The Hoodlum Saint (1946)

A former reporter comes back home after serving in the army during World War I and finds that it's much more difficult to find work than he expected. Desperate, one day he crashes a wedding... See full summary »

Director:

Norman Taurog

Writers:

James Hill, Frank Wead

Stars:

William Powell, Esther Williams, Angela Lansbury

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
William Powell	...	Terence Ellerton 'Terry' O'Neill
Esther Williams	...	Kay Lorrison
Angela Lansbury	...	Dusty Millard
James Gleason	...	Snarp
Lewis Stone	...	Father Nolan
Rags Ragland	...	Fishface
Frank McHugh	...	Three Finger
Slim Summerville	...	Eel
Roman Bohnen	...	Father O'Doul
Charles Arnt	...	Cy Nolan - O'Neill's Secretary
Louis Jean Heydt	...	Mike Flaherty
Charles Trowbridge	...	Uncle Joe Lorrison
Henry O'Neill	...	Lewis J. Malbery
William 'Bill' Phillips	...	Dave Fernby
Matt Moore	...	Father Duffy

Storyline

A former reporter comes back home after serving in the army during World War I and finds that it's much more difficult to find work than he expected. Desperate, one day he crashes a wedding attended by many of the city's rich and powerful, meets a beautiful girl named Kay Lorrison (Esther Williams), who turns out to be his ticket to meeting those rich and powerful people, and he soon manages to land a job on a newspaper. He gets caught up in the "make money at all costs" game, but receives a rude awakening when the stock market crashes in 1929. The Depression's lows uncovers new plateaus this Vet couldn't foresee while raking in the big bucks. Spiritual nudges helps Our Man to finally see the light that money can't buy everything, especially the love and happiness he's been searching for.

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Plot Keywords:

scam | stock market crash | newspaper | reporter | train | 

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Taglines:

Was it the society beauty or the night club singer? (Title lobby card).

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Genres:

Drama | Music

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Certificate:

Approved

Did You Know?

Trivia

Final theatrical movie of Slim Summeville (Eel).

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Goofs

During conversations in automobiles, rear-screen projection shows 1940s era cars, long after time story took place.

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Connections

Featured in Biography: Angela Lansbury: A Balancing Act (1998)

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Soundtracks

How Am I to Know?
(uncredited)
Music by Jack King
Lyrics by Dorothy Parker
Sung by Angela Lansbury (dubbed by Doreen Tryden)

User Reviews

Really Great Cast In A Really Bad Movie

TCM had "The Hoodlum Saint" on August 8, 2016, the first of a series of movies starring Esther Williams. Williams was 24 when she co-starred in this movie and she looked great. Star William Powell looked like he was just earning a paycheck, he had the most script lines and this script was a disaster area, completely unreal. This movie had fine stars and character actors at every turn: James Gleason, Frank McHugh, Angela Lansbury, Rags Ragland. All try hard but who is really interested in a story that revolves in part on the story of Saint Dismas, the good thief in the New Testament who becomes the "hoodlum saint." Greenlighting movies like this turkey paved the way for MGM production head Louis B. Mayer's dismissal.

Cliff Reid was the producer of this movie, his first and last for MGM. Reid had worked as a producer or assistant producer at RKO from 1934 to 1942, according to IMDb. If the movie was low budget, like RKO movies starring Lee Tracy, Reid was the producer. These RKO movies are mostly unwatchable, badly written and with bad production values. For a bigger budget movie like "Bringing Up Baby," Reid was the associate producer. Reid is the one who deserves all the blame for how bad "The Hoodlum Saint" is, it has a low budget script tagged to the high production values MGM gave its movies.

Further, William Powell was miscast as the star, he sleep walked through most of the movie. You have Esther Williams full of vitality playing against a very dull William Powell. Producer Cliff Reid imbued this movie with "B" movie values. You know, MGM would have been better off making this movie starring Lee Tracy in William Powell's role as a former newspaperman who sells out at first to get rich on Wall Street before the crash.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 April 1946 (USA)

Also Known As:

Oro en el barro

Filming Locations:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$1,918,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1