Kiss the Boys Goodbye
Cast & Crew
Victor Schertzinger
Don Ameche
Mary Martin
Oscar Levant
Virginia Dale
Barbara Allen "vera Vague"
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
New York chorus girl Cindy Lou Bethany becomes frustrated when she prepares for an audition for a Broadway musical, but the auditions close and her roommate, Gwen Abbott, is hired to be secretary to Top Rumson, the show's financial backer. Gwen tells Cindy that the director, Lloyd Lloyd, and composer, Dick Rayburn, have been sent to the South on a talent search for a classic Southern belle type to star in the show, although their shows usually feature Myra Stanhope, an actress whose style is hopelessly inappropriate for this show. Desperate for work, Cindy returns to her aunt Lily Lou and uncle Jefferson Davis Bethany's home in the South and schemes to get Lloyd and Rayburn to audition her. Uncle Jeff waylays Lloyd and Rayburn off their train and brings them to Magnolia Manor, where Cindy, donning a nineteenth-century dress and manner, proceeds to sing for her captive audience, backed by a chorus of black singers. Lloyd, who remains steadfastly in support of Myra, knows he is being framed and resents Cindy's presumption. However, Rayburn is delighted by Cindy and unknown to Lloyd, asks her to return to New York with them. Cindy, who previously worked hard to lose her Southern accent, continues to play up her heritage, much to the irritation of Lloyd, who does not want to have to direct an apparent amateur. When the show's producer, Bert Fisher, arranges for their "discovery" to be introduced to the press during an evening at Rumson's home, Lloyd finally relents and arranges for Cindy to sing a love song. However, Cindy learns from Gwen that Lloyd has been planning to star Myra all along and Cindy vengefully decides to perform a striptease that she had prepared with Rayburn. The audience and Lloyd are impressed with her sophisticated revue, which ends as she tosses her lace pantaloons onto Myra's head and dives into the pool. Myra then picks a fight with Cindy, who loses her temper and pushes the actress into the pool. Cindy packs to leave, and unable to take the strain any longer, admits her ruse and insists that she did it out of desperation. Cindy returns to the South and Lloyd realizes he has just lost a fine actress. At Magnolia Manor, Cindy is surprised when she is serenaded by Lloyd, backed by a chorus, and the couple, finally admitting their love for each other, embrace.
Director
Victor Schertzinger
Cast
Don Ameche
Mary Martin
Oscar Levant
Virginia Dale
Barbara Allen "vera Vague"
Raymond Walburn
Elizabeth Patterson
Jerome Cowan
Connie Boswell
Rochester
John Scott Trotter
Minor Watson
Harry Barris
George Reed
Thelma Long
Alice Sizer
Dotty Messmer
Denny Wilson
Virginia Erwin
Bobbie Canvin
Sam Mcdaniel
Tom Fadden
Emory Parnell
Walter Soderling
Ed Peil Sr.
Little Billy
Jimmy Dodd
Daisy Lee Mothershed
Warren Ashe
Archie Twitchell
Tex Brodus
Renny Mcevoy
Paul Mcvey
Philip Van Zandt
William Wright
Perc Launders
Beth Hartman
Eleanor Stewart
Jean Phillips
Ella Neal
Marjorie Deane
James Dundee
Alice Taylor
George Bax
Jerry Coonan
Bob Milton
Fred Welsh
Hazel Burgess
Patsy Bedell
Lorraine Bridges
Jeanette Dickson
Ethelreda Leopold
Jean Porter
Jean O'donnell
Norma Thelan
Elinor Troy
Dorothy Dayton
Earlene Heath
Crew
Haskell Boggs
Roy Burns
G. H. Clutsam
Jack Crosby
Hans Dreier
Daniel Fapp
Ernst Fegté
Arthur Franklin
Everett Freeman
Alvin Ganzer
Earl Hayman
Edith Head
William Lebaron
Frank Loesser
Henry Myers
Richard Olson
Eddie Prinz
Leroy Prinz
Leonora Sabine
Victor Schertzinger
Dwight Taylor
Ted Tetzlaff
John Scott Trotter
Harry Tugend
Hal Walker
Paul Weatherwax
Victor Young
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Early pre-production news items in Hollywood Reporter note that Walter Abel (who did not appear in the final film) was assigned a principal role, that Ray Milland and Eddie Albert were considered for roles and that Frank Tuttle was considered to direct. In 1940, Twentieth Century-Fox contract actor Don Ameche pulled out of the cast of Paramount's The Night of January 16th, (see below) engendering a lawsuit against him by Paramount. The situation was settled when Ameche agreed to appear in Kiss the Boys Goodbye. Although reviews such as Daily Variety noted that the black chorus in the film, described as "field hands" in the script, was "one of the highlights," the singers were not credited in contemporary sources. According to information in the Paramount Collection at the AMPAS Library, dancer Louis DaPron was slated to appear in the film.
