The Girl of the Golden West (1938 film)
Encyclopedia
The Girl of the Golden West is a 1938
musical
western film. It was adapted from the play of the same name by David Belasco
, better known for providing the plot of the opera La fanciulla del West
by Giacomo Puccini
. A frontier woman falls in love with an outlaw.
1938 in film
The year 1938 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*January — MGM announces that Judy Garland would be cast in the role of "Dorothy" in the upcoming Wizard of Oz motion picture. Ray Bolger is cast as the "Tinman" and Buddy Ebsen is cast as the "Scarecrow". At Bolger's insistence,...
musical
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...
western film. It was adapted from the play of the same name by David Belasco
David Belasco
David Belasco was an American theatrical producer, impresario, director and playwright.-Biography:Born in San Francisco, California, where his Sephardic Jewish parents had moved from London, England, during the Gold Rush, he began working in a San Francisco theatre doing a variety of routine jobs,...
, better known for providing the plot of the opera La fanciulla del West
La fanciulla del West
La fanciulla del West is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Guelfo Civinini and Carlo Zangarini, based on the play The Girl of the Golden West by the American author David Belasco. Its highly-publicised premiere occurred in New York City in 1910...
by Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
. A frontier woman falls in love with an outlaw.
Cast
- Jeanette MacDonaldJeanette MacDonaldJeanette MacDonald was an American singer and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier and Nelson Eddy...
as Mary Robbins - Nelson EddyNelson EddyNelson Ackerman Eddy was an American singer and actor who appeared in 19 musical films during the 1930s and 1940s, as well as in opera and on the concert stage, radio, television, and in nightclubs. A classically trained baritone, he is best remembered for the eight films in which he costarred...
as Ramirez - Walter PidgeonWalter PidgeonWalter Davis Pidgeon was a Canadian actor, who starred in many motion pictures, including Mrs...
as Sheriff Jack Rance - Leo CarrilloLeo CarrilloLeopoldo Antonio Carrillo , was an American actor, vaudevillian, political cartoonist, and conservationist.-Family roots:...
as Mosquito - Buddy EbsenBuddy EbsenBuddy Ebsen was an American character actor and dancer. A performer for seven decades, he had starring roles as Jed Clampett in the long-running television series The Beverly Hillbillies and as the title character in the 1970s detective series Barnaby Jones, and played Barnaby Jones in the movie...
as Alabama - Leonard Penn as Pedro
- Priscilla LawsonPriscilla LawsonPriscilla Lawson , born Priscilla Shortridge, was an American actress known for her role as Princess Aura in the original Flash Gordon serial ....
as Nina Martinez - Bob Murphy as Sonora Slim
- Olin HowlandOlin HowlandOlin Howland was an American film actor. From 1909 to 1927 he appeared on the Broadway stage while balancing a career in silent movies. In 1921, he appeared in the play Two Little Girls in Blue with Oscar Shaw and the Fairbanks Twins. He was in Janice Meredith with Marion Davies...
as Trinidad Joe - Cliff EdwardsCliff EdwardsCliff Edwards , also known as "Ukelele Ike", was an American singer and voice actor who enjoyed considerable popularity in the 1920s and early 1930s, specializing in jazzy renditions of pop standards and novelty tunes. He had a number-one hit with "Singin' in the Rain" in 1929...
as Minstrel Joe - Billy BevanBilly BevanBilly Bevan was an Australian film actor. He appeared in 254 American films between 1916 and 1950....
as Nick - Brandon Tynan as The Professor
- H.B. Warner as Father Sienna
- Monty WoolleyMonty WoolleyMonty Woolley was an American stage, film, radio, and television actor. At the age of 50, he achieved a measure of stardom for his best-known role in the stage play and 1942 film The Man Who Came to Dinner...
as The Governor - Charley Grapewin as Uncle Davy (in prologue)
- Noah Beery, Sr.Noah Beery, Sr.Noah Nicholas Beery was an American actor, who appeared in films from 1913 to 1945.-Early life:His parents originally came from Switzerland. Beery was born in Kansas City, Missouri. He and his brothers William C. Beery and Wallace Beery became Hollywood actors...
as The General - in prologue (as Noah Beery Sr.) - Bill Cody, Jr.Bill Cody, Jr.Bill Cody, Jr. was an American motion picture child actor.Born William Joseph Cody, Jr. in Los Angeles, California, where his father Bill Cody was a cowboy star of B-movie westerns, the youngster was reportedly 7 years old when he accompanied his father on a personal appearance tour throughout the...
as Gringo (young Ramirez; in prologue) - Jeanne Ellis as Young Mary Robbins (in prologue)
- Ynez SeaburyYnez SeaburyYnez Seabury was an American actress of the stage, silent and early sound film era.-Film and Stage Actress:...
as Wowkle
Soundtrack
- Sun-Up to Sun Down; Played during the opening credits
- Music by Sigmund RombergSigmund RombergSigmund Romberg was a Hungarian-born American composer, best known for his operettas.-Biography:Romberg was born as Siegmund Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Gross-Kanizsa during the Austro-Hungarian kaiserlich und königlich monarchy period...
