Star Dust (film)

Star Dust
Theatrical release poster
Directed byWalter Lang
Screenplay byHelen Logan
Robert Ellis
Based onJesse Malo
Kenneth Earl
Ivan Kahn
(based on a story by)
Produced byKenneth Macgowan
Darryl F. Zanuck
StarringLinda Darnell
John Payne
Roland Young
Charlotte Greenwood
CinematographyJ. Peverell Marley
Edited byRobert L. Simpson
Music byDavid Buttolph
Color processBlack and white
Production
company
20th Century Fox
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
  • April 6, 1940 (1940-04-06)
Running time
86 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Star Dust is a 1940 American comedy drama film directed by Walter Lang and starring Linda Darnell and John Payne, Roland Young and Charlotte Greenwood.[1][2][3]

Plot

Amalgamated Pictures is seeking new stars for its motion pictures. Talent scout Thomas Brooke hits the road, looking for newcomers to bring back for screen tests, hopefully to impress the studio's boss, Dane Wharton.[4]

Brooke discovers a football player in Arizona who can sing, Bud Borden, and a talented Texas singer, Mary Andrews. On a visit to Arkansas, his presence is discovered by aspiring actress Carolyn Sayres, who schemes to get Brooke to take an interest in her. He does, at least until he finds out she's still a bit too young.

Everyone travels to Hollywood for screen tests and a visit to Grauman's Chinese Theater, where they get a kick out of the footprints of movie stars embedded in the cement. Brooke encounters the casting director's own new find, June Lawrence, a singer. He clashes with the studio, which offers a contract only to Mary and sends his other discoveries home.

Carolyn doesn't take no for an answer and comes back. Brooke now gets in her corner and schemes to insert footage from her screen test into a theater's newsreel. The next thing they all know, not only is Carolyn a star, Grauman's is inviting her to be immortalized in cement.

Cast

References

  1. ^ "Star Dust (1940) - Walter Lang | Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related | AllMovie". AllMovie. Retrieved 2017-08-12.
  2. ^ The 1931-1940: American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States: Feature Films. University of California Press. 1993. p. 960. ISBN 978-0-520-07908-3. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  3. ^ McCarty, Clifford (2000). Film Composers in America: A Filmography, 1911-1970. Oxford University Press. p. 504. ISBN 978-0-19-511473-7. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  4. ^ "Star Dust". tcm.com. Retrieved 24 July 2020.