Vivienne Segal Movies
Vivacious, tart-tongued Broadway diva Vivienne Segal was never given her proper due by Hollywood -- far from it, in fact. Having been pushed upon the wicked stage at the age of 15 by a typical stage mother, Segal found fame and fortune as one of Broadway's most popular ingénues, reaching an early career high as Constance in Florenz Ziegfeld's 1928 production of Rudolph Friml's The Three Musketeers. The newly sound-equipped Warner Bros. immediately beckoned, but Song of the West and Bride of the Regiment and Golden Dawn (all 1930) were flops, the last mentioned of near cataclysmic proportions. If briefly down, Segal was far from out, rebounding as Countess Palaffi in Rodgers & Hart's 1938 I Married an Angel, in which she sang the plaintive "Spring Is Here," and as the slumming socialite Vera Simpson in Pal Joey, stopping that 1940 hit with the unforgettable "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered." Lorenz Hart, otherwise not exactly known as a ladies' man, declared her his eternal devotion and wrote his final song especially for her, "To Keep My Love Alive." The occasion was the 1943 revival of A Connecticut Yankee and Segal made a devilishly attractive Morgan le Fay. Divorced from television executive Hubbell Robinson Jr., Segal spent her final years as a virtual recluse in a small house in Hollywood. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide- 1966
No sooner has Mme. Sonya Galinova (Virginia Field) hires Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) to press charges against a jewel dealer for selling her a cheap imitation of a tiara worth $754,000 than she discovers that the "fake" is the genuine article. Somehow or other, the precious tiara ends up in the hands of Gerard Van Ness (Kendall Clark)--who finds himself facing a murder charge when the body of jewel thief Nils Dorow (Fred Krone) tumbles out of a trunk that has been delivered to Perry's office! Broadway musical star Vivienne Segal, whose stage credits include the original productions of "The Desert Song" and "Pal Joey", makes a rare TV appearance in this episode. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1962
Wealthy Clara (Vivienne Segal) has trouble believing her much-younger husband, Claude (Mark Miller), when he declares that he is 100-percent faithful to her. Rather than express these doubts to Claude, Clara confides in her best friend, Margo (Patricia Breslin) -- little suspecting that Margo and Claude are lovers. The plot thickens when Margo, hoping to get her mitts on Clara's money, suggests to Claude that he eliminate his suspicious spouse...then grows impatient when Claude appears to lose his nerve. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1960
While vacationing with his wealthy and much-older wife Gladys (Vivienne Segal), Ray Marschand (Robert Horton) meets and falls in love with Nyla Foster (Anne Francis), the young daughter of trailer-camp owner Floyd Foster (John F. Hamilton). Deciding that he'd be better off trading his wife for a younger model, Ray begins plotting Gladys' demise. The episode climaxes as Ray and Gladys embark on a fateful fishing excursion, with the requisite surprising results. This final episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents' fifth season was originally telecast two days before the series switched networks and time slots for the inauguration of season six. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1934
Based on the stage musical by Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach, The Cat and the Fiddle stars Jeanette MacDonald as a music student and Ramon Novarro as a struggling composer. When the leading lady walks out of Victor's (Novarro) upcoming operetta, the star's husband pulls his financial support. The leading man ankles the production shortly thereafter, compelling Victor to play the role himself. All this scenario needs is fair Shirley (MacDonald) as the last minute-replacement for the missing leading lady -- but Shirley has given up music to marry philandering (but wealthy) Daudet (Frank Morgan). The fact that the film's final scene was lensed in Technicolor should indicate whether or not Shirley comes to Victor's rescue. Only one song from the original stage production of The Cat and the Fiddle was used in the film version; the remaining (and forgettable) tunes were penned by Kern and Harbach exclusively for the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeanette MacDonald, Frank Morgan, (more)
- 1930
This early musical was filmed in color and centers upon the love affair between a young composer and the woman he wants to marry. Unfortunately the two quarrel and split up, causing her to marry a wealthy man. He also marries, but the union is unhappy because his new wife doesn't understand his love for music. Forty years pass. By then the composer is dead. His elderly ex-flame is seen listening raptly to his music. Later the grandchildren of the star-crossed lovers end up getting married. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alexander Gray, Vivienne Segal, (more)
- 1930
Based upon an ambitious but unsuccessful stage operetta by Oscar Hammerstein and Vincent Youmans, Song of the West is set in the middle 1800s during the great western Gold Rush. At a fort in Kansas, Lt. Singleton is in love with Virginia, daughter of the fort's Colonel. Singleton encounters Capt. Stanton, who had the misfortune of getting involved in a romantic triangle that produced a bit of a scandal. Stanton quarrels with his rival from that triangle, Davolo, and ends up shooting him. Singleton and the Colonel lock Stanton up and hold him for murder. Stanton escapes, disguises himself as a man of the cloth and hitches up with a wagon train heading for California. As luck would have it, Virginia is part of the wagon train party. Along the way, Stanton and Virginia fall in love. Stanton's guilt over his past haunts him, however, and he worries that he is not good enough for Virginia. He leaves her and is involved in a mishap at a mining camp, after which he re-enlists as a private to avoid deportation and to pay for his sins. Happily, however, he also discovers that Virginia loves him and will always love him, no matter who he is or what he has done. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Boles, Vivienne Segal, (more)
- 1930
A failure of near epic proportions when first released and an unintentionally funny disaster today, this bizarre operetta almost single-handedly destroyed the musical genre for years to come. Vivienne Segal stars as Dawn, a white girl presumed to be born among the natives in what was once Dutch East Africa. Set in a German prisoner of war camp during World War I, Golden Dawn presents a truce between captors and captives who are facing a common danger: the threat of an uprising among the native African population. The threat becomes almost a certainty when young rubber planter Tom Allen (Walter Woolf King) spends a romantic night with Dawn. That doesn't sit well with Shep Keyes (Noah Beery), a native brute who covets Dawn, despite the fact that she is promised to the god Mulunghu. To quell an almost certain riot among the natives, Tom is sent home to England. The British soon recapture the area and Keyes demands that Dawn be sacrificed to the god Mulunghu to ward off a potentially calamitous drought. Tom, meanwhile, having learned that Dawn is indeed Caucasian, kidnapped by Mooda (Alice Gentle) in childhood and raised as her own, rushes back to the camp just in time to rescue the girl from the evil Keyes. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vivienne Segal, Noah Beery, Sr., (more)
- 1930
A newlywed countess is asked to make a tremendous sacrifice for her husband and herself in this musical comedy-drama. Count Adrian Beltrami (Allan Prior) is an Italian nobleman who on the day of his wedding to Anna-Marie (Vivienne Segal) is driven from his estate by Austrian rebels, who turn his castle their base of operations. While Beltrami maps out a scheme to win back his home, his new bride is left behind to deal with Col. Vultow (Walter Pidgeon) and his minions. The lecherous Vultow offers to grant freedom and safety to Anna-Marie and her husband, but only in exchange for her virtue. Myrna Loy, Ford Sterling, and Lousie Fazenda highlight the supporting cast of this early two-strip Technicolor musical; sadly, no prints are known to exist at this writing. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vivienne Segal, Allan Prior, (more)
