Convention City
Convention City | |
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Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. | |
Release date |
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Running time | 69 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $239,000 |
Convention City is a 1933 American pre-Code sex comedy film directed by Archie Mayo, and starring Joan Blondell, Guy Kibbee, Dick Powell, Mary Astor and Adolphe Menjou. The film was produced by Henry Blanke and First National Pictures and distributed by Warner Bros.[1]
Due to its racy content, Convention City was held from circulation after the
Plot
The plot revolves around the convention of the Honeywell Rubber Company in
Cast
- Joan Blondell as Nancy Lorraine
- Adolphe Menjou as T.R. (Ted) Kent
- Dick Powell as Jerry Ford
- Mary Astor as Arlene Dale
- Guy Kibbee as George Ellerbe
- Frank McHugh as Will Goodwin
- Patricia Ellis as Claire Honeywell
- Ruth Donnelly as Mrs. Ellerbe
- Hugh Herbert as Hotstetter
- Grant Mitchell as J.B. Honeywell
- Egon Brecher as Zorb
- Hobart Cavanaugh as Wendell Orchard
- Sheila Terry as Mrs. Kent
- Gordon Westcott as Phil Lorraine / Frank Wilson
- Harry C. Bradley as Graham
- Samuel S. Hinds as McAllister
Production
During production, the film faced censorship problems from
No, but it won't be marriage. I'll guarantee you that. A traveling salesman needs a wife like a baby needs a box of matches.
Now you take off that dress and I'll take off my toupee, huh!
Girl's voice: 'Listen, sister, if they tire you, you better leave town before the Hercules Tool Company gets here.[6]
In a studio memo,
We must put brassieres on Joan Blondell and make her cover up her breasts because, otherwise, we are going to have these pictures stopped in a lot of places. I believe in showing their forms but, for Lord's sake, don't let those bulbs stick out.[7]
Script changes, suggested by the chair of the Motion Picture Division of the State of New York Department of Education Dr. James Wingate and Jason S. Joy, director of the Studio Relations Committee, and production head Hal Wallis were nominally incorporated into the script.[8]
Pre-Code era scenes
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Reception
Critical reviews
Dr. James Wingate, chair of the Motion Picture Division of the State of New York Department of Education — which oversaw the state's censorship board — described it as "a pretty rowdy picture, dealing largely with drunkenness, blackmail, and lechery, and without any particularly sympathetic characters or elements."[9]
Time magazine said that, "Convention City is a glib, disorganized batch of footnotes on a familiar aspect of U.S. business." and that "Convention City is adumbrated with many a drinking scene, a company song ("Oh, Honeywell" to the tune of "My Maryland"), and some quips which may cause some cinemagoers to wonder what Will Hays is doing."[4]
The New York Times said that, "Several of the jokes need a subterranean mind to be correctly understood. An accurate appraisal of Convention City should include the information that the Strand's audiences laughed long and loud." The Times also praised Adolphe Menjou's performance while finding Joan Blondell's performances to be getting tiresome as she was playing the same irreverent character in her films.[10]
Box office
Convention City cost $239,000 to produce, and earned $384,000 in domestic revenue and $138,000 from foreign release, for an eventual profit of $53,000.[11]
Preservation status
Due to the lewdness of the film and lack of influence of the Studio Relations Committee, which was supposed to control objectionable content, Convention City and films like it led to the enforcement of the
As a result of the Code, the film was taken out of circulation when its theatre run ended.[9] The controversy surrounding the film prompted exhibitors and theatre convention organizers to request the film.[5]
In 1936, Warners attempted to re-release Convention City in a censored form, but Breen deemed it beyond redemption and would not grant it the seal of approval needed for it to be shown in theatres. Warners then reportedly ordered that the film be destroyed.[9] However, Ron Hutchinson, the editor of the newsletter The Vitaphone Project, discovered that a print of the film was screened in 1937, nearly three years after the ban had been enacted, indicating that at least one print had not been taken out of circulation.[12] Further evidence that not all prints had been seized and destroyed was found in the August 29, 1942, edition of the Spanish newspaper ABC. According to an advertisement, the film (known as ¡Que Semana! in Spanish) was being screened at the Muñoz Seca Theater in Madrid.[13]
In the late 1940s and 1950s, Warner Bros. destroyed many of its negatives due to
The original screenplay still survives in the Warner Bros. script archives. In March 1994, a pre-Code film festival was held in South Village. Along with the films screened, there was a dramatic reading of the screenplay for Convention City.[15]
See also
References
- ISBN 0-899-50677-1.
- ISBN 0-195-08811-5.
- ISBN 0-786-41137-6.
- ^ a b "Cinema: Lowell v. Block Booking". time.com. January 1, 1934. Archived from the original on November 7, 2012.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-604-73300-6.
- ^ Schumach, Murray (1964). The Face on the Cutting Room Floor: The Story of Movie and Television Censorship (1 ed.). Morrow. p. 220.
- ISBN 0-671-63135-7.
- ^ (Vieira 2003, p. 151)
- ^ ISBN 0-810-98228-5.
- ^ "Convention City (1933): A Rowdy Sales Convention". nytimes.com. December 25, 1933.
- ^ a b McElwee, John (March 20, 2008). "Musicals and Comedies Go Pre-Code". greenbriarpictureshows.blogspot.com.
- ^ a b Hutchinson, Ron (2003). "Lost Or Just Hiding?". The Vitaphone Project. 6 (4).
- ^ "Guia Del Espectador". ABC (in Spanish). Madrid, Spain. August 29, 1942. p. 2.
- ^ Catalog of Copyright Entries 1961 Motion Pictures Jan-Dec 3D Ser Vol 15 Pts 12-13: Convention City
- ^ Maslin, Janet (February 4, 1994). "Critic's Notebook; When Hollywood Could Be Naughty". nytimes.com.