In a U.S. town that could be anywhere, 18-year-old Alice Purdee wins a free trip to Hollywood. With the assistance of a cheerful porter, she takes the night train and dreams about her arrival. Instead of instant success, she meets disappointment after disappointment, and she needs the unexpected encouragement of her grandmother and an aging, former star whom she meets at a talent night. Finally, she gets a call to be an extra, and she's so hopeful that the regulars decide to make a fool of her. Is this the end of Alice's dream? Not if the porter has anything to say about it.
03-03-1940
22 min
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Main Cast
Movie Details
Production Info
Director:
Jean Negulesco
Production:
The Vitaphone Corporation, Warner Bros. Pictures
Key Crew
Story:
Ed Sullivan
Screenplay:
Owen Crump
Editor:
Rudi Fehr
Producer:
Gordon Hollingshead
Locations and Languages
Country:
US
Filming:
US
Languages:
en
Main Cast
Joan Leslie
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Joan Leslie (born Joan Agnes Theresa Sadie Brodel; January 26, 1925 – October 12, 2015) was an American actress, dancer, and vaudevillian who, during the Hollywood Golden Age, appeared in such films as High Sierra, Sergeant York, and Yankee Doodle Dandy.
Joan Agnes Theresa Sadie Brodel was born on January 26, 1925, in Highland Park, Michigan, the youngest child of John and Agnes Brodel.
At 15, Leslie had her first significant role as the crippled girl in High Sierra (1941), starring Humphrey Bogart and Ida Lupino. The same year she played in Sergeant York as York's fiancée.
Leslie had a supporting role in The Male Animal (1942) as Olivia de Havilland's younger sister. In Yankee Doodle Dandy (also 1942) she portrayed George M. Cohan's girlfriend/wife. By now, Leslie had become a star whose on-screen image was described as "sweet innocence without seeming too sugary."
Leslie was in four motion pictures released during 1943: The Hard Way, starring Ida Lupino and Dennis Morgan; The Sky's the Limit (1943), starring with Fred Astaire; the wartime film This Is the Army (1943) with Ronald Reagan; and finally Thank Your Lucky Stars.
During World War II, she was a regular volunteer at the Hollywood Canteen, where she danced with servicemen and signed hundreds of autographs. She was featured with Robert Hutton, among many others, in the Warner Bros. film Hollywood Canteen (1944). In 1946 Leslie's career took a dive when she took Warner Brothers to court in order to get released from her contract based on moral and religious grounds because of the parts they kept giving her. She wanted more serious and mature roles. In 1947, the Catholic Theatre Guild gave Leslie an award because of her "consistent refusal to use her talents and art in film productions of objectionable character." As a result of this, Jack Warner used his influence to blacklist her from other major Hollywood studios.
From this point on Leslie had a more irregular film career. In 1947, she signed a two-picture contract with the poverty row studio Eagle-Lion Films. The first one was Repeat Performance (1947), a film noir. The other was Northwest Stampede (1948) in which she performed with James Craig. In 1952, she signed a short-term deal with Republic Pictures. One of the films she made for Republic was Flight Nurse (1953). Her last film was The Revolt of Mamie Stover (1956). However, she continued making sporadic appearances in television shows while her children were at school. She retired from acting in 1991, after appearing in the TV film Fire in the Dark.
Leslie died on October 12, 2015, in Los Angeles, California. She was 90. Her survivors include her two children and one sister, Betty.
On October 8, 1960, Joan Leslie received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street. In 1999, she was one of the 250 actresses nominated for the American Film Institute's selection of the 25 greatest female screen legends to have debuted before 1950. On August 12, 2006, she received a Golden Boot Award for her contributions to Western television shows and movies.
Clara Blandick (born Clara Blanchard Dickey) was an American stage and screen actress best known for her role as Auntie Em in the beloved 1939 classic film The Wizard of Oz.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Clarence Muse (October 14, 1889 – October 13, 1979) was an American actor, screenwriter, director, composer, and lawyer. He was inducted in the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1973. Muse was the first Negro to "star" in a film. He acted for more than sixty years appearing in more than 150 movies.
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Alexander and Mary Muse, he studied at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and received an international law degree in 1911. He was acting in New York by the 1920s, during the Harlem Renaissance with two Harlem theatres, Lincoln Players and Lafayette Players.
Muse moved to Chicago for a while, and then moved to Hollywood and performed in Hearts in Dixie (1929), the first all-black movie. For the next fifty years, he worked regularly in minor and major roles. While with the Lafayette Players, Muse worked under the management of producer Robert Levy on productions that helped black actors to gain prominence and respect. In regards to the Lafayette Theatre's staging of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Muse said the play was relevant to black actors and audiences "because, in a way, it was every black man's story. Black men too have been split creatures inhabiting one body.". Muse appeared as an opera singer, minstrel show performer, vaudeville and Broadway actor; he also wrote songs, plays, and sketches. In 1943, he became the first African American Broadway director with Run Little Chillun.
