June Moon (1931)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

A. Edward Sutherland

Writers:

George S. Kaufman (play)
Ring Lardner (play)

Release Date:

21 March 1931 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Aspiring lyricist Fred Stevens leaves Schenectady for New York City, with hopes of making it big in the songwriting business. |

Plot Keywords:

Based On Play

Cast

Jack Oakie	...	Frederick Martin Stevens
Frances Dee	...	Edna Baker
Wynne Gibson	...	Lucille Sears
Harry Akst	...	Maxie Schwartz
June MacCloy	...	Eileen Fletcher
Ernest Wood	...	Paul Sears
Harold Waldridge	...	Young Goebel
Sam Hardy	...	Sam Hart
Ethel Kenyon	...	Goldie (as Ethel Sutherland)
Frank Darien	...	Window Cleaner
Jean Laverty	...	Miss Rixey (as Jean Barry)
Eddie Dunn	...	Joe McCloskey

Also Known As:

Night Life (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

79 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

The original Broadway production of "June Moon" by Ring Lardner and George S. Kaufman opened on October 9, 1929 at the Broadhurst Theater and ran for 273 performances.

Quotes:

Maxie Schwartz: If songwriters always wrote about their home state, what a big Jewish population Tennessee must have.

Movie Connections:

Version of Blonde Trouble (1937)

Soundtrack:

Hello Tokio

From the page to the stage to the screen

JUNE MOON is a mildly amusing, lightweight comedy about the music business that fans of Pre-Code era talkies may well enjoy, but it sure isn't the movie it might have been. This was a project that began on a high note but, unfortunately, rolled steadily downhill thereafter. It started life as a first-rate short story, then became a successful Broadway show, then turned into this pleasant but essentially mediocre movie. It's kind of like that impressive kid from your junior high school who won all the honors but wound up clerking at a drug store.

In any event, it all started in 1921 when the prominent author, journalist, and would-be songwriter Ring Lardner published a short story called "Some Like Them Cold," the tale of a young man named Charles Lewis who meets a young lady named Mabelle Gillespie in the Chicago train station just before he is to leave for New York City. Lewis is an aspiring songwriter with boundless (if groundless) faith in his abilities and a keen determination to conquer Tin Pan Alley. The story unfolds in a series of letters between the two: he writes excitedly of his first days in the city, and sends Mabelle a sample of one of his (terrible) songs; her eager replies make it clear that she considers this correspondence a courtship, at least at first. As time passes, however, the letter-writing tempo slows, and the passions cool. Eventually, Lewis reveals that he is engaged to marry the sister of his songwriting partner, prompting a chilly note of congratulations from Miss Gillespie in which she also announces that the correspondence is at an end.

A few years after this piece was published, Lardner-- who was a frustrated dramatist as well as a frustrated songwriter --teamed up with playwright George S. Kaufman to collaborate on a play adapted from the story, retitled "June Moon." Now our aspiring songwriter is a lyricist named Fred Stevens, and we first meet him on the train taking him from his hometown of Schenectady to the big city. During the trip Fred meets Edna Baker, a city girl on her way home, and their extended flirtation plays like the early letters exchanged by their predecessors in "Some Like Them Cold." Once Fred reaches the city he meets his new songwriting partner, Paul Sears, Paul's cynical wife Lucille, and her hardboiled sister Eileen. Fred is remarkably naive, in sharp contrast with worldly song-plugger Maxie Schwartz, who has seen 'em come and go and has a ready quip for every situation. Eileen, meanwhile, spots Fred as an easy mark (and potential meal ticket) and sets about turning his head. By the final curtain things have turned out pretty much the way you expected for these characters.

For all the interpersonal dynamics, the real strength of the play lies in its witty digs at the music business. The desperate, oddball characters, hokey hackwork, and questionable ethics of Tin Pan Alley are mercilessly satirized in the later scenes, especially when Fred's cliché-riddled song "June Moon" becomes a hit almost accidentally --a twist that must have represented both a jab and a touch of wish-fulfillment for Lardner, whose own songs never achieved any real success. His collaboration with Kaufman was another matter, however: their play opened at the Broadhurst Theatre in October of 1929, received glowing reviews, and ran well into the following year; and to top it off, the motion picture rights were purchased by Paramount.

The play was one of many snapped up by the movie industry in the early days of the talkies. Some of these plays were filmed virtually unchanged or with only minor trims, but unfortunately the Powers That Be at Paramount decided that the Lardner/Kaufman play needed revamping. The opening scene on the train between Fred (Jack Oakie) and Edna (Frances Dee) and the subsequent scene when Fred meets his new associates are close in content and spirit to the play, but after that the screenplay strays from the source material, and not to anyone's advantage. For example, the amusing put-downs of George Gershwin and Irving Berlin delivered in the play by Paul were all cut, despite the fact that his bitter wisecracks were obviously prompted by envy. Perhaps it was felt that these quips about the music business were too "inside" (or perhaps Paramount didn't want to offend the two most successful songwriters in America!), but in any case much of that material went by the wayside, while new scenes emphasizing the Fred/Edna/Eileen triangle were concocted. Worst of all, in the movie Fred's song "June Moon" never becomes a hit, thus undercutting the whole point of the satire. Oh well, as Mr. Kaufman said, I guess satire is what closes Saturday night . . .

Apparently neither Lardner nor Kaufman were pleased with this version of their work, and surely neither would be unhappy to learn that the film has practically disappeared from view, and is very rarely screened anymore. Still, all things considered, JUNE MOON is of some interest to movie buffs with an interest in early talkies, especially those with an interest in the music of the period, and it stands as a fairly pleasant diversion for viewers with no high expectations. It also stands as the only collaboration between Ring Lardner and George S. Kaufman; apparently there was talk of a follow-up, this time a more serious play on the theme of alcoholism, but sadly in 1933 Lardner's own alcoholism caught up with him, and he died at the age of 48.