By Violet LeVoit
Silver Skates
Brief Synopsis
The management of touring ice show faces mounting debts.
Cast & Crew
Read More
Leslie Goodwins
Director
Kenny Baker
Danny Donovan
Patricia Morison
Claire Thomas
Belita
Herself
Frick And Frack
Themselves
Irene Dare
Katrina
Film Details
Genre
Musical
Sports
Release Date
Feb
26,
1943
Premiere Information
Buffalo, NY premiere: 28 Jan 1943
Production Company
Monogram Productions, Inc.
Distribution Company
Monogram Pictures Corp.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 15m
Film Length
6,635ft
(9 reels)
Synopsis
In New York, producer Claire Thomas' "Silver Skates Ice Revue" finally is doing good business thanks to the special appearance by star skater Belita, who is soon to marry a Chicago businessman. However, Claire is still fighting off creditors and worries about being able to keep the show open after Belita leaves. Danny Donovan, a singer in the show, is Claire's fiancé, but she does not want to marry him until she can free herself of debt. After Claire is forced to post the show's closing notice, Eddie, a member of the company, suggests to Danny that he romance Belita to get her to stay with the show, but she gently rejects him. One evening, when Claire returns to her apartment building, she finds a little girl, Katrina, waiting for her. Katrina has become separated from a relief committee worker and tells Claire that she is trying to find her uncle who used to be a skater with Claire's show. Claire takes Katrina, a refugee who lost her parents in an air raid on Rotterdam, to her apartment for the night and the next day, introduces the girl to some of the show's cast. Later, Miss Martin of the Netherlands Relief Committee visits Claire, and after apologizing for "losing" Katrina the night before, seeks Claire's help in finding Katrina's uncle, who is now in the Army. When Claire learns that Miss Martin will place Katrina in an orphanage unless she can find a married couple to adopt her, she asks if Katrina can stay with her for a few days while she and her "husband" consider the situation. Claire then suggests to Danny that they should marry, but when he discovers the reason behind her sudden change of heart, he cools off a bit. At the same time, Danny tries to sell agent Roscoe Hayes on a new show built around the comedy skating act of Frick and Frack, and although Hayes is unsure, he agrees to see their act. Just before their audition, Frick and Frack receive a cable from their manager advising them that he has signed a new tumbler, Ernie Hayes, to join their act. When Hayes comes to see the show, Frick and Frack assume he is their new partner and start to rehearse a bullfighting routine with him. After being subjected to numerous indignities, Hayes storms out without seeing any of the show. Later, however, Claire sees boy skater Billy Baxter and Katrina skating together and realizes that she could build a new show around them. Belita has a fight on the phone with her fiancé Tom and tells him that she is dumping him in favor of Danny, who now finds himself engaged to both Belita and Claire. Danny then tells Hayes that he and Belita have worked up a new act and Belita says that she intends to marry Danny and will consider a year's contract with the show. After Hayes sees the new number, he agrees to book the show for forty weeks, and Claire, who is unaware of Danny's involvement with Belita, is thrilled by the news. However, when Danny tells her that he is going to marry Belita, Claire demands that he tell Belita that he cannot marry her, even though she knows the show will have to close. After Tom arrives from Chicago and reconciles with Belita, both she and Danny agree that they will have to cancel their wedding plans. Belita adds that she never intended to marry Danny but was only trying to make Tom come to his senses. Later, Claire and Danny marry and adopt Katrina, and the show goes on.
Director
Leslie Goodwins
Director
Cast
Kenny Baker
Danny Donovan
Patricia Morison
Claire Thomas
Belita
Herself
Frick And Frack
Themselves
Irene Dare
Katrina
Danny Shaw
Billy Baxter
Eugene Turner
Himself
Ted Fio Rito
Joyce Compton
Lucille
Frank Faylen
Eddie Hayes
Paul Mcvey
Roscoe Hayes
Ruth Lee
Miss Martin
John Maxwell
Creditor
Henry Wadsworth
Tom
George Stewart
Himself
Jo Ann Dean
Herself
Ruby Dandridge
Maid
Donald Kerr
Doorman
Jack Rice
Clerk
Crew
Charles Althouse
Recording
Jerry Cady
Original Screenplay
Richard Currier
Film Editor
Archie Gottler
Music finale
Dave Gould
Prod numbers staged by
Al Greenwood
Settings
Ernest Hickson
Art Director
Madam Houda
Costume Design
Roy Ingraham
Music Score
Roy Ingraham
Composer
Edward Kay
Music Director
Dan Mccauley
2d Assistant Director
Dave Milton
Tech Director
David Oppenheim
Music finale
David Oppenheim
Music Score
David Oppenheim
Composer
Lindsley Parsons
Producer
Harry Ross
Makeup
Emil Seidel
Music adv
William D. Shapiro
Entire prod Supervisor by
Mack Stengler
Director of Photography
William Strohbach
Production Manager
Film Details
Genre
Musical
Sports
Release Date
Feb
26,
1943
Premiere Information
Buffalo, NY premiere: 28 Jan 1943
Production Company
Monogram Productions, Inc.
Distribution Company
Monogram Pictures Corp.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 15m
Film Length
6,635ft
(9 reels)
Articles
Silver Skates -
Sonja Henie was the most famous ice skating movie star, but England had Belita Jepson-Turner. The skating prodigy billed only by her first name, like Henie, started her athletic career as a pre-teen Olympian whose skating was augmented by classical ballet training - but she and Henie had very different screen personas: Henie was pert and cute, but Belita was a cool thoroughbred beauty. But all the good looks in the world can't match the marketing powerhouse of a big studio's blessing, and so Henie (bankrolled by Fox into A-list pictures like One in A Million (1936)) trounced Belita's B-movie pedigree in the public imagination. In this, a thinly contrived plot about an ice revue with financial problems serves to create excuses for "Belita, Star of the Ice" to perform as herself. After her retirement, Belita would later disavow her time in the rink, declaring "I hated the ice. I hated the cold, the smell, everything about it," but none of that loathing shows in her powerful, balletic grace on screen.
By Violet LeVoit
By Violet LeVoit
Silver Skates -
Sonja Henie was the most famous ice skating movie star, but England had Belita Jepson-Turner. The skating prodigy billed only by her first name, like Henie, started her athletic career as a pre-teen Olympian whose skating was augmented by classical ballet training - but she and Henie had very different screen personas: Henie was pert and cute, but Belita was a cool thoroughbred beauty. But all the good looks in the world can't match the marketing powerhouse of a big studio's blessing, and so Henie (bankrolled by Fox into A-list pictures like One in A Million (1936)) trounced Belita's B-movie pedigree in the public imagination. In this, a thinly contrived plot about an ice revue with financial problems serves to create excuses for "Belita, Star of the Ice" to perform as herself. After her retirement, Belita would later disavow her time in the rink, declaring "I hated the ice. I hated the cold, the smell, everything about it," but none of that loathing shows in her powerful, balletic grace on screen.
By Violet LeVoit
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Copyright records credit actor Candy Candido as appearing with Ted Fio Rito and His Orchestra; however, Candido was not seen in the viewed print and was not credited onscreen. Hollywood Reporter news items note that Gale Storm and skater Gloria Sherwood were cast in the film, and that Jimmy Campbell was writing the music score. Storm did not appear in the picture; the contributions of Sherwood and Campbell to the final film have not been confirmed. News items also indicate that New York artist Lucius Samuel Hayle completed "special posters" for the film.
