Gold Diggers of 1935 - 1935

In a luxury hotel stage director Nicoleff stages a show to get the money to pay his bills. Mrs. Prentiss, who is backing the show wants her daughter Ann to marry the millionaire T. Mosely Thorpe, but Ann falls in love with Dick Curtis, while Dick's girl friend marries Ann's brother Humbolt. But the hotel secretary Betty knows a way to avoid dificulties with old Mrs. Prentiss.

The songs in Gold Diggers of 1935 were written by Harry Warren (music) and Al Dubin (lyrics), and the two production numbers were staged by Busby Berkeley.

"I'm Going Shopping with You," - Sung by Dick Powell to Gloria Stuart, this is a montage of scenes of Stuart shopping for everything from lingere to jewelry, much to the dismay of her penny-pinching mother, Alice Brady.

"The Words Are in My Heart" - This elaborate Busby Berkeley production number utilized 56 white grand pianos, which were moved around the sound stage by male dancers underneath the piano-shells, dressed in black.

"Lullaby of Broadway" - One of the most famous Busby Berkeley numbers is actually a short film-within-a-film, which tells the story of a Broadway Baby who plays all night and sleeps all day. It opens with a head shot of singer Wini Shaw against a black background, then the camera pulls back and up, and Shaw's head becomes the Big Apple, New York City. As everyone rushes off to work, Shaw returns home from her night's carousing and goes to sleep. When she awakens, that night, we follow her and her beau (Dick Powell) from club to club, with elaborate large cast tap numbers, until she is pushed off a balcony to her death. The sequence ends with a return to Shaw's head, as she sings the end of the song.

In the scene where many people pay 25 dollars each for tickets to the charity musical (59:10 into the film) the money being paid is very clearly in pesos. In fact, each of the top bills clearly states 'Vente Pesos' and are obviously not American bills. Yet, all the dialog keeps referring to 'dollars' and there is no indication that Lake Waxapahachie, where the resort is located, is anything but an American resort.

Note: Gloria Stuart, who appeared in this film, is the same Gloria Stuart who played "Old Rose" in Titanic.

Cast of Gold Diggers of 1935

Dick Powell as Dick Curtis
Adolphe Menjou as Nicolai Nicoleff
Gloria Stuart as Ann Prentiss
Alice Brady as Matilda Prentiss
Hugh Herbert as T. Mosely Thorpe III
Glenda Farrell as Betty Hawes
Frank McHugh as Humbolt Prentiss
Joseph Cawthorn as August Schultz
Grant Mitchell as Louis Lampson
Dorothy Dare as Arline Davis
Wini Shaw as Winny