Comet over Broadway is a 1938 American drama film starring Kay Francis, Ian Hunter and Donald Crisp. It was produced and released by Warner Bros. Pictures. John Farrow stepped in as director when Busby Berkeley became ill, but Farrow was uncredited on the film.
Contents
Plot
Eve Appleton, wife of small-town garage owner Bill Appleton, has theatrical ambitions. Bill gets into an argument with a visiting actor over her, kills him accidentally, and is sent to prison. Eve, realizing her part in Bill's fate, vows to right matters, and taking her baby daughter, goes away to make her way in the theatre.
Later, Eve is forced to leave her baby girl with her friend Mrs. "Tim" Adams. Bert Ballin befriends her and they fall in love, but she moves abroad and becomes a star. Back in America, as the "Toast of Broadway", she is brought back to a realization of her former vows by Joe Grant, her hometown lawyer.
Cast
Kay Francis as Eve Appleton
Ian Hunter as Bert Ballin
John Litel as Bill Appleton
Donald Crisp as Joe Grant
Minna Gombell as "Tim" Adams
Sybil Jason as Jackie Appleton
Melville Cooper as Emerson
Ian Keith as Wilton Banks
Leona Maricle as Janet Eaton
Ray Mayer as Brogan
Vera Lewis as Mrs. Appleton
Nat Carr as Haines
Chester Clute as Willis
Edward McWade as Harvey
Clem Bevans as Benson
Production
Warners originally announced the project in May 1937 as a vehicle for Kay Francis based on a story by Faith Baldwin.
In February 1938, the role was assigned to Bette Davis, who had just been in Jezebel. She was pulled off All Right's Reserved (which became Four's a Crowd) so she could take six weeks of a holiday. William Dieterle, originally slated to direct Four's a Crowd, was also moved to Comet over Broadway at the same time.
George Brent and Donald Crisp who had both been in Jezebel were assigned to the cast. Kay Francis went into My Bill (1938), directed by John Farrow.
Ian Keith, Walter Abel (borrowed from RKO), and Ronald Reagan were set to costar, and the film was meant to start shooting in early April 1938.
Davis was unhappy with the film. "This was the first nothing script I was given since my court battle in England", Davis later recalled, referring to the lawsuit in which she tried to win her freedom from Warner Bros. after being forced to appear in a series of mediocre films. "It was heartbreaking to me. After winning a second Academy Award...I was asked to appear again in junk."
Conferences were held to see if the script could be altered to her satisfaction. On March 30, with the film to start on Monday, Davis refused to make the movie claiming it was not up to the standard set by Jezebel.
Warners sent the script to Irene Dunne to see if she would do it. Warners pulled Davis out of her new project We Are Not Alone.
On April 1, Warners put Davis on suspension. She claimed she was ill but would have made the effort to appear in a film if it had been more than a "routine Cinderella yarn...Had it been The Life of Sarah Bernhardt or Maximillian and Carlotta, both of which have been scheduled for me, I would have attempted to go to the studio, but I did not feel justified in jeopardizing my health on behalf of such an atrocious script." Keighley was assigned to another movie.