One Too Many (1951) - Turner Classic Movies

Cast & Crew

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Erle C. Kenton

Ruth Warrick

Richard Travis

Ginger Prince

Rhys Williams

[Michael H.] Sully [Sullivan]

William Tracy

Film Details

Also Known As

Mixed-Up Women, The Best Is Yet To Come

Genre

Drama

Release Date

Jan 1951

Premiere Information

not available

Production Company

Hallmark Productions, Inc.

Distribution Company

Hallmark Productions, Inc.

Country

United States

Technical Specs

Duration

1h 50m

Sound

Mono

Color

Black and White

Film Length

9,982 reels

Synopsis

In Central City one morning, Eagle Gazette reporter Bob Mason and photographer Bill Leighton are assigned to cover a disgraceful brawl between local mayoral candidate Frank Emery and another patron at Sully's bar. The newspaper's publisher, Simes, a staunch prohibitionist, insists on running the story on the front page, even though it will destroy the politician's career. That night, after Bob's wife Helen plays the piano and sings her daughter Ginger to sleep, she takes a drink to forget the depressing memories that occupy her. Bob returns home later to find Helen passed out in the kitchen. The next morning, although Helen is shaking and admits she had too much to drink, she begins to scour the house looking for another bottle. When Ginger runs home from school crying because her classmates have said Helen is a drunk, Helen becomes distraught and prompts Bob to seek the help of local bartender Michael H. "Sully" Sullivan, a recovering alcoholic. After Helen admits that she has a problem, Sully explains this is the first step in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), a program that immediately helps at least fifty percent of those who enroll. Bob agrees to take the next step in the program by asking Dr. Foster for help and accepting Mrs. Sullivan offer to watch over Helen as she goes through withdrawal. Sully explains to Bob that he met his wife in AA and that, although there is no cure for alcoholism, Sully and his wife have managed to build a life together by living from day to day. Sometime later, Helen has achieved sobriety and, convinced that she is cured, Bob tells Sully that Helen will not embarrass herself by attending AA meetings. Sully then wonders if it is Bob and not Helen who is embarrassed by his wife's condition. Meanwhile at home, Helen, frustrated by her daily routine and her daughter's need for attention, mixes herself a drink from a hidden bottle of alcohol. That night, Helen meets her old friend, band leader Walt Williams, at the nearby Trocadero nightclub, and becomes increasingly drunk. When Walt reminisces about her great talent as a pianist, Helen refuses to admit that she misses performing. Walt reminds her that she did not drink when she was playing regularly. That evening at the newspaper offices, after Simes gives Bob a raise, a drunken Helen suddenly stumbles into the office and shamelessly insults Simes. Bob is then forced to admit Helen to the New Hope Institute for rehabilitation. Days later, Walt visits with Ginger and tries to cheer her up by accompanying her on the piano as she sings a song. Bob interviews a doctor at the hospital about alcoholism and discovers that though moderate drinking is acceptable, alcoholism is a great societal problem and a disease. After Helen is discharged from the hospital, Bob drives her home in his car. When he stops at a gas station along the way, however, Helen, bitter about her treatment, runs away. Meanwhile, Jack, having lost the election in a record landslide, becomes drunk and belligerent and kills himself. When Simes finds out that Bob was too busy with his alcoholic wife to cover the suicide, he fires both Bob and Leighton. Meanwhile, Helen returns to the house drunk and disheveled, takes Ginger and the child's piggy bank and drives off to buy more alcohol, but passes out at the wheel, nearly killing herself and her daughter. When Helen is committed to the psychiatric ward, Bob begins a campaign to convince Simes to publish articles about alcoholism and gathers a distinguished group of religious, business and community leaders to aid him. At first Simes refuses, claiming that he does not want to help a "bunch of drunks," but when Mrs. Adams, the temperance society president, states that it is a public responsibility to provide adequate care for alcoholics, Simes finally agrees to help. Mrs. Sullivan visits Helen at the hospital to remind her that faith in a higher power will help her in her time of need. Although Helen is reluctant to espouse any religion, when she returns home, she is moved to find Ginger praying to God to give her mother strength. Helen then asks Sully to take her to an AA meeting. Weeks later, at a campaign benefit, Walt encourages Helen to play a piano recital to follow Ginger's tap routine and performances by The Harmonaires. Helen agrees to perform and, when Walt introduces her to the Central City audience as a great concert pianist, her talent surprises everyone, especially Simes. While Helen happily plays, Ginger tells her father, "Hasn't God been good to us."

