Comet Over Broadway

Comet Over Broadway (1938)

Yesterday, the queen of burlesque. Today, the toast of Broadway. Tomorrow, a woman of the shadows.

A rising stage star's ambition causes trouble.

Date of release
1938-12-03
TMDB
5.7 / 10 (3)
Runtime
1h 9m
Genres
Drama, Romance
Director
Busby Berkeley, John Farrow

Casting

Interesting facts

Comet over Broadway is a 1938 American drama film starring Kay Francis, Ian Hunter and Donald Crisp. It was produced and released by Warner Bros. Pictures. John Farrow stepped in as director when Busby Berkeley became ill, but Farrow was uncredited on the film.

Production

Warners originally announced the project in May 1937 as a vehicle for Kay Francis based on a story by Faith Baldwin.

In February 1938, the role was assigned to Bette Davis, who had just been in Jezebel. She was pulled off All Right's Reserved (which became Four's a Crowd) so she could take six weeks of a holiday. William Dieterle, originally slated to direct Four's a Crowd, was also moved to Comet over Broadway at the same time.

George Brent and Donald Crisp who had both been in Jezebel were assigned to the cast. Kay Francis went into My Bill (1938), directed by John Farrow.

Ian Keith, Walter Abel (borrowed from RKO), and Ronald Reagan were set to costar, and the film was meant to start shooting in early April 1938.

Davis was unhappy with the film. "This was the first nothing script I was given since my court battle in England", Davis later recalled, referring to the lawsuit in which she tried to win her freedom from Warner Bros. after being forced to appear in a series of mediocre films. "It was heartbreaking to me. After winning a second Academy Award...I was asked to appear again in junk."

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

Recommended