MGM. 88 minutes.
US release: 5/9/34.The Best of Everything
Encyclopedia Entry • Films Main
Sadie McKee
1934
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MGM. 88 minutes.
US release: 5/9/34.
VHS release: 12/5/90. DVD release: 2/12/08.
Cast: Joan Crawford (as "Sadie McKee"), Gene Raymond, Franchot Tone, Edward Arnold, Esther Ralston, Earl Oxford, Jean Dixon, Leo Carrillo, Akim Tamiroff, Zelda Sears, Helen Ware, Helen Freeman, Leo G. Carroll. Cafe entertainers: Gene Austin, Candy, and Coco.
Credits: Based on the story "Pretty Sadie McKee" by Vina Delmar, which originally appeared in "Liberty" magazine. Screenplay: John Meehan. Producer: Lawrence Weingarten. Director: Clarence Brown. Camera: Oliver T. Marsh. Costumes: Adrian. Editor: Hugh Wynn. Sound: Douglas Shearer.
Plot Summary: MGM's Sadie McKee is a superb example of how the "committee" system of moviemaking in the 1930s could sometimes yield unexpected delights. It all begins when Sadie McKee (Joan Crawford) is brought to big bad old New York by glib vaudevillian Tommy (Gene Raymond), only to be unceremoniously dumped in favor of actress Dolly (Esther Ralston). Cast adrift, our Sadie lands a nightclub job, where she meets genially intoxicated millionaire Brennan (Edward Arnold). Accepting his drunken marriage proposal, Sadie must endure the slings and arrows of Brennan's friends and family, who consider her a gold-digger. Meanwhile, Sadie's former boss Michael (Franchot Tone), the one true love of her life, waits and waits and waits to see what's really on the girl's mind! And as a bonus, this is the film that introduced the peppy ditty "All I Do Is Dream of You". The labyrinth plotline of Sadie McKee is proof enough that more than one screenwriter had a hand in its creation: but instead of chaos, the film is irresistibly watchable, full of unexpected plot twists and marvelous little surprises. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Mordaunt Hall in the New York Times (1934): Clarence Brown's direction of this film is studied and in its way effective but it scarcely improves the flow of the story. There are many static interludes, a great deal of talk, which is by no means as interesting as the producers evidently thought it to be. Miss Crawford assuredly does well by her part, but even so the incidents in which she appears often are hardly edifying. It is in fact an exasperating type of motion picture.
Marguerite Tazelaar in the New York Herald Tribune (1934): Mr. Brown has employed an emotional quality in his direction that both helps and hinders the picture. It helps in keeping the story an exciting, vivid, enkindled canvas. It hinders, in exaggerating its artifice, its confusion and its lack of logic....Miss Crawford seems a bit miscast in the role of girlish innocence, but she does a competent job with Sadie, and in certain of her scenes is genuinely moving.
Hollywood Reporter (1934): Swell picture...sure-fire audience...well-tailored for the talents of Miss Crawford.... the stuff the fans cry for...direction of Clarence Brown something to rave about...a humdinger for femme fans. |
If you've seen Sadie McKee and would like to share your review here, please e-mail me. Include, if you like, a picture of yourself to accompany your review, as well as a star-rating (with 5 stars the best) and any of your favorite lines from the film.
"All I Do Is Dream of You": Words by Arthur Freed. Music by Nacio Herb Brown. Published by Robbins Music Corp., New York.
The Best of Everything