Garden of the Moon

1938
U
1h 34m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Pat O'Brien, Margaret Lindsay, and John Payne in Garden of the Moon (1938)

Romance blooms between a publicist and a singing band leader in the Garden of the Moon night club.Romance blooms between a publicist and a singing band leader in the Garden of the Moon night club.Romance blooms between a publicist and a singing band leader in the Garden of the Moon night club.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.7/10

332

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
The roles played by John Payne and Margaret Lindsay were originally intended for Dick Powell and Bette Davis. Powell took a layoff rather than make this film.

Goofs
Toni Blake's (Margaret Lindsay) first name on her office door is spelled "Tony" in one scene, and "Toni" in another shortly later.

Quotes
Slappy Harris: Say, you ought to be able to get us a lot of publicity. You know, Don is a solid tenor, when he gets nice and groovy, its out of this world.
Toni Blake: How's that?
Slappy Harris: I mean its a killer duck. Well, when he starts us cats sending, you ought to see the alligators pack around the grandstand.
Toni Blake: I don't mean to be rude, but, are you giving me the double-talk?
Don Vincente: Ha-ha. Nah, that's just a little swing lingo. He means the customers like our work.
Toni Blake: Does he speak English too?
Don Vincente: Of course he does. Slappy, say a few words in English for the lady.
Slappy Harris: Oh, she knows what I mean. She's no icky.

Crazy credits
The credits are printed into a restaurant menu and the pages are turned by a male hand.

Soundtracks
Garden of the Moon
(1938) (uncredited)
Music by Harry Warren
Lyrics by Al Dubin and Johnny Mercer
Played during the opening credits and often in the score
Sung by Mabel Todd with Harry Seymour on piano
Also sung by John Payne with the orchestra

User reviews15

Review

Featured review

6/10

This Is Obviously the Cocoanut Grove

The Garden of the Moon is the name of a nightclub in Los Angeles and it is obviously meant to represent the Cocoanut Grove Night Club which was located in the Ambassador Hotel. It was THE premier nightspot in Tinseltown and only the best acts appeared there.

The Ambassador Hotel also entered history for a tragic reason, it was there that Senator Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968. Some twenty years after that the Ambassador was torn down and the old Cocoanut Grove was razed. It hadn't been operating for some years before that.

But in this film it's the Garden of the Moon and it's run by the fast talking, imperious Pat O'Brien. The only time O'Brien ever slowed down the tempo of his dialog was to play priests in Angels With Dirty Faces and The Fighting 69th while he was with Warner Brothers. But Pat was always entertaining.

O'Brien was most often teamed with James Cagney, but also he did several films with Dick Powell usually as a manager, agent, mentor, etc. for Powell who would sing. Powell was getting tired of doing musicals and the role of the band-leader/crooner in this film was so obviously written for him.

A newcomer named John Payne got a break here playing the Powell part. He gets a telegram from O'Brien signing him for an appearance at the Garden of the Moon and he and the band race across the country and then find out it's only for two weeks. For the rest of the film O'Brien and Payne are at each other's throats and Payne is helped by nightclub publicist Margaret Lindsay who works for O'Brien, but has fallen big time for Payne.

Songs here are by Harry Warren and Al Dubin and the director is Busby Berkeley. Like Dick Powell, they were coming to the end of their Warner Brothers contracts. Berkeley didn't break any new ground and no hit songs emerged from the score, but the three of them did their jobs in their usual professional style.

Curiously enough John Payne right after this was signed by 20th Century Fox to be a musical Tyrone Power who he resembled. And also Payne's career followed a similar path to Dick Powell's in that eventually he eschewed musicals for dramatic parts and did them as well as Powell did.

It's minor league Busby Berkeley, but even in the minor leagues it's still good entertainment.