Roberta (1935 film)

Roberta

Theatrical release poster
Directed by William A. Seiter
Produced by Pandro S. Berman
Written by Based on the 1933 musical by Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach
and a 1933 novel by Alice Duer Miller
Screenplay by Jane Murfin
Sam Mintz
Allan Scott
Starring Irene Dunne
Fred Astaire
Ginger Rogers
Randolph Scott
Music by Jerome Kern, conducted by Max Steiner
Cinematography Edward Cronjager
Edited by William Hamilton
Production
company
Distributed by RKO Radio Pictures
Release dates
  • March 8, 1935 (1935-03-08)
Running time
 106 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $610,000[1]
Box office $2,335,000[1]

Roberta is a 1935 musical film by RKO starring Irene Dunne, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and Randolph Scott. It was an adaptation of a 1933 Broadway musical of the same name, which in turn was based on the novel Gowns by Roberta by Alice Duer Miller. It was a solid hit, showing a net profit of more than three-quarters of a million dollars.

The film kept the famous songs "Yesterdays", "Let's Begin" (with altered lyrics), and "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" from the play, along with a fourth song, "I'll Be Hard to Handle". Three songs from the play were dropped — "The Touch of Your Hand", "Something Had To Happen" and "You're Devastating". Two songs were added to this film, "I Won't Dance" (lifted from the flop Kern show Three Sisters)[2] and "Lovely to Look At", which both became #1 hits in 1935. The latter addition was nominated for the Best Song Oscar.[3] The songs "I Won't Dance" and "Lovely to Look At" have remained so popular that they are now almost always included in revivals and recordings of Roberta.

Roberta is the third Astaire-Rogers film, and the only one to be remade with other actors. MGM did so in 1952, entitling the new Technicolor version Lovely to Look At. Indeed, with an eye to a remake, MGM bought Roberta in 1945, keeping it out of general circulation until the 1970s.

Plot

John Kent (Randolph Scott), a former star football player at Harvard, goes to Paris with his friend Huck Haines (Fred Astaire) and the latter's dance band, the Wabash Indianians. Alexander Voyda (Luis Alberni) has booked the band, but refuses to let them play when he finds the musicians are not the Indians he expected, but merely from Indiana (Huck Haines and his Indianians Band).

John turns to the only person he knows in Paris for help, his Aunt Minnie (Helen Westley), who owns the fashionable "Roberta" gown shop. While there, he meets her chief assistant (and secretly the head designer), Stephanie (Irene Dunne). John is quickly smitten with her.

Meanwhile, Huck unexpectedly stumbles upon someone he knows very well. "Countess Scharwenka", a temperamental customer at Roberta's, turns out to be his hometown sweetheart Lizzie Gatz (Ginger Rogers). She gets Huck's band an engagement at the nightclub where she is a featured entertainer.

Two things trouble John. One is Ladislaw (Victor Varconi), the handsome Russian deposed prince and doorman who seems too interested in Stephanie. The other is the memory of Sophie (Claire Dodd), the snobbish, conceited girlfriend he left behind after a quarrel over his lack of sophistication and polish.

When Aunt Minnie dies unexpectedly without leaving a will, John inherits the shop. Knowing nothing about women's fashion and that his aunt intended for Stephanie to inherit the business, he persuades Stephanie to remain as his partner. Correspondents flock to hear what a football player has to say about feminine fashions. Huck gives the answers, making a lot of weird statements about the innovations John is planning to introduce.

Sophie arrives in Paris, attracted by John's good fortune. She enters the shop, looking for a dress, but is dissatisfied with everything Stephanie shows her. Huck persuades her to choose a gown that John had ordered discarded as too vulgar. When John sees her in it, they quarrel for the final time.

John reproaches Stephanie for selling Sophie the gown. Terribly hurt, Stephanie quits the shop. With Roberta's putting on a fashion show in a week, Huck takes over the design work, with predictably bad results. When Stephanie sees his awful creations, she is persuaded to return to save Roberta's reputation.

The show is a triumph, helped by the entertaining of Huck, Countess Scharwenka, and the band. (A pre-stardom Lucille Ball, with platinum blond hair, appears uncredited in her first RKO film[4] as a model wearing an elaborate feather cape, after the vocal by Dunne, in the fashion show.[5]) The closing sensation is a gown modeled by Stephanie herself. At the show, John overhears that she and Ladislaw are leaving Paris and mistakenly assumes that they have married. Later, he congratulates her for becoming a princess. When she informs him that Ladislaw is merely her cousin and that the title has been hers since birth, the lovers are reunited. Huck and Lizzie, who decide to get married, do a final tap dance sequel.

Cast

Musical numbers

Reception

According to RKO records, the film made $1,467,000 in the USA and Canada and $868,000 elsewhere resulting in a profit of $770,000.[1]


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

The Venetian fashion house Roberta di Camerino, founded by Giuliana Camerino in 1945, was named for the film.[8]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Richard Jewel, 'RKO Film Grosses: 1931-1951', Historical Journal of Film Radio and Television, Vol 14 No 1, 1994 p55
  2. ↑ Taylor, John Russell; Jackson, Arthur (1971). The Hollywood Musical. New York: McGraw-Hill. pp. 28–29.
  3. ↑ Awards for Roberta (1935) at Internet Movie Database
  4. ↑ Frew, Tim (2001) [1996]. Lucy: A Life in Pictures (Trade paperback) (First paperback ed.). New York: Barnes & Noble Books. p. 35. ISBN 0-7607-2866-6.
  5. ↑ Roberta cast at Internet Movie Database
  6. ↑ http://www.reelclassics.com/Teams/Fred&Ginger/fred&ginger3.htm
  7. ↑ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs Nominees" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-08-05.
  8. ↑ Bellafante, Ginia (9/11/1999). "Front Row: To Have and To Hold". The New York Times. Retrieved 2012-01-30. Check date values in: |date= (help)
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Roberta (1935 film).
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 8/6/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.