By Violet LeVoit
Dangerous Number
Brief Synopsis
A showgirl marries well, then has to contend with her stuffy in-laws.
Cast & Crew
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Richard Thorpe
Director
Robert Young
Hank [Medhill]
Ann Sothern
Eleanor [Breen Medhill]
Reginald Owen
Cousin William
Cora Witherspoon
Gypsy [Breen]
Dean Jagger
[Vance] Dillman
Film Details
Genre
Comedy
Release Date
Jan
22,
1937
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp.
Distribution Company
Loew's Inc.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 11m
Sound
Mono (Western Electric Sound System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
8 reels
Synopsis
Returning to the United States after a year in Japan to learn how to make artificial silk and recover from a broken romance, cloth manufacturer Hank Medhill hears the news that his former girl friend, Eleanor Breen, is about to marry. Although his cousin William tries to dissuade him, Hank dashes off to stop the wedding and convinces Eleanor to leave her groom at the altar. Eleanor and her mother Gypsy are eccentric show business people, and Eleanor thinks that Hank is just as crazy as she. Shortly after their marriage, however, Eleanor and Hank learn that they are very different. While she enjoys the company of show business friends who constantly turn up at their apartment uninvited, Hank is only interested in developing his artificial silk formula with William. After an argument, Eleanor goes home to Gypsy and, following the advice of a married friend, Hank decides to pick a date at random from the telephone directory. Unknown to Hank, Eleanor has arranged for the switchboard operator to put Hank's "random" call through to a show business friend of hers named Vera Montana and Hank is given the fright of his life during a wild evening of chases, gun threats and socks in the nose. When he finally goes home, he discovers that Vance Dillman, to whom Eleanor had been secretly married briefly while Hank was in Japan, is in their apartment. Though Eleanor thought that their marriage ceremony was invalid, Vance informs her that a technicality involving their marriage license and daylight savings time makes their marriage valid and the one to Hank illegal. Some time later, Vera goes to visit the Medhill family estate, which she previously considered boring, and tells William that she misses being Hank's wife. When Vance and Hank arrive and she learns that Hank had discovered some time ago that her marriage to Vance was not really valid, they quarrel, and she leaves. Unknown to her, Hank disguises himself as a cabbie and drives her away, racing wildly through the countryside. After Eleanor realizes that Hank is driving, the cab accidentally plunges into a lake. As they kiss and make up, Eleanor finds that the silk dress she is wearing is disintegrating and Hank happily tells her that he made it just for her when he found out that his artificial silk formula dissolved in water.
Director
Richard Thorpe
Director
Cast
Robert Young
Hank [Medhill]
Ann Sothern
Eleanor [Breen Medhill]
Reginald Owen
Cousin William
Cora Witherspoon
Gypsy [Breen]
Dean Jagger
[Vance] Dillman
Marla Shelton
Vera [Montana]
Barnett Parker
Minehardi
Charles Trowbridge
Hotel manager
Pierre Watkin
Bridegroom
Irving Bacon
Policeman
James Flavin
Cab driver
Crew
Daniel Cathcart
Art Director Associate
Leona Dalrymple
Story
Bradbury Foote
Contr to dial
Cedric Gibbons
Art Director
Lou Ostrow
Producer
Blanche Sewell
Film Editor
Douglas Shearer
Recording Director
Leonard Smith
Photography
David Snell
Music Score
Dolly Tree
Wardrobe
Edwin B. Willis
Art Director Associate
Carey Wilson
Screenwriter
Dolph Zimmer
Assistant Director
Film Details
Genre
Comedy
Release Date
Jan
22,
1937
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp.
Distribution Company
Loew's Inc.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 11m
Sound
Mono (Western Electric Sound System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
8 reels
Articles
Dangerous Number
Even though MGM never called its low-budget films B movies, they made their share. Of course, a low budget for MGM would have been a considerable figure at any other studio. Just look at this spritely romantic comedy in the vein of Columbia's more prestigious The Awful Truth (1936). Ann Sothern stars as a dancer who hastily marries silk tycoon Robert Young. When the worlds of show business and just plain business don't mix, they decide to go their separate ways, even though they're clearly in love. In fact, they're so much in love, that Sothern starts doing everything she can to get him back, including sabotaging his dates with other women and calling on ex-husband Dean Jagger to make him jealous. Even though it featured Sothern, on loan from RKO, and Young, still considered a second-string lead at the studio, its helped greatly by a strong script from Carey Wilson, one of the studio's top writers and a founder of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. One standout role went to Maria Shelton as Young's disastrous date. After being discovered by producer Walter Wanger, the Native American actress signed with MGM with great hoopla, only to be dropped by the studio after only a few years.
By Violet LeVoit
By Violet LeVoit
Dangerous Number
Even though MGM never called its low-budget films B movies, they made their share. Of course, a low budget for MGM would have been a considerable figure at any other studio. Just look at this spritely romantic comedy in the vein of Columbia's more prestigious The Awful Truth (1936). Ann Sothern stars as a dancer who hastily marries silk tycoon Robert Young. When the worlds of show business and just plain business don't mix, they decide to go their separate ways, even though they're clearly in love. In fact, they're so much in love, that Sothern starts doing everything she can to get him back, including sabotaging his dates with other women and calling on ex-husband Dean Jagger to make him jealous. Even though it featured Sothern, on loan from RKO, and Young, still considered a second-string lead at the studio, its helped greatly by a strong script from Carey Wilson, one of the studio's top writers and a founder of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. One standout role went to Maria Shelton as Young's disastrous date. After being discovered by producer Walter Wanger, the Native American actress signed with MGM with great hoopla, only to be dropped by the studio after only a few years.
By Violet LeVoit
TCM Remembers - Ann Sothern
TCM Remembers - Ann Sothern
Actress Ann Sothern passed away on March 15th at the age of 89. Her film career spanned sixty years and included a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for The Whales of August (1987) and several Emmy nominations for her roles in the TV shows Private Secretary (1953) and The Ann Sothern Show (1958). Sothern was born as Harriette Lake in North Dakota. She made her first film appearance in 1927 in small roles (so small, in fact, that some sources omit any films before 1929) before deciding to work on Broadway instead. Shortly afterwards she signed with Columbia Pictures where studio head Harry Cohn insisted she change her name because there were already too many actors with the last name of Lake. So "Ann" came from her mother's name Annette and "Sothern" from Shakespearean actor E.H. Sothern. For most of the 1930s she appeared in light comedies working with Eddie Cantor, Maurice Chevalier, Mickey Rooney and Fredric March. However, it wasn't until she switched to MGM (after a brief period with RKO) and made the film Maisie (1939) that Sothern hit pay dirt. It proved enormously popular and led to a series of nine more films through 1947 when she moved into dramas and musicals. During the 50s, Sothern made a mark with her TV series but returned to mostly second tier movies in the 1960s and 1970s. Finally she earned an Oscar nomination for her work in 1987's The Whales of August (in which, incidentally, her daughter Tisha Sterling played her at an earlier age). Turner Classic Movies plans to host a retrospective film tribute to her in July. Check back for details in June.
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
A production chart in Hollywood Reporter lists the actor "Vance Dillman" among the cast members, but that was actually the name of the character played by Dean Jagger in the film. According to news items in Hollywood Reporter in August 1936, Madge Evans was slated to take over the lead from Myrna Loy. Ann Sothern eventually took over the role.
