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Radio City Revels

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Radio City Revels
Directed byBenjamin Stoloff
Written byEddie Davis
Matt Brooks
Anthony Veiller
Mortimer Offner
Produced byEdward Kaufman
StarringBob Burns
Jack Oakie
Ann Miller
CinematographyJ. Roy Hunt
Jack MacKenzie
Edited byArthur Roberts
Music byRobert Russell Bennett (uncredited)
Production
company
RKO Pictures
Distributed byRKO Radio Pictures
Release date
  • February 11, 1938 (1938-02-11)[1]
Running time
90 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$810,000[2]
Box office$750,000[2]

Radio City Revels is a 1938 American musical comedy film directed by Benjamin Stoloff and starring Bob Burns, Jack Oakie and Ann Miller.[3]

Plot

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An aspiring writer arrives in New York and composes musical masterpieces in his sleep. A struggling songwriting team appropriates his work, publishing major hits under their own names.

Cast

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Production

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Although set in New York City, specifically at Radio City, much of the film was shot at RKO's California studios. The company had originally planned to make the film in 1934 with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. In 1937 the project was revived and scheduled as a Wheeler and Woolsey musical comedy, to follow the team's film High Flyers, but Woolsey's terminal illness forced him off the screen when High Flyers was completed.[4] The sets for Radio City Revels had been built and the film had already been announced, so RKO quickly recast the project and made the film.

Reception

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According to RKO records, the film posted a loss of $300,000.[2] It got a mixed reception from critics at Variety and The New York Times, who praised the work of rising star Ann Miller but were negative about other aspects of the film.[5]

References

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  1. ^ "Radio City Revels: Detail View". American Film Institute. Retrieved April 11, 2014.
  2. ^ a b c Richard Jewell, "RKO Film Grosses: 1931-1951", Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol. 14, No. 1, 1994, p. 57.
  3. ^ Shelley p.21
  4. ^ Jamie Brotherton and Ted Okuda, Dorothy Lee: The Life and Films of the Wheeler and Woolsey Girl, McFarland, 2013, p. 180.
  5. ^ Peter Shelley, Ann Miller: Her Life and Career. McFarland, 2020, p. 22.
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