.gif)
Lady Be Good (1941 film)
Encyclopedia
Lady Be Good is the title of an MGM musical film
which was released in 1941.
The film starred dancer Eleanor Powell
along with Ann Sothern
, Robert Young
, Lionel Barrymore
, and Red Skelton
. It was directed by Norman Z. McLeod
and produced by Arthur Freed
. This was the first of several films Powell made with Skelton.
Although Powell received top billing, the main stars of the film are Sothern and Young. They play respectively Dixie Donegan, a would-be lyric writer and Eddie Crane, a struggling composer.
The film takes its title and theme song ("Oh, Lady be Good!
") from the 1924 George
and Ira Gershwin
Broadway
musical, Lady Be Good
, but otherwise has no connection to the play. According to film historian Robert Osborne
in his introduction to a broadcast of the film on Turner Classic Movies
in August 2006, the film was devised as a vehicle to launch Sothern as a musical star at MGM, however since she and Young were known primarily as light comic stars, Powell was brought in for a supporting role but given the top billing in order to attract audiences.
This film's most notable sequence involves an epic tap dance routine by Powell to the melody of Gershwin's "Fascinating Rhythm
" (another song taken from the play). This musical number was later featured in two films in the That's Entertainment!
documentary series—in one of the films (That's Entertainment! III), behind-the-scenes footage was shown, revealing how this scene was accomplished. In order to allow Powell to dance between a series of pianos without interruption, pieces of the set had to be quietly removed off-camera as she worked her way across the stage. This musical sequence was directed by Busby Berkeley
. Another sequence features Powell doing a dance routine with a dog that she herself trained for the number.
The film won an Academy Award for Best Song for "The Last Time I Saw Paris
" which was composed by Jerome Kern
and Oscar Hammerstein II
.
A few years later, now married and succesful songwriters with a hit Broadway
show behind them, Dixie realises that Eddie is spending more time in rich New York society than composing. They divorce, but quickly realise they are still in love and can't do without each other. They remarry and write more successful songs, but then Eddie goes off to South America, ostensibly to get inspiration to write a symphony
. Dixie again seeks a divorce, but the canny judge
refuses to grant it. Eddie returns and they realise that despite all, they're still in love.
B-24D Liberator bomber
which flew for the United States Army Air Forces
during World War II
out of north Africa
, disappeared on an April 4, 1943 raid on Naples
, Italy
and was found virtually intact in the Libyan
desert in 1958.
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
which was released in 1941.
The film starred dancer Eleanor Powell
Eleanor Powell
Eleanor Torrey Powell was an American film actress and dancer of the 1930s and 1940s, known for her exuberant solo tap dancing.-Early life:...
along with Ann Sothern
Ann Sothern
Ann Sothern was an American film and television actress whose career spanned six decades.-Early life and career:...
, Robert Young
Robert Young (actor)
Robert George Young was an American television, film, and radio actor, best known for his leading roles as Jim Anderson, the father of Father Knows Best and as physician Marcus Welby in Marcus Welby, M.D. .-Early life:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Young was the son of an Irish immigrant father...
, Lionel Barrymore
Lionel Barrymore
Lionel Barrymore was an American actor of stage, screen and radio. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in A Free Soul...
, and Red Skelton
Red Skelton
Richard Bernard "Red" Skelton was an American comedian who is best known as a top radio and television star from 1937 to 1971. Skelton's show business career began in his teens as a circus clown and went on to vaudeville, Broadway, films, radio, TV, night clubs and casinos, all while pursuing...
. It was directed by Norman Z. McLeod
Norman Z. McLeod
Norman Zenos McLeod was an American film director, cartoonist and writer...
and produced by Arthur Freed
Arthur Freed
Arthur Freed was born Arthur Grossman in Charleston, South Carolina. He was a Jewish American lyricist and a Hollywood film producer.- Biography :Freed began his career as a song-plugger and pianist in Chicago...
. This was the first of several films Powell made with Skelton.
Although Powell received top billing, the main stars of the film are Sothern and Young. They play respectively Dixie Donegan, a would-be lyric writer and Eddie Crane, a struggling composer.
The film takes its title and theme song ("Oh, Lady be Good!
Oh, Lady be Good!
"Oh, Lady be Good!" is a 1924 song by George and Ira Gershwin.The song was introduced by Walter Catlett in the Broadway show, Lady, Be Good!, written by Guy Bolton, Fred Thompson, and the Gershwin brothers, starring Fred Astaire and Adele Astaire. It ran for 330 performances in its original...
") from the 1924 George
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
and Ira Gershwin
Ira Gershwin
Ira Gershwin was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs of the 20th century....
Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
musical, Lady Be Good
Lady Be Good (musical)
Lady, Be Good is a musical written by Guy Bolton and Fred Thompson with music by George and lyrics by Ira Gershwin. It was first presented on Broadway in 1924; the West End production followed in 1926...
, but otherwise has no connection to the play. According to film historian Robert Osborne
Robert Osborne
Robert Jolin Osborne is an American actor and film historian best known as the primary host for Turner Classic Movies, and previously a host of The Movie Channel.-Life and career:...
in his introduction to a broadcast of the film on Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies is a movie-oriented cable television channel, owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner, featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. film libraries...
in August 2006, the film was devised as a vehicle to launch Sothern as a musical star at MGM, however since she and Young were known primarily as light comic stars, Powell was brought in for a supporting role but given the top billing in order to attract audiences.
