Category: Drama
All Genres: Drama
Release Year: 1939
Country: USA
Runtime: 99
Rating: 9 (0)
Languages: English
Director: Rouben Mamoulian
Sound: Mono
Taglines:
Writing by: Clifford Odets – (play)
Lewis Meltzer – (screenplay) &
Daniel Taradash – (screenplay) &
Sarah Y. Mason – (screenplay) &
Victor Heerman – (screenplay)
Produced by: Rouben Mamoulian – producer
William Perlberg – producer
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck – Lorna Moon
Adolphe Menjou – Tom Moody
William Holden – Joe Bonaparte
Lee J. Cobb – Mr. Bonaparte
Joseph Calleia – Eddie Fuseli
Sam Levene – Siggie
Edward Brophy – Roxy Lewis (as Edward S. Brody)
Beatrice Blinn – Anna Duchess
William H. Strauss – Mr. Carp
Don Beddoe – Borneo
Charles Halton – Newspaperman (scenes deleted)
Music: Victor Young
Official Website: Visit Website
Plot Outline: Despite his musical talent, Joe Bonaparte wants to be a boxer.
Plot: Joe Bonapartes father wants him to pursue his musical talent; but Joe wants to be a boxer. Persuading near-bankrupt manager Tom Moody to give him a chance, Joe quickly rises in his new profession. When he has second thoughts Moodys girl Lorna uses feminine wiles to keep him boxing. But when tough gangster Eddie Fuseli wants to \”buy a piece\” of Joe, Lorna herself begins to have second thoughts…for that and other reasons. Is it too late?
Crazy Credits: We know about 1 Crazy Credits. One of them reads:
Whiteness – Herman Melville
Goofs: We know about 5 goofs. Here comes one of them:
Boom mic visible: A boom is clearly reflected in the glass windows behind the customers, when Mike is selling the Tutman shirts.
Trivia: There are 6 entries in the trivia list – like these:
- The play originally opened in New York on 4 November 1937 and had 250 performances. Luther Adler played Joe Bonaparte, Frances Farmer played Lorna Moon and Roman Bohnen played Tom Moody. Lee J. Cobb was also in the play as Mr. Carp.
- William Holden was considered not to be up to the role in the film, however Barbara Stanwyck urged producers to keep him in the picture, and succeeded. In 1978, at the The 50th Annual Academy Awards (1978) (TV), before starting the presentation of the sound award, William Holden publicly thanked Stanwyck for what she did.
- When Clifford Odets wrote his play, he had John Garfield in mind for the Joe Bonaparte part, but the Group Theatre company chose Luther Adler instead. Shortly afterward, Garfield left the Group Theater and was Hollywood bound.