Director

Erle C. Kenton

Cast

Ruth Warrick

Richard Travis

Ginger Prince

Rhys Williams

[Michael H.] Sully [Sullivan]

William Tracy

Onslow Stevens

Mary Young

Thurston Hall

Larry J. Blake

Victor Kilian

"buzzy" Bookman

Cecile Elliott

Lester Sharpe

Luther Crockett

Gilbert Fallman

Lelah Tyler

Helen Spring

Harry Stanton

Lyle Talbot

The Harmonaires

appearing thru special arrangements with Posey-Moore Attractions

Louis Da Pron

Ern Westmore

Carlos Molina And His Orchestra

George Eldredge

Roy E. Butler

Harry Hines

The whiskey man

Jack Reitzen

Robert Malcolm

Wm. Baldwin

Dan Rense

William Kahn

Sara Perry

Liquor store woman

Eddie Parker

Motorcycle officer

Tony Layng

Ambulance driver

Bobo Scharffe

Jane Hampton

Claire James

Crew

Kroger Babb

Kroger Babb

From an org story by

Curly Batson

Carl Berger

Irving Bibo

Malcolm Stuart Boylan

Margaret "bobbe" Burger

Technical Advisor

Leigh H. Carson

John Carter

David Chudnow

Music Supervisor

Bill Copeland

Jack Dewitt

Technical Advisor

Jack Dowsing Jr.

Wardrobe Designer

Nelly Goletti

Nelly Goletti

Interpolated Music comp and Arrangements

Robert Hansard

Process Effects

The Harmonaires

Emery Hoerger

Dialogue Director

Mildred A. Horn

Screenplay trmt by

Bunny Lewis

C. Kenneth Lobben

Still Photographer

Kitty Mager

Wardrobe Designer

Edward Mann

Martin Obzina

Dr. David L. Olinger

Technical Advisor

Betty Pedretti

Bert Shefter

Original Music score and Conductor

John Stephens

William Stephens

Associate Producer

Henry C. Stowell

Special art work

Glen P. Thompson

Ern Westmore

Director of makeup and hairstyling

Mary Gibson Whitlock

Script Supervisor

Mack V. Wright

Assistant Director

Film Details

Also Known As

Mixed-Up Women, The Best Is Yet To Come

Genre

Drama

Release Date

Jan 1951

Premiere Information

not available

Production Company

Hallmark Productions, Inc.

Distribution Company

Hallmark Productions, Inc.

Country

United States

Technical Specs

Duration

1h 50m

Sound

Mono

Color

Black and White

Film Length

9,982 reels

Articles

Ruth Warrick (1915-2005) - Ruth Warrick, (1915-2005)

January 21, 2005

Ruth Warrick, the actress who will forever be identified as the first Mrs. Kane in Orson Welles' Citizen Kane (1941) to film buffs; and Phoebe Wallingford, the meddlesome nosybody on the long-running soap opera All My Children, to modern television audiences, died at her Manhattan home on January 15 of complications from Pneumonia. She was 89.

She was born on June 29, 1915 in St. Joseph, Missouri. After attaining a degree in theatre from the University of Kansas City, she left for New York, where in 1938, she joined the Mercury Theater troupe, headed by a young artist on the rise by the name of Orson Welles. When Welles prepared to film Citizen Kane (1941) he took several players from his Mercury Theater (Joseph Cotten, Everett Sloan, Agnes Moorehead) and of course, Ruth Warrick. She made her film debut in Welles' cinematic epic as Emily Norton Kane. Indeed, to many film buffs, Warrick's icy charms are indispensable to the celebrated montage sequence opposite Welles at the breakfast table; particularly when he broaches the subject of her husband's infidelity:

Emily Kane: Charles, people will think...
Charles Kane: What I tell them to think!

Warrick received fine reviews for her performance, and she had good roles in her next two films The Corsican Brothers (1941), with Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and Journey Into Fear (1942), opposite Joseph Cotton. Sadly, Hollywood, not knowing what to do with a well-trained, mature actress like Warrick, began to cast her into routine, forgettable fare: Mr. Winkle Goes to War (1944), China Sky (1945), and Swell Guy (1946). Disney's Song of the South (1947), was a box-office hit, and was her best film in a while, but overall, the material she received over the next few years, simply wasn't worthy of her talents.

