Diamond Horseshoe

Diamond Horseshoe
Diamond Horseshoe
Directed by	George Seaton
Written by	George Seaton; Kenyon Nicholson (play)
Produced by	William Perlberg
Starring	Betty Grable; Dick Haymes
Cinematography	Ernest Palmer
Edited by	Robert L. Simpson
Music by	Herbert W. Spencer (uncredited)
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	May 2, 1945;
Running time	104 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
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".^[3]

Plot

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

Betty Grable as Bonnie Collins
Dick Haymes as Joe Davis Jr.
William Gaxton as Joe Davis Sr.
Beatrice Kay as Claire Williams
Phil Silvers as Blinkie Miller
Margaret Dumont as Mrs. Standish
Carmen Cavallaro as Himself
Willie Solar as doubletalking Singing Clown (uncredited)
Eddie Acuff as Clarinet Player
Sam Ash (actor) as Extra at Footlight Club
Charles Coleman as Majordomo
Hal K. Dawson as Sam Carter
Cathy Downs as Miss Cream Puff
Dick Elliott as Footlight Club Waiter
Franklyn Farnum as Extra at Nightclub Table
Jean Fenwick as Lady Be-Good
Bess Flowers as Duchess of Duke
Gladys Gale as Chorine
Edward Gargan as Grogan, stage hand
Mack Gray as Mack, the waiter
Reed Hadley as Intern
Bud Jamison as Footlight Club patron
Phyllis Kennedy as Frank's nightclub girlfriend
Mildred Kornman as Chorine
Eddie Laughton as Eddie
Barbara Lawrence as Blonde in nightclub
Julie London as Chorine (uncredited)
George Melford as Pop, stage doorman
Eve Miller as Chorine
Frank Mills as Waiter
Lee Phelps as Bartender at the Diamond Horseshoe
Bob Reeves as Doorman at Club 21
Phillips Tead as Waiter with cart
Ray Teal as Tough Customer at Footlight Club

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.^[1] Grable's other picture that year The Dolly Sisters was one of Fox's highest-grossing films of 1945.