World Premiere
Cast & Crew
Ted Tetzlaff
John Barrymore
Frances Farmer
Eugene Pallette
Virginia Dale
Ricardo Cortez
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Before the entrance of the United States into World War II, the two Axis powers of Italy and Germany send undercover spies, Signor Scaletti and Franz von Bushmaster, to Hollywood to prevent the release of the film The Earth's on Fire , because it contains Allied propaganda. At Hollywood's Bengal Studios, tyrannical studio chief Duncan DeGrasse orders his publicity man, Joe Bemis, to hire two actors from central casting to play the part of spies and to send threatening notes to the actors to get publicity. Scaletti and von Bushmaster are unwittingly hired for the job, and they immediately set to work terrifying the cast of The Earth's on Fire by sending genuine threats, dropping sandbags and, finally, engineering explosions in the film vaults. When the film is completed, the entire production crew arrives at Union Station for a trip to Washington, D.C. for the film's world premiere. Although the railroad agents refuse to allow the crew to continue the trip because of the reported threats, DeGrasse outwits them by getting his top producer, Gregory Martin, to purchase the train. While en route jealousies arise when film star Kitty Carr finds her lover, Mark Saunders, seducing the studio's ingenue, Lee Morrison, who is secretly married to Bemis. Von Bushmaster and Scaletti are also onboard trying to figure out how to destroy the film, since their previous attempts were unsuccessful, but the film is being stored in the cage of the studio mascot, a bengal tiger. With the assistance of field marshal Muller, who has been sent to supervise the spies, they succeed in throwing the film from the train. At the premiere, it takes some time before DeGrasse and the crew realize that the film on the screen is not their film, but a German propaganda film called The Land von Peace und Beauty . Their real film arrives shortly thereafter, for, unknown to the spies, they tossed the cans into another passing train, and the film was forwarded by mail to Washington. As a last desperate attempt to prevent the screening, Muller traps von Bushmaster and Scaletti in a storeroom with a bomb, but the device simply falls apart and The Earth's on Fire is finally shown to thunderous applause.
Director
Ted Tetzlaff
Cast
John Barrymore
Frances Farmer
Eugene Pallette
Virginia Dale
Ricardo Cortez
Sig Rumann
Don Castle
William Wright
Fritz Feld
Luis Alberni
Cliff Nazarro
Andrew Tombes
Frances Morris
Frank Yaconelli
Jack Chapin
Leonard Sues
Paul Mcvey
Ed Peil Sr.
Ralph Dunn
John Hamilton
Francis Sayles
Wade Boteler
Mantan Moreland
Jack Raymond
Arthur Aylesworth
Eric Mayne
Billy Wayne
Louis Mason
William Newell
Dick Chandlee
Stanley Mack
Lee Shumway
Frank Puglia
Wolfgang Zilzer
Elizabeth Dow
Crew
Colbert Clark
Hans Dreier
Daniel L. Fapp
Earl Felton
Earl Felton
William E. Flannery
Gene Garvin
Gordon Kahn
Sigmund Krumgold
Harry Lindgren
Archie Marshek
George Sawley
Sol C. Siegel
Frederick Spencer
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Hollywood Reporter news items report the following: Rudy Vallee was set to star as "Mark Saunders" in this film, and Otis Garrett was scheduled to direct. However, Vallee was committed to another film, and Garrett was replaced when he had to undergo a major operation and cameraman Ted Tetzlaff was given this film as his directorial debut. John Mescall was listed as cameraman in a pre-production Hollywood Reporter news item. Ray Golden was assigned to work on the script; however, his contribution to the final film has not been determined. The Hollywood Reporter review states that the character played by William Wright was modelled after gossip columnist Herb Stein.
