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The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers:
Release Date:
11 February 1938 (USA)
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Tagline:
The finest array of entertainment ever offered !
Plot:
The Bellows family causes comic confusion on an ocean liner, with time out for radio-style musical acts. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
Ocean Liner
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Golf
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Race
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Revue
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Male Female Relationship
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Awards:
Won Oscar.
Another 1 win
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User Comments:
A Big Broadcast indeed
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Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| W.C. Fields | ... | T. Frothingill Bellows / S.B. Bellows | |
| Martha Raye | ... | Martha Bellows | |
| Dorothy Lamour | ... | Dorothy Wyndham | |
| Shirley Ross | ... | Cleo Fielding | |
| Lynne Overman | ... | Scoop McPhail | |
| Bob Hope | ... | Buzz Fielding | |
| Ben Blue | ... | Mike | |
| Leif Erickson | ... | Bob Hayes (as Leif Erikson) | |
| Grace Bradley | ... | Grace Fielding | |
| Rufe Davis | ... | Turnkey | |
| Tito Guízar | ... | Tito Guizar | |
| Lionel Pape | ... | Lord Harry Droopy | |
| Virginia Vale | ... | Joan Fielding (as Dorothy Howe) | |
| Russell Hicks | ... | Captain Stafford | |
| Leonid Kinskey | ... | Ivan |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
94 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
First full length movie for Bob Hope, where he first sings his future theme song "Thanks for the Memories" with Shirley Ross.
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Quotes:
Grace Fielding:
Oh, I'm so sorry, Mr. Bellows. I didn't recognize you in this bad light.
S.B. Bellows: Ah, everybody seems to see me in a bad light.
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S.B. Bellows: Ah, everybody seems to see me in a bad light.
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Movie Connections:
Referenced in "Murphy Brown: Angst for the Memories (#6.2)" (1993)
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Soundtrack:
MAMA, THAT MOON IS HERE AGAIN
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FAQ
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This movie is very dear to me. I saw it on late-night TV when I was about 12 years old, tape-recorded the sound track and listened to it over and over again. This is a movie that has everything: wacky W. C. Fields bits like his golf and pool routines, Bob Hope bombing out with the crowd on the ship (imagine, in his first movie role he can't even raise a laugh!), bizarre but charming performers like Shep Fields with his Rippling Rhythm orchestra (whom Lawrence Welk obviously ripped off), accompanied by an even more bizarre animated segment.
It's almost like watching a '30s stage revue of really gifted and varied performers, including a Mexican singer so beautiful he must be gay, and Martha Raye doing her foghorn bit. But the crowning glory of this film is the funny and poignant duet, Thanks for the Memory, with Bob Hope and Shirley Ross.
Most people know the tune as Bob's theme song, but few know the clever, tender, almost Dorothy Parker-like lyrics. This is the story of a sophisticated but madcap couple, not unlike Nick and Nora Charles, running through money like water, traveling the world, and finding bliss in bed. Each verse tells a little bit more of their story in an arch, clever way that is never too trite because of Shirley Ross's marvelous acting. Her facial expressions reveal the deeper story underneath the actual events, a couple who were madly in love but stormy and tempestuous, with fights that may have included screaming and hair-pulling.
Shirley makes reference to "the night you came home with lipstick on your tie", making it sound like an uproarious joke, while Bob rolls his eyes in discomfort. He sings of "that weekend in Niagara when we hardly saw the falls," and Ross murmurs, "How lovely that was." "Thank you," Bob replies.
This is a fresh and sensitive take on what could be a very sentimental song, and I can never see it without tearing up at the end. This movie is worth renting or buying, if you can find it, as a great example of '30s entertainment with the bonus of a truly great "love-lost" song.