Face in the Sky
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Harry Lachman
Spencer Tracy
Marian Nixon
Stuart Erwin
Sam Hardy
Lila Lee
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Traveling sign painter Joe Buck, whose ambition is to rise to the top and marry a beautiful "dame" whose father owns a railroad, considers himself an artist. With his partner Lucky, Joe arrives at the Brown farm where he convinces hostile Pa Brown to let him paint a huge ad on his barn for "Beauty Magic for the Forgotten Woman" in exchange for a phony watch. Madge, the Brown's naïve and sheltered ward who is to marry the Brown's son Jim, admires Joe's painting and independence. After Jim captures Madge's pet lamb, Joe knocks out Jim and drives off with Lucky only to discover Madge and the lamb hiding in their truck. Jim and Pa chase them to Circleville, where a carnival is in progress. After Joe buys Madge a dress and takes her away from a designing fortune-teller, Professor Triplett, Joe kisses Madge goodnight on her cheek. The kiss moves to Madge's lips, and Joe says he's "daffy" about her. Just then, Pa and Jim, accompanied by the Circleville sheriff, arrive, and when they threaten Joe with a penitentiary sentence for spending the night with a minor after crossing state lines, Madge says she will marry Jim if the charges are dropped. Joe and Lucky leave for New York, and Ma Brown, seeing Madge crying, gives her money to follow Joe. In New York, Joe has to paint a massive portrait of celebrity Sharon Hadley atop the city roofs to advertise a beauty product. Although he seems interested in Sharon's flirtations, he paints Madge's picture instead. Madge, meanwhile, wanders through the city, and she is lured by Triplett to his apartment, where she sees her face in the sky through Triplett's telescope. She escapes, hides in Joe's truck again, and as Joe and Lucky drive off, tells a happy Joe that she has come to marry him.
Director
Harry Lachman
Cast
Spencer Tracy
Marian Nixon
Stuart Erwin
Sam Hardy
Lila Lee
Sarah Padden
Russell Simpson
Frank Mcglynn Jr.
Billy Platt
Guy Usher
Crew
J. R. Bren
Val Burton
William Collier Sr.
Myles Connolly
David Cox
William Darling
Louis De Francesco
Ralph Dietrich
Philip Ford
Lee Garmes
Will Jason
Rita Kaufman
Arthur Lange
R. C. Moore
Humphrey Pearson
E. Clayton Ward
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
During production, the title of this film was changed briefly to Fortune Smiles. Motion Picture Herald reviewed the film under the title The Face in the Sky. This was director Harry Lachman's first American film, according to a Hollywood Reporter news item. Lachman, born in the U.S., had previously been an artist in Paris and a set designer for films, before directing in England and France. According to news items, James Dunn and Charles Farrell, at various times, were set to play the male lead. According to information in the Twentieth Century-Fox Records of the Legal Department at the UCLA Theater Arts Library, Stuart Erwin was loaned from Paramount and the farm in the film was built in Long Beach, CA. Modern sources list the following additional cast members: Dale Fuller, Ben Hall, Si Jenks, Vic Potel, Frank Hagney and James Burke.
