Blind Date (1934)

Director:

Roy William Neill

Writers:

Ethel Hill (screenplay), Vida Hurst (adapted from a story by),

Stars:

Ann Sothern, Neil Hamilton, Paul Kelly

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Ann Sothern	...	Kitty Taylor
Neil Hamilton	...	Bob Hartwell
Paul Kelly	...	Bill Lowry
Jane Darwell	...	Ma Taylor
Spencer Charters	...	Pa (Charlie) Taylor
Joan Gale	...	Flora Taylor
Mickey Rooney	...	Freddie Taylor
Geneva Mitchell	...	Dot
Henry Kolker	...	J.W. Hartwell Sr.
Tyler Brooke	...	Emory
Ben Hendricks Jr.	...	Burt Stearns - Kitty's Marathon Partner
Mary Forbes	...	Mrs. Hartwell
Billie Seward	...	Barbara Hartwell

Storyline

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Plot Keywords:

nurse | hospital | nightclub | class distinction | family relationships | 

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Taglines:

They gambled with romance and won each other! (original ad)

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 July 1934 (USA)

Also Known As:

Her Sacrifice

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

72 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

Hartwell, Sr.: [grumpily] Take a letter to Mrs. Hartwell. 'Madam: Your son is heading for another jam with one of my models. Suggest getting the baboon to Newport, if your bridge and golf can spare you. I can't manage a business and play wet-nurse to an idiot.' That's all.
[thinking]
Hartwell, Sr.: Add a postscript. 'I will not send a check to your empty-headed daughter.' Read that back.
Private secretary: [reading from pad] 'Dear wife: I fear Bob is getting involved with a pretty girl at the store. Knowing your tact and diplomacy, I suggest you...
[...]

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Soundtracks

"Did You Ever See A Dream Walking"
(1933) (uncredited)
Music by Harry Revel
Played on a radio

User Reviews

black & white oldie love story

"Blind Date" is one of three stories-made-into-movie by author Vida Hurst. Lots of familiar faces in this oldie from 1934. Mickey Rooney as a mouthy little punk. He seems to be in the film for comedic and homey "family values". Jane Darwell again plays the strong-willed mother, just as she had in Grapes of Wrath and the Oxbow Incident. Ann Sothern is Kitty, who has been dating Bill (Paul Kelly), but meets up with rich Bob Hartwell, played by Neil Hamilton, who may or may not be better for her. You can certainly tell that this was made at the very beginning of the Hays production code -- at one point, Kitty says she can't be up there alone with him if there isn't anyone else in the house...what a change from just a year or two prior, when anything and everything was OK. Good solid plot, but a whole lot of conversation and mushy love talk. It raises the question over what a girl should be searching for in a man; should she hold out for a man with integrity who treats her nice, or just find a man with big bucks, as most of the movies from the previous 20 years had advocated...? and how do men change when their situation changes ? watch out for some violence in the strange dance marathon scene. TV viewers from the 1960s will recognize Hamilton as Commissioner Gordon from Batman..... Also some weird drama in the off-screen lives for some of the cast in this one --Paul Kelly had gone to jail for being accessory to murder in a love triangle. Mickey Rooney had an affair with Norma Shearer, who was 20 years older; Rooney ended up being married eight times. Tyler Brooke (Emory) and Spencer Charters (Pa) both knocked themselves off in real life. The title "Blind Date" has been reused many times, for films, TV series, and even cartoons, but none of them seem to have the same plot as this one.