Meet Danny Wilson
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Joseph Pevney
Frank Sinatra
Shelley Winters
Alex Nicol
Raymond Burr
Vaughn Taylor
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Singer Danny Wilson and his partner, pianist Michael Francis Ryan, struggle to make a name for themselves but are thwarted by low-paying gigs and Danny's penchant for starting fights, which Mike has to finish. After being kicked out of yet another club for fighting, they meet Joy Carroll, a lovely singer, and agree to escort her to a bar so she can get drunk without being bothered by other men. A drunken Danny soon hits a policeman, and he and Mike land in jail. The next morning someone posts bail and leaves them a note to visit mobster Nick Driscoll at his nightclub. There, Nick is duly impressed by Danny's singing talent and offers them a job. Although Mike is concerned when Nick insists on fifty percent of all of Danny's future earnings, Danny convinces him that a bad deal is better than no deal at all, and they start work that night. When Joy stops by before the show, they realize that she is a singer at the club and has arranged both their bail and their job to thank them for helping her. Danny, who is quickly falling in love with Joy, refuses to believe Mike's warning that Nick also loves her. Nick, however, comprehends Danny's feelings immediately, and when the two singers go out after the show, Nick calls Joy's house obsessively until she returns. Over the next year, Danny's star rises, but even after he acquires a recording contract and a show on Broadway, Nick still unfailingly collects half of all of Danny's profits. One day, Mike, Danny and Joy learn that Nick is wanted for a gangland murder and has gone into hiding. Danny wants to use the opportunity to welsh on their deal, but Mike refuses to go back on his word to Nick. Danny, who has become spoiled by his sudden fame, picks a fight with street thugs, which Mike has to join. As Joy tends to Mike's wounds, she reveals that she loves him, not Danny. Although Mike admits he loves her too, he explains that he could never steal her away from his best friend, causing Joy to storm out. Weeks later, while Danny is acting in a Hollywood movie, Joy refuses to answer his phone calls. Seeing Danny grow more desperate, Mike calls Joy and convinces her to visit for his sake. That night, when she attends a party in Danny's honor, he announces to the crowd that they are engaged, without securing a response from her. She leaves over his objections but returns later that night to Mike's hotel room. She informs Mike that she cannot stay with them unless he returns her love, but just as he embraces her, Danny enters the room. He bitterly denounces them and spends the next days in drunken stupor, at one point appearing at a benefit show too intoxicated to sing. Days later, Mike signs the contract release that Danny's lawyer has drawn up for him and tells Danny that he has become a mean, small person. Just then, Nick arrives to collect his money, which Danny has already spent. When Danny attacks Nick, Mike jumps in front of him just as Nick pulls out a gun and shoots. Nick informs Danny that he must bring the money to the local baseball field that night, and runs out. At the hospital, while they wait fearfully to hear Mike's prognosis, Joy informs Danny that the whole romantic situation was her fault. Danny realizes he may lose the only friend he ever really had. He races to the ballpark and engages Nick in a gunfight, which ends when the police, who have followed Danny from the hospital, shoot Nick down. Months later, the newly married Mike and Joy accompany a delighted Danny to his appearance at the London Palladium.
Director
Joseph Pevney
Cast
Frank Sinatra
Shelley Winters
Alex Nicol
Raymond Burr
Vaughn Taylor
Tommy Farrell
Donald Macbride
Barbara Knudson
Carl Sklover
Palmer Lee
Ray Barons
William Cassidy
Cindy Garner
Jack Kruschen
Frank Scannell
Mike Ross
Tom Dugan
Billy Wayne
Danny Welton
Pat Flaherty
Peter Virgo
Carlos Molina
Herbert Lytton
Tom Dillon
Tom Hubbard
Brick Sullivan
George Ramsey
Lee Millar
George Eldridge
Bob Donnelly
Ezelle Poule
John Day
Jeanne Tatum
George Wallace
Ned Roberts
Earl G. Lee
Sam Wolfe
Jack Chefe
Charmienne Harker
Charles Parlato
Harold Bostwick
Phil Arnold
John Indrisano
Charles Hovarth
Bob Perry
Paul Ely
Sandra Farrell
Donna Leary
Diane Van Hessen
Billy Vernon
Eddie Coontz
Sally Yarnell
Morty Langer
John Albright
Eleanor Bassett
Paula Hill
Mary Brewer
Bruce Sharpe
Bobby Faye
Phil Resnick
Larry Mcgrath
George Garver
Sally Bremer
Bob Reeves
James Bradley
Louis Young
Norman Brooks
John Dix
Mike Lally
Charles Perry
Alben Robeling
Jeff Chandler
Tony Curtis
Judith Braun
Norene Michaels
Paul Bradley
Forbes Murray
Dick Alexander
Bert Keyes
Peggy Dale
Leo Sulky
Sue Casey
Sayre Deering
Charles Sherlock
Jimmy Casino
Willie Bloom
Crew
Harold Adamson
Harold Arlen
Harold Belfer
Irving Berlin
Leslie I. Carey
Richard Deweese
Eddie Dodds
Mark Fisher
Russell A. Gausman
Joseph Gershenson
George Gershwin
Ira Gershwin
Maury Gertsman
Leonard Goldstein
Joe Goodwin
Eddie Green
Julia Heron
Bernard Herzbrun
David S. Horsley
Nathan Juran
Gerald Marks
Don Mcguire
Don Mcguire
Jimmy Mchugh
Johnny Mercer
Neil Moret
Sy Oliver
Frank Shaw
Larry Shay
Seymour Simons
Joan St. Oegger
Bill Thomas
Les Urbach
Virgil Vogel
Les Warner
Bud Westmore
Richard M. Whiting
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
According to Hollywood Reporter, Universal sponsored a national contest to have the public choose their ten favorite Frank Sinatra songs for inclusion in the film. Other Hollywood Reporter news items add Johnny Daheim, Joe Gray, Charles Parker and Leo Garber to the cast, but their appearance in the final film has not been confirmed. A May 16, 1951 Hollywood Reporter news item reports that Shelley Winters was briefly suspended by the studio for refusing to fly immediately from New York to Los Angeles for her costume fittings and screen tests. Unbilled Universal contract players Tony Curtis and Jeff Chandler appear in a brief cameo during a scene in which "Danny" performs drunkenly at a nightclub. The film's final scene was shot on location at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles.
Reviewers noted the distracting parallels between "Danny's" rise to fame and Sinatra's own. When the film opened in San Francisco, Sinatra gave a one-day only live performance at the Orpheum theater prior to the start of the picture. Modern sources state that Sinatra fought with Shelley Winters throughout the filming of the picture. Although Meet Danny Wilson was not a box-office success, it gained popularity during a 1954 re-release after Sinatra won a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his performance in From Here to Eternity.