Muse was also the co-writer of several notable songs. In 1931, with Leon René and Otis René, Muse wrote "When It's Sleepy Time Down South", also known as "Sleepy Time Down South". The song was sung by Nina Mae McKinney in the movie Safe in Hell (1931), and later became a signature song of Louis Armstrong.
He was the major star in Broken Earth (1936), which related the story of a black sharecropper whose son miraculously recovers from fever through the father's fervent prayer. Shot on a farm in the South with nonprofessional actors (except for Muse), the film's early scenes focused in a highly realistic manner on the incredible hardship of black farmers, with plowing scenes. In 1938, Muse co-starred with boxer Joe Louis in Spirit of Youth, the fictional story of a champion boxer which featured an all black cast. Muse and Langston Hughes wrote the script for Way Down South (1939).
Muse performed in Broken Strings (1940), as a concert violinist who opposes the desire of his son to play "swing". From 1955-56, Muse was a regular on the weekly TV version of Casablanca, playing Sam the pianist (a part he was under consideration for in the original Warner Brothers film), and in 1959, he played Peter, the Honey Man, in Porgy and Bess.
He appeared on Disney's TV miniseries The Swamp Fox. Other film credits include Buck and the Preacher (1972), The World's Greatest Athlete (1973) and as Gazenga's Assistant, "Snapper" in Car Wash (1976). His last acting role was in The Black Stallion (1979).
David Bruce (born Marden Andrew McBroom; January 6, 1914 – May 3, 1976) was an American film actor, known for his chilling performance as Ted Allison in The Mad Ghoul. He was a company member of Peninsula Players Theatre in Fish Creek, Wisconsin in 1939.
Born in Kankakee, Illinois, he signed a movie contract with Warner Brothers in 1940. The Northwestern University graduate appeared in many movies from the 1940s until 1955 when Bruce decided to give up acting. The 6' 1" (1.85 m) actor appeared in over 60 movies including Flying Tigers (1942), Christmas Holiday (1944) and Lady on a Train (1945).
From Wikipedia
Maurice George Costello (February 22, 1877 – October 29, 1950) was an American prominent vaudeville actor of the late 1890s and early 1900s, who later played a principal role in early American films, as both a leading man, supporting player and a director.
Costello was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Irish immigrants Ellen and Thomas Costello. He appeared in his first motion picture in 1905, in which he had the honour of appearing in the first serious film to feature the character of Sherlock Holmes in the movie Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, in which Costello played the title role. He continued to work for Vitagraph, being a member of the first motion picture stock company ever formed, playing opposite Florence Turner. Among some of his best known pictures are A Tale of Two Cities, The Man Who Couldn't Beat God and For the Honor of the Family. After an absence of some years he returned to the screen. He was married to actress Mae Costello (née Altschuk). His descendants include two daughters, actresses Dolores Costello and Helene Costello, a grandson John Drew Barrymore, and a great granddaughter Drew Barrymore. He was one of the world's first leading men in early American cinema, but like a lot of other silent screen stars, he found the transition to "talkies" extremely difficult, and his leading man status was over. However, Costello was a trouper, and continued to appear in movies, often in small roles and bit parts, right up until his death in 1950.
Frank Faylen (born Francis Charles Ruf) was an American stage, screen, and television actor. He is best remembered for his movie performances as the cynical male nurse in The Lost Weekend (1945) and Ernie the taxi driver in It's a Wonderful Life (1946), as well as for his portrayal of long-suffering grocer Herbert T. Gillis on the 1950s television sitcom The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
William Forrest (October 10, 1902 – January 26, 1989) was an American theatre, film, and television actor. He appeared in more than 250 films between 1939 and 1977. He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and died in Santa Monica, California.
Sol Gorss was born on March 22, 1908 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. He is known for his work on "Climax! (1954)", "Flowing Gold (1940)" and "China Girl (1942)". He died on September 10, 1966 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alan Hale Sr. (born Rufus Edward Mackahan; February 10, 1892 – January 22, 1950) was an American movie actor and director, most widely remembered for his many supporting character roles, in particular as a frequent sidekick of Errol Flynn, as well as films supporting Lon Chaney, Wallace Beery, Douglas Fairbanks, James Cagney, Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart and Ronald Reagan, among dozens of others. Hale was born Rufus Edward Mackahan in Washington, D.C. He studied to be an opera singer and also had success as an inventor. Among his innovations were a sliding theater chair (to allow spectators to slide back to admit newcomers rather than standing), the hand fire extinguisher, and greaseless potato chips.
His first film role was in the 1911 silent movie The Cowboy and the Lady. He played "Little John" in the 1922 film Robin Hood, with Douglas Fairbanks and Wallace Beery, reprised the role 16 years later in The Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone, then played him yet again in Rogues of Sherwood Forest in 1950 with John Derek as Robin Hood's son, an unprecedented 28-year span of portrayals of the same character in theatrical films. Hale played Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939), featuring in a pivotal confrontation with the Earl of Essex, portrayed by Flynn.
