A Likely Story (1947) - Turner Classic Movies

Brief Synopsis

A World War II veteran who thinks he's dying gets mixed up with gangsters.

Cast & Crew

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H. C. Potter

Bill Williams

Barbara Hale

Lanny Rees

Sam Levene

Dan Tobin

Film Details

Also Known As

A Fascinating Nuisance, Never Say Die

Genre

Comedy

Drama

Release Date

Apr 16, 1947

Premiere Information

not available

Production Company

RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.

Distribution Company

RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.

Country

United States

Technical Specs

Duration

1h 28m

Film Length

7,984ft

Synopsis

While traveling to New York by train, Bill Baker, a recently discharged serviceman, meets Vickie North, an aspiring artist from Wisconsin, her young brother Jamie and Louie, a gangster. When Bill cheerfully admits to Louie that he "just got out" after serving as a "tommy gunner," Louie, who spent the entire war in jail, assumes that the wide-eyed veteran is a fellow racketeer and invites him to seek employment with his boss, Tiny McBride. Bill also confesses to Louie that he is a hypochondriac with a hyperactive imagination and suffers from dizzy spells. While roughhousing in his seat with Jamie, Bill is accidentally knocked out by Vickie's falling painting case. Bill wakes up alone in a New York hospital ward and overhears two doctors, standing just outside his bed screen, discussing a patient's fatal heart condition. Concluding that he is the unfortunate soul who only has two weeks to live, Bill leaves the hospital in a daze. Bill then goes to Tiny's bar and, believing that excitement will quicken his death, tries to provoke Louie and the rest of the rough crowd to fight with him. The gangsters, however, refuse to fight, and a despondent Bill is about to jump from the nearest bridge when he becomes dizzy and scared. At that moment, Vickie passes by and, assessing the situation, lectures him about not giving up on life. Taken with the sincere artist, Bill kisses her impetuously and is knocked out by a passing truck driver, who mistakes him for a masher. Bill then wakes up in Vickie's Greenwich Village apartment, where he is made a virtual prisoner by a concerned Vickie and Jamie. When Bill, who has said nothing about his "condition," tells Vickie that he finds her abstract paintings "interesting," she becomes incensed and storms off to attend a street art exhibit. Bill and his romantic competitor, insurance salesman Phil Bright, try to attract attention to Vickie's paintings, but fail. Truly upset, Vickie abandons her exhibit, but confesses to Jamie, who protested their move to New York, that she has no money for a return trip to Wisconsin. After Phil proposes unsuccessfully to Vickie, Bill reveals his situation to Louie and Tiny, and asks Tiny to give him $5,000 in exchange for being named the benficiary on his army life insurance policy. When Tiny learns that the policy is to be paid out in small installments, he angrily rejects the offer, but then suggests a plan whereby he will buy a private insurance policy through a crooked agent that will pay $100,000 upon Bill's death. Bill hesitates, but is soon talked into participating by the persuasive gangsters. Phil, who enjoys the worst sales record in his company, is then chosen as the agent, and he is convinced by Louie to join the scheme. Still certain he is about to die, Bill convinces Louie to pose as an art dealer and buy some of Vickie's paintings with the $5,000 he received from Tiny. When an ecstatic Vickie declares she is staying in New York, however, Bill feels compelled to tell her the truth about Louie. Vickie at first refuses to believe him, but eventually realizes that Jamie belongs back in Wisconsin and makes plans to return. Now in love with Bill, Vickie invites him to Wisconsin, but he insists he must stay in New York. After they enjoy a fun-filled day at the beach, Bill confesses to Vickie that he loves her, but angers her when he turns down her proposal without explanation. Tiny, meanwhile, is growing impatient with Bill and hires his enormous bouncer, Smoky, to fight him in a boxing match. After the fit Bill easily defeats Smoky, Louie tries to exhaust Bill to death through intense exercise. When that fails, Louie forces Bill at gunpoint to a doctor's office and, upon learning the truth about Bill's robust health, drives him to Tiny's. Following them there are Vickie and Jamie, to whom Bill has written a confessional letter. To Bill and Louie's surprise, Tiny welcomes Bill and reveals that he loves Vickie's paintings. When Vickie learns that Tiny is using her art to scare his drunken customers into ordering more alcohol, however, she grabs her paintings and rushes with Jamie to the train station. Bill pursues her there, but is knocked out once again when Vickie angrily hits him with her painting case. At the hospital, Bill proposes to a still upset Vickie, who then learns that Tiny is naming her the beneficiary of Bill's policy on condition she marry him and allow him to keep her paintings. As they drive back to the train station, Vickie finally accepts Bill's proposal with a kiss.

