Blessed Event (1932)
Rent DVD by Mail
Theatrical Release Information | See Details About All Versions
Blessed Event is one of several early-1930s films inspired by the meteoric rise to fame of gossip columnist Walter Winchell--and like most such films, its title is based on a Winchell tag line. Lee Tracy plays a glib-tongued reporter who is conducting a feud with popular singer Dick Powell (making his film debut). Along the way, Tracy offends a powerful gangster, and in so doing becomes entangled with chorus girl Mary Brian. The film is at its best when parodying commercial radio of the era (notably an inane jingle for "Shapiro Shoes" warbled by Dick Powell). The original Broadway stage version of Blessed Event was written by Manuel Seff and Forrest Wilson--and reportedly inspired by the career of Ruby Keeler, who rose to stardom thanks in part to the patronage of a New York mobster. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Complete Cast:
- Lee Tracy - Alvin Roberts
- Allen Jenkins - Frankie Wells
- Ned Sparks - Moxley
- Milton Wallace - Moskowitz
- Emma Dunn - Mrs. Roberts
- George Chandler - Hanson
- Tom Dugan - Cooper
- William Halligan - Herbert Flint
- Reginald Barlow
- Ruth Hall - Miss Bauman
- Walter Walker - Louis Miller
- Lew Harvey - Joe
- Herman Bing - Emil
- Mary Brian - Gladys
- Ruth Donnelly - Miss Stevens
- Dick Powell - Bunny Harmon
- Edwin Maxwell - Goebel
- Isabel Jewell - Dorothy
- Frank McHugh - Reilly
- Walter Miller - Boldt
- George Meeker - Church
- Jesse de Vorska - Sapiro
- Harold Waldridge - Bell Boy
- Jack LaRue - Louis De Marco
- Bobby Gordon - Office Boy
- Director(s):
- Roy Del Ruth
- Writer(s):
- Manuel Seff, Howard J. Green
- Closed Captioning:
- Check All Versions
- Subtitles:
- Check All Versions
