Best Foot Forward is a 1943 American film adapted from the 1941
BroadwayBroadway Theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, is the theatre associated with the 40 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City...
musical comedy
of the same titleBest Foot Forward is a 1941 Broadway musical by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane, with book by John Cecil Holm. Produced by George Abbott, the production opened on 1 October 1941 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre where it was staged for 326 performances....
. The film was released by MGM, directed by
Edward BuzzellEdward Buzzell was a director for MGM who directed many of their films in the late 1930s, including Honolulu , the Marx Brothers films At the Circus and Go West , the musicals Best Foot Forward with Lucille Ball, and Neptune's Daughter with Esther Williams.Buzzell was born in Brooklyn, New York...
, and starring
Lucille BallLucille Désirée Ball was an American comedienne, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy...
,
William GaxtonWilliam Gaxton , born Arturo Antonio Gaxiola in San Francisco, California, was a star of vaudeville, film, and theatre. He appeared in some ten films and eleven shows...
,
Virginia WeidlerVirginia Weidler was an American child actor, popular in Hollywood films during the 1930s and 1940s.-Early life and career:...
,
Chill WillsChill Theodore Wills was an American film actor and singer in the Avalon Boys Quartet.- Biography :...
,
June AllysonJune Allyson was an American film and television actress, popular in the 1940s and 1950s. She was a major MGM contract star. Allyson won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her performance in Too Young to Kiss...
,
Gloria DeHavenGloria Mildred DeHaven is an American actress and a former MGM contract star.-Early life and career:DeHaven was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of actor-director Carter DeHaven and actress Flora Parker DeHaven, both former vaudeville performers.She began her career as a child actor...
, and
Nancy WalkerNancy Walker was an American actress of stage, screen, and television.-Career:Born Anna Myrtle Swoyer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, in 1922 , she held a life-long feeling of abandonment by her mother, who died while she was an infant...
.
The story centers around Lucille Ball who plays herself against an unlikely backdrop, namely, a military academy full of frisky boys. Ball is the reluctant guest of a diminutive cadet, Bud Hooper (Dix), who wrote her a mash note and invitation to be his date at a school prom.
Ball's publicity man, Jack O'Riley (Gaxton), seizes upon the situation as a perfect
PR stuntA publicity stunt is a planned event designed to attract the public's attention to the event's organizers or their cause. Publicity stunts can be professionally organized or set up by amateurs...
and convinces her to travel 3,000 miles to join Hooper at Winsocki Military Academy's dance.
Best Foot Forward is a 1943 American film adapted from the 1941
BroadwayBroadway Theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, is the theatre associated with the 40 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City...
musical comedy
of the same titleBest Foot Forward is a 1941 Broadway musical by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane, with book by John Cecil Holm. Produced by George Abbott, the production opened on 1 October 1941 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre where it was staged for 326 performances....
. The film was released by MGM, directed by
Edward BuzzellEdward Buzzell was a director for MGM who directed many of their films in the late 1930s, including Honolulu , the Marx Brothers films At the Circus and Go West , the musicals Best Foot Forward with Lucille Ball, and Neptune's Daughter with Esther Williams.Buzzell was born in Brooklyn, New York...
, and starring
Lucille BallLucille Désirée Ball was an American comedienne, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy...
,
William GaxtonWilliam Gaxton , born Arturo Antonio Gaxiola in San Francisco, California, was a star of vaudeville, film, and theatre. He appeared in some ten films and eleven shows...
,
Virginia WeidlerVirginia Weidler was an American child actor, popular in Hollywood films during the 1930s and 1940s.-Early life and career:...
,
Chill WillsChill Theodore Wills was an American film actor and singer in the Avalon Boys Quartet.- Biography :...
,
June AllysonJune Allyson was an American film and television actress, popular in the 1940s and 1950s. She was a major MGM contract star. Allyson won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her performance in Too Young to Kiss...
,
Gloria DeHavenGloria Mildred DeHaven is an American actress and a former MGM contract star.-Early life and career:DeHaven was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of actor-director Carter DeHaven and actress Flora Parker DeHaven, both former vaudeville performers.She began her career as a child actor...
, and
Nancy WalkerNancy Walker was an American actress of stage, screen, and television.-Career:Born Anna Myrtle Swoyer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, in 1922 , she held a life-long feeling of abandonment by her mother, who died while she was an infant...
.
