Thanks a Million
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Roy Del Ruth
Dick Powell
Ann Dvorak
Fred Allen
Patsy Kelly
Paul Whiteman And Band With Ramona
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Singer Eric Land, dancers Sally and Phoebe Mason, violinist Rubinoff and their orchestra perform for an unimpressed bus driver as their bus approaches New City in a rain storm. In town, when they are told that they must wait two hours to change buses for New York, where Eric hopes to get a chance to sing on the radio, manager Ned Lyman happens upon a political rally for gubernatorial candidate Judge A. Darrius Culliman. After witnessing most of the crowd leave in the middle of the judge's boring recitation of his past achievements, Ned convinces the judge and his handlers to hire his musical company to give free shows before the judge's speeches to liven up the events. After the first performance, however, the crowd boos the judge and demands to hear Eric sing again. Because of this, Ned is forced to fire Eric, with whom Sally has begun to fall in love. In the next town, Capitol City, when the judge is too drunk to go onstage, Eric is persuaded to give an ad lib performance, which captivates the crowd, including Kay Kruger, the wife of the leader of the judge's party. Convinced that the public is fed up with politicians, Kruger and his cohorts, Casey and Maxwell, try to talk Eric into running instead of the judge. Eric scoffs at the idea until Sally points out that while he may have no chance to win, the publicity might make him into a radio star. He then agrees to run on the guarantee of a radio hook-up and one song with every speech. Eric proves to be very popular, not only with the voters, but also with Mrs. Kruger, which irritates and saddens Sally. To combat Eric's campaign, the incumbent, Governor Wildman, engages Paul Whiteman and his band to perform at his rallies. On the Sunday before the election, after Eric has kept Sally waiting three hours, he promises they will go someplace alone, when Mrs. Kruger calls and invites him for dinner. He turns her down, but as he and Sally enter the lobby of their hotel, he is called to the phone again. This time Mrs. Kruger says that her husband just phoned asking her to have Eric meet him in ten minutes to discuss something important. Not wishing to provoke Sally's jealousy, Eric tells her that Ned wants him, but after he leaves, Sally sees Ned come into the lobby. At the Kruger home, Mrs. Kruger confesses that her husband is not coming home that night. Eric answers her advances by saying that he wants to marry her, but she says that she would be a fool to give up what she has and that she only wants an affair. She then realizes that Eric is joking and orders him out. Back at the hotel, Eric finds that Sally does not answer her phone. When Kruger's men ask him to sign a paper stating that once he is governor, he will give appointments with opportunities for easy graft to those who have contributed to his campaign, Eric refuses. He then finds a note from Sally saying that she is leaving because he lied to her. On the eve of the election, Sally listens to Eric's speech over the radio from a diner. Eric exhorts voters not to vote for him and reveals the agreement that he was asked to sign, which would have diverted millions of dollars to Kruger and his associates. As Eric sings "Thanks a Million," Sally is deeply moved. Afterward, because he has not heard from Sally, Eric refuses Ned's advice to leave to escape retaliation. When she arrives, they speed toward the state line followed by an army of motorcycle cops. At a roadblock, their car is stopped, and Eric is congratulated on being elected governor. The police then escort him and Sally to an altar and join them in song.
Director
Roy Del Ruth
Cast
Dick Powell
Ann Dvorak
Fred Allen
Patsy Kelly
Paul Whiteman And Band With Ramona
Raymond Walburn
[dave] Rubinoff
Yacht Club Boys
Benny Baker
Andrew Tombes
Alan Dinehart
Paul Harvey
Edwin Maxwell
Margaret Irving
Charles Richman
Russell Hicks
William Taylor Stelliing
Richard (tex) Brodus
Fred Wallace
William Watt
Don Gilkerson
Herbert Ashley
Harry Dunkinson
Walter Downing
Ralph Lewis
Ricca K. Allen
Thomas Pogue
John Miltern
Frank Darien
Georgie Billings
Si Jenks
Harry C. Bradley
Wally Maher
James C. Morton
Yorke Sherwood
James Donlan
Harry Stubbs
Olaf Hytten
Walter Walker
Charles Wilson
Lynn Bari
Phil Baker
George Pearce
Stanhope Wheatcroft
Crew
Milton Ager
Fred Allen
Otto Brower
Melville Crossman
William Goetz
James Gow
Wallace Grissell
Edmund Gross
Eugene Grossman
E. H. Hansen
Roger Heman
Nunnally Johnson
Arthur Johnston
Gus Kahn
William Lambert
Arthur Lange
Peverell Marley
Allen Mcneil
Jack Otterson
Harry Reynolds
Joseph M. Schenck
Ben Silvey
Herbert Spencer
The Yacht Club Boys
Harry Tugend
Jack Yellen
Darryl F. Zanuck
Film Details
Technical Specs
Award Nominations
Best Sound Editing
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title of this film was Sing, Governor, Sing. The film was originally planned as a production of 20th Century Pictures before its merger with Fox. According to information in the Twentieth Century-Fox Produced Scripts Collection at the UCLA Theater Arts Library, the story was originally written with Bing Crosby in mind for the lead. Later, according to Daily Variety, Lawrence Tibbett was set to make his screen comeback with this film, but in March 1935, Zanuck announced that a "more romantic and meatier story" was being developed along lighter lines for other players as a musical comedy. Tibbett was subsequently cast in Metropolitan. While Nunnally Johnson is given sole writing credit on the screen, according to Variety, the press sheet credits Melville Crossman, a pseudonym for Zanuck, with the story. Gus Kahn and Arthur Johnston were borrowed from M-G-M to write the music; the title of the film was changed after they wrote the song, "Thanks a Million." According to Variety, the press sheet indicated that Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby contributed songs. No songs by Kalmar and Ruby are present in the final film, although the lyrics to one song, "What a Beautiful Night," were sent to the PCA for approval. Peverell Marley was loaned by Edward Small. According to Hollywood Reporter, the cast of the film was paid $300,000. Radio star Fred Allen, who made his screen debut in the film, reportedly received $50,000. Variety noted that the film "unquestionably establishes Fred Allen for the screen." Harry Tugend, who contributed to the writing of special sequences, was a writer for Allen's "Town Hall" broadcasts. This was the first feature film of the Yacht Club Boys, which consisted of Charles Adler, James V. Kern, Billy Mann and George Kelly. This was the first Twentieth Century-Fox production to be shot at the Movietone studios. The scenes of Paul Whiteman and his band were shot in New York by director Otto Brower and a technical crew that he brought from the Movietone studios. Hollywood Reporter noted that Whiteman was "almost unrecognizable with a svelte new figure." According to a Hollywood Reporter news item, Roy Del Ruth and assistant director Ben Silvey went to San Francisco before filming began to look for locations. No information has been located to determine whether any filming took place there. This was Margaret Irving's first film. In 1937, Lt. Gov. Victor Aloysius Meyers of Washington State, a former bandleader, sued Twentieth Century-Fox for $250,000 in damages because of a line in the film spoken by Fred Allen, which Meyers claimed reflected on his qualifications and deprived him of the "confidence, respect and good will of the people." The line in question came when "Ned" is trying to convince "Eric" to run for governor. He says, "Up in Washington, they elected a jazz band leader Lieutenant Governor, and if the people will vote for a jazz band leader, they'll vote for anybody." No information has been located concerning the disposition of the suit. The film received an Academy Award nomination in the sound recording category.
In 1946, Twentieth Century-Fox produced a film with a similar plot, entitled If I'm Lucky, but which gave no credit to this film. It was directed by Lewis Seiler and starred Vivian Blaine and Perry Como.
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States 1935
Released in United States 1935