- Lyrics by Gus KahnGus KahnGustav Gerson Kahn was a musician, songwriter and lyricist.-Biography:Kahn was born in Koblenz, Germany in 1886. The family emigrated from there to the United States and moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1890...
- Sung by Jeanne Ellis and the pioneers in the prologue
- Music by Sigmund Romberg
- Shadows On The Moon
- Music by Sigmund Romberg
- Lyrics by Gus Kahn
- Sung by Jeanne Ellis at a campfire in the prologue
- Reprised by Jeanette MacDonaldJeanette MacDonaldJeanette MacDonald was an American singer and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier and Nelson Eddy...
- Whistled and hummed by Nelson EddyNelson EddyNelson Ackerman Eddy was an American singer and actor who appeared in 19 musical films during the 1930s and 1940s, as well as in opera and on the concert stage, radio, television, and in nightclubs. A classically trained baritone, he is best remembered for the eight films in which he costarred...
- Soldiers Of Fortune
- Music by Sigmund Romberg
- Lyrics by Gus Kahn
- Sung by Noah Beery and his men in the prologue, Bill Cody, Jr.Bill Cody, Jr.Bill Cody, Jr. was an American motion picture child actor.Born William Joseph Cody, Jr. in Los Angeles, California, where his father Bill Cody was a cowboy star of B-movie westerns, the youngster was reportedly 7 years old when he accompanied his father on a personal appearance tour throughout the...
(dubbed by Raymond Chace) in the prologue - Reprised by Nelson Eddy and his men
- The Wind In The Trees
- Music by Sigmund Romberg
- Lyrics by Gus Kahn
- Sung by Jeanette MacDonald
- Played on a fife by Buddy EbsenBuddy EbsenBuddy Ebsen was an American character actor and dancer. A performer for seven decades, he had starring roles as Jed Clampett in the long-running television series The Beverly Hillbillies and as the title character in the 1970s detective series Barnaby Jones, and played Barnaby Jones in the movie...
- Gwine to Rune All Night (1850); (De Camptown Races)
- Written by Stephen FosterStephen FosterStephen Collins Foster , known as the "father of American music", was the pre-eminent songwriter in the United States of the 19th century...
- Played as background music in the saloon
- Written by Stephen Foster
- Polly Wolly Doodle
- Composer unknown
- Played as background music in the saloon
- Liebestraum (Dream of Love)
- Music by Franz LisztFranz LisztFranz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
- Lyrics by Gus Kahn
- Played on piano by Brandon Tynan
- Sung by Jeanette MacDonald
- Music by Franz Liszt
- Ave Maria
- Music by Charles GounodCharles GounodCharles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
- Adopted from the First Prelude in The Well-Tempered Clavier
- By Johann Sebastian BachJohann Sebastian BachJohann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
- Played on an organ by H.B. Warner
- Sung by Jeanette MacDonald and chorus
- Music by Charles Gounod
- Señorita
- Music by Sigmund Romberg
- Lyrics by Gus Kahn
- Sung by Nelson Eddy and party guests
- Reprised by Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy
- Mariache
- Music by Sigmund Romberg
- Lyrics by Gus Kahn
- Additional lyrics by Carlos Ruffino
- Translation for Spanish lyrics by Zacharias Yaconelli (uncredited)
- Sung by Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy and chorus
- Danced to by the party guests
- The West Ain't Wild Anymore
- Music by Sigmund Romberg
- Lyrics by Gus Kahn
- Sung by Buddy Ebsen
- Who Are We To Say
- Music by Sigmund Romberg
- Lyrics by Gus Kahn
- Sung by Nelson Eddy
- Hummed by Jeanette MacDonald
- Reprised on piano by Brandon Tynan and sung by Jeanette MacDonald
- The Wedding March
- from A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op.61
- Written by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
- Played on a banjo and hummed by Cliff EdwardsCliff EdwardsCliff Edwards , also known as "Ukelele Ike", was an American singer and voice actor who enjoyed considerable popularity in the 1920s and early 1930s, specializing in jazzy renditions of pop standards and novelty tunes. He had a number-one hit with "Singin' in the Rain" in 1929...