The Great American Broadcast (1941)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Archie Mayo

Writers:

Edwin Blum (writer)
Robert Ellis (writer)
(more)

Release Date:

9 May 1941 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical | Romance | Sport

Plot:

After WWI two men go into radio. Failure leads the wife of one to borrow money from another; she goes on...

Plot Keywords:

Radio | Money | Thrown Through Window | Speakeasy | Stage Performance

Cast

Alice Faye	...	Vicki Adams
John Payne	...	Rix Martin
Jack Oakie	...	Chuck Hadley
Cesar Romero	...	Bruce Chadwick
James Newill	...	Great American Broadcast Lead Singer
Charles Fuqua	...	Himself / Song Specialty (as The Ink Spots)
Hoppy Jones	...	Himself / Song Specialty (as The Ink Spots)
Bill Kenny	...	Himself / Song Specialty (as The Ink Spots)
Deek Watson	...	Himself / Song Specialty (as The Ink Spots)
Fayard Nicholas	...	Railroad Station Dance Specialty (as The Nicholas Brothers)
Harold Nicholas	...	Railroad Station Dance Specialty (as The Nicholas Brothers)
Harry Wiere	...	Chapman's Cheerful Chappies / The Stradivarians (as The Wiere Brothers)
Herbert Wiere	...	Chapman's Cheerful Chappies / The Stradivarians (as The Wiere Brothers)
Sylvester Wiere	...	Chapman's Cheerful Chappies / The Stradivarians (as The Wiere Brothers)
Mary Beth Hughes	...	Chuck's Secretary
Eula Morgan	...	Madame Rinaldi
William Pawley	...	Telephone Line Foreman
Lucien Littlefield	...	Justice of the Peace
Eddie Conrad	...	Musical Conductor
Gary Breckner	...	Radio Announcer
M.J. Frankovich	...	Radio Announcer (as Mike Frankovich)
Frank Orth	...	Counterman
Eddie Acuff	...	Jimmy
Mildred Gover	...	Jennie - Vicki's Maid
Syd Saylor	...	Railroad Brakeman
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Milton Berle	...	Radio Announcer (scenes deleted)
Kenneth Alexander	...	Radio Ham (uncredited)
Fred Allen	...	Himself - Opening Montage (uncredited) (archive footage)
Bettye Avery	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Jack Benny	...	Himself - Opening Montage (uncredited) (archive footage)
Tex Brodus	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Bob Brossard	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Eddie Cantor	...	Himself - Opening Montage (uncredited) (archive footage)
Dick Cherney	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Les Clark	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Bud Cokes	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
John Collins	...	Telephone Lineman (uncredited)
Henry Cordy	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Robert Cornell	...	Radio Announcer (uncredited)
Andre Cuyas	...	Waiter (uncredited)
Dorothy Dearing	...	Bruce's girlfriend (uncredited)
Jack Dempsey	...	Himself - Prizefighter (uncredited) (archive footage)
George Dobbs	...	Reporter (uncredited)
Bruce Edwards	...	Reporter (uncredited)
Lillian Eggers	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Frank Erickson	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Arno Frey	...	Waiter (uncredited)
Nora Gale	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Jimmy Grant	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Jesse Graves	...	Porter (uncredited)
Herbert Gunn	...	Radio Ham (uncredited)
Otto Han	...	Meadows (uncredited)
Bunny Hartley	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Herbert Heywood	...	Doorman (uncredited)
Eddie Kane	...	Headwaiter (uncredited)
Lee Kass	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Patsy Mace	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Sam McDaniel	...	Railroad Station Porter (uncredited)
Roseanne Murray	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
William H. O'Brien	...	Speakeasy Waiter (uncredited)
Frank O'Connor	...	Stagehand (uncredited)
Roland Rego	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Marion Rosamond	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
John Sinclair	...	Telephone Lineman (uncredited)
Kate Smith	...	Herself - Opening Montage (uncredited) (archive footage)
Charles Tannen	...	Usher (uncredited)
Fred 'Snowflake' Toones	...	Railroad Porter (uncredited)
Rudy Vallee	...	Himself - Opening Montage (uncredited) (archive footage)
Dorothy Vernon	...	Mrs. Willoughby (uncredited)
Fred Walburn	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Basil Walker	...	Radio Broadcast Attendant (uncredited)
Joyce Walsh	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Cecil Weston	...	Wife (uncredited)
Paul Whiteman	...	Himself - Opening Montage (uncredited) (archive footage)
Poppy Wilde	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Bill Wilkus	...	Telephone Lineman (uncredited)
Jess Willard	...	Himself - Prizefighter (uncredited) (archive footage)
Walter Winchell	...	Himself - Opening Montage (uncredited) (archive footage)
Al Winters	...	Waiter (uncredited)

Directed by
Archie Mayo

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Edwin Blum		writer
Robert Ellis		writer
Don Ettlinger		writer
Helen Logan		writer

Produced by
Darryl F. Zanuck	....	producer

Original Music by
Alfred Newman
Cyril J. Mockridge		(uncredited)

Cinematography by
J. Peverell Marley
Leon Shamroy

Film Editing by
Robert L. Simpson

Art Direction by
Richard Day
Albert Hogsett

Set Decoration by
Thomas Little

Costume Design by
Travis Banton

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Sam Benson	....	wardrobe

Other crew
Nick Castle	....	dance director

Production Companies

• Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Distributors

• Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation (1941) (USA) (theatrical)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Finland:S | Sweden:Btl

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

Original 1919 Jess Willard-Jack Dempsey fight film footage used.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Although the story takes place in 1919, and the years immediately following, all of Alice Faye's clothes and hairstyles are strictly in the 1941 mode, as are also those of Mary Beth Hughes and the other female members of the cast; the musical arrangements of Faye's featured songs are also in the contemporary 1941 style.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Take It or Leave It (1944)

Soundtrack:

Give My Regards to Broadway

Among the best of its type

Archie Mayo and the writers took a stock project (a show biz musical) and made it special. The plot line about the beginnings of radio doesn't get lost in the welter of specialty numbers nor does the love story intrude too much in the fun. We even get a sense of what it was like when radio was expanding from a hobbyist's pursuit to a a mass market entertainment industry. The cast is nearly top notch all around but the Wiere Brothers are a marvel, providing the best turn in the film despite competition from the Nicholas Brothers, the Ink Spots and the always professional and often underrated John Payne, Alice Faye and Jack Oakie. Payne was usually justified in sleepwalking through the roles Fox saddled him with, but in this outing he shows what he can do with a congenial plot, director and co-stars. The primary reason for watching this film is to see the Wiere Brothers at their antic best. They were a deft and whimsical European comedy trio--comedians, instrumentalists, dancers and jugglers--with a long lineage in Continental circus, ballet and opera, and their style may be baffling to tastes weened on hit-them-over-the-head roughhouse comedy. Nothing wrong with roughhouse, but the Wieres offer something gently different.