Plot
The story centers around Lucille Ball who plays herself against an unlikely backdrop, namely, a military academy full of frisky boys. Ball is the reluctant guest of a diminutive cadet, Bud Hooper (Dix), who wrote her a mash note and invitation to be his date at a school prom.
Ball's publicity man, Jack O'Riley (Gaxton), seizes upon the situation as a perfect
PR stuntA publicity stunt is a planned event designed to attract the public's attention to the event's organizers or their cause. Publicity stunts can be professionally organized or set up by amateurs...
and convinces her to travel 3,000 miles to join Hooper at Winsocki Military Academy's dance. When Ball actually shows up, mayhem ensues. Hooper, who never dreamed she would accept, has to disinvite his girlfriend, Helen (Weidler), and ask Ball to pretend to be Helen, lest the actress herself not pass muster with the institution's screening committee.
Helen fights back while Hooper tries to keep Ball from the clutches of other cadets who want to steal her for their dates of their own. Meanwhile,
Harry JamesHarry Haag James was an American musician and bandleader. James was an instrumentalist of the swing era, employing a bravura playing style that made his trumpet work identifiable...
and his orchestra perform various songs, including "The Flight of the Bumblebee". The cast also sing and dance their way through such numbers as "Buckle Down, Winsocki" (the tune co-opted in the 1960s for "Buckle Up for Safety"), "Three Men on a Date", "Alive and Kickin'", "The Barrelhouse, The Boogie-Woogie and the Blues", and "What Do You Think I Am?"
Listen for a great joke when Bud Metts Lucy. IS IT TRUE THAT EVERYONE IN CALIFORNIA SLEEPS UNDER TWO BLANKETS? NO, HOW COULD ALL THOSE PEOPLE FIT UNDER TWO BLANKETS!
Cast
- Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball was an American comedienne, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy...
as Herself
- William Gaxton
William Gaxton , born Arturo Antonio Gaxiola in San Francisco, California, was a star of vaudeville, film, and theatre. He appeared in some ten films and eleven shows...
as Jack O'Riley
- Tommy Dix as Bud Hooper
- Virginia Weidler
Virginia Weidler was an American child actor, popular in Hollywood films during the 1930s and 1940s.-Early life and career:...
as Helen Schlesinger
- Nancy Walker
Nancy Walker was an American actress of stage, screen, and television.-Career:Born Anna Myrtle Swoyer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, in 1922 , she held a life-long feeling of abandonment by her mother, who died while she was an infant...
as Nancy
- June Allyson
June Allyson was an American film and television actress, popular in the 1940s and 1950s. She was a major MGM contract star. Allyson won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her performance in Too Young to Kiss...
as Ethel
- Chill Wills
Chill Theodore Wills was an American film actor and singer in the Avalon Boys Quartet.- Biography :...
as Chester Short
- Gloria DeHaven
Gloria Mildred DeHaven is an American actress and a former MGM contract star.-Early life and career:DeHaven was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of actor-director Carter DeHaven and actress Flora Parker DeHaven, both former vaudeville performers.She began her career as a child actor...
as Minerva
- Henry O'Neill
Henry O'Neill was a film actor known for playing gray-haired fathers, lawyers, and similarly dignified roles during the 1930s and 1940s....
as Major Reeber
- Sara Haden
Sara Haden was a character actress in Hollywood films of the 1930s through the 1950s.She was born November 17, 1899 in Galveston, Texas. Haden was the daughter of another character actress, Charlotte Walker, who was active in silent films and early talkies...
as Miss Talbert
- Donald MacBride
Donald MacBride , was an American film actor. He appeared in nearly 140 films between 1914 and 1955.He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and died in Los Angeles, California.-Selected filmography:...
as Captain Bradd
- Darwood "Waldo" Kaye as Killer
- Morris Ankrum
Morris Ankrum was an American radio, television and film character actor.-Early life:Born Morris Nussbaum in Danville, Illinois, Ankrum's originally began his career in academics. After graduating from USC with a law degree, he went on to an associate professorship in economics at the University...
as Colonel Harkrider
- Kenny Bowers as Dutch Miller
- Bob Stebbins as Greenie
- Jack Jordan as Hunk
- Beverly Tyler as Miss Delaware
- Nana Bryant
Nana Bryant was an American film actress. She appeared in over 100 films between 1935 and 1955.She was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and died in Hollywood, California...
as Mrs. Dalrymple
- Harry James
Harry Haag James was an American musician and bandleader. James was an instrumentalist of the swing era, employing a bravura playing style that made his trumpet work identifiable...
and His Music Makers as Themselves