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The Big Broadcast of 1938

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Director
  
Duration
  

Music director
  
Language
  
English

6.6/10
IMDb

Genre
  
Animation, Comedy, Musical

Running time
  
1h 34m

Produced by
  
Country
  
United States

The Big Broadcast of 1938 movie poster

Writer
  
Release date
  
February 11, 1938 (1938-02-11)

Cast
  
W.C. Fields
(T. Frothingill Bellows / S.B. Bellows), (Martha Bellows), (Dorothy Wyndham), (Buzz Fielding), (Cleo Fielding), (Scoop McPhail)

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The Big Broadcast of 1938 is a Paramount Pictures musical film featuring W.C. Fields and Bob Hope. Directed by Mitchell Leisen, the film is the last in a series of Big Broadcast movies that were variety show anthologies. This film featured the debut of Hope's signature song, "Thanks for the Memory" by Ralph Rainger.

Contents

Plot

The Big Broadcast of 1938 Amazoncom The Big Broadcast of 1938 College Swing Double Feature

In what is being billed as "The Race of the Ages," the new forty-million-dollar “radio powered” ocean liner S.S. Gigantic (“America’s Challenge for Crossing Record”) is about to race its rival, the slightly smaller S.S. Colossal across the Atlantic from New York’s Pier 97 to Cherbourg in two-and-a-half days. Gigantic owner T. Frothingill “T.F.” Bellows (W. C. Fields) intends to send his nearly identical younger brother S.B. (also Fields) to sail aboard the Colossal, hoping he will cause trouble and sabotage the rival ship, enabling the Gigantic and his own Bellows Line to win.

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However S.B., who is held back due to a golf game, ends up flying over the ocean to meet the Colossal en route and mistakenly lands aboard the deck of the Gigantic instead, much to the consternation of Captain Stafford (Russell Hicks). Matters are made worse for the Gigantic when S.B.’s outrageously unlucky daughter Martha (Martha Raye) is brought onboard, being rescued after surviving the shipwreck of the yacht, Hesperus V.

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Popular OBC radio emcee Buzz Fielding (Bob Hope), who has just been released from “alimony jail” and is broadcasting live from the Gigantic, is trying to juggle his three ex-wives Cleo (Shirley Ross), Grace (Grace Bradley), and Joan (Lorna Gray); his lukewarm girlfriend Dorothy Wyndham (Dorothy Lamour); and his inept microphone assistant Mike (Ben Blue). Buzz does his best throughout the voyage to announce the progress of the race and introduce a series of musical acts for the pleasure of the passengers and OBC’s radio audience.

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Meanwhile, Dorothy is romanced by First Officer (and inventor of the Gigantic’s enormous radio power plant) Robert Hayes (Leif Erickson), just as Buzz and Joan get sentimental about their broken marriage.

Variety performances

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In order of appearance

The Big Broadcast of 1938 THE BIG BROADCAST OF 1938 RARE DVD WC FIELDS

  • "This Little Ripple Had Rhythm,” instrumental piece performed Shep Fields and his Rippling Rhythm Orchestra, with integrated cartoon segments.
  • “Don’t Tell a Secret to a Rose” and the Spanish lyrics to “Zuni Zuni” (called “I Love You” in the film) sung by Tito Guízar, with Guízar playing Spanish guitar on “Zuni Zuni.”
  • “You Took the Words Right Out of My Heart” sung by Dorothy Lamour and Leif Erickson
  • “Brunnhilde’s Battle Cry” (from Richard Wagner’s Die Walkure, Act 2 Scene 1) performed by Metropolitan Opera soprano Madame Kirsten Flagstad with an orchestra conducted by Wilfrid Pelletier.
  • Comedy performance by Bob Hope, Ben Blue and Patricia Wilder; “Way Down South in Dixie,” sung a cappella by Patricia Wilder.
  • “You Took the Words Right Out of My Heart (reprise)” sung by Dorothy Lamour.
  • Thanks for the Memory” sung by Bob Hope and Shirley Ross.
  • “Mama, That Moon is Here Again” song and slapstick dance performed by Martha Raye and dancers.
  • “The Waltz Lives On,” sung by Bob Hope, Shirley Ross and chorus. Includes a section from “Truckin’ (They’re Going Hollywood in Harlem)” sung by Martha Raye; and musical sections from “At a Georgia Camp Meeting” and “Charleston.”
  • Music

    Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin wrote six songs that appear in the film: “This Little Ripple Had Rhythm” (an instrumental composition); “Don’t Tell a Secret to a Rose;” “You Took the Words Right Out of My Heart;” “Thanks for the Memory;” “Mama, That Moon is Here Again;” and “The Waltz Lives On.”

    The extended “The Waltz Lives On” sequence features musical sections from the ragtime “At a Georgia Camp-Meeting” written by Kerry Mills; and James P. Johnson’s jazz classic “The Charleston;” and a short swing lyric section called “Truckin’ (They’re Going Hollywood in Harlem)” written by Rube Bloom with lyrics Ted Koehler.

    Boris Morros provided the musical direction and Arthur Franklin was the musical adviser.

    Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin won the 1939 Oscar for Best Song for their song, "Thanks for the Memory," and the song later won an ASCAP Film and Television Music Award for "Most Performed Feature Film Standard" in 1989. The song is often regarded as a companion piece to "Two Sleepy People," written in September 1938 by Hoagy Carmichael with lyrics by Frank Loesser, which was also performed by Bob Hope and Shirley Ross in the later film, Thanks for the Memory (1939).

    Cast

  • W. C. Fields as T. Frothingill Bellows and S. B. Bellows
  • Martha Raye as Martha Bellows
  • Dorothy Lamour as Dorothy Wyndham
  • Shirley Ross as Cleo Fielding
  • Lynne Overman as Scoop McPhail
  • Bob Hope as Buzz Fielding
  • Ben Blue as Mike
  • Leif Erickson as Bob Hayes
  • John Serry, Sr. as Himself
  • Russell Hicks as Captain Stafford
  • Billy Daniels, Leonid Kinskey, Bernard Punsly, Irving Bacon, James Craig
  • Specialty numbers by Kirsten Flagstad, Tito Guízar, Shep Fields and his Rippling Rhythm Orchestra

    Reception

    The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

  • 2004: AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:
  • "Thanks for the Memory" – #63
  • 2006: AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals – Nominated
  • DVD release

    On 13 May 2008, The New York Times reviewed a new DVD box set of Leisen titles, released by Universal, including Big Broadcast of 1938, which is the only one of the Big Broadcast films to be released on VHS or DVD to date.

    Films in series

  • The Big Broadcast (1932)
  • The Big Broadcast of 1936
  • The Big Broadcast of 1937
  • References

    The Big Broadcast of 1938 Wikipedia
    The Big Broadcast of 1938 IMDb The Big Broadcast of 1938 themoviedb.org


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