His other films include the 1922 epic The Trap with Lon Chaney, 1928's Skyscraper; as well as Fog Over Frisco with Bette Davis; Miss Fane's Baby Is Stolen with Baby LeRoy and William Frawley; The Little Minister with Katharine Hepburn; and It Happened One Night with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert; all released in 1934; the 1937 film Stella Dallas with Barbara Stanwyck; High, Wide, and Handsome with Irene Dunne and Dorothy Lamour; The Fighting 69th with James Cagney and Pat O'Brien; They Drive By Night with George Raft and Humphrey Bogart; Manpower with Edward G. Robinson, Marlene Dietrich, and George Raft; Virginia City with Errol Flynn, Randolph Scott, and Humphrey Bogart; and as the cantankerous Sgt. McGee in the 1943 movie This Is the Army with Irving Berlin. He also co-starred with Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland in the successful western film Dodge City (1939) where he played the slightly dimwitted but likeable and comical Rusty Hart, sidekick to Flynn's character, Sheriff Wade Hatton. Hale co-starred with Errol Flynn in 13 movies.
Hale directed eight movies during the 1920s and 1930s and acted in 235 theatrical films.
Stuart Holmes (born Joseph Liebchen; March 10, 1884 – December 29, 1971) was an American actor and sculptor whose career spanned seven decades. He appeared in almost 450 films between 1909 and 1964, sometimes credited as Stewart Holmes.
Holmes's film career began in 1911 and ended with The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962).
As a sculptor, Holmes created work for at least three California United States post offices — in Oceanside (1936), Claremont (1937), and Bell (1937).
For 20 years, Holmes performed in vaudeville and on stage, with the latter often being in Shakespeare's plays. His work in the theater included a stint in Germany.
Ethelreda Leopold was born on July 2, 1914 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for In the Sweet Pie and Pie (1941), G.I. Wanna Home (1946) and Hot Paprika (1935). She was married to Joseph Pine. She died on January 26, 1998 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
Joey Marion McCreery Lewyn (April 8, 1902–May 1, 1989), known professionally as Marion Mack, was an American film actress and screenwriter. Mack is best known for co-starring with Buster Keaton in the 1926 silent comedy film, The General. After retiring from acting in 1928, she wrote several short screenplays and took up a career in real estate.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Marion Mack, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Frank Mayo (June 28, 1889 – July 9, 1963) was an American actor. He appeared in 310 films between 1911 and 1949. He was born in New York, New York, and died in Laguna Beach, California, from a heart attack. He was married to actress Dagmar Godowsky from 1921-1928. The marriage was annulled in August 1928 on the ground that Mayo had another wife. Mayo was buried at the Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles.
Jack Mower (born Benjamin Allen Mower) was an American screen and television actor. He appeared in hundreds of films between 1914 and 1964. Mower also, during the mid 1920s, produced seven silent films.
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) was the 40th President of the United States (1981–1989), the 33rd Governor of California (1967–1975) and prior to that an actor.
Upon his college graduation, Reagan first moved to Iowa to work as a radio broadcaster and then in 1937 to Los Angeles, California. He began a career as an actor appearing in over fifty movie productions. Some of his most notable roles are in Knute Rockne, All American and Kings Row.
Reagan served as president of the Screen Actors Guild, and later spokesman for General Electric. His start in politics occurred during his work for General Electric.
Originally a member of the Democratic Party, he switched to the Republican Party in 1962. After supporting of Barry Goldwater's presidential candidacy in 1964, he was persuaded to seek the California governorship, winning two years later and again in 1970. He was defeated in his run for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968 as well as 1976, but defeated incumbent Jimmy Carter in 1980 presidential election.
Reagan left office in 1989. In 1994, the former president disclosed that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease earlier in the year. He died ten years later at the age of 93.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Ridgely (born John Huntington Rea, September 6, 1909 – January 18, 1968) was an American film character actor with over 175 film credits.
He appeared in the 1946 Humphrey Bogart film The Big Sleep as blackmailing gangster Eddie Mars and had a memorable role as a suffering heart patient in the film noir Nora Prentiss (1947). He appeared in a large number of other Warner Bros. films in the 1930s and 1940s.
Freelancing after 1948, John Ridgely continued to essay general-purpose parts until he left films in 1953. Thereafter, he worked in summer-theater productions and television until his death from a heart attack at the age of 58 in 1968.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alexis Smith (June 8, 1921 – June 9, 1993) was a Canadian-born stage, film, and television actress. She appeared in several major Hollywood movies in the 1940s and had a notable career on Broadway in the 1970s, winning a Tony Award in 1972.
Lawrence Wells Steers (February 14, 1888 – February 15, 1951) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 550 films between 1917 and 1951. He was born in Indiana, and died in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Larry Steers, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Jane Wyman (born Sarah Jane Mayfield; January 5, 1917 – September 10, 2007) was an American singer, dancer, and character actress of film and television. She began her film career in the 1930s, and was a prolific performer for two decades. She received an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Johnny Belinda (1948), and later achieved success during the 1980s for her leading role in the television series Falcon Crest.
Wyman was the first wife of Ronald Reagan. They married in 1940 and divorced in 1948, before Reagan ran for public office. She is the only person to have won an Oscar and married a future President of the United States.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Jane Wyman, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
