TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES
This Flash movie requires a newer version of the Flash plug-in. Please upgrade your Flash plug-in by visiting www.macromedia.com
Movie Database
(Over 150,000 titles)
Site
Johnny Mercer: The Dream's on Me (2009), The Falcon and... More>>
Sign In register

Overview for Born to Dance (1936)

Overview
Full Credits
Full Synopsis
Notes
Music
Screenplay Info
Original Print Info
Genre
Keywords
data from AFI catalog 
User Reviews
Other Reviews
Articles
Money
Awards
Quotes
Trivia
Home Video Reviews
Misc Notes
Alternate Versions
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
Fan Sites
Contribute an image Contribute a video Contribute information Write a review
Send Us Feedback
About TCM's database
This Flash movie requires a newer version of the Flash plug-in. Please upgrade your Flash plug-in by visiting www.macromedia.com
Overview
Brief Synopsis
A sailor on leave helps a young dancer make it to the top on Broadway.
[+] Read full synopsis
[x] Close full synopsis
Synopsis

As sailors Gunny Saks and Ted Barker prepare to return to New York after a four-year voyage, Gunny's wife Jenny puts their daughter Sally to bed. Jenny wonders if she really loves Gunny, whom she hastily married after being his partner in a marathon dance contest, and hasn't seen him since shortly after their wedding. Because Gunny does not know about Sally, Jenny plans to keep her existence secret until she is sure about him. Jenny, who manages the New York Lonely Hearts Club, has just befriended Nora Paige, a terrific dancer from a small town who yearns to star on the Broadway stage. When Gunny arrives at the club to see Jenny, Nora meets Ted, and the two fall in love. The next day, Lucy James, a Broadway musical comedy star, goes to the sailors' ship for publicity and Ted rescues her pet pekinese after the dog falls into the water. James McKay, Lucy's press agent, thinks that Lucy can get some great publicity for her new show out of the incident and convinces Lucy to ask Ted out to thank him. Ted reluctantly agrees to go to dinner with Lucy, partially to be polite, and partially to pay back McKay for getting Nora a job as Lucy's understudy. When the date is written up in a newspaper column, however, Nora is hurt and thinks that Ted does not love her any longer. Because his hitch is up, Ted decides to leave the navy to be with Nora, but she refuses to see him. Meanwhile, McKay thinks that Lucy would get even more publicity if she announced her engagement to Ted. Lucy has now started to fall in love with Ted, however, and does not want to use him, so she warns McKay that she will walk out of the new show if another word about her and Ted is printed in the papers. Learning this, Ted gets the idea to call McKay's contact at a newspaper and, pretending that he is McKay, plants a story that Lucy is going to marry him right after the show opens. The next morning, a furious Lucy walks out of the show, thus enabling Nora to go on in her place. Though Nora is a sensation, she is broken-hearted over Ted until Jenny, who has known about the plan all along, tells her about Ted's scheme. Nora and Ted are then happily reconciled, but Jenny and Gunny's happiness is once again interrupted. Gunny is overjoyed to learn that Sally is his daughter, but because Jenny was so secretive, Gunny believed that she had been cheating on him, and in desperation he signed up for another four years in the navy.

Cast & Crew
Eleanor Powell
as Nora Paige
James Stewart
as Ted Barker
Virginia Bruce
as Lucy James
Una Merkel
as Jenny Saks
Sid Silvers
as "Gunny" Saks
Frances Langford
as "Peppy" Turner
Raymond Walburn
as Captain [Percival] Dingby
Alan Dinehart
as [James] McKay
Buddy Ebsen
as "Mush" Tracy
Juanita Quigley
as Sally Saks
Georges and Jalna
as By themselves
See all cast & crew >>
Release Date
27 Nov 1936

Color/BW
Black and White

Sound
Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Production Dates
7 Jul--4 Nov 1936


Duration (in mins)
105 or 108

Duration (in reels)
11

Premiere Information
not available
7 Jul--4 Nov 1936




Production Company
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp.


Country
United States
Title is not currently scheduled.

  Suggest This Movie>>

Classic Musicals From The Dream Factory, Vol. 3 [DVD]
Available on DVD.
$69.99 only $49.99
Alice Maybery
Stewart and Ebsen
Jimmy Stewart singing makes any day a great one! And Buddy Ebsen fantastic!  More>>
Roy H. Wagner ASC
NEW MUSICAL
It is astonishing that Tommy Tune or some other nostalgia merchant has not considered bringing this to Broadway. It has ...  More>>
More Reviews>>
Post a Review>>
You can also post on TCM's Message Boards >>