Hitchhike to Happiness
Cast & Crew
Joseph Santley
Al Pearce
Dale Evans
Brad Taylor
William Frawley
Jerome Cowan
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Radio singing star Alice Chase finishes her last broadcast of the season and returns to her Hollywood home, where she receives a telephone call from her boyfriend, actor Tony Riggs. Alice agrees to meet Tony in New York City, unaware that the callous Tony is promising theatrical producer Sandy Hill and writer Dennis Colby that she will appear in their next production. In exchange for securing Alice's services, Tony will receive the male lead and ten percent of the profits. Alice is nostalgic upon her arrival in New York, where, under the name Mary Kelly, she worked as a waitress and struggling singer before becoming a star in Hollywood. Despite Tony's insistence that she read Colby's script, Alice goes alone to the restaurant where she used to work, which is run by Kipling Ellis, a good-hearted waiter who wants to be a playwright. Unaware of Alice's career upswing or new name, Kippy assumes that she is still the poverty-stricken Mary and introduces her as such to songwriter Joe Mitchell, who, like Kippy, is waiting for his big break. Joe and Alice are immediately attracted to each other and are impressed by each other's talent. After Alice borrows Joe's sheet music, Kippy takes the just-evicted Joe home with him. While Kippy's fiancée, Joan Randall, chastises him for being overly generous, Alice sings one of Joe's songs for Tony, Colby and Hill. The three men's subsequent conference is interrupted by Ladislaus Prenska, an eccentric Hungarian producer who has been pestering Colby for a script. Seeing the opportunity for a cruel hoax, the trio convince Prenska that he should buy Kippy's play, entitled Hitchhike to Happiness . They arrange for Prenska and Kippy to meet, and Prenska pays Kippy a handsome sum for his work. At a celebration that night, however, Tony, Colby and Hill stick Kippy with the huge dinner bill, and gossip columnist Dolly Ward prattles on about the joke during her radio show. Infuriated, Joe goes to Hill's office and there finds Alice. After dragging her away, Joe, who still does not know that his Mary is Alice Chase, inadvertently reveals that Tony has been using her, then asks her to pretend to be Alice in an effort to convince Prenska to put on Kippy's show. Prenska, who believes that he has been defrauded by Kippy, finally reads the play and decides to produce it if Alice will star in it. Alice agrees, and while Joe works on the music, Kippy tries to elude the police that Prenska sent after him earlier. When they all meet at the restaurant the next day, Tony arrives and reveals Alice's true identity. Fearing that he is also the butt of a prank, Joe disappears. Alice tells Kippy that Prenska is going to produce his play, however, and soon the rehearsals begin. Having ended her relationship with Tony, Alice pines for Joe, who is still nowhere to be found. Alice sings one of his songs on the radio, and Joe returns for the opening night of Kippy's play, but is again angered when he mistakenly assumes that Alice wanted him only to sign a release form for his compositions. After Alice performs a big, romantic number, she finally persuades Joe to marry her, and Kippy and Joan also enjoy an embrace.
Director
Joseph Santley
Cast
Al Pearce
Dale Evans
Brad Taylor
William Frawley
Jerome Cowan
Willy Trenk
Arlene Harris
Joyce Compton
Maude Eburne
Irving Bacon
Lynn Romer
Jeanne Romer
Wendell Niles
Gayne Whitman
John Wald
George Boyce
Bill Alcorn
Joseph Niemeyer
Bob Alden
Sam Ash
Bert Moorhouse
Larry Steers
Robert Strong
Al Eben
Florence Pepper
George Golden
Wheaton Chambers
Jack Gargan
Nolan Leary
Mike Lally
Dick Scott
Wilbur Mack
Tom P. Dillon
Charles Williams
Fred Santley
Frederick Howard
Charles Murray Jr.
Mary Emery
Frank Mayo
Sheila Stuart
George Sherwood
Kenneth Rundquist
Roy Brent
Crew
Fred Allen
Donald H. Brown
Tom Carman
Kim Gannon
John Grubbs
Jerry Horwin
Jerry Jarrette
Walter Kent
Herb Kirkpatrick
Jack Marta
Adele Palmer
Fred A. Ritter
Gordon C. Schaefer
Morton Scott
Manny Seff
Otto Siegel
John Stransky Jr.
Jack Townley
Howard Wilson
Film Details
Technical Specs
Award Nominations
Best Score
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Although a pre-release Motion Picture Herald Prod Digest news item includes Richard Lane in the cast, his appearance in the finished picture is doubtful. Beverly Reedy is included in the cast by a September 19, 1944 Hollywood Reporter news item, but his appearance in the release film has not been confirmed. For his work on the film, Morton Scott received an Academy Award nomination in the Music (Scoring of a Musical Picture) category.
