IMDb RATING
6.1/10
1.1K
YOUR RATING
The Bellows family causes comic confusion on an ocean liner, with time out for radio-style musical acts.The Bellows family causes comic confusion on an ocean liner, with time out for radio-style musical acts.The Bellows family causes comic confusion on an ocean liner, with time out for radio-style musical acts.
- Won 1 Oscar
- 2 wins total
Leif Erickson
- Bob Hayes
- (as Leif Erikson)
Virginia Vale
- Joan Fielding
- (as Dorothy Howe)
Storyline
Did you know
- GoofsNear the end of the movie the helmsman said that the S.S. Gigantic was diesel powered. That would mean that the liner's proper name would be MV (Motor Vessel) Gigantic as opposed to SS (Stream Ship) Gigantic.
- Quotes
First reporter: Say, do you know anything about electricity?
S.B. Bellows: My father occupied the chair of applied electricity at State Prison.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Hollywood and the Stars: The Fabulous Musicals (1963)
- SoundtracksThis Little Ripple Had Rhythm
(uncredited)
Music by Ralph Rainger
Performed by Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm Orchestra
Featured review
A Big Broadcast indeed
This movie is very dear to me. I saw it on late-night TV when I was about 12 years old, tape-recorded the sound track and listened to it over and over again. This is a movie that has everything: wacky W. C. Fields bits like his golf and pool routines, Bob Hope bombing out with the crowd on the ship (imagine, in his first movie role he can't even raise a laugh!), bizarre but charming performers like Shep Fields with his Rippling Rhythm orchestra (whom Lawrence Welk obviously ripped off), accompanied by an even more bizarre animated segment.
It's almost like watching a '30s stage revue of really gifted and varied performers, including a Mexican singer so beautiful he must be gay, and Martha Raye doing her foghorn bit. But the crowning glory of this film is the funny and poignant duet, Thanks for the Memory, with Bob Hope and Shirley Ross.
Most people know the tune as Bob's theme song, but few know the clever, tender, almost Dorothy Parker-like lyrics. This is the story of a sophisticated but madcap couple, not unlike Nick and Nora Charles, running through money like water, traveling the world, and finding bliss in bed. Each verse tells a little bit more of their story in an arch, clever way that is never too trite because of Shirley Ross's marvelous acting. Her facial expressions reveal the deeper story underneath the actual events, a couple who were madly in love but stormy and tempestuous, with fights that may have included screaming and hair-pulling.
Shirley makes reference to "the night you came home with lipstick on your tie", making it sound like an uproarious joke, while Bob rolls his eyes in discomfort. He sings of "that weekend in Niagara when we hardly saw the falls," and Ross murmurs, "How lovely that was." "Thank you," Bob replies.
This is a fresh and sensitive take on what could be a very sentimental song, and I can never see it without tearing up at the end. This movie is worth renting or buying, if you can find it, as a great example of '30s entertainment with the bonus of a truly great "love-lost" song.
It's almost like watching a '30s stage revue of really gifted and varied performers, including a Mexican singer so beautiful he must be gay, and Martha Raye doing her foghorn bit. But the crowning glory of this film is the funny and poignant duet, Thanks for the Memory, with Bob Hope and Shirley Ross.
Most people know the tune as Bob's theme song, but few know the clever, tender, almost Dorothy Parker-like lyrics. This is the story of a sophisticated but madcap couple, not unlike Nick and Nora Charles, running through money like water, traveling the world, and finding bliss in bed. Each verse tells a little bit more of their story in an arch, clever way that is never too trite because of Shirley Ross's marvelous acting. Her facial expressions reveal the deeper story underneath the actual events, a couple who were madly in love but stormy and tempestuous, with fights that may have included screaming and hair-pulling.
Shirley makes reference to "the night you came home with lipstick on your tie", making it sound like an uproarious joke, while Bob rolls his eyes in discomfort. He sings of "that weekend in Niagara when we hardly saw the falls," and Ross murmurs, "How lovely that was." "Thank you," Bob replies.
This is a fresh and sensitive take on what could be a very sentimental song, and I can never see it without tearing up at the end. This movie is worth renting or buying, if you can find it, as a great example of '30s entertainment with the bonus of a truly great "love-lost" song.
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Radioparaden 1938
- Filming locations
- Eastern Service Studios, Astoria, Queens, New York City, New York, USA(sequence: Kirsten Flagstad aria)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 31 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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By what name was The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938) officially released in India in English?
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