Queen of the Night Clubs

Queen of the Night Clubs
Directed byBryan Foy
Written byAddison Burkhard
Murray Roth
Produced byBryan Foy
StarringTexas Guinan
John Davidson
Lila Lee
John Miljan
Arthur Housman
Eddie Foy Jr.
Jack Norworth
George Raft
CinematographyEdwin B. DuPar
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release date
  • March 16, 1929 (1929-03-16)[1]
Running time
60 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$131,000[2]
Box office$472,000[2]

Queen of the Night Clubs is a 1929 American sound (All-Talking) Pre-Code musical drama film produced and directed by Bryan Foy, distributed by Warner Bros., and starred legendary nightclub hostess Texas Guinan. The picture, which featured appearances by Eddie Foy Jr., Lila Lee, and George Raft, is now considered a lost film.[3] A still existing vintage movie trailer of this film displays no clip of the feature.

Plot

Through the influence of her friend Don Holland (John Davidson), former speakeasy hostess “Texas” Malone (Texas Guinan) gives up her job at the nightclub run by Andy Quinlan (Arthur Housman) and Nick (Jimmy Phillips) to open a more legitimate club of her own. The venture quickly becomes a success. Angered by Holland’s support of Tex and furious that their own club has been padlocked, Quinlan and Nick plot revenge against him.

Tex, hardened by her past—including a failed marriage to Phil Parr (Jack Norworth) and the trauma of having her son taken from her—is determined to take back her power and make the world pay for her suffering. While scouting talent, she attends a vaudeville performance featuring Bea Walters (Lila Lee) and Eddie Parr (Eddie Foy Jr.), the son of stage veteran Phil Parr. Impressed, Tex breaks up the act by hiring Bea for her club, much to Eddie’s dismay.

Eddie, still in love with Bea, haunts the club nightly trying to persuade her to leave and rejoin him. His persistence leads to tension with Holland, culminating in a threat. Eventually, Bea and Eddie quarrel and separate.

Meanwhile, Quinlan and Nick, intent on eliminating Holland to remove their competition, devise a sinister scheme: during a staged “bandit dance” routine, they plan for Bea to unknowingly shoot Holland using a planted live bullet in her stage prop revolver. When this fails, they decide to recover the bullet. Quinlan sneaks into Bea’s dressing room and finds Holland there while Bea is behind a screen. Seeing the opportunity, Quinlan calmly shoots Holland, tosses the gun to the floor, and slips out unseen.

Bea, hearing the shot, rushes out in shock. Moments later, Eddie enters, intending to make peace, sees Holland’s body, and instinctively picks up the gun. Tex arrives just in time to witness the aftermath.

Sensing trouble, Phil Parr arrives at the club and recognizes Tex—his former wife. She, unaware that Eddie is her son, has just phoned the police to arrest him for Holland’s murder. Upon learning Eddie’s identity from Phil, Tex quickly helps the boy escape. He is later recaptured and put on trial for murder.

Driven by long-suppressed maternal love, Tex hires Lawyer Grant (John Miljan) and passionately defends Eddie. Though the circumstantial evidence is overwhelming, one juror refuses to vote guilty. In an unusual move, the entire jury, Tex, and her lawyer visit the scene of the crime. There, Tex finds a key dropped by Quinlan on the night of the murder. It matches the key to Quinlan’s own club—one Tex never returned after quitting.

Tex calls Nick (Jimmy Phillips) from the courtroom audience. Under pressure, Nick confesses that the key is indeed Quinlan’s and that Quinlan murdered Holland. Quinlan attempts a desperate escape from the courtroom but is shot by a guard (uncredited).

Eddie is exonerated and freed. He and Bea head to Niagara Falls for their honeymoon. Meanwhile, Tex and Phil Parr, reunited by the ordeal and their son, find happiness together once again.

Cast

Production

The film starred the legendary bar hostess and silent film actress Texas Guinan as "Texas Malone", a character obviously based upon herself.

Warner Bros signed Guinan to make the film on August 15, 1928.[4] Jack Norwood, John Davidson, and Eddie Foy were signed to support her.[5] Filming started in September 1928.

