The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938)

Director:

Mitchell Leisen

Writers:

Frederick Hazlitt Brennan (story)
Russel Crouse (adaptation)

Release Date:

11 February 1938 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical | Romance

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.

Plot Keywords:

Ocean Liner | Golf | Race | Revue | Male Female Relationship

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 1 win

Cast

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

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

First full length movie for Bob Hope, where he first sings his future theme song "Thanks for the Memories" with Shirley Ross.

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.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Murphy Brown: Angst for the Memories (#6.2)" (1993)

Soundtrack:

MAMA, THAT MOON IS HERE AGAIN

A Big Broadcast indeed

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.