Harry Revel
Sound
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Harry Revel (21 December 1905 – 3 November 1958) was a British-American composer of musical theatre. Revel was born in London, England. Before emigrating to the United States in 1929, he wrote musicals for productions in London, Paris, Copenhagen, and Vienna. Once in the US, he worked on Broadway, writing the scores for Ziegfeld Follies of 1931, Meet My Sister and Are You With It?. He later moved to Hollywood. He wrote scores for the films Sitting Pretty, Broadway Through a Keyhole, We're Not Dressing, She Loves Me Not, Shoot the Works, College Rhythm, Love in Bloom, Paris in the Spring, Stolen Harmony, Two for Tonight, Collegiate, Stowaway, Poor Little Rich Girl, Ali Baba Goes to Town, Wake Up and Live, You Can't Have Everything, Head Over Heels, Love and Kisses, Four Jacks and a Jill and Love Finds Andy Hardy. Harry Revel collaborated with lyricists Mack Gordon, Mort Greene, Paul Francis Webster, Buddy Feyne and Arnold Horwitt. In 1934 he appeared in Hollywood Rhythm, a short film purporting to show the songwriting team of Mack Gordon and Harry Revel brainstorming the score for College Rhythm. Revel co-produced and co-wrote the score (with Webster) for the 1944 Benny Fields musical Minstrel Man. The score was nominated for an Academy Award, a first for low-budget studio Producers Releasing Corporation. He wrote themes for Les Baxter's 1947 theremin exotica album, Music Out of the Moon. Revel died in New York. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.
Known For
Meek busboy Little Pinks is in love with an extremely selfish nightclub singer who despises and uses him.
The Big Street
Seeking a divorce from her absentee husband, Mimi Glossop travels to an English seaside resort. There she falls in love with dancer Guy Holden, whom she later mistakes for the corespondent her lawyer hired.
The Gay Divorcee
Starving playwright Judith Wells meets playboy writer of musicals, George Macrae, over a plate of stolen spaghetti. He persuades producer Sam Gordon to buy her ridiculous play "North Winds" just to improve his romantic chances, and even persuades her to sing in the sort of show she pretends to despise. But just when their romance is going well, Gordon's former flame Lulu reveals the ace up her sleeve...
You Can't Have Everything
Beautiful high society type Doris Worthington is entertaining guests on her yacht in the Pacific when it hits a reef and sinks. She makes her way to an island with the help of singing sailor Stephen Jones. Her friend Edith, Uncle Hubert, and Princes Michael and Alexander make it to the same island but all prove to be useless in the art of survival. The sailor is the only one with the practical knowhow to survive but Doris and the others snub his leadership offer. That is until he starts a clam bake and wafts the fumes in their starving faces. The group gradually gives into his leadership, the only question now is if Doris will give into his charms.
We're Not Dressing
Unusually elaborate for a PRC film, Minstrel Man is a lively musical drama built around the talents of veteran vaudevillian Benny Fields. The star is cast as Dixie Boy Johnson, who rises from the ranks of minstrel shows to become a top Broadway attraction. On the opening night of his greatest stage triumph, Dixie Boy's wife dies in childbirth. Profoundly shaken, he walks out of the show, leaving the baby to be raised by his showbiz pals Mae and Lasses White (Gladys George, Roscoe Karns). The kid grows up to be an attractive young woman named Caroline (Judy Clark), who follows in her dad's footsteps by billing herself as-that's right-Dixie Girl Johnson. This leads to a tearful reunion between Caroline and the father she'd long assumed to be dead. If Minstrel Man seems at times to be a dress rehearsal for Columbia's The Jolson Story (1946), it shouldn't surprising: the PRC film was directed by Joseph H. Lewis, who went on to helm Jolson Story's musical highlights.
Minstrel Man
A Broadway playboy inherits an almost bankrupt girls' school and tries to save it by a big show.
Collegiate
A Florida-bound train is filled with romance and intrigue when one of the passengers disappears while carrying $11-million in unset jewels.
Florida Special
Two Marine sergeants (Victor McLaglen, Edmund Lowe) flirt with a cafe girl (Binnie Barnes) in San Diego, then find out she's a spy.
Call Out the Marines
A young girl runs away from her carnival family to make it in New York and becomes involved with a young songwriter.
Love in Bloom
Jimmy Durante asks popular song writing team Mack Gordon and Harry Revel to demonstrate some of their songs. There is interplay with impersonator Florence Desmond, Ben Turpin, Rudy Vallee and many others. Sometimes this film is incorrectly labelled as A-2. In the Criteron Pictures rerelease, this has an incorrect copyright date of 1932.
Hollywood on Parade No. B-9
The Great McGonigle and his troupe of third-rate vaudevillians manage to stay one step ahead of the bill collectors and the sheriff.
The Old-Fashioned Way
This short plugs the new tunes written by Mack Gordon and Harry Revel for the movie "College Rhythm" and shows the audience how they were written and rehearsed. Naturally it also advertises the movie.
Hollywood Rhythm
In this drama, an ex-vaudevillian dancer opens up a dance band agency and help street kids at the same time by hiring them to help out. Unfortunately, the local gang of hood's leader resists his attempts. More trouble ensues when the dancer helps a convict gain parole by hiring him. It later turns out that the ex-con is only interested in trying to use the agency as a front for extortion. Songs include the Oscar nominated "When There's a Breeze on Lake Louise," "Your Face Looks Familiar," "Heavenly, Isn't He?" "Let's Forget It," "You're Bad For Me," and "A Million Miles From Manhattan."
The Mayor of 44th Street
Jack Oakie and Jack Haley are songwriters are enroute from New York to Hollywood to make their fame and fortune; Ginger Rogers, a lunchwagon proprieter, joins them.