Presenting Lily Mars

1943 film by Norman Taurog
  • April 29, 1943 (1943-04-29)
Running time
104 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishBudget$1,045,000[1]Box office$3,255,000[1]

Presenting Lily Mars is a 1943 American musical comedy film directed by Norman Taurog, produced by Joe Pasternak, starring Judy Garland and Van Heflin, and based on the novel by Booth Tarkington. The film is often cited as Garland's first film playing an adult type role (although For Me and My Gal, released the previous year, is also often credited thus). Tommy Dorsey and Bob Crosby appear with their orchestras in this Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer production.

Plot

Lily Mars (Judy Garland) is a small-town girl with big-city ambitions. She contrives to audition for a Broadway producer whose father was the local physician and whose family piano her father also happened to tune. However, the producer wants nothing to do with her. She then heads to Broadway hoping to convince him to cast her, but after a series of disappointments, the best she can manage is an understudy job.[2]

Cast

Garland was given the Hollywood "glamor treatment" for this role, as seen in this promotional image for the film.
  • Judy Garland as Lily Mars
  • Van Heflin as John Thornway
  • Fay Bainter as Mrs. Thornway
  • Richard Carlson as Owen Vail
  • Spring Byington as Mrs. Mars
  • Marta Eggerth as Isobel Rekay
  • Connie Gilchrist as Frankie
  • Leonid Kinskey as Leo
  • Patricia Barker as Poppy
  • Janet Chapman as Violet
  • Annabelle Logan as Rosie
  • Douglas Croft as Davey
  • Ray McDonald as Charlie Potter
  • Charles Walters as Lily's Dance Partner in Finale (uncredited)[3]
  • Lillian Yarbo as Rosa, Isobel's maid (uncredited)

Soundtrack

Bob Crosby and Garland in trailer for this film

The soundtrack includes:

The finale, "Where There's Music", originally included parts of "St. Louis Blues", "In The Shade of the Old Apple Tree", and "It's a Long Way to Tipperary", which were deleted from the final version.

Reception

According to MGM records the film earned USD$2,216,000 in the US and Canada and $1,039,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $1,211,000.[1][4]

References

  1. ^ a b c The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
  2. ^ Presenting Lily Mars (1943), AllMovie.
  3. ^ Presenting Lily Mars, IMDb.com
  4. ^ "Top Grossers of the Season", Variety, 5 January 1944 p 54

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Presenting Lily Mars.
  • v
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Films directed by Norman Taurog
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Works
Adaptations
Monsieur Beaucaire
  • Monsieur Beaucaire (1919 operetta)
  • Monsieur Beaucaire (1924 film)
  • Monte Carlo (1930 film)
  • Monsieur Beaucaire (1946 film)
Other films
  • The Turmoil (1916)
  • The Conquest of Canaan (1921)
  • Clarence (1922, lost)
  • The Man from Home (1922)
  • Gentle Julia (1923, lost)
  • Boy of Mine (1923)
  • Cameo Kirby (1923)
  • Penrod and Sam (1923)
  • The Fighting Coward (1924)
  • The Turmoil (1924)
  • Father's Son (1931, lost)
  • Bad Sister (1931)
  • Business and Pleasure (1932)
  • Mississippi (1935)
  • Alice Adams (1935)
  • Penrod and Sam (1937)
  • The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
  • Presenting Lily Mars (1943)
  • The Magnificent Ambersons (2002)
Related


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