The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

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:

Martha Bellows: Gee, I- I'm so cute! I'll bet they put my picture on the front page.
Scoop McPhail: I'll never forget the last time you had your picture on the front page. Your mouth was continued on page two.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Anything But Love: Angst for the Memories (#4.14)" (1992)

Soundtrack:

THE WALTZ LIVES ON

View It Through the Lens of Yesterday, Not Today

One must have at least a passing familiarity with the 1930s to understand and/or enjoy "The Big Broadcast of 1938". Without that, the movie is a curio piece to be remembered only as Bob Hope's first major film appearance and the one where he first sang "Thanks for the Memory" (soon to be his theme); W.C. Fields's last film for Paramount; and, perhaps if you're of a certain age, Martha Raye and Dorothy Lamour.

"The Big Broadcast of . . . " series of films were strictly pastiche: an odd mixture of familiar film faces, radio personalities, and vaudeville, burlesque and novelty acts with an extremely loose storyline stringing it all together. For 10¢ and the B-picture with an A-picture double-bill, the movie would have hit the spot for most Depression-era movie-goers.

The humour and jokes are pretty period specific, making the movies already out-of-date even ten years later. Without a map and a compass, the territory would be unfamiliar to audiences 70 years later. But that's not unique to "The Big Broadcast of . . . " series either. How well will "Canonball Run", "Airplane", "Scary Movie" and "Meet the Spartans" (all products of their time) hold up in 70 years? As others have stated, the best segment of the film is Hope and Shirley Ross singing the very tender and bittersweet, "Thanks for the Memory". Don't expect much from "The Big Broadcast of 1938", view it as the mind-candy of your great-, grand- or parents' generation.