Roadhouse Nights
| Roadhouse Nights | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Hobart Henley |
| Produced by | Walter Wanger |
| Written by | Dashiell Hammett (novel) Ben Hecht (story) Garret Fort |
| Starring | Helen Morgan Charles Ruggles Fred Kohler Jimmy Durante |
| Cinematography | William O. Steiner |
| Editing by | Helene Turner |
| Distributed by | Paramount Studios |
| Release date(s) | February 23, 1930 |
| Running time | 80 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Roadhouse Nights is a 1930 gangster film very loosely based on the novel Red Harvest written by Dashiell Hammett (author of The Maltese Falcon, The Thin Man, and The Glass Key), but the screenplay differs sharply from the novel, with the storyline almost entirely rewritten by screenwriter Ben Hecht. Jimmy Durante made his movie debut in Roadhouse Nights, a strange amalgam of musical comedy and gangster melodrama. In truth, Durante is a special added attraction, together with his nightclub partners Lou Clayton and Eddie Jackson. The film's star is Helen Morgan, a nitery chanteuse whose gangster bosses head a murderous bootleg operation. Charlie Ruggles portrays an ineveterate drinker who frequents Morgan's club; actually, Ruggles is a news reporter whose phony drunkenness is a cover for his investigation of the bootleg ring.
Filmed at East Coast studios in Astoria, Long Island, Roadhouse Nights is typically brash and brassy Prohibition-era entertainment, with a reasonably "straight" performance from comic actor Ruggles and a few hauntingly rendered songs from Helen Morgan.
The movie was directed by Hobart Henley, stars Helen Morgan, Charles Ruggles, and Fred Kohler, and features a rare screen musical comedy performance by Jimmy Durante, in his screen debut, with his vaudeville partners Lou Clayton and Eddie Jackson ("Clayton, Jackson, and Durante"). Helen Morgan also sings It Can't Go On Like This.
[edit] Cast
Helen Morgan ... Lola Fagan
Charles Ruggles ... Willie Bindbugel
Fred Kohler ... Sam Horner
Jimmy Durante ... Daffy
Leo Donnelly ... City Editor
Tammany Young ... Jerry
Joe King ... Hanson
Lou Clayton ... Joe
Eddie Jackson ... Moe
[edit] External links
Roadhouse Nights at the Internet Movie Database
[1] Mystery File review by Walter Albert
[2]New York Times 1930 review
