In Old Chicago

In Old Chicago (1938)

The Great American Motion Picture!

The O'Leary brothers -- honest Jack and roguish Dion -- become powerful figures, and eventually rivals, in Chicago on the eve of its Great Fire.

Date of release
1938-04-15
TMDB
6.7 / 10 (52)
Runtime
1h 51m
Genres
Drama, History
Director
Henry King

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Box office: $2.5M
  • Budget: $1.8M
  • Earned 1.4× its budget
  • Filmed in: Chicago
  • Awards: 1 · Nominations: 5. Including: Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress

In Old Chicago is a 1938 American disaster musical drama film directed by Henry King. The screenplay by Sonya Levien and Lamar Trotti was based on the Niven Busch story, "We the O'Learys". The film is a fictionalized account about the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and stars Alice Brady as Mrs. O'Leary, the owner of the cow that started the fire, with Tyrone Power and Don Ameche as her sons. It also stars Alice Faye and Andy Devine. At the time of its release, it was one of the most expensive movies ever made.

Production and release

During preproduction, MGM had announced that Jean Harlow, who was under contract to that studio, would be lent to 20th Century Fox to star in the role of Belle Fawcett. Harlow's untimely death caused the part to go to Alice Faye. Faye's popularity skyrocketed as a result of the picture, and she was reunited with Power and Ameche that same year for Alexander's Ragtime Band, which proved to be even more successful.

Some sources claim that MGM offered to lenf both Harlow and Clark Gable to Fox for In Old Chicago if they reciprocated by lending Shirley Temple to MGM for their upcoming production of The Wizard of Oz. This is merely a rumor, though, as Harlow died in June 1937, several months before MGM had even purchased the rights to Oz. The railroad scenes were filmed on the Sierra Railroad in Tuolumne County, California.

The film was released and restored to its full length on DVD in 2005.

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

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