In Old Chicago (1937)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Henry King

Writers:

Lamar Trotti (screenplay) and
Sonya Levien (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

15 April 1938 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Musical | Romance

Tagline:

The great American motion picture!

Plot:

The O'Leary brothers -- honest Jack and roguish Dion -- become powerful figures, and eventually rivals, in Chicago on the eve of its Great Fire.

Plot Keywords:

Fire | Cow | Lawyer | Brother | Marriage

Awards:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 4 nominations

Cast

Tyrone Power	...	Dion O'Leary
Alice Faye	...	Belle Fawcett
Don Ameche	...	Jack O'Leary
Alice Brady	...	Molly O'Leary
Andy Devine	...	Pickle Bixby
Brian Donlevy	...	Gil Warren
Phyllis Brooks	...	Ann Colby
Tom Brown	...	Bob O'Leary
Sidney Blackmer	...	General Phil Sheridan
Berton Churchill	...	Senator Colby
June Storey	...	Gretchen
Paul Hurst	...	Mitch
Tyler Brooke	...	Specialty Singer
J. Anthony Hughes	...	Patrick O'Leary
Gene Reynolds	...	Dion O'Leary as a Boy

Runtime:

95 min | 111 min (roadshow version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #3639) | USA:TV-G (TV rating) | UK:A (original rating) (1938) | UK:U (re-rating) (1994) | Finland:K-16

Filming Locations:

California, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

A lantern manufacturer wrote to the studio insisting that the fire must have been started by a lamp, not a lantern. They claimed a lantern would extinguish itself if tipped over, but that claim was found to be false by an actual experiment performed by two assistants at Twentieth Century-Fox. Soon after the fire started, the barn where the fire was supposed to have originated was thoroughly investigated, and no evidence of a lamp or lantern was found.

Quotes:

Dion O'Leary: Nothing can lick Chicago!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Pyrates (1991)

Soundtrack:

When Johnny Comes Marching Home

"We O'Learys Are A Strange Tribe."

This was the first of three films that teamed Tyrone Power and Alice Faye, the others being Alexander's Ragtime Band and Rose of Washington Square. In Old Chicago and Alexander's Ragtime Band also had Don Ameche in it. And it set a pattern, no way was Ameche going to get Faye when Power was on the scene.

Ty Power's roles in his Fox days fell in two Categories. He was either the total romantic hero or he was a hero/heel. In In Old Chicago he's the latter although Power usually has the heroic side win out in these parts, he's not above a little scheming. Power's Dion O"Leary both double crosses Brian Donlevy and marries Alice Faye not just because he loves her, but so she can't testify against him. But Ty's always a charming likable cuss and Ameche is always the straight arrow, but slightly dull rival and in this case, brother.

However the film is known for two things. It gave Alice Faye her first real notice as actress. Up to this point, she'd been a Jean Harlow wannabe right down to the platinum blonde hair. Here Faye gets those period costumes that she wore so well. It was the first of many successes in that genre.

The second thing is the grand special effects showing the burning of Chicago. Even almost 70 years later it's a spectacular sight.