Category: Biography
All Genres: Biography, Drama, Music
Release Year: 1959
Country: USA
Runtime: 117
Rating: 7.2 (0)
Languages: English
Director: Melville Shavelson
Sound: Mono
Taglines:

Writing by: Robert Smith - (story)
Jack Rose - (writer) and
Melville Shavelson - (writer)

Produced by: Jack Rose - producer

Cast: Danny Kaye - Ernest Loring Nichols aka Red & Ernie
Barbara Bel Geddes - Willa Stutsman aka Bobbie Meredith
Louis Armstrong - Himself
Harry Guardino - Tony Valani
Bob Crosby - Wil Paradise
Bobby Troup - Arthur Schutt
Susan Gordon - Dorothy Nichols, ages 6 to 8
Tuesday Weld - Dorothy Nichols, age 12 to 14
Ray Anthony - Jimmy Dorsey
Shelly Manne - Dave Tough
Ray Daley - Glenn Miller

Music: Sylvia Fine Leith Stevens
Official Website: Visit Website


Plot Outline: Loring “Red” Nichols is a cornet-playing country boy who goes to New York in the 1920s full of musical ambition and principles…
Plot: Loring “Red” Nichols is a cornet-playing country boy who goes to New York in the 1920s full of musical ambition and principles. He gets a job playing in Wil Paradises band, but quits to pursue his dream of playing Dixieland jazz. He forms the “Five Pennies” which features his wife, Bobbie, as vocalist. At the peak of his fame, Red and Bobbies daughter, Dorothy, develops polio. Red quits the music business to move to Los Angeles where the climate is better for Dorothy. As Dorothy becomes a young teen, she learns of her fathers musical past, and he is persuaded to open a small nightclub which is failing until some noted names from his past come to help out.

Crazy Credits: We know about 1 Crazy Credits. One of them reads:
The films end credits play next to behind the scenes footage of the making of the film. Many primary cast and crew members appear at the same time that their credits come on screen.

Goofs: We know about 1 goofs. Here comes one of them:
Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Red leaves the club with Willa (after seeing Louis Armstrong the first time), he takes his cornet with him but has neglected to put it back in its case.

Trivia: There are 2 entries in the trivia list - like these:

• While Danny Kaye worked hard to be able to accurately fake playing cornet, it was the real Red Nichols who provided all of the cornet playing for Kaye in this movie.
• The exaggerated tango Danny Kaye did with the blonde Charleston dancer (Lizanne Truex) in the nightclub scene was not scripted. The rehearsals only called for her to do the Charleston, then flit offstage. During one of them Danny suddenly grabbed her and began hamming it up, with Lizanne quickly ad-libbing. Director Melville Shavelson liked it and added it to the routine.





or







































Tags: Anthony - Jimmy Dorsey, Arthur Schutt, Barbara Bel Geddes, Bob Crosby, Bobbie Meredith, Bobby Troup, Danny Kaye, Dave Tough, Dorothy Nichols, football, Geddes - Willa Stutsman, Glenn Miller, Gordon - Dorothy Nichols, Harry Guardino, high tech super chimp, Jack Rose, Kaye - Ernest Loring Nichols (Red), Los Angeles, Louis Armstrong, Melville Shavelson, New York, polio, Ray Anthony, Ray Daley, Red Nichols, Robert Smith, Shelly Manne, Susan Gordon, Sylvia Fine, The Five Pennies, Tony Valani, Tuesday Weld, United States, Weld - Dorothy Nichols, Willa Stutsman (Bobbie Meredith)