The Stork Club (1945)

A hat-check girl at the Stork Club (Hutton) saves the life of a drowning man (Fitzgerald). A rich man, he decides to repay her by anonymously giving her a bank account, a luxury apartment ... See full summary »

Director:

Hal Walker

Writers:

Buddy G. DeSylva (screenplay), Jack McGowan (screenplay)

Stars:

Betty Hutton, Barry Fitzgerald, Don DeFore

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Betty Hutton	...	Judy Peabody
Barry Fitzgerald	...	Jerry B. 'J.B.' / 'Pop' Bates
Don DeFore	...	Sgt. Danny Wilton
Robert Benchley	...	Tom P. Curtis
Bill Goodwin	...	Sherman Billingsley
Iris Adrian	...	Gwen
Mikhail Rasumny	...	Mr. Coretti
Mary Young	...	Mrs. Edith Bates
Andy Russell	...	Jim Jones

Storyline

A hat-check girl at the Stork Club (Hutton) saves the life of a drowning man (Fitzgerald). A rich man, he decides to repay her by anonymously giving her a bank account, a luxury apartment and a charge account at a department store. When her boyfriend (DeFore) returns from overseas, he thinks she is a kept woman.

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Plot Keywords:

hat check girl | department store | benefactor | veteran | public domain | 

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Taglines:

Paramount's Gay and Gorgeous Lyrical Romance!

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Genres:

Comedy | Musical | Romance

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

28 December 1945 (USA)

Also Known As:

Dinheiro não Dá Felicidade

Filming Locations:

Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

B.G. DeSylva Productions Inc.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The movie, included as a character Sherman Billingsley the owner of the real stork club. During the movie, he talks to Danny, Judy's fiancée telling him that his wife and two daughters were the only women in his life. This is contradictory to the real life Sherman, who had a longtime affair with Ethel Merman.

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Quotes

Judy Peabody: You know I think he's a bit screwy, he thinks a girl named Ruby Stevens is Barbara Stanwyck!

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Connections

Featured in Moments in Music (1950)

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Soundtracks

"Stork Trot"
(uncredited)
Music by Joseph J. Lilley

User Reviews

Move, Danny, Move, Do Something

The first forty minutes of the movie is delightful with Barry Fitzgerald playing a millionaire in disguise who turns hatcheck girl Betty Hutton's life upside down. The last ten minutes are also fine with a cute and satisfying ending. Its the forty-five minutes in-between that gets bogged down. The biggest problem is the subplot with Don Defore. Defore plays an ex-marine returned from the war and the leader of an orchestra looking for a job. He is passionless and dull in both roles. He rejects long time girl friend Judy (Hutton) because he finds her in a wealthy apartment wearing rich clothes and assumes (incorrectly) that she got the goodies by whoring around. This might have made him noble in 1945, but now he seems like a "holier than thou" male chauvinist. One feels like telling the distraught Judy that she was lucky to get rid of the creep. Unfortunately, she has to feel guilty for having had good fortune without the help of her "man". She spends the rest of the movie trying to win him back.

The other problem is that Betty sings just four musical numbers and only two ("Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief" and "Square in a Social Circle") are in her inimitable jitterbug-swing style. These two numbers are the highlights in the film. Andy Russell, a rather lifeless Bing Crosby/Frank Sinatra type crooner is given three numbers, including a duet with Hutton, which just slows the film down.

In sum, the delightful performance of Barry Fitzgerald and the comical energy and singing talent of Betty Hutton start the movie in a glowing fashion and eventually get us over the finish line, but the middle part is dated and a bit wearisome.

I think the movie is worth seeing for two scenes - Hutton's dynamic delivery of "Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief" and her jarring scene where she welcomes her soldier boyfriend back from the war, saying "Move, Danny, Move, Do Something," I think at that moment she captured some of the extraordinary happiness that people felt about the war ending at that time.