![]() ![]() ![]() O’Connor (Charles Ruggles), the second richest man in the country, leaves his Fifth Avenue mansion until springtime to go south, Aloysius “Mac” McKeever (Victor Moore), a harmless homeless man, moves in and lives like a king until O’Connor’s return. But the directing seems strained for this lightweight box office hit.Īs the plot goes, for the last three winters when millionaire businessman Michael J. It’s satisfactorily written by the team of writers Herbert Clyde Lewis, Frederick Stephani, and Everett Freeman. The so-so veteran studio director Roy Del Ruth (“Red Light”/”The West Point Story”) dutifully directs this overlong pic that’s set during the Christmas season and meant to be a poignant humanist and humorous holiday film. ![]() The humor connected with this feel good Capra humanistic comedy, a farce, revolves around that the title refers to New York City’s Fifth Avenue as the “richest avenue in the world.” (Whitey Temple), Dorothea Kent (Margie Temple), Grant Mitchell (Farrow) Runtime: 115 MPAA Rating: NR producer Roy Del Ruth: Allied Artists/Monogram/Warner Bros. ![]() Heermance music: Edward Ward cast: Charles Ruggles(Mike O’Connor), Victor Moore (Aloysius “Mac” McKeever), Don DeFore (Jim), Gale Storm (Trudy), Ann Harding (Mary O’Connor), Edward Brophy (Patrolman Cecil Felton), Edward Ryan (Hank) Alan Hale Jr. From the sound of things, I think he was just a tyrannical, contemptible old Scrooge who got his jollies by making other people upset, embarrassed and miserable.(director: Roy Del Ruth screenwriters: Herbert Clyde Lewis, Frederick Stephani, Everett Freeman cinematographer: Henry Sharp editor: Richard V. According to her autobiography, he continually persisted in embarrassing Victor Moore as well, by making constant demands for him to repeat take after take without even having the courtesy of telling the lovely old gentleman what it was he had supposedly done wrong. I guess the closed-minded fool had never heard of or seen folks like Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Mickey Rooney, Shirley Temple, Ann Miller, or any of the other HUNDREDS of film stars who were all quite adept and absolutely wonderful doing all three of those things, and usually all together in the same film at the same time! What an amazing clod! His humiliations didn't stop with Gale, either. His theory was that if you were a dancer, you didn't sing if you were a singer, you didn't dance and if you were an actor, you didn't sing or dance. I asked him if I could sing for him, and he said no. I asked him to look at some of my musicals, and he said no. "I thought that maybe the director didn't know I'd been singing and dancing in films, and that if I spoke to him he'd let me do my own numbers. Storm began rehearsing for the songs immediately, only to be told a short time later that she would be lip-synching to someone else's voice. The sky was the limit in this one, and I figured my numbers would have high values." "I'd done songs in other movies, but they were low-budget productions. "I had two songs to do, and I was very excited," said Storm in her autobiography. Storm was also upset with Del Ruth because he wouldn't allow her, a trained singer, to perform her own songs in the film. Director Roy Del Ruth, she felt, didn't make the most of the story's potential. The material was decidedly "Capra-esque" - a warmhearted human story about the "little guy" with underlying social and political commentary - and would have suited his trademark directing style well. From a post on tcm.com, quoting from Gale's autobiography, published in 1981.Īctress Gale Storm was always sorry that Frank Capra hadn't been the one to direct It Happened on Fifth Avenue. ![]()
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