The daring rescue of the gangster bride Honey Swanson

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Movie
German title The daring rescue of the gangster bride Honey Swanson
Original title A song is born
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1948
length 113 minutes
Rod
Director Howard Hawks
script Harry Tugend
based on the template From A to Z by Billy Wilder and Thomas Monroe
production Samuel Goldwyn
music Hugo Friedhofer
Emil Newman
camera Gregg Toland
W. Howard Greene (anonymous)
cut Daniel Mandell
occupation

The Daredevil Rescue of Gangster Bride Honey Swanson is a 1948 American comedy film directed by Howard Hawks with Danny Kaye in the lead and Virginia Mayo in the title role. This production is a remake of Hawk's screwball comedy, The Strange Taming of the Gangster Bride Sugarpuss , which was written seven years earlier and was written by Billy Wilder . What is remarkable about this film is not only that the legendary clarinetist Benny Goodman plays a central role, but also the participation of numerous important jazz and swing musicians (including Tommy Dorsey , Louis Armstrong and Lionel Hampton ) of the time.

action

The young, but a little unworldly, Professor Hobart Frisbee and his also professorial colleagues Magenbruch, Gerkikoff, Traumer, Oddly and Twingle work as musicologists at the New York Totten Music Foundation. There they have been compiling an encyclopedia for nine years, which is supposed to encompass the world's musical knowledge. One day the academy's name-giver, Miss Totten, appears with her lawyer in tow and causes an uproar among the ragged gentlemen, because she wants to check what the professors are actually doing with their financial support. She is quite skeptical, and so the youngest of them, the shy young Frisbee, has to flirt unrestrainedly with Miss Totten. He does this in a rather awkward way by performing a Polynesian love song, but has surprisingly success with it. The flattered donor pulls away and assures the professors that the music project will continue with the appropriate funds. Shortly afterwards, the two window cleaners Buck and Bubbles appear and ask the musicologists for help with a few questions about a quiz show broadcast on the radio.

The professors are startled by the two of them, because thanks to Buck and Bubbles it becomes clear to the unworldly scientists that they are not quite up to date with their specialist knowledge and that in their seclusion they simply have not noticed some of the musical trends of recent years. The two window cleaners confront the academics with modern music styles such as jazz , swing , boogie woogie and bebop . Professor Frisbee, the group's folk music expert, realizes that their encyclopedia is out of date even before it is published and is now determined to refresh his knowledge of developments in popular music in the recent past and spends an entire day visiting nightclubs. After Frisbee invited a number of top-class jazz musicians to a panel discussion in the foundation for the next day, he met the nightclub singer Honey Swanson. Their gangster friend Tony Crow is currently wanted by the police for murder. Honey shows little interest in visiting the academy, but suddenly changes her mind when she is presented with a summons for interrogation by the prosecutor on the Crow case. She believes that this haven of music research is an ideal hiding place for her to first go into hiding. In this hiding place no one from the state would appear. Tony's henchmen Joe and Monte are in Honey's company. Honey wants to stay in this cozy place until she can get back together with Tony, who has also gone underground.

Frisbee's professor colleagues are also delighted with Honey Swanson's sensual and seductive appearance, which brings a breath of fresh air into the musty academic room and obviously turns each man's head. The next morning she sits at the round table of the ossified older men and becomes an inspiration for learning about modern American music. Soon after, the dark blonde siren receives a large diamond engagement ring from Tony from Monte and Joe. Tony knows that once Honey is his fiancée, she won't have to testify against him. But the longer she stays among the music-loving gentlemen and now also takes part in the jam sessions with her singing , the more the gangster bride wins, and kisses the Hobart Frisbee around her finger. The fact that Hobart, in his exuberance of emotions, immediately proposes marriage to Honey deeply frightens the calculating Honey, who has by no means written off her Tony. Frisbee, on the other hand, believes that the crook, who is hiding in New Jersey and with whom Honey is on the phone, must be the father of his beloved and asks him for Honey's hand. Tony takes advantage of Hobart's confusion in the hope that the music professor will bring his Honey to him safely. Crow instructs Frisbee to go to New Jersey with Honey so that her allegedly "sick mother" can attend the planned wedding.