Director

H. C. Potter

Cast

Bill Williams

Barbara Hale

Lanny Rees

Sam Levene

Dan Tobin

Nestor Paiva

Max Willenz

Henry Kulky

Robin Raymond

Mary Young

Little old lady

Nancy Saunders

Blonde on train

Bill Shannon

Charles Pawley

Drew Miller

Tex Swan

Carl Hanson

Sam Flint

Emmett Vogan

Selmer Jackson

Isabel Withers

Dorothy Curtis

Mary Treen

Margaret Mcwade

Paul Newlan

Joseph J. Green

Jack Rice

Secretary to Senator

Cy Shindell

Jack Arkin

Mike Lally

Hal Craig

Clarence Muse

Dick Rush

Tom Noonan

Jack Gargan

Sam Lufkin

Nina Hansen

Pat Mckee

Hal K. Dawson

Chester Clute

George Magrill

Paul Fierro

Eddie Parks

Bill Wallace

Limousine driver

Lee Phelps

Policeman at intersection

Jessie Arnold

J. Grenvold

Semion

Katherine Lytle

Ethelreda Leopold

William Haade

Al Murphy

Charles Sullivan

Joseph Palma

Phil Friedman

Cy Malis

Patsy O'byrne

Kid Chissell

William Gould

Dick Elliott

Phil Warren

William Self

Alan Wood

Elevator operator

Larry Randall

Charles Meakin

Sandra Morgan

John M. Sullivan

Crew

James Altwies

C. Bakaleinikoff

Richard H. Berger

Russell A. Cully

Special Effects

Albert S. D'agostino

Feild Gray

Jack J. Gross

Executive Producer

Leigh Harline

Roy Hunt

Director of Photography

Terry Kellum

Alexander Kenedi

Suggested by a story by

Harry Mancke

Assistant Director

Harry Marker

Renié

Waldo Salt

Darrell Silvera

Bess Taffel

Richard Van Hessen

Film Details

Also Known As

A Fascinating Nuisance, Never Say Die

Genre

Comedy

Drama

Release Date

Apr 16, 1947

Premiere Information

not available

Production Company

RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.

Distribution Company

RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.

Country

United States

Technical Specs

Duration

1h 28m

Film Length

7,984ft

Articles

A Likely Story

October 26, 2016

When contract stars Barbara Hale and Bill Williams decided to get married in 1946, their studio, RKO, didn't just send a nice gift. It cast them opposite each other in this decidedly offbeat attempt to revive the screwball comedy. Williams is a veteran suffering from PTSD who's about to throw himself off a bridge, where he bumps into failed artist Hale. Instead of jumping, he falls in love. Trying to boost her career, he gets mixed up with gangster Nestor Paiva, who keeps trying to bump him off. Contemporary audiences weren't buying it, and the film lost money. The studio teamed them in one more picture, the film noir The Clay Pidgeon (1949), but with RKO's fortunes fading, the couple would find more success on television, Williams in the title role of The Adventures of Kit Carson, and Hale as secretary Della Street on Perry Mason, which brought her an Emmy in 1959. Today, A Likely Story is of special interest to their fans, offering a rare chance to see the husband-and-wife team playing the dawn of a romance just as their own love story was starting.

By Frank Miller

A Likely Story

A Likely Story

When contract stars Barbara Hale and Bill Williams decided to get married in 1946, their studio, RKO, didn't just send a nice gift. It cast them opposite each other in this decidedly offbeat attempt to revive the screwball comedy. Williams is a veteran suffering from PTSD who's about to throw himself off a bridge, where he bumps into failed artist Hale. Instead of jumping, he falls in love. Trying to boost her career, he gets mixed up with gangster Nestor Paiva, who keeps trying to bump him off. Contemporary audiences weren't buying it, and the film lost money. The studio teamed them in one more picture, the film noir The Clay Pidgeon (1949), but with RKO's fortunes fading, the couple would find more success on television, Williams in the title role of The Adventures of Kit Carson, and Hale as secretary Della Street on Perry Mason, which brought her an Emmy in 1959. Today, A Likely Story is of special interest to their fans, offering a rare chance to see the husband-and-wife team playing the dawn of a romance just as their own love story was starting. By Frank Miller

Quotes

Trivia

Notes

According to Hollywood Reporter, Alexander Kenedi's original screen story was titled "Never Say Die," which also was the film's working title. Months after the close of production, Hollywood Reporter announced that the title had been changed from A Likely Story to The Fascinating Nuisance. A Likely Story was the first RKO film for producer Richard H. Berger, the former manager-director of the St. Louis Municipal Opera Company. Star Bill Williams and Barbara Hale announced their engagement during the course of filming and were billed in Hollywood Reporter as "RKO's new starring team." In 1949, they made their only other RKO co-starring feature, The Clay Pigeon . The fourth and last film in which the long-married couple appeared together was the 1975 picture The Giant Spider Invasion.

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