Queen of the Night Clubs

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Queen of the Night Clubs
File:Queennight1929.jpg
Directed by Bryan Foy
Produced by Bryan Foy
Written by Addison Burkhard
Murray Roth
Starring Texas Guinan
John Davidson
Lila Lee
John Miljan
Arthur Housman
Eddie Foy Jr.
Jack Norworth
George Raft
Cinematography Edwin B. DuPar
Production
company
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release dates
 March 16, 1929[1]
Running time
 60 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Queen of the Night Clubs is a 1929 American Pre-Code musical drama film produced and directed by Bryan Foy, distributed by Warner Bros., and starring legendary nightclub hostess Texas Guinan. The picture, which featured appearancess by Eddie Foy, Jr., Lila Lee, and George Raft, is now considered a lost film.[2]

Plot

After working as a hostess for Nick and Andy, Tex Malone leaves their employ and opens a club of her own. Looking for talent to book for the floor show, Tex hires Bee Walters and thereby breaks up Bee's act with Eddie Parr. Andy spitefully kills Tex's friend, Holland, and young Eddie is arrested for the crime on circumstantial evidence. Tex then learns from Eddie's father, Phil, that Eddie is her long-lost son. At the trial, Tex comes to Eddie's defense and persuades one member of the jury that there is reasonable doubt of Eddie's guilt. The jury repairs to Tex's club, where Tex discovers a piece of evidence that conclusively links Andy with the murder. Eddie is freed, and Tex and Phil get together for a second honeymoon.

Cast

Production

The film starred the legendary bar hostess and silent film actress Texas Guinan as "Texas Malone", a character obviously based upon herself. Guinan's pal George Raft also appears in his first movie role. Queen of the Night Clubs was directed by Bryan Foy.

Reception

The film was generally reviewed as mediocre by critics. Mordaunt Hall of The New York Times called it "a somewhat entertaining thriller", though he found the ending "amateurishly forced".[3] Variety wrote, "Tex hasn't much to do, but does what she has pretty well."[4] Film Daily called it "dull and uninteresting", writing, "This film was built solely to give Tex Guinan a chance to show how she runs her Broadway night club, but it has been done so often and so much better in other films of night club life that it carries no kick."[5] John Mosher of The New Yorker expressed disappointment, writing, "Rather to our surprise and much to our regret, Miss Guinan doesn't carry the picture with as much verve as it might seem that she would."[6]

Preservation status

  • No film elements are known to exist. The complete soundtrack (except the first reel), however, survives on Vitaphone disks.[7]
  • A clip from this film featuring Guinan and Raft was incorporated into Winner Take All (1932), an early James Cagney vehicle.
  • Brief footage of Guinan, yelling "Hello, suckers!" in a restaurant (or perhaps her nightclub), appears in the 1980s HBO series Yesteryear...1927 hosted by Dick Cavett. This documentary series had Cavett cover a given year out of each decade from 1917 to 1969. Since this episode of Yesteryear was about 1927, the footage of Guinan could be newsreel footage from 1927 or extant 1929 footage from Queen of the Night Clubs (the same footage in Winner Take All).

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Everett Aaker, The Films of George Raft, McFarland & Company, 2013 p. 14
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ 1957 MOVIES FROM AAP Warner Bros Features & Cartoons SALES BOOK DIRECTED AT TV

External links

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