starring Doris Day, James Cagney, Cameron Mitchell
written by Daniel Fuchs, Isobel Lennart
directed by Charles Vidor
122 minutes
Laundry magnate Martin Snyder (James Cagney) takes an instant shine to singer and dancer Ruth Etting (Doris Day) when he meets her one night. He is interested in her romantically but he does not appeal to her. She is more interested in piano player and composer Johnny Alderman (Cameron Mitchell) but she chooses instead to stay with Martin as he helps to become a professional singer.
Ruth's career advances (from stage to radio or movies) with Martin's help but she doesn't grow any fonder of him. He insists on managing her career to the point of almost wrecking it on more than one occasion. Martin continues to press her for affection but she persistently refuses his advances. Eventually, after he forces himself on her, she gets married to him.
Ruth's career eventually gets her a starring role in a movie. There she runs into Johnny once again. She grows weary of Martin's overbearing way of managing her singing career. She asks him for a divorce. He retaliates by shooting and almost killing Johnny.
Despite hating what he did to Johnny, Ruth comes in to support a business venture of his just as he gets out on bail.
Thoughts
I saw this movie as part of the 2026 Noir City DC film festival at the AFI Silver Theater. I had not seen it before. It is not noir. Doris Day sings several songs but it is not a musical.
There is one scene where Martin pushed her down on the bed and forcibly kissed her, was that he raped her. Did it really only happen once? I doubt it but it was only shown happening once in the movie. I guess that by minimizing that behavior to a single scene it made it easier to justify her coming in to help him at the end of the movie.
I think that Snyder got off easy in this movie. He was physically and verbally abusive and probably raped Ruth and yet the movie ends with he and Ruth being on relatively good terms. His character is fairly one note and doesn't really change over the course of the movie. Most of the other characters are also not very dynamic.
This isn't a movie that I would recommend to most people. I could see Doris Day or James Cagney completist watching it but it wasn't a great or really good movie. I enjoyed Doris Day's singing but I think those scenes were the highlight of the movie.
Notes
This movie is a fictionalized version of the life of Ruth Etting. Doris Day is more than twenty years younger than James Cagney but the real Ruth Etting was just three years younger than the real Martin Snyder.
This movie was nominated for six Academy Awards and won one. Daniel Fuchs won for Best Motion Picture Story. James Cagney was nominated for but did not win the award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
I have seen Doris Day, James Cagney, and Cameron Mitchell in movies before. Other actors who were in this movie that I have seen before include Robert Keith, Tom Tully, Harry Bellaver, Richard Gaines, and Jay Adler.
Daniel Fuchs and Isobel Lennart wrote the screenplay based on a story that Fuchs wrote. I have seen one other film that Daniel Fuchs wrote, Storm Warning (1951).
This is the third film that I have seen that was directed by Charles Vidor. This is the second film that Vidor directed that was included in this year's edition of Noir City, The other was Gilda (1946).
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