Dreamboat (film)

Dreamboat
Directed by	Claude Binyon
Screenplay by	Claude Binyon
Based on	Love Man 1950-1 Collier's serial story by John D. Weaver
Produced by	Sol C. Siegel
Starring	Clifton Webb Ginger Rogers Anne Francis Jeffrey Hunter
Cinematography	Milton R. Krasner
Edited by	James B. Clark
Music by	Cyril J. Mockridge
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	July 26, 1952 (1952-07-26)
Running time	83 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$2 million

Dreamboat is a 1952 American comedy film directed by Claude Binyon and starring Clifton Webb, Ginger Rogers, Anne Francis and Jeffrey Hunter.

Plot

Anne Francis and Clifton Webb in Dreamboat

The respectable lives of English literature lecturer Thornton Sayre and his daughter Carol are disrupted when it is revealed that Thornton was once the matinee idol Bruce Blair, who played El Toro (based on Zorro) and other romantic figures, and was widely known as the "Dreamboat". His films are now being broadcast on a television show hosted by his former costar Gloria Marlowe.

Thornton's daughter Carol is belittled by fellow students following the revelation. Her father affirms that he was a teacher before he was an actor.

The college administration committee ask for his resignation, but president Mathilda May Coffey requests power to decide how to proceed. In private, she admits to Thornton that she had been one of his biggest fans, and attempts unsuccessfully to seduce him.

Thornton and Carol hastily leave for New York to seek an injunction against the show. There they meet Sam Levitt, the man responsible for airing the movies. While Sam and Gloria try to convince Thornton to change his mind, Sam has underling Bill Ainslee show Carol the city.

Thornton eventually procures his injunction, but he is fired after spurning Coffey's advances. Meanwhile, Bill and Carol have fallen in love and are planning to marry.

When Gloria gloats over Thornton's setbacks, he reveals that a major movie studio is interested in reviving his film career. Months later, Bill and Carol attend Thornton's premiere in Sitting Pretty - a real film that starred Clifton Webb. Gloria then reveals to Thornton that she has bought his contract and is now his boss.

Cast

• Clifton Webb as Thornton Sayre / "Dreamboat" / Bruce Blair
• Ginger Rogers as Gloria Marlowe
• Anne Francis as Carol Sayre
• Jeffrey Hunter as Bill Ainslee
• Elsa Lanchester as Dr. Matilda Coffey
• Fred Clark as Sam Levitt
• Paul Harvey as Harrington
• Ray Collins as Timothy Stone
• Helene Stanley as Mimi
• Richard Garrick as Judge Bowles
• Jay Adler as a Desk Clerk
• Emory Parnell as Crazy Sam

Music

The film features the 1920 standard Al Jolson hit "Avalon", written by Jolson, Buddy DeSylva and Vincent Rose, and includes Ginger Rogers singing "You'll Never Know", a 1943 song written by Harry Warren and Mack Gordon.

Reception

In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Bosley Crowther wrote: "Hollywood's low opinion of TV is once more revealed with blithely superior derision and a lordly splurge of burlesque ... [T]he fastest and most hilarious sport in the film is that generated in the travesties of old silent movies that are shown. ... These are the most inventive and satiric bits in the film." Crowther praised "the serene and eloquent Clifton Webb" as "deliciously consistent when dishing out cutting remarks or betraying the slightest traces of middle-aged vanity[.]"

External links

• Dreamboat at the TCM Movie Database
• Dreamboat at IMDb
• Dreamboat at AllMovie
• Dreamboat at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
• Dreamboat free viewing and download on YouTube (public domain)