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Blessed Event

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Blessed Event
Directed byRoy Del Ruth
Written byHoward J. Green
Based onBlessed Event
1932 play
by Manuel Seff and Forrest Wilson
StarringLee Tracy
Mary Brian
CinematographySol Polito
Edited byJames Gibbon
Music byFrank Marsales
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Release date
  • September 10, 1932 (1932-09-10)
Running time
80 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Blessed Event is a 1932 American pre-Code comedy-drama film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring Lee Tracy as a newspaper gossip columnist who becomes entangled with a gangster. The Tracy character (Alvin Roberts) was reportedly patterned after Walter Winchell, famous gossip columnist of the era. The film was Dick Powell's film debut.[1]

Plot

Alvin Roberts feuds with singer Bunny Harmon. Roberts reports on society people who are expecting a "blessed event", i.e. going to have a child. One such report antagonizes a gangster in a delicate situation, who sends over a henchman to threaten him. Roberts manages to turn the tables on the gangster.

The character of Bunny Harmon is a parody of Rudy Vallee,[citation needed] as both of them sing and play saxophone, and Vallee's band was called the Connecticut Yankees, while Harmon's is the Green Mountain Boys, a reference to another New England state, Vermont. The feud between Roberts and Harmon is a parody of the real-life (contrived) feud between Walter Winchell and bandleader Ben Bernie.

Cast

References