Comet Over Broadway

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Movie
Original title Comet Over Broadway
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1938
length 70 minutes
Rod
Director Busby Berkeley , John Farrow
script Mark Hellinger
production Warner Brothers
music Heinz Roemheld
camera Sid Hickox
cut James Gibbon
occupation

Comet Over Broadway is an American feature film with Kay Francis directed by Busby Berkeley .

action

The plot, described by the critics as completely absurd, begins with the visit of Eve Appleton, the unhappily married wife of an extremely jealous mechanic, to the star of a theater company that is giving a guest performance. The enraged husband surprises the two of them, misunderstands the situation, and the actor dies in the scuffle. As soon as her husband is in jail, Eve takes her little daughter and begins her luck as an actress herself, but ends up on a cheap vaudeville show. Her friend "Tim" Adams advises her to try serious roles as an actress and in the meantime takes her little daughter in with her. As soon as Eve has bought her ticket, she meets Bert Ballin, falls in love with him and, driven by the burning desire to become a star, leaves alone. It becomes the toast of New York via a detour from London, only to suddenly leave everything behind for no apparent reason. Hand in hand with her daughter, Eve walks up the hill to the prison to await her husband, who has a fatal heart disease.

background

At the beginning of September 1937 the conflict between Kay Francis and her studio Warner Brothers , which had been swelling for a long time, finally escalated in a court case. The official trigger was the studio's refusal to give Francis the lead role in the film adaptation of the Broadway hit Tovarich , contrary to previous oral agreements . Francis, who was the company's highest paid female star at the time with a weekly salary of $ 5,250, was unhappy with the quality of the scripts she was given. She took the breach of commitments as an opportunity to sue the studio for early termination of the contract. Like James Cagney and Bette Davis before her , who had failed with a comparable lawsuit in an English court the previous year, Francis complained about the exploitative methods of management and the lack of artistic development opportunities. After a turbulent judicial preliminary hearing with mutual allegations, however, Kay Francis unexpectedly withdrew the lawsuit on September 15, 1937 on the grounds that there had been an out-of-court settlement. The contract should run for another twelve months with full payment. A short time later, the studio management stated that Francis would only spend the rest of her time in B-films. Everything was done to get the actress to prematurely break her contract.

Bette Davis, who, as mentioned, had made her own experiences with the studio, later explained the unexpected turn with alleged lesbian scandals in Francis' private life.

“All of a sudden it was announced that she would only appear in B-films for the remaining term of her contract. It was absolutely unprecedented and a reason was never given. [...] In the end everything boiled down to another woman in her bedroom. "

Two new biographies by Francis, however, are skeptical of the statement, especially since Francis, who kept extremely intimate diaries for decades, described an almost endless number of heterosexual affairs there. There are no explicit references to lesbian tendencies in their records. The studio exposed the actress to a series of incessant humiliations to get her out of her contract early. Her studio wardrobe, a bungalow with five rooms and a fireplace, was passed on to Bette Davis practically overnight and Francis had to change clothes with the extras. She was forced to be available for camera tests with newbies. At one point she was even supposed to take on the third supporting role in a B-film directed by Boris Karloff . Their films were no longer produced by Hal B. Wallis with Michael Curtiz and William Dieterle as directors, but by Brian Foy, who was responsible for the B-films and only had a budget of between $ 50,000 and $ 125,000 per film. Comet Over Broadway was scheduled to be an A production directed by Edmund Goulding in mid-1937 . Originally, Bette Davis, later Miriam Hopkins, was supposed to take on the role of the ambitious actress before Francis was accepted. Filming only began in mid-1938, when Francis had already fallen out of favor. In this respect, the means of production were cut to a minimum and the script was written without any claim to logic. Extensive passages from Kay Francis' film I Found Stella Parrish from 1935 were even used to save costs .

Francis endured all attempts to force her to break the agreement without complaint, but at the cost that her career was ruined in the end.

criticism

The story was torn apart mercilessly by most of the critics and dismissed as completely implausible.

Well-known film historian Robert Osborne summarized his opinion as follows:

“The film rejects any form of logic. There isn't a single scene in 'Comet Over Broadway' that has the slightest relation to reality. The best moment comes towards the end. Kay and her daughter walk up the hill to the prison together with a suitcase in hand. Why didn't she just use a ride from the train station? "

Theatrical release

Production costs were in the range for a B movie at $ 258,000. Comet over Broadway flopped at the box office and grossed just $ 196,000 in the US, with a further $ 149,000 from abroad. The total result was $ 345,000.

swell

  • Lynn Kear & John Rossman - Kay Francis: A Passionate Life and Career - McFarland & Company, 2006; ISBN 0-7864-2366-8 .
  • Scott O'Brien - Kay Francis: I Can't Wait to Be Forgotten. Her Life on Stage and Film - BearManor Media, 2006; ISBN 1-59393-036-4 .

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Out of the blue, it was announced she would complete her contract by starring in B-Pictures. It was simply unprecedented, and no reason was ever given. […] It all boiled down to another woman - in her boudoir.
  2. ↑ This movie pushes logic to the limit. There's not one scene in Comet over Broadway that has any relation whatsoever, to reality. [T] the favorite moment in the movies is the last one. Kay and that kid walking up the hill to the prison with a suitcase. I mean, couldn't somebody given her a ride in a car from the train station.