Gold Diggers of 1935

In Gold Diggers of 1935, a socialite is bamboozled into producing a stage show in her home in this amusing musical starring Alice Brady and Adolphe Menjou.

Gold Diggers of 1935, starring Dick Powell, Alice Brady, Gloria Stuart, Dorothy Dare, Hugh Herbert, Frank McHugh

Synopsis of Gold Diggers of 1935

In Gold Diggers of 1935, a socialite is bamboozled into producing a stage show in her home in this amusing musical starring Alice Brady and Adolphe Menjou.

Cast

• Dick Powell (Cowboy from Brooklyn) as Dick Curtis. The poor, but honest, desk clerk. He’s working his way through Medical School. Mrs. Prentiss hires him to escort her daughter Ann for the summer.
• Adolphe Menjou (Roxie Hart) as Nicolai Nicoleff. The flamboyant and conniving Russian dance director, hired by Mr. Brady, to direct her annual charity show. And he tries to inflate the cost as much as humanly possible. So he can skim money off the top!
• Gloria Stuart (The Old Dark House, The Invisible Man) as Ann Prentiss. The young, beautiful, and kind daughter of Mrs. Prentiss. She’s glad to have Dick with her …. And begins to fall in love with the future doctor!
• Alice Brady (The Gay Divorcee) as Matilda Prentiss. The penny-pinching millionairess. Every summer she produces a charity show for the “Milk Fund”. This year she hires Nicoleff to direct the show. And tries to keep the expenses down …
• Hugh Herbert as T. Mosely Thorpe III. The eccentric middle-aged millionaire and world-renowned expert on snuffboxes. Mrs. Prentiss wants Ann to marry him. But Ann has her own ideas …
• Glenda Farrell (Little Caesar) as Betty Hawes. The hotel stenographer. Along with Lampson, she’s blackmailing Thorpe.
• Frank McHugh (High Pressure) as Humbolt Prentiss. Ann’s brother, who has a has a weakness for a pretty face. He’s been married several times. But his mother’s paid the girls off …
• Joseph Cawthorn as August Schultz. Nicoleff’s set designer. With Nicoleff, he tries to be ass extravagant as possible. While Mrs. Brady tries to be as frugal as possible!

Additional cast

• Grant Mitchell (Dinner at Eight, Arsenic and Old Lace) as Louis Lampson. The hotel manager.
• Dorothy Dare as Arline Davis. Dick’s fiancee, who (initially) thinks it’s a good idea for him to chaperone Ann. Until he begins falling in love with her!
• Wini Shaw as Winny. The star of the “Lullaby of Broadway” musical number.

Editorial review of Gold Diggers of 1935 courtesy of Amazon.com

In the resort of Lake Waxapahachie, the swanky Wentworth Plaza is where the rich all congregate, and where the tips flow like wine. Handsome Dick Curtis (Dick Powell) is working his way through medical school as a desk clerk, and when rich, penny-pinching Mrs. Prentiss (Alice Brady) offers to pay him to escort her daughter Ann (Gloria Stuart) for the summer, Dick can’t say no – even his fiancee, Arline Davis (Dorothy Dare) thinks he should do it. Mrs. Prentiss wants Ann to marry eccentric middle-aged millionaire T. Mosley Thorpe (Hugh Herbert), who’s a world-renowned expert on snuffboxes, but Ann has other ideas. Meanwhile her brother, Humbolt (Frank McHugh) has a weakness for a pretty face: he’s been married and bought out of trouble by his mother several times.

Every summer, Mrs. Prentiss produces a charity show for the “Milk Fund”, and this year she hires the flamboyant and conniving Russian dance director Nicolai Nicoleff (Adolphe Menjou) to direct the show. The parsimonious Mrs. Prentiss wants to spend the least amount possible, but Nicoleff and his set designer Schultz (Joseph Cawthorn) want to be as extravagant as they can, so they can rake off more money for themselves, and for the hotel manager (Louis Lamson) and the hotel stenographer (Glenda Farrell), who’s blackmailing the hapless snuffbox fancier Thorpe.

Songs performed in Gold Diggers of 1935

• I’m Goin’ Shoppin’ with You
  • Sung by Dick Powell to Gloria Stuart.  This is a montage of scenes of Stuart shopping for everything from lingerie to jewelry.  Much to the dismay of her penny-pinching mother, Alice Brady!
• The Words Are in My Heart
  • This elaborate Busby Berkeley production number utilized 56 white grand pianos.  They were moved around the soundstage by male dancers underneath the piano-shells, dressed in black
• Dagger Dance
• The Gold Diggers’ Song (We’re in the Money)
• Lullaby of Broadway
  • Lullaby of Broadway is one of the most famous Busby Berkeley numbers. It’s actually a mini film-within-a-film.  It’s a beautiful, but sad story, featuring Wini Shaw and Dick Powell.