Ladies' Man
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
William D. Russell
Eddie Bracken
Cass Daley
Virginia Welles
Spike Jones
Johnny Coy
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Henry Haskell, a farmer from Badger, Oklahoma, travels to Texas to visit his girl friend Caroline, and arrives just as she is marrying another man. Angered by Caroline's desertion, Henry throws his shoe at the groom and swears off women for the rest of his life. Henry then returns to Oklahoma and resumes his search for water under his land. No sooner does he start pumping his well than it explodes with a thundering gush of oil. The newspapers dub Henry the "new oil king," and he profits greatly from his discovery. Though the oil strike makes Henry a millionaire, he is unable to put Caroline out of his mind. Hoping to cure his lovesickness, Henry takes a trip to New York, and checks himself and his dog Chris into the Park Tower Hotel. When Gladys Hayden, a gold-digging hotel guest, overhears the desk clerk mention Henry's millions, she changes her room to be closer to Henry's. While walking in the city, Henry meets Jean Mitchell, the sophisticated host of the live radio show "Streets of New York." Jean interviews Henry, and he naïvely tells her that he is a millionaire, and that he has $50,000 to spend in the city. As a gag, Jean makes Henry the prize in a contest she thinks up on the spot, and tells her listeners that they can enter the contest by sending in box tops from Lady Eleanor Face Powder, her show's sponsor. Jean soon falls in love with Henry and his simple charm, but when Henry meets a group of unemployed men from Oklahoma and offers to support them until they get jobs, Jean leaves him. Meanwhile, at the offices of Lady Eleanor Face Powder, which is owned by Jean's uncle, David Harmon, women clamor to get into the contest and meet the Oklahoma millionaire. David is delighted with the success of Jean's contest, and though Jean insists that she was not serious about the offer, she nevertheless decides to go along with the contest. To get Henry to consent to being the contest prize, David calls him, and, posing as a representative from the Federal Communications Commission, tells him that Jean faces dismissal if she does not follow through on her radio show promise. David and Jean succeed in duping Henry into participating in the contest, after which Henry returns to the hotel. There, he is subjected to the romantic charms of Gladys, who is pretending to be a Southern belle to win his affections. The first winner in Jean's radio "Cinderella" contest is Geraldine Ryan, a rough-mannered young woman from the tenements. Jean, unable to bear the exploitation of Henry any longer, tells her uncle that the contest must end. When Jean confesses to Henry that she is a junior partner in David's company, Henry accuses her of deceiving him, and vows to leave town. David prevents Henry from leaving, however, by presenting him with an injunction holding him accountable to his contest contract. Jean considers the injunction an act of betrayal, and strikes David across the face. Later, Henry succeeds in breaking his contract by feigning bankruptcy, but the bankruptcy becomes a reality when his oil wells run dry. Although the news prompts Gladys to drop her pursuit of Henry, Jean proves that she is still in love with Henry by proposing marriage and offering to go to Oklahoma with him.
Director
William D. Russell
Cast
Eddie Bracken
Cass Daley
Virginia Welles
Spike Jones
Johnny Coy
Virginia Field
Lewis Russell
Georges Renevant
Roberta Jonay
Gordon Richards
Dorothy Babb
John Deauville
John Goldsworthy
George Carleton
Isabel Randolph
Walter Baldwin
James Flavin
Eddie Johnson
Billy Lechner
Al Ruiz
Paul Lees
James Farley
Virginia Farmer
Rose Allen
Polly Bailey
Jean Ruth
Frederic Nay
Gloria Williams
Charles Mayon
Crane Whitley
Carol Andrews
Tom Dugan
Mae Busch
Ken Carpenter
Bill Meader
Billy Burt
Dorothy Barrett
Richard Keene
Charles Coleman
John Kelly
Kenneth Patterson
Charles Cane
Elsa Nilsson
Eileen Nilsson
Dr. Kwong Fong
Luke Chan
Frances Raymond
Mike Zawisza
Mary Jane Hodge
Ruth Cherrington
Ralph Peters
Jack Clifford
Harlan Briggs
Buz Buckley
Mickey Mcguire
Freddie Chapman
Rolla Stewart
Minerva Urecal
Pierre Barale
Don Avalier
Beverly Thompson
Renee Randall
Eileen Dixon
Eddie Kane
Wilbur Mack
Jamiel Hasson
Margaret Field
Jerry James
Len Hendry
Ben Erway
Jack Law
Carl Grayson
Richard "dick" Morgan
George Rock
Gilbert "giggie" Royse
Ernest Ingle
Rafael Hernandez
Crew
Edmund Beloin
William Bowers
Sammy Cahn
Sam Comer
John Coonan
John N. Cope
Sam Coslow
Billy Daniels
Daniel Dare
Mary Kay Dodson
Everett Douglas
Hans Dreier
Farciot Edouart
Gene Garvin
Loyal Griggs
Doane Harrison
Robinson Holbert
Jararaca
Gordon Jennings
Arthur Johnston
Wallace Kelley
Ken Lane
Paul Lerpae
Don Mckay
Lewis Meltzer
Sol Meyer
Joel Moss
Ray Moyer
Vicente Paiva
David Rose
Jack Rose
Troy Sanders
Jule Styne
Irvin Talbot
Stuart Thompson
Walter Tyler
Wally Westmore
Philip G. Wisdom
Lothrop Worth
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
The cameo by Mae Busch in the Automat marked her last screen appearance. This was not released until over a year after her death.
Notes
The working titles of this film were Man in the Street and Manhattan at Midnight. This film was based on the radio series Manhattan at Midnight written by Jay Bennett, which starred Alan Reed, Ted De Corsia and Jeanette Nolan. According to Hollywood Reporter news items, farm scenes were shot on location in Palmdale, CA.