Things turned around for her in the mid-50s, when Warrick discovered the medium of television. She had regular roles on The Guiding Light (1953-54), As the World Turns (1956-60), Father of the Bride (1960-61), and was unforgettable as the sinister housekeeper, Hannah Cord, in Peyton Place (1965-67). Yet it was her 35-year run in the role of Phoebe Wallingford in All My Children (1970-2005), that Warrick achieved her greatest triumph. As the rich, intrusive matriarch of the fictitious, affluent town known as Pine Valley, Warrick found a role that could be at once gloriously hammy and quietly conniving - qualities that highlighted her renown versatility as an actress. To honor her contribution to television, Warrick received a lifetime achievement award from the Daytime Emmys last December. She is survived by three children, a grandson, and six great-grandchildren.

by Michael T. Toole

Ruth Warrick (1915-2005) - Ruth Warrick, (1915-2005)

Ruth Warrick (1915-2005) - Ruth Warrick, (1915-2005)

Ruth Warrick, the actress who will forever be identified as the first Mrs. Kane in Orson Welles' Citizen Kane (1941) to film buffs; and Phoebe Wallingford, the meddlesome nosybody on the long-running soap opera All My Children, to modern television audiences, died at her Manhattan home on January 15 of complications from Pneumonia. She was 89. She was born on June 29, 1915 in St. Joseph, Missouri. After attaining a degree in theatre from the University of Kansas City, she left for New York, where in 1938, she joined the Mercury Theater troupe, headed by a young artist on the rise by the name of Orson Welles. When Welles prepared to film Citizen Kane (1941) he took several players from his Mercury Theater (Joseph Cotten, Everett Sloan, Agnes Moorehead) and of course, Ruth Warrick. She made her film debut in Welles' cinematic epic as Emily Norton Kane. Indeed, to many film buffs, Warrick's icy charms are indispensable to the celebrated montage sequence opposite Welles at the breakfast table; particularly when he broaches the subject of her husband's infidelity: Emily Kane: Charles, people will think... Charles Kane: What I tell them to think! Warrick received fine reviews for her performance, and she had good roles in her next two films The Corsican Brothers (1941), with Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and Journey Into Fear (1942), opposite Joseph Cotton. Sadly, Hollywood, not knowing what to do with a well-trained, mature actress like Warrick, began to cast her into routine, forgettable fare: Mr. Winkle Goes to War (1944), China Sky (1945), and Swell Guy (1946). Disney's Song of the South (1947), was a box-office hit, and was her best film in a while, but overall, the material she received over the next few years, simply wasn't worthy of her talents. Things turned around for her in the mid-50s, when Warrick discovered the medium of television. She had regular roles on The Guiding Light (1953-54), As the World Turns (1956-60), Father of the Bride (1960-61), and was unforgettable as the sinister housekeeper, Hannah Cord, in Peyton Place (1965-67). Yet it was her 35-year run in the role of Phoebe Wallingford in All My Children (1970-2005), that Warrick achieved her greatest triumph. As the rich, intrusive matriarch of the fictitious, affluent town known as Pine Valley, Warrick found a role that could be at once gloriously hammy and quietly conniving - qualities that highlighted her renown versatility as an actress. To honor her contribution to television, Warrick received a lifetime achievement award from the Daytime Emmys last December. She is survived by three children, a grandson, and six great-grandchildren. by Michael T. Toole

Quotes

Trivia

Notes

This film was also reviewed under the title The Best Is Yet To Come. The opening title card reads, "World's Largest Roadshow Hallmark Organization proudly presents The Important Story of Alcoholism (one of the world's most serious and prevalent diseases today)." A October 24, 1951 Daily Variety article states that producer Kroger Babb changed the title from One Too Many to The Best Is Yet To Come, because One Too Many failed to attract a significant audience. However, the new title did not improve audience attraction and the film was withdrawn from release, pending a new title. According to a January 19, 1955 Hollywood Reporter article, the film had been market-tested but had still not been nationally released. A August 3, 1955 Hollywood Reporter article states that the film was in release in 1955 under the title Mixed-Up Women.
The cast listed in the opening credits differ in order from the end credits. The film opens and closes with voice-over narration by Rhys Williams as the character "Sully."

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