This film's most notable sequence involves an epic tap dance routine by Powell to the melody of Gershwin's "Fascinating Rhythm
Fascinating Rhythm
"Fascinating Rhythm" is a popular song written by George Gershwin in 1924 with lyrics by Ira Gershwin.It was first introduced by Cliff Edwards, Fred Astaire and Adele Astaire in the Broadway musical Lady Be Good. The Astaires also recorded the song on April 19, 1926 in London with George Gershwin...
" (another song taken from the play). This musical number was later featured in two films in the That's Entertainment!
That's Entertainment!
That's Entertainment! is a 1974 compilation film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to celebrate its 50th anniversary. It was followed by two sequels and a related film called That's Dancing!....
documentary series—in one of the films (That's Entertainment! III), behind-the-scenes footage was shown, revealing how this scene was accomplished. In order to allow Powell to dance between a series of pianos without interruption, pieces of the set had to be quietly removed off-camera as she worked her way across the stage. This musical sequence was directed by Busby Berkeley
Busby Berkeley
Busby Berkeley was a highly influential Hollywood movie director and musical choreographer. Berkeley was famous for his elaborate musical production numbers that often involved complex geometric patterns...
. Another sequence features Powell doing a dance routine with a dog that she herself trained for the number.
The film won an Academy Award for Best Song for "The Last Time I Saw Paris
The Last Time I Saw Paris (song)
The Last Time I Saw Paris is a song composed by Jerome Kern, with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, published in 1940. It was sung in the 1941 film Lady Be Good by Ann Sothern....
" which was composed by Jerome Kern
Jerome Kern
Jerome David Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A...
and Oscar Hammerstein II
Oscar Hammerstein II
Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American librettist, theatrical producer, and theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and was twice awarded an Academy Award for "Best Original Song". Many of his songs are standard repertoire for...
.
Plot
Eddie Crane, a young composer, is struggling with a tune he's just written. When his girlfriend, Dixie Donegan, provides words almost by accident, the song is published and is a great success.A few years later, now married and succesful songwriters with a hit Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
show behind them, Dixie realises that Eddie is spending more time in rich New York society than composing. They divorce, but quickly realise they are still in love and can't do without each other. They remarry and write more successful songs, but then Eddie goes off to South America, ostensibly to get inspiration to write a symphony
Symphony
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...
. Dixie again seeks a divorce, but the canny judge
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
refuses to grant it. Eddie returns and they realise that despite all, they're still in love.
Cast
- Eddie Crane - Robert YoungRobert YoungRobert, Rob or Bob Young may refer to:In sports:* Robert Young , American track athlete* Robert Young , British cyclist* Robert Young , American football player...
- Dixie Donegan - Ann SothernAnn SothernAnn Sothern was an American film and television actress whose career spanned six decades.-Early life and career:...
- Marilyn Marsh - Eleanor PowellEleanor PowellEleanor Torrey Powell was an American film actress and dancer of the 1930s and 1940s, known for her exuberant solo tap dancing.-Early life:...
- Joe 'Red' Willet - Red SkeltonRed SkeltonRichard Bernard "Red" Skelton was an American comedian who is best known as a top radio and television star from 1937 to 1971. Skelton's show business career began in his teens as a circus clown and went on to vaudeville, Broadway, films, radio, TV, night clubs and casinos, all while pursuing...
- Judge Murdock - Lionel BarrymoreLionel BarrymoreLionel Barrymore was an American actor of stage, screen and radio. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in A Free Soul...
- Nightclub Compere - Phil SilversPhil SilversPhil Silvers was an American entertainer and comedy actor, known as "The King of Chutzpah." He is best known for starring in The Phil Silvers Show, a 1950s sitcom set on a U.S...
- Lull - Virginia O'BrienVirginia O'BrienVirginia Lee O'Brien was a popular American actress, singer, and radio personality known for her comedic roles in MGM musicals of the 1940s.-Life and career:...
- Buddy Crawford - John CarrollJohn Carroll-People:*John Carroll , American actor*John Carroll , Australian neoconservative writer*Sir John Carroll , British scientist*John Carroll -People:*John Carroll (actor) (1906–1979), American actor*John Carroll (author) (born 1944), Australian neoconservative writer*Sir John Carroll (astronomer)...
Legacy
The title was used on an AmericanUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
B-24D Liberator bomber
Bomber
A bomber is a military aircraft designed to attack ground and sea targets, by dropping bombs on them, or – in recent years – by launching cruise missiles at them.-Classifications of bombers:...
which flew for the United States Army Air Forces
United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
out of north Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, disappeared on an April 4, 1943 raid on Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and was found virtually intact in the Libyan
Libyan
A Libyan is a person or thing of, from, or related to Libya in North Africa.The term Libyan may also refer to:* A person from Libya, or of Libyan descent. For information about the Libyan people, see Demographics of Libya and Culture of Libya. For specific persons, see List of Libyans.* Libyan...
desert in 1958.