''Gold Diggers of 1935'' is an American

musical 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 brea ...

directed and choreographed by

Busby Berkeley Busby Berkeley (born Berkeley William Enos; November 29, 1895 – March 14, 1976) was an American film director and musical choreographer. Berkeley devised elaborate musical production numbers that often involved complex geometric patterns. Berke ...

, and starring

Dick Powell Richard Ewing Powell (November 14, 1904 – January 2, 1963) was an American actor, musician, producer, director, and studio head. Though he came to stardom as a musical comedy performer, he showed versatility, and successfully transformed into ...

Adolphe Menjou Adolphe Jean Menjou (February 18, 1890 – October 29, 1963) was an American actor. His career spanned both silent films and talkies. He appeared in such films as Charlie Chaplin's ''A Woman of Paris'', where he played the lead role; Stanley K ...

Gloria Stuart Gloria Frances Stuart (born Gloria Stewart; July 4, 1910 September 26, 2010) was an American actress, visual artist, and activist. She was known for her roles in Pre-Code films, and garnered renewed fame late in life for her portrayal of Rose ...

and Alice Brady. Winifred Shaw,

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 ...

and

Glenda Farrell Glenda Farrell (June 30, 1904 – May 1, 1971) was an American actress. Farrell personified the smart and sassy, wisecracking blonde of the Classical Hollywood films. Farrell's career spanned more than 50 years, appearing in numerous Broadwa ...

are also featured. The songs were written by

Harry Warren Harry Warren (born Salvatore Antonio Guaragna; December 24, 1893 – September 22, 1981) was an American composer and the first major American songwriter to write primarily for film. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song ...

(music) and

Al Dubin Alexander Dubin (June 10, 1891 – February 11, 1945) was an American lyricist. He is best known for his collaborations with the composer Harry Warren. Life Al Dubin came from a Russian Jewish family that emigrated to the United States from Swit ...

(lyrics). The film is best known for its famous " Lullaby of Broadway" production number. That song (sung by Shaw) also won the

Academy Award for Best Original Song The Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is presented to the ''songwriters'' who have composed ...

. The movie was the fourth in the ''Gold Diggers'' series of films, after the now

lost Lost may refer to getting lost, or to: Geography * Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland *Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US History *Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...

silent film '' The Gold Diggers'' (1923), the partially lost film ''

Gold Diggers of Broadway ''Gold Diggers of Broadway'' is a 1929 American pre-Code musical comedy film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring Winnie Lightner and Nick Lucas. Distributed by Warner Bros., the film is the second all-talking, all-Technicolor feature-lengt ...

'' (1929), and ''

Gold Diggers of 1933 ''Gold Diggers of 1933'' is a pre-Code Warner Bros. musical film directed by Mervyn LeRoy with songs by Harry Warren (music) and Al Dubin (lyrics), staged and choreographed by Busby Berkeley. It stars Warren William, Joan Blondell, Aline M ...

'' (1933). The first three films, all financially successful, had all been based on the 1919 play '' The Gold Diggers''; ''Gold Diggers of 1935'' was the first one based on a wholly original story. It was followed by ''

Gold Diggers of 1937 ''Gold Diggers of 1937'' is a Warner Bros. movie musical directed by Lloyd Bacon with musical numbers created and directed by Busby Berkeley. The film stars Dick Powell and Joan Blondell, who were married at the time, with Glenda Farrell and Vic ...

'' and ''

Gold Diggers in Paris ''Gold Diggers in Paris'' is a 1938 Warner Bros. movie musical directed by Ray Enright with musical numbers created and directed by Busby Berkeley, starring Rudy Vallee, Rosemary Lane, Hugh Herbert, and Allen Jenkins. Plot Maurice Giraud ( ...

''.

Plot

In the resort of Lake Waxapahachie, the swanky Wentworth Plaza is where the rich all congregate, and where the tips flow like wine. Handsome Dick Curtis (

) is working his way through medical school as a desk clerk, and when rich, penny-pinching Mrs. Prentiss ( Alice Brady) offers to pay him to escort her daughter Ann (

) for the summer, Dick can't say no – even his fiancée, Arline Davis ( Dorothy Dare) thinks he should do it. Mrs. Prentiss wants Ann to marry eccentric middle-aged millionaire T. Mosley Thorpe (

), who is a world-renowned expert on snuffboxes, but Ann has other ideas. Meanwhile, her brother, Humbolt (

Frank McHugh Francis Curry McHugh (May 23, 1898 – September 11, 1981) was an American stage, radio, film and television actor. Early years Born in Homestead, Pennsylvania, of Irish descent, McHugh came from a theatrical family. His parents, Edward A ...

