Week-End in Havana

Week-End in Havana (1941)

The Gayest...Fastest...FOUR STAR MUSICAL OF 1941!

A ship company employee, Jay Williams, is sent to Florida where one of the company cruise ships is stuck on a reef off of the coast. He obtains waivers from all of the passengers with the exception of Nan Spencer, a department store salesgirl who wants her vacation now, not later. Jay is instructed to take Nan to Havana, set her up in the best hotel, and keep her entertained. She visits a nightclub where the star attraction is Rosita Rivas and meets Rosita's worthless manager, Monte Blanca, who makes a play for her. Trouble also comes in the form of Jay's fiancée, Terry McCracken, when a romance develops between Nan and Jay.

Date of release
1941-10-17
TMDB
7.0 / 10 (13)
Runtime
1h 21m
Genres
Comedy, Romance, Music
Director
Walter Lang

Casting

Interesting facts

Week-End in Havana is a 1941 American Technicolor musical film directed by Walter Lang and starring Alice Faye, John Payne and Carmen Miranda. The film was produced and distributed by Hollywood studio 20th Century Fox. It was the second of three pictures the two stars made together and the second Faye film to have a Latin American theme, typical of Fox musicals of the early 1940s. Faye was pregnant during filming. It is also known by the alternative titles A Week-End in Havana and That Week-End in Havana.

Production

The film was a follow-up to Down Argentine Way and That Night in Rio.

The working titles of the film were Caribbean Cruise and Honeymoon in Havana. In early March 1941, Betty Grable was scheduled to play Nan Spencer, and executive producer Darryl F. Zanuck suggested that Henry Fonda play Jay Williams. The March 17, 1941 The Hollywood Reporter also noted that Grable and Fonda were set for the lead roles, while the May 2, 1941 The Hollywood Reporter stated that Don Ameche would have a lead role.

When Kohlmar left to work at Paramount, William LeBaron assumed production responsibilities. This was the first film produced by LeBaron for Twentieth Century-Fox. The Hollywood Reporter reported that the studio had tested Phillip Reed for a role and were considering casting him in the picture, and that Mal St. Clair had been signed to direct the musical sequences. Their participation in the released picture has not been confirmed, however.

According to information in the Motion Picture Production Code, the PCA rejected a May 14, 1941, version of the script because of "the inference of an illicit sex relationship" between Rosita and Monte, and Jay and Nan, and the indication that Rosita wished to enter into such a relationship with Jay. The PCA especially objected to the use of the words "manage" and "manager" in respect to the relationships between Rosita, Monte and Jay.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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