Honey, who is not enthusiastic about betraying the frisbee she has come to love in such a way, nevertheless lets herself into Tony's infamous plan. The elderly housekeeper Miss Bragg is locked away in a closet by her because she has read in the newspaper about Tony and his gangster bride and intends to fetch the police. She also suspects that Honey is playing the wrong game with the naive Prof. Frisbee. The professor colleagues in Hobart accompany the presumably "young fortune" in the car on the way to New Jersey. A collision with a rental car forces the troops to spend the night in a hostel. Honey and Tony are on the phone there, and their gangster friend announces that they will pick them up from there that same night. Before Tony arrives, Frisbee confesses his love to Honey. In the meantime, Miss Bragg has been able to free herself from the closet and informed the police about Honey's whereabouts. When Tony and his gang show up at the inn, Frisbee finally realizes he has been betrayed and confronts Honey. Although deeply disappointed in her, he helps the gangster bride to avoid falling into the hands of the police. Honey is contrite and the musicologists return to their research facility in New York. The patroness Miss Totten is already waiting there, who is terribly upset about the scandalous headlines that her foundation is involved in a gangster affair and just as indignant to the music researchers as she immediately turns off the money. Tony's henchmen Joe and Monte storm up and tell Frisbee that Honey has told Tony that she loves him, Frisbee. He calls the music professor a washcloth and announces that he wants to marry his gangster bride in front of Hobart in the foundation building. To do this, he and Miss Swanson travel to New York from their hiding place in New Jersey. But as expected, things turned out differently: Hobart Frisbee took all courage and knocked Tony down shortly before the ceremony. While Honey meekly says that she doesn't deserve Hobart, Hobart Frisbee convinces her with hot kisses of the opposite.

Production notes

The shooting of The Daredevil Rescue of Gangster Bride Honey Swanson began in mid-June 1947 and ended on September 26 of the same year. The world premiere took place in New York City on October 19, 1948, the mass start was on November 6, 1948. The German premiere took place on May 27, 1976 on ZDF .

George Jenkins and Perry Ferguson were responsible for the film construction, Julia Heron provided the equipment. Irene Sharaff created the costumes. John P. Fulton designed the photographic special effects. Fred Lau did the sound.

The Page Cavanaugh Trio, the Golden Gate Quartet and Russo and the Samba Kings will perform . The songs "A Song Is Born", "Daddy-O", "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You", "Flying Home" and "Redskin Rumba" are played.

useful information

Hawks himself said in an interview that he actually had absolutely no desire to shoot this remake of his original, but that producer Goldwyn lured and was able to persuade him with a weekly fee of $ 25,000.

Reviews

The reviews judged the remake, which seemed quite listless to many reviewers, to be consistently more negative than Hawk's first film Ball of Fire . Here are a few examples:

Bosley Crowther wrote in the New York Times the day after the premiere: “Danny Kaye's admirers, who are more intense in this than anyone else, will likely have to rub their eyes to look for 'their boy' in A Song Is Born . Danny strolling through this movie ... is nothing but a shadow of the glittery comedian that movie fans have come to love. Indeed, he is somewhat of a ghost in the midst of a mishmash of lively appearances. And to make it totally depressing, he doesn't even sing a single song. Instead, this explosive young fellow is reduced to playing a guy with a strangely pedantic understanding of music and an ignorance of life. "

The Movie & Video Guide stated that the film was "a watered-down remake of BALL OF FIRE", "gives Danny some good material and enables a number of excellent jazz greats to show their skills".

The lexicon of international films says: “Howard Hawks filmed the comedy off two times within seven years (…) This second film version is a rather tired infusion, over-the-top, but only with limited entertainment value. What has secured some interest in the film is the appearance of American jazz greats such as Tommy Dorsey, Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, and the Golden Gate Quartet . "

Halliwell's Film Guide found the film to be "a flat remake of the Ball of Fire , ennobled by a group of top musical talent."

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Background information according to the American Film Institute
  2. ^ Review in The New York Times, October 20, 1948
  3. ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide , 1996 edition, p. 1215.
  4. ↑ The daring rescue of the gangster bride Honey Swanson. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed June 9, 2019 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  5. ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide , Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 941.

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