In Old Chicago
In Old Chicago | |
---|---|
20th Century Fox | |
Release date |
|
Running time |
|
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | over $1 million[1] |
Box office | $1.964 million (U.S. and Canada rentals)[2] |
In Old Chicago is a 1938 American
Plot
The O'Leary family are traveling to Chicago to start a new life when Patrick O'Leary tries to race a steam train in his wagon. He is killed when his wagon hits a bump and his horses break loose, dragging him. His wife Molly and their three boys are left to survive on their own. In town she agrees to prove her skills as a laundress when a woman's dress is accidentally spattered with mud. She quickly proves herself and builds a laundry business in an area known as "the Patch". Her sons are educated. One, Jack, becomes a reforming lawyer, but another, Dion, is involved in gambling. While washing a sheet, Mrs. O'Leary discovers a drawing, apparently created by Gil Warren, a devious local businessman. Her sons realize that it reveals that he has a plan to run a tramline along a street that he and his cronies intend to buy up cheaply.
Dion becomes enamored with a feisty saloon-bar singer, Belle, who works for Warren. After a stormy courtship they become lovers. Meanwhile, Bob, the youngest O'Leary son, who helps his mother, is in love with Gretchen, an innocent German girl. They meet in the barn watched by the O'Leary's cow Daisy and plan to marry. Mrs. O'Leary approves of the match, but expresses disdain for the loose-living Belle.
Dion and Belle bribe the local politicians to set up a saloon on the street where the tramline will pass. Dion makes a deal to support Warren's political career and carve up business in the town. However, Dion's dishonest practices lead to conflict with his brother Jack when one of Dion's cronies is arrested for multiple voting. Dion later decides to support his brother rather than Warren in the election, convinced he can cut out Warren altogether and reign-in Jack's reformist zeal. He is increasingly attracted by the daughter of the corrupt local senator, leading to conflicts with Belle. Bob and Gretchen marry and have a baby.
At a Warren election rally a fight breaks out, arranged by Dion. All Warren's election workers are arrested. Jack is elected mayor. He soon announces a campaign against corruption, targeting his brother's fiefdom in the Patch, which he intends to demolish. Belle and Dion separate when Jack asks her to support him. When he realizes Belle might testify against him, Dion asks her to marry him, making her testimony inadmissible. As mayor, Jack marries the couple, but knocks Dion out in a fist fight as soon he realizes he has been deceived.
Mrs. O'Leary is told about the fight while helping Daisy's calf to suckle. In her distress, she leaves a lamp in the barn, and Daisy knocks it over. A fire breaks out. Soon the whole of the Patch is on fire. Dion, Warren and their cronies are convinced that Jack has set the fire. Warren's men look for Jack, seeking revenge. Advised by Philip Sheridan, Jack plans to create a firebreak by dynamiting buildings to stop the fire reaching the gasworks, but Warren's gang try to stop him. When Dion learns from Bob how the fire really started, he rushes to Jack's aid. In the struggle, Jack and Dion fight off the gang and set off the dynamite, but Jack is shot by one of Warren's thugs and then killed by a falling building. Warren attempts to flee but is trampled to death by stampeding cattle from the stockyards.
Dion and Bob help to save Gretchen and the baby, while Belle rescues Mrs O'Leary. They all manage to escape to the river. Belle and Dion are reconciled, and Mrs. O'Leary predicts that the city will be rebuilt and flourish after her son's sacrifice for its future.
Cast
- Tyrone Power as Dion O'Leary
- Alice Faye as Belle Fawcett
- Don Ameche as Jack O'Leary
- Alice Brady as Mrs. Molly O'Leary
- Phyllis Brooks as Ann Colby
- Andy Devine as Pickle Bixby
- Brian Donlevy as Gil Warren
- Tom Brown as Bob O'Leary
- Berton Churchill as Senator Colby
- General Phil Sheridan
- J. Anthony Hughes (de) as Patrick O'Leary
- Paul Hurst as 'Mitch' Mitchell
- June Storey as Gretchen O'Leary
- Gene Reynolds as Young Dion
- Eddie Collins as Drunk
- Billy Watsonas Young Jack
- Spencer Charters as Commissioner W.J. Beavers
- Rondo Hatton as Rondo
- Charles Lane as Booking Agent
- Francis Ford as Driver
- Gustav von Seyffertitz as Dutch
- Russell Hicks as Politician
- Scotty Mattraw as Beef King
- Larry Steers as Belle's Admirer (uncredited)
- Harry Tenbrook as Hub Patron (uncredited)
Production
During pre-production,
Some sources claim that MGM offered to loan both Harlow and
Awards
The film was nominated for the
Historical accuracy
Despite crediting the
The portrayal of the O'Leary family is largely fictitious down to the names of the characters. Mrs. O'Leary's name was Catherine, not Molly. The O'Learys had two children, one son and one daughter. In the movie there are three sons. Her only son was named James Patrick O'Leary. The daughter was named Anna. Their father Patrick O'Leary did not die in 1854 as a result of an accident involving his horses. He died in 1894.[9] Mrs. O'Leary did not run her own "French Laundry" out of their house.
The Mayor of Chicago in 1871 was Roswell B. Mason, not an O'Leary son. However, Mason was elected on a reform ticket like the fictional Jack and took similar measures to deal with the fire. Mrs. O'Leary's son James Patrick did achieve success as a gambler and saloon owner comparable to that of Dion in the film.
Trivia
Scotty Mattraw and Eddie Collins both worked as voice actors in Walt Disney's first animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs the previous year, with Mattraw voicing Bashful and Collins voicing Dopey.[10]
Home media
The film was released and restored to its full length on DVD in 2005.
See also
References
- ^ "Top Films and Stars". Variety. 4 January 1939. p. 10. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
- ISSN 0042-2738.
- ISBN 0-87000-412-3
- ISBN 978-0446514460.
- ISBN 9780692064726.
- ^ "The 10th Academy Awards (1938) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
- ^ Herbert Asbury, The gangs of Chicago: an informal history of the Chicago underworld, Random House, 2003, p.xvii.
- ^ Targ, William, Indecent pleasures: the life and colorful times of William Targ, Macmillan, 1975, p.17.
- ^ "Patrick and Catherine O'Leary". Graveyards of Chicago. Retrieved 2011-09-23.
- ^ "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs".
External links
- In Old Chicago at the American Film Institute Catalog
- In Old Chicago at Rotten Tomatoes
- In Old Chicago at IMDb
- In Old Chicago at AllMovie
- In Old Chicago at the TCM Movie Database