This Day in Ann Dvorak History: Warner Bros. Licenses “Gold Digger Lady”
Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 36
My single favorite Ann Dvorak scene comes early on in The Strange Love of Molly Louvain. Lower-class Molly (Ann) has just been jilted by her well-to-do beau and is drowning out her sorrows in Leslie Fenton’s hotel. She’s depressed, drunk, and belting out a scat version of “Penthouse Serenade” while tickling the ivories. I actually posted a You Tube clip of the scene a few years back, but unfortunately it got pulled at some point.
The scene ends with Ann singing a playing a little ditty you probably never heard of called “Gold Digger Lady.” Ann penned the song herself and because it appeared in the film, they needed to get her official permission to use it and did so with an agreement drawn up on this date in 1932. I don’t believe she actually got any extra compensation for this and I don’t know if she slipped it in the film without their initial knowledge. Either way, it’s a great cap to a great scene in a decent pre-Code film.
i enjoyed that film quite a bit and thought she was terrific in it! that’s very interesting about that song! that scene was a hoot and only served to endear Ann to this viewer even more 🙂
check my blog if you like, i got my LC’s today 😀
The Strange Love of Molly Louvain: It was nice to see Ann’s name at the top of the credit list..and she certainly deserved the honor.
I love this movie and I’m not exactly sure why. I suspect its Ann’s performance in the last half of the film; not that the opening was bad; but, I appreciated her more towards the end I guess. The scene near the start of the movie (where she plays the piano) was very good, in my humble opinion. However it’s more towards the last half of the flick that she becomes more dynamic (as the role calls for) and performs well in the style I think that “wowed†movie fans. She was real, not phony, sincere, and certainly great. I have a quite large collection of ‘30’s and ‘40’s movies; but Ann Dvorak still stands out as great to me. Thinking about buying this movie? DON’T WAIT!! Get it ASAP…
It’s funny, because I love the early part of the movie and am less enchanted with her performance in the second half. Maybe it has something to do with that bad blonde wig!
I hope you realize that you posted about Ann on your blog two times in a row. Is the Year of Ann Dvorak contagious??