) has a weakness for a pretty face: he has been married and bought out of trouble by his mother several times. Every summer, Mrs. Prentiss produces a charity show for the "Milk Fund", and this year she hires the flamboyant and conniving Russian dance director Nicolai Nicoleff (

) to direct the show. The parsimonious Mrs. Prentiss wants to spend the least amount possible, but Nicoleff and his set designer Schultz (

Joseph Cawthorn Joseph Bridger Cawthorn (March 29, 1868 – January 21, 1949) was an American stage and film comic actor. Biography Born on March 29, 1868, in New York City to a minstrel-show family, Cawthorn started out in show business as a child, debu ...

) want to be as extravagant as they can, so they can rake off more money for themselves, and for the hotel manager ( Grant Mitchell) and the hotel stenographer Betty Hawes (

), who's blackmailing the hapless snuffbox fancier Thorpe. Of course, Dick and Ann fall in love, Humbolt marries Arline, and the show ends up costing Mrs. Prentiss an arm and a leg, but in the end she realizes that having a doctor in the family will save money in the long run.

Cast

as Dick Curtis *

as Nicolai Nicoleff *

as Ann Prentiss * Alice Brady as Matilda Prentiss *

as T. Mosely Thorpe III *

as Betty Hawes *

as Humbolt Prentiss *

as August Schultz * Grant Mitchell as Louis Lampson * Dorothy Dare as Arline Davis *

Wini Shaw Wini Shaw (c. 1907 – May 2, 1982), sometimes credited as Winifred Shaw, was a 20th century American actress, dancer and singer. Early life She was born as Winifred Lei Momi in about 1907, in San Francisco, California, the youngest of t ...

as Winny

Songs

The songs in ''Gold Diggers of 1935'' were written by

(music) and

(lyrics), and the two production numbers were staged by

. *"I'm Going Shopping with You" – Sung by Dick Powell to Gloria Stuart, this is a montage of scenes of Stuart shopping for everything from lingerie to jewelry, much to the dismay of her penny-pinching mother, Alice Brady. *"The Words Are in My Heart" – This elaborate Busby Berkeley production number utilized 56 white grand pianos, which were moved around the sound stage by male dancers underneath the piano-shells, dressed in black.TC
Notes
/ref> *" Lullaby of Broadway" – One of the most famous Busby Berkeley numbers is actually a short film-within-a-film, which tells the story of a Broadway Baby who plays all night and sleeps all day. It opens with a head shot of singer Wini Shaw against a black background, then the camera pulls back and up, and Shaw's head becomes the Big Apple, New York City. As everyone rushes off to work, Shaw returns home from her night's carousing and goes to sleep. When she awakens, that night, we follow her and her beau (Dick Powell) from club to club, with elaborate large cast tap numbers, until she is accidentally pushed off a balcony to her death. The sequence ends with a return to Shaw's head, as she sings the end of the song. Of all the musical numbers Berkeley created in his career, he named this as his personal favorite.

Production

''Gold Diggers of 1935'' was in production at Warner Bros. Burbank studios until January 14, 1935, and was released on March 15 of that year. During production a chorus dancer, Jack Grieves, died on the set due to acute indigestion. The film was Busby Berkeley's first time at the helm of a film as the official director, although he had his own unit at Warners to do the elaborate production numbers he conceived, designed, staged and directed, which were the major elements of the Warners musicals of that period.

Critical reviews

In 1935, Mae Tinee of the ''Chicago Daily Tribune'' stated, "As revues go, the present "Gold Diggers" has considerable to offer. There is some bright patter and a number of really amusing situations". In ''The New York Times'' review that same year, Andre Sennwald writes, "The photoplay, in its preparations for the climactic Berkeley effects, is a brash and lively entertainment which allows Adolphe Menjou and Hugh Herbert to be reasonably amusing."

Box office

According to Warner Bros records the film earned $897,000 domestically and $468,000 foreign.

Awards and honors

Harry Warren and Al Dubin received an

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology) ...

for

Best Original Song This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

for "Lullaby of Broadway", and Busby Berkeley was nominated for the short-lived category Best Dance Direction. The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists: * 2004: AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs – Lullaby of Broadway Nominated * 2006:

AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals Part of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals is a list of the top musicals in American cinema. The list was unveiled by the American Film Institute at the Hollywood Bowl The Hollywood Bowl is an amphitheatre in the Holl ...

Nominated

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gold Diggers Of 1935 1935 films 1935 musical films American black-and-white films Films about musical theatre Films directed by Busby Berkeley Films scored by Heinz Roemheld Films set in hotels Films that won the Best Original Song Academy Award American musical films Warner Bros. films Films produced by Robert Lord (screenwriter) 1930s English-language films 1930s American films Films scored by Bernhard Kaun