The Ice Follies of 1939 (1939)

Director:

Reinhold Schünzel

Writers:

Leonard Praskins (story)
Leonard Praskins (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

10 March 1939 (USA)

Genre:

Musical | Drama

Plot:

Mary and Larry are are a modestly successful skating team. Shortly after their marriage, Marry gets a picture contract...

Plot Keywords:

Cross Dresser | Hollywood | Ice Skating | Actress | Banquet

Cast

Joan Crawford	...	Mary McKay, aka Sandra Lee
James Stewart	...	Larry Hall
Lew Ayres	...	Eddie Burgess
Lewis Stone	...	Douglas 'Doug' Tolliver Jr.
The International Ice Follies	...	Themselves
Bess Ehrhardt	...	Kitty Sherman
Roy Shipstad	...	Himself - Ice Follies Skater
Eddie Shipstad	...	Himself - Ice Follies Skater
Oscar Johnson	...	Himself - Ice Follies Skater
Lionel Stander	...	Mort Hodges
Charles D. Brown	...	Mr. Barney

Runtime:

82 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #5099) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Filming Locations:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

In Mommie Dearest (1981), this is the movie Crawford is getting ready for in the opening sequences.

Goofs:

Continuity: Bess Ehrhardt is billed and introduced as 'Kitty Sherman', but an advertising placard in the movie uses her real name along with character names of some other actors.

Quotes:

Larry Hall: Stars are a million miles apart; they never touch. They live away from each other, cold and lonely - like we'll have to do.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "NYPD Blue: Ice Follies (#1.9)" (1993)

Soundtrack:

Cinderella Reel

They should've kept the script on ice.

This is one of those horrible films that sounds so bizarre it holds the promise of actually being good in a bad way when one finally finds it on television. It doesn't deliver on any level, though. The whole notion of Stewart and Crawford as ice skating stars is hilarious. But they are never really shown skating at any point in the film. What's left is a hackneyed, contrived plot about them falling in love and then separating to follow their careers. He tries to create the first Ice Follies and she (quite easily!) becomes a major film star. The actual Ice Follies troupe shows up in the middle of the film to do a few twirls and spins. The whole thing is capped by a 3-strip Technicolor finale featuring massive quantities of skaters and Joan in a humongous ball gown singing a forgettable song. It's so rare to see early Joan in color, yet she is given no close-ups. Joan was supposed to sing three songs in the film, but two of them were cut. She dons a black Hedy Lamarr-style wig for a lot of the film which gives her a distinctive, if not natural for her, look. Even though the film is ludicrous and trite, money WAS spent on it. The banquet scene in which Crawford gives a speech is lavish in it's decor and her clothes, though often bizarre, are also expensive. (One scene has her in a kooky art deco headdress which makes her look like a parking meter come to life.) This film is of note these days primarily because it's the film "Joan" is being made up for at the beginning of "Mommie Dearest". If not for that plug, it may have fallen into even greater obscurity than it already was. One of her hilarious recollections from the book Conversations with Joan Crawford was, "Christ! We all must have been out of our collective minds!" She describes how she and Stewart "skated around on our ankles". She tried to inject some flair and life into the film, but it was doomed on the page. Fortunately, "The Women" was on the horizon to keep her in good stead.