Guinan had recently toured Los Angeles.[6] According to George Raft's obituary, Raft made his movie debut in the film as a dancer, but his scenes were cut from the final film.[7] However Variety did a review which said "nite club scene introduces George Raft, the hot' stepper, as the m. c.and band leader, being brought down for one of his rip-snorting hoofing specialties."[8]

Filming started September 1928.[9] It finished by November.[10]

Reception

The film was generally reviewed as mediocre by critics. Mordaunt Hall of The New York Times called it "a somewhat entertaining thriller", though he found the ending "amateurishly forced".[11]

Variety wrote, "Tex hasn't much to do, but does what she has pretty well... Texas Guinan and "Queen of the Night Clubs" is a double-barreled, come-on at the gate. The' ballyboo potentialities are limitless. Peasants will go for it like unexpurgated literature. "[12]

Film Daily called it "dull and uninteresting", writing, "This film was built solely to give Tex Guinan a chance to show how she runs her Broadway night club, but it has been done so often and so much better in other films of night club life that it carries no kick."[13] John Mosher of The New Yorker expressed disappointment, writing, "Rather to our surprise and much to our regret, Miss Guinan doesn't carry the picture with as much verve as it might seem that she would."[14]

Box office

According to Warner Bros the film earned $459,000 domestically and $13,000 foreign.[2]

Preservation status

  • No film elements are known to exist. The soundtrack, except the first reel, survives on Vitaphone disks.[15]
  • A clip from this film featuring Guinan and Raft was incorporated into Winner Take All (1932), an early James Cagney vehicle.
  • Brief footage of Guinan, yelling "Hello, suckers!" in a restaurant (or perhaps her nightclub), appears in the 1980s HBO series Yesteryear...1927 hosted by Dick Cavett. This documentary series had Cavett cover a given year out of each decade from 1917 to 1969. Since this episode of Yesteryear was about 1927, the footage of Guinan could be newsreel footage from 1927 or extant 1929 footage from Queen of the Night Clubs (the same footage in Winner Take All).

See also

References

  1. ^ Bradley, Edwin M. (1996). The First Hollywood Musicals: A Critical Filmography of 171 Features, 1927 Through 1932. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 27. ISBN 9780786420292.
  2. ^ a b c Warner Bros financial information in The William Schaefer Ledger. See Appendix 1, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, (1995) 15:sup1, 1-31 p 7 DOI: 10.1080/01439689508604551
  3. ^ Everett Aaker, The Films of George Raft, McFarland & Company, 2013 p. 14
  4. ^ "Texas guinan to put night club in movies". Chicago Daily Tribune. August 16, 1928.
  5. ^ Kingsley, G. (August 29, 1928). "NOR WORTH SIGNS FOR TALKIES". Los Angeles Times. ProQuest 162225969.
  6. ^ Vagg, Stephen (February 9, 2020). "Why Stars Stop Being Stars: George Raft". Filmink.
  7. ^ Thackrey, T. O. (November 25, 1980). "George raft, tough guy in films and life, dead at 85". Los Angeles Times.
  8. ^ "Queen of the Night Clubs". Variety. March 20, 1929. p. 12.
  9. ^ "ACTIVITY ON WARNER BROS. NEW PRODUCT". The Washington Post. September 9, 1928. p. A3.
  10. ^ "Quite a Cast". The Washington Post. November 11, 1928. p. A11.
  11. ^ Hall, Mordaunt (March 18, 1929). "The Screen". The New York Times. Retrieved March 14, 2015.
  12. ^ "Queen of the Night Clubs". Variety. New York. March 20, 1929. p. 12.
  13. ^ "Queen of the Night Clubs". Film Daily. New York: Wid's Films and Film Folk, Inc. March 24, 1929. p. 5.
  14. ^ Mosher, John (March 23, 1929). "The Current Cinema". The New Yorker. pp. 105–106.
  15. ^ 1957 MOVIES FROM AAP Warner Bros Features & Cartoons SALES BOOK DIRECTED AT TV
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