Univers ...
as Hubert
*
Gerald Oliver Smith
Gerald Wilson Oliver Smith (June 26, 1892 – May 28, 1974) was an English-born actor who spent most of his career in the United States, both in New York City as a stage actor and in the Hollywood film industry.
Born in Sidcup, Kent, England, Sm ...
as Borden Executive
*
Mischa Auer
Mischa Auer (born Mikhail Semyonovich Unkovsky (Михаил Семёнович Унковский; 17 November 1905 – 5 March 1967) was a Russians, Russian-born American actor who moved to Hollywood in the late 1920s. He first appeared in fi ...
as Hamlet
*
Gregory Ratoff
Gregory Ratoff (born Grigory Vasilyevich Ratner; russian: Григорий Васильевич Ратнер, tr. ; April 20, c. 1893 – December 14, 1960) was a Russian-born American film director, actor and producer. As an actor, he was bes ...
as J.J. Stone
*
Peggy Ryan
Margaret O'Rene Ryan (August 28, 1924 – October 30, 2004) was an American dancer and actress, best known for starring in a series of movie musicals at Universal Pictures with Donald O'Connor and Gloria Jean.
Career
Ryan joined her paren ...
as Peggy
*
J. Scott Smart
J. Scott Smart (born John Kenley Tener Smart, November 27, 1902 – January 15, 1960) was an American radio, film and stage actor during the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s.
Early years
Smart was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His family later ...
as Beaton (as Jack Smart)
* Ray Mayer as Roger
*
Henry Armetta
Henry Armetta (born Enrico Armetta; July 4, 1888 – October 21, 1945) was an American character actor who appeared in at least 150 American films, beginning in silent movies. His last film was released posthumously in 1946, the year after his d ...
as Bacciagalluppi
*
Gertrude Niesen
Gertrude Niesen (July 8, 1911 – March 27, 1975) was an American torch singer, actress, comedian, and songwriter who achieved popular success in musicals and films in the 1930s and 1940s.
Early years
Niesen was born aboard ship as her Sw ...
as Gilda Norman
*
Claude Gillingwater
Claude Benton Gillingwater (August 2, 1870 – November 1, 1939) was an American stage and screen actor. He first appeared on the stage then in more than 90 films between 1918 and 1939, including the Academy Award-nominated ''A Tale of Two ...
as William Borden
*
Ernest Cossart
Ernest Cossart (born Emil Gottfried von Holst, 24 September 1876 – 21 January 1951) was an English-American actor. After a stage career in England, he moved to the US, appearing on Broadway and all around the country. In the 1930s and 1940s, ...
as Augustus Borden
*
Samuel S. Hinds
Samuel Southey Hinds (April 4, 1875 – October 13, 1948) was an American actor and former lawyer. He was often cast as kindly authority figures and appeared in more than 200 films until his death.
Early years
Hinds was born in Brooklyn, New Y ...
as Henry Borden
*
Richard Carle
Richard Carle (born Charles Nicholas Carleton, July 7, 1871 – June 28, 1941) was an American stage and film actor as well as a playwright and stage director. He appeared in more than 130 films between 1915 and 1941.
Carle was born in Som ...
as Edwin Borden
* California Collegians as Singing Group
*
The Four Esquires
The Four Esquires were an American vocal quartet from Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The original four members were all students at the Boston University. Following the completion of their studies, they were signed in March 1956 by London ...
as Performers
Reception
Writing for ''Night and Day'' in 1937,
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...
gave the film a poor review, describing it as "one of those distressingly carefree musicals
..when the only ungay faces are among the audience".
[ (reprinted in: )]
References
External links
*
1937 films
1937 comedy films
American comedy films
American black-and-white films
Films directed by Walter Lang
Films directed by Ralph Murphy
1930s English-language films
1930s American films
{{1930s-comedy-film-stub