Ring Up the Curtain (1933)
"Broadway to Hollywood" (original title)

Ted and Lulu Hackett are vaudeville's The Hacketts, a fairly successful song-and-dance team. They bring their son Ted Jr. up in the business and he soon eclipses them. When the son is ... See full summary »

Director:

Willard Mack

Writers:

Willard Mack (screenplay), Edgar Allan Woolf (screenplay)

Stars:

Alice Brady, Frank Morgan, Jackie Cooper

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Alice Brady	...	Lulu Hackett
Frank Morgan	...	Ted Hackett
Jackie Cooper	...	Ted Hackett Jr. as a Child
Russell Hardie	...	Ted Hackett Jr.
Madge Evans	...	Anne Ainsley
Mickey Rooney	...	Ted Hackett III as a Child
Eddie Quillan	...	Ted Hackett III
Jimmy Durante	...	Jimmy - Hollywood Character
Fay Templeton	...	Production Number Singer - Edited from The March of Time (1930) (archive footage)
May Robson	...	Veteran Actress
Albertina Rasch Dancers	...	Themselves - Edited from The March of Time (1930) (archive footage) (as Albertina Rasch Dancers)

Storyline

Ted and Lulu Hackett are vaudeville's The Hacketts, a fairly successful song-and-dance team. They bring their son Ted Jr. up in the business and he soon eclipses them. When the son is offered a starring role on Broadway, he arranges for his parents to join him in the show, but Ted Sr. is embarrassed to learn that he and Lulu are there purely in order to keep their son happy. They return to vaudeville, only to find that their duet act has gone stale with time. Meanwhile, Ted Jr. has married and had a son, but he has also fallen victim to drink. Tragedy strikes the Hackett family, and only the march of time will tell whether Ted III will repeat the failings of his father and grandfather.

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Plot Keywords:

vaudeville | saga | place name in title | new york city | broadway new york city | 

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Genres:

History | Musical

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 September 1933 (USA)

Also Known As:

March of Time

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

85 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Black and White Color (2-strip Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film was originally intended to include a lot of footage from the uncompleted The March of Time, much of it in 2-strip Technicolor, but most of it seems to be missing from the surviving version, as shown on Turner Classic Movies, and there is no color footage anywhere to be seen.

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Connections

Edited from The March of Time (1930)

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Soundtracks

"Snow Ballet"
(1933) (uncredited)
(Edited from The March of Time)
Music by Dimitri Tiomkin
Danced by Albertina Rasch Dancers

User Reviews

The Hackett Dynasty

Broadway to Hollywood is the story of a vaudeville couple, Ted and Lulu Hackett played by Frank Morgan and Alice Brady, and their trials and tribulations over a 30 year period.

The problem for a contemporary viewer is that the people in cameos and the names that are dropped are probably unknown to the MTV generation. You would have to know that Joe Weber and Lew Fields for instance were a great vaudeville comedy team who then went into the producing end of the business in order to appreciate a scene where Joe Weber wants to hire young Ted Hackett II, and will give the elder Hacketts small bits in his show in order to get him.

Because it is revived every year around the 4th of July, I suppose Yankee Doodle Dandy is the best comparison to this film to make. The elder Cohans there are a show business family whose kids are raised in the theater atmosphere the way the Hacketts raise their son. Of course here we go into a third generation of Hacketts.

Doing a small unbilled part in this film is Nelson Eddy who sings In the Garden of My Heart during a show. Ironically in two years Eddy would be starring in Naughty Marietta and Frank Morgan would be supporting him.

In reading the credits I was flabbergasted to read that the brothers Howard of the 3 Stooges played a pair of clowns who essentially roll a drunken Ted Hackett Jr. as he's being fired from a show. Certainly Moe and Curly who started in vaudeville would know all about that venue of show business. They are unrecognizable in their clown make up.

When the film is nearing it's conclusion it's now Ted Hackett III who is hitting the big time in Hollywood played by Eddie Quillan. His parents were played by Russell Hardie and Madge Evans. Still it's Morgan and Brady who carry this. It's like if Walter Huston and Rosemary DeCamp were the central characters of Yankee Doodle Dandy.

It's a nice film with a good story, but I fear it's too dated for today's audience.