Cinderella Jones
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Busby Berkeley
Joan Leslie
Robert Alda
Julie Bishop
William Prince
S. Z. Sakall
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Having failed to locate heiress Judy Jones, the law firm of Minland, Mahoney and Krencher decide to advertise. One of the many people who sees the ad is band leader Tommy Coles, whose girl friend, an addlepated singer, is named Judy Jones. Tommy has proposed many times to Judy, but she refuses to marry him until they have more money. After Judy makes a comment about her rich uncle Jonas Jones, Tommy realizes that she is really the missing heiress. By showing the lawyers a shrunken head that Jonas left to her, Judy proves her claim to his ten million dollars, but in order to inherit, she must marry a man with an I.Q. of 150 by a certain date. Using a man's name, Judy enrolls in an all-male school for geniuses. Her ruse is quickly discovered, but because she is attractive, and because she offers to pay for a new chemistry laboratory with part of her inheritance, professor Gabriel Popik allows her to stay in school. Younger professor Bartholomew Williams is not as susceptible to Judy's charms, however, and insists that she leave the campus. A horrified Popik demands that Williams beg Judy to return, but thanks to taxi driver Camille, she has already taken a waitress job at the campus coffee shop and refuses. After Judy accidentally serves Williams a sandwich made with a bar of soap, he angrily tells her that she epitomizes everything he hates about women. Tommy, who is also in the coffee shop, tries to defend Judy, but Williams knocks him unconscious, impressing Judy with his virility. Because Popik knows that Judy must marry a man with a high I.Q., he convinces Williams to romance her until she agrees to return to school. A few days later, Popik is sure that the stormy relationship between Judy and Williams is a sign that they love each other. When Judy joins Tommy and his band at a lakeside resort the night before her marriage deadline, Popik conspires with the lawyers, who are also at the resort, to bring Judy and Williams together. While the lawyers row Judy out to the middle of the lake, Popik brings a drunken Williams to the lakeshore. The lawyers overturn the boat and Williams swims out to rescue Judy. He confesses that he loves her, and she accepts his marriage proposal, to the dismay of Tommy and Camille, who loves Williams. Judy and Williams, together with the lawyers, Tommy, Camille and Popik, hurry to Nevada to be married. On the way, the police stop them for speeding and take them to jail. In their defense, Tommy reels off a lot of legal terminology and is forced to admit that he is a law school graduate and a former quiz kid. After Williams reveals that he has a low I.Q., but has worked hard to succeed, Tommy proposes again to Judy, whom he truly loves, and Camille proposes to Williams. The marriage plans are again interrupted when the wedding party is stopped by a convoy of returning soldiers, but everything is happily resolved when the army chaplain unites the two couples.
Director
Busby Berkeley
Cast
Joan Leslie
Robert Alda
Julie Bishop
William Prince
S. Z. Sakall
Edward Everett Horton
Charles Dingle
Ruth Donnelly
Elisha Cook Jr.
Hobart Cavanaugh
Charles Arnt
Chester Clute
Ed Gargan
Marianne O'brien
Robert Dudley
Gayle Mellott
Mary Landa
Sondra Janson
Libby Taylor
Hallene Hill
Lillian Castle
Marian Martin
Lottie Harrison
Ezelle Poule
Dorothy Kennedy
Karen Hale
Pat Knox
Valerie Gratton
Charles Marsh
Don Wilson
Mary Dean
Buddy Gorman
Margaret Early
Johnny Mitchell
Johnny Duncan
Russell Coles
Lawrence Lathrop
Bill Chaney
Fred Carpenter
Victoria Horne
Ruth Warren
George Turner
Edwin Mills
Robert Cherry
Edward Fielding
Percival Vivian
Douglas Wood
Walter Soderling
John Christian
Frank Hilliard
Elmer Jerome
Eddie Acuff
Ben Weldon
Betty Alexander
Angela Greene
Diana Mumby
Trude Lavoice
Ann Goldthwaite
Lynne Baggett
Barbara Slater
Beverly Thompson
Alma Carroll
Ricki Van Dusen
Jan Bryant
Zetta Cramer
Wesley Brent
Ellen Hall
Lavonne Moyer
Joy Barlowe
Lorraine Breacher
Beverlee Mitchell
Monte Blue
Edwin Hanneford
Joseph Crehan
Paul Scardon
Vera Lewis
Rose Plumer
Jack Chefe
Johnny Walsh
John Sheehan
Bob Ebright
Abe Dinovitch
Clifford Holland
Mike Gaddis
John Alban
Shelby Payne
Helen Kimbell
Marion Graham
Janette Gras
Dell Clow
Betty Brodel
Walter Bacon
Howard Washington
Ray Flynn
Harold Miller
Lawrence Williams
Jack Daley
Eric Alden
Orn Huntington
Dan Wallace
Hal Townsend
Zane Megowan
Jeffrey Sayre
Everett Smith
Harry Woolman
Betty Gordon
Gertrude Keeler
Marjorie Kane
Toby Green
Isabelle Lamal
Tiny Jones
Crew
George Amy
Milo Anderson
Sammy Cahn
Dudley Chambers
Leo F. Forbstein
Alex Gottlieb
Ray Heindorf
Charles Hoffman
Louanne Hogan
Frederick Hollander
John Hughes
James Leicester
Jack Mcconaghy
Frank Perkins
Sol Polito
Jule Styne
Dolph Thomas
Jack L. Warner
Perc Westmore
Film Details
Technical Specs
Articles
Cinderella Jones
Cinderella Jones
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The film's working title was Judy Adjudicates. A November 4, 1943 Hollywood Reporter news item notes that Faye Emerson replaced Jane Wyman, who was re-assigned to the Warner Bros. film Make Your Own Bed (see below), but Emerson does not appear in the film, and the role was finally played by Joan Leslie. A press release announced Dennis Morgan as the star. The Motion Picture Herald review states that although this film was made before Rhapsody in Blue, which also stars Robert Alda (see below), Warner Bros. delayed its release in the hope that Rhapsody in Blue would establish Alda as a box office draw. According to modern sources, one result of this delay was that a number of wartime references had to be edited out of the film. This film marked Busby Berkeley's last directorial effort for Warner Bros., the studio where he was the dance director on a number of musicals made in the 1930s.