Palm Springs
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Aubrey Scotto
Frances Langford
Sir Guy Standing
Ernest Cossart
Smith Ballew
David Niven
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
English widower Captain Smith, really the Earl of Blythstone, is broke. His daughter Joan, who is enrolled in Wellescliffe finishing school, is unaware of her father's title, but nonetheless believes her father is wealthy. Joan, who will graduate in the spring, has had a host of proposals from young men, but has turned them all down. When she needs money for a dress for a school dance, Joan shoots craps in the locker room with her classmates and is expelled for gambling. Planning to surprise her father in Palm Springs, Joan arrives unannounced and immediately asks to be taken to the best hotel, but fails to find her father there. Joan finally locates her father inside the Mirage hotel, standing guard while his valet Starkey acts as croupier. A rich young Englishman named George Brittel tells Joan the man she has pointed out is a crook and a cheat, unaware that he is her father. Joan scolds her father for humiliating himself so she can live in luxury and tells him she is going to look for a rich husband. Starkey agrees with her plan and spreads a rumor that she is Lady Sylvia Dustin, daughter of the Earl of Blythstone. The next morning, Joan meets a handsome cowboy named Slim, who tells her that the crowd at the Mirage are all fakes. Joan and Slim spend the morning riding together, and he tells her that Brittel's aunt Letty controls all his money. Joan later gets flowers from Brittel, who now believes she is Lady Sylvia traveling incognito. That night, Slim sends Joan a colt, and they meet in the moonlight, where he swears his love and kisses her. She must leave him for a date with Brittel, however, whom she believes will propose to her the next day. Her father warns her to marry for love, but when Brittel proposes, Joan accepts, and a reception is planned for the next day. Aunt Letty is suspicious, however, and asks a friend of hers, the British Consul in Vancouver, Bruce Morgan, to come to Palm Springs to expose the impostor. Morgan, an explorer and old friend of the captain, arrives from Ecuador and is surprised to see the captain, whom he thought had died from a bullet after the armistice. The captain asks Bruce to keep his earldom a secret and help him expose the lady who is posing as his daughter. The captain admits he lost a good deal of money playing roulette in Monte Carlo and now uses the name Captain Smith. At the reception, the captain and Bruce get terribly drunk, and when Bruce toasts "Lady Sylvia Dustin's" father, Joan pretends to know Bruce. Aunt Letty, astonished but nonetheless convinced of Joan's aristocratic lineage, announces the engagement. But when Bruce introduces Joan as the earl's daughter, the captain denounces knowing her in order to ruin her chances at marrying Brittel for money. Joan runs away in tears and when Brittel demands the truth about Joan's title, she realizes social status is all that matters to him. Making her father very happy, Joan goes to Slim in the moonlight, where they again kiss.
Director
Aubrey Scotto
Cast
Frances Langford
Sir Guy Standing
Ernest Cossart
Smith Ballew
David Niven
E. E. Clive
Spring Byington
Sterling Holloway
Grady Sutton
Sarah Edwards
Maidel Turner
Ann Doran
Margaret Lamarr
Mary Bovard
Jean Allen
Ruth Lamb
Maxine Westrom
June Horn
Ella Mckenzie
Betty Auken
Grace Goodall
Lee Phelps
Eddie Tamblyn
Annabelle Brudie
Marianne Brudie
Etta Mcdaniel
Nell Craig
Frances Morris
Ed Moose
Mary Jane Temple
Fred "snowflake" Toones
Curly Wright
Cyril Ring
Henry Iblings
Kirby Hoon
Marshall Sohl
Lewis Yoeskel
Joe North
Russ Clark
Bert Gale
Fuzzy Knight
Jack Mower
Crew
George Blair
Dorothy Fields
Joseph Fields
Mack Gordon
James Mchugh
Boris Morros
Humphrey Pearson
Ralph Rainger
Harry Revel
Leo Robin
Robert Simpson
Earl Sitar
Helen Taylor
Alexander Toluboff
James Van Trees
Adolph Zukor
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
A preview of this film, held September 19, 1936, was reviewed in Picturegoer under the title Palm Springs Affair. Myles Connolly's story May have been published for the first time in anticipation of the film's release. According to a news item in Hollywood Reporter on January 24, 1936, ranch and corral set pieces were stolen from this film's location near Palmdale, CA. One of the thieves reportedly held a guard at gunpoint, while his two accomplices disassembled the set and loaded it into a truck. On February 5, 1936, Hollywood Reporter stated that the film was shot at a "half-dozen locations," but not at Palm Springs itself. On 5 Feb, the company shot added scenes at Sunland, CA. Hollywood Reporter announced on January 25, 1936 that Dick Talmadge, who was under contract at Reliable, was cancelling a deal to star in six additional pictures in order to direct second units for three Walter Wanger productions, of which Palm Springs was one. He does not receive credit for this film in contemporary sources, however, and it is unclear whether or not he worked on the film. This film marks New York radio emcee, balladist and orchestra leader Smith Ballew's first screen role. On January 8, 1936, Hollywood Reporter reported that Jean Rouverol, on loan from Republic, had been added to the cast, and on 14 Jan, Hollywood Reporter reported that June Horne (daughter of director Jimmy Horne) would make her screen debut in the film. Although both appear in a production chart on January 20, 1936, neither is listed on the film, in reviews, or in the Call Bureau Cast Service list, and it is unclear what parts they played, if any, in the film.
