Garden of the Moon (1938)

John Quinn is the ruthless manager of the night club Garden of the Moon. He has booked Rudy Vallee & his Connecticut Yankees for a season as his band, but due to a car accident Vallee can't... See full summary »

Director:

Busby Berkeley

Writers:

Jerry Wald (screen play), Richard Macaulay (screen play),

Stars:

Pat O'Brien, Margaret Lindsay, John Payne

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Pat O'Brien	...	John Quinn
Margaret Lindsay	...	Toni Blake
John Payne	...	Don Vincente
Johnnie Davis	...	Slappy Harris
Melville Cooper	...	Maurice
Isabel Jeans	...	Mrs. Lornay
Mabel Todd	...	Mary Stanton
Penny Singleton	...	Miss Calder
Dick Purcell	...	Rick Fulton
Curt Bois	...	Maharajah of Sund
Granville Bates	...	Angus McGillicuddy
Edward McWade	...	Peter McGillicuddy
Larry Williams	...	Trent
Ray Mayer	...	Musician
Jerry Colonna	...	Musician

Storyline

John Quinn is the ruthless manager of the night club Garden of the Moon. He has booked Rudy Vallee & his Connecticut Yankees for a season as his band, but due to a car accident Vallee can't work for a while, Quinn's secretary Toni Blake is only able to get the unknown band of Don Vincente. Quinn makes it clear to Vincente, that he has only to work for a fortneight, untill Valle is able to work. Vincente doesn't like the way of Quinn handling his personal and they start their small private war against each other. Vincente falls in love with Toni Blake, and when Vincente becomes famous, inspite of Quinn's trials to make a fool out of him and gets an offer for a radio programm, he gladly accepts. But Toni Blake don't want to leave her job in the Garden of the Moon, so Quinn starts his game to get Vincente back.

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Plot Keywords:

hoax | party | revenge | pickpocket | dancing | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Musical | Romance

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 October 1938 (USA)

Also Known As:

Im Garten des Mondes

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The roles played by John Payne and Margaret Lindsay were originally intended for Dick Powell and Bette Davis. Powell took a layoff rather than make this film.

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Soundtracks

"M-O-T-H-E-R, a Word that Means the World to Me"
(1916) (uncredited)
Music by Theodore Morse
Lyrics by Howard Johnson
In the score whenever Quinn breaks his watch

User Reviews

It's okay....

Whether or not you like this film may depend a lot on whether or not you love musicals...as well as the singing voice of John Payne. Unfortunately, I am not a huge fan of musicals and I distinctly did not enjoy Payne's singing. And, on top of that, the character played by Pat O'Brien is very familiar--though meaner than the sort of guy O'Brien often played. A bit less singing and a bit less meanness and I might have enjoyed this more.

This film, directed by Busby Berkeley, begins with Rudy Valle's bus being run off the road and several members of the band (none of which you ever see) are injured. As a result, they are not able to play for the opening of O'Brien's nightclub, The Garden of the Moon. No other big-name act is available Margaret Lindsey convinces O'Brien to take his chance on an unknown band led by John Payne. The band is thrilled but soon after they arrive, O'Brien begins treating them like garbage. This could have been done well, but they frankly made O'Brien a total jerk. As a result, later in the film when the film makers wanted you to like and connect with him, you couldn't. The rest of the film consists of on-again/off-again fights between Payne and O'Brien and Lindsey's attempts to get them to patch things up--though I was hoping Payne would just slug him! The film consists of a lot of ordinary music and some forced comedy. There was a terrible ordinariness about the film and while there isn't a lot to hate, the film was only mildly diverting and nothing more. Frankly, everyone in the film did better work than this!