Roadhouse Nights

Roadhouse Nights
Directed by	Hobart Henley
Produced by	Walter Wanger
Written by	Ben Hecht (story) Garret Fort
Starring	Helen Morgan Charles Ruggles Fred Kohler Jimmy Durante
Cinematography	William O. Steiner
Edited by	Helene Turner
Distributed by	Paramount Studios
Release dates	February 23, 1930
Running time	68 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Roadhouse Nights is a 1930 American Pre-Code gangster film. A number of sources including Sally Cline in her book Dashiell Hammett Man of Mystery claim it is based on the classic novel Red Harvest written by Dashiell Hammett (author of The Maltese Falcon, The Thin Man, and The Glass Key). However the credits of the film itself say only "An Original Screenplay by Ben Hecht." Hammett receives no mention at all (and the plots are not similar).

The movie, an unusual amalgam of musical comedy and gangster melodrama, was directed by Hobart Henley, stars Helen Morgan, Charles Ruggles, and Fred Kohler, and features a rare screen musical comedy performance by Jimmy Durante, in his screen debut, with his vaudeville partners Lou Clayton and Eddie Jackson ("Clayton, Jackson, and Durante"). Helen Morgan also sings It Can't Go On Like This.

Production

The film's star is Helen Morgan, a nitery chanteuse whose gangster bosses head a murderous bootleg operation. Charlie Ruggles portrays a news reporter pretending to be an inveterate drinker. He frequents Morgan's club, his phony drunkenness a cover for his investigation of the bootleg ring

Filmed at Paramount's Astoria Studios in Astoria, Long Island, Roadhouse Nights is typical pre-Code Prohibition-era entertainment, with a reasonably "straight" performance from comic actor Ruggles and a few songs from Helen Morgan.

Cast

Helen Morgan as Lola Fagan
Charles Ruggles as Willie Bindbugel
Fred Kohler as Sam Horner
Jimmy Durante as Daffy
Leo Donnelly as City Editor
Tammany Young as Jerry
Joe King as Hanson
Lou Clayton as Joe
Eddie Jackson as Moe
Fuller Mellish Jr. as Hogan

External links

Works by Dashiell Hammett

Novels	Red Harvest The Dain Curse The Maltese Falcon The Glass Key The Thin Man

Characters	The Continental Op Sam Spade Ned Beaumont Nick and Nora Charles

Screenplays	After the Thin Man Shadow of the Thin Man The Glass Key Watch on the Rhine

Comics	Secret Agent X-9

Film adaptations	Roadhouse Nights (1930) City Streets (1931) The Maltese Falcon (1931) The Thin Man (1934) Woman in the Dark (1934) The Glass Key (1935) Satan Met a Lady (1936) After the Thin Man (1936) Secret Agent X-9 (1937) Another Thin Man (1939) The Maltese Falcon (1941) Shadow of the Thin Man (1941) The Glass Key (1942) The Thin Man Goes Home (1945) Secret Agent X-9 (1945) Song of the Thin Man (1947) No Good Deed (2002)

Selected Ben Hecht works

Films directed	Actor's and Sin (also produced) Specter of the Rose (also produced) Angels Over Broadway (also produced) The Scoundrel Crime Without Passion

Screenplays written	Kiss of Death Circus World Billy Rose's Jumbo Queen of Outer Space Legend of the Lost The Sun Also Rises A Farewell to Arms Miracle in the Rain The Iron Petticoat The Indian Fighter Living It Up Ulysses Monkey Business Actor's and Sin Where the Sidewalk Ends Perfect Strangers Whirlpool The Miracle of the Bells Ride the Pink Horse Kiss of Death Notorious A Flag is Born Specter of the Rose Spellbound The Black Swan Lydia Comrade X Angels Over Broadway His Girl Friday It's a Wonderful World Wuthering Heights Gunga Din The Goldwyn Follies Nothing Sacred The Scoundrel Barbary Coast The Florentine Dagger Crime Without Passion Viva Villa! Design for Living Turn Back the Clock Topaze Hallelujah, I'm a Bum Scarface The Unholy Garden Roadhouse Nights The Unholy Night The Great Gabbo Underworld

Plays written	The Front Page Twentieth Century Ladies and Gentlemen

Films produced by Walter Wanger

The Sheik (1921)
The Cocoanuts (1929)
The Lady Lies (1929)
Applause (1929)
Roadhouse Nights (1930)
Tarnished Lady (1931)
Washington Merry-Go-Round (1932)
Gabriel Over the White House (1933)
The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933)
Going Hollywood (1933)
Another Language (1933)
Queen Christina (1933)
The President Vanishes (1934)
Private Worlds (1935)
Smart Girl (1935)
Every Night at Eight (1935)
Shanghai (1935)
Mary Burns, Fugitive (1935)
The Moon's Our Home (1936)
Her Master's Voice (1936)
The Case Against Mrs. Ames (1936)
Fatal Lady (1936)
Palm Springs (1936)
The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936)
Big Brown Eyes (1936)
Spendthrift (1936)
You Only Live Once (1937)
Vogues of 1938 (1937)
History Is Made At Night (1937)
Stand-In (1937)
52nd Street (1937)
Trade Winds (1938)
Blockade (1938)
Algiers (1938)
I Met My Love Again (1938)
Stagecoach (1939)
Winter Carnival (1939)
Eternally Yours (1939)
Foreign Correspondent (1940)
The Long Voyage Home (1940)
Slightly Honorable (1940)
The House Across the Bay (1940)
Sundown (1941)
Eagle Squadron (1942)
Arabian Nights (1942)
We've Never Been Licked (1943)
Gung Ho! (1943)
Ladies Courageous (1944)
Scarlet Street (1945)
Salome, Where She Danced (1945)
Night in Paradise (1946)
Canyon Passage (1946)
Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman (1947)
The Lost Moment (1947)
Tap Roots (1948)
Joan of Arc (1948)
Secret Beyond the Door (1948)
The Reckless Moment (1949)
Reign of Terror (1949)
Tulsa (1949)
Aladdin and His Lamp (1952)
Lady in the Iron Mask (1952)
Battle Zone (1952)
Fort Vengeance (1953)
Kansas Pacific (1953)
Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954)
The Adventures of Hajji Baba (1954)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Navy Wife (1956)
I Want to Live! (1958)
Cleopatra (1963)

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