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Diamond Horseshoe

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1945 film by George Seaton This article is about the film. For the former nightclub the film references, see Sony Hall.
Diamond Horseshoe
Directed byGeorge Seaton
Written byGeorge Seaton
Kenyon Nicholson (play)
Produced byWilliam Perlberg
StarringBetty Grable
Dick Haymes
CinematographyErnest Palmer
Edited byRobert L. Simpson
Music byHerbert W. Spencer (uncredited)
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
  • May 2, 1945 (1945-05-02)
Running time104 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2.6 million
Box office$3,150,000 (US)

Diamond Horseshoe (also billed as Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe) is a 1945 American musical film starring Betty Grable, Dick Haymes and William Gaxton (in his final feature film role), directed and co-written by George Seaton, and released by 20th Century Fox. It was filmed in Technicolor in Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe, a nightclub located in the basement of the Paramount Hotel. The film's original score is by Harry Warren and Mack Gordon, introducing the pop and jazz standard "The More I See You".

Plot

three men in suits standing in from of a brick wall.
Publicity Still from Diamond Horseshoe featuring from left to right William Gaxton, Phil Silvers, and Dick Haymes

Joe Davis Sr. performs in a big nightclub called Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe in the Paramount Hotel in Manhattan. He is visited by his son Joe Jr. who is a medical student. Joe Jr. tells his father that he wants to be in show business, much to his father's disapproval. Nevertheless, Joe Sr. gives his son a job at his club where Joe Jr. then becomes smitten with Bonnie Collins, the club's headlining act.

Joe Sr. is spending so much time worrying about his son that he starts to neglect his own girlfriend Claire. Claire promises to give Bonnie a mink coat if she pretends to like and go out with Joe Jr., so that Joe Sr. will pay more attention to her. Things take a complicated turn when Bonnie actually does fall in love with Joe Jr. and they get married, again much to his father's disapproval.

Cast

Background

Diamond Horseshoe is a remake of two previous films derived from the same story, The Barker (1928) and Hoop-La (1933). Grable played the role previously played by Dorothy Mackaill in The Barker and Clara Bow in Hoop-La. All are based on the 1928 play The Barker by Kenyon Nicholson.

In the chorus line, an 18-year old Julie London makes an unbilled appearance in her first or second major studio film. During a production number, the bizarre double-talk comic and screeching singer Willie Solar (1891-1956) has a rare onscreen cameo as a filmed record of his stage act.

Reception

The film was very successful when it was released, but because of its high cost struggled to make a profit. Grable's other picture that year The Dolly Sisters was one of Fox's highest-grossing films of 1945.

References

  1. ^ Memo from Darryl F. Zanuck to all producers at 20th Century Fox, 13 June 1946, Memo from Darryl F. Zanuck, Grove Press, 1993, pp. 108–109
  2. Aubrey Solomon, Twentieth Century-Fox: A Corporate and Financial History Rowman & Littlefield, 2002 p 220
  3. Monahan, Patrick.The Diamond Horseshoe, the World War II-Era Nightclub Resurrected by Randy Weiner and Simon Hammerstein. Vanity Fair. January 24, 2014. Retrieved May 12, 2020.

External links

Films directed by George Seaton
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