Duffy's Tavern is a 1945 American all-star cast musical comedy film directed by Hal Walker and written by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama. Produced and released by Paramount Pictures, the film stars Ed Gardner, Bing Crosby, Betty Hutton, Paulette Goddard, Alan Ladd, Dorothy Lamour, Eddie Bracken and Brian Donlevy, with Victor Moore, Marjorie Reynolds, Charles Cantor and Eddie Green.
Duffy’s Tavern was one of Paramount's ‘all-star cast’ films, similar to the 1942 film Star Spangled Rhythm. Based upon the popular radio sitcom of the same name by Ed Gardner, it is a large scale musical based upon the characters from the radio show. Archie (played by Ed Gardner) with regulars Eddie (Eddie Green) and Finnegan (Charles Cantor). It was the film debut of the four Crosby boys, Gary, Phillip, Dennis and Lindsay, other than Gary Crosby's walk-on part in Star Spangled Rhythm.
Contents
Plot
Archie is the manager of Duffy's Tavern, a first-rate New York eatery. Archie has been gradually sending the tavern and its owner, Mr. Duffy, into debt by secretly giving meals to out of job veterans who've just returned home from World War II.
The veterans are unemployed as before they enlisted in the army, they worked at the National Phonographic Record Company's factory. The factory closed during the war as there was a lack of shellac needed to make the records as it had been repurposed for weaponry. Mr. Duffy, suspecting something is wrong with the business, tells his daughter, Miss Duffy, to look at the ledger. Archie, knowing that Mr. Duffy will catch on to his well intentioned scheme, decides to appeal to Miss Duffy's patriotism and gets away with continuing to feed the veterans. Veteran Danny Sullivan returns home from the war and champions the movement to reopen the phonograph factory, gaining a following of fellow unemployed veterans.
For some time Archie has been planning to propose to Peggy O'Malley, the daughter of Michael O'Malley, the owner of the now closed phonograph factory. On the night Archie is going to ask Peggy to marry him at her house, she doesn't show up. Instead, Peggy is infatuated by Danny and they dance to Bing Crosby records, causing Danny to fall for her as well. Peggy, knowing Danny and his pals are out of a job, promises that she'll organise a loan so her father can reopen the factory now that the war is over.
Meanwhile, Mr. Duffy still suspects something is wrong with the business so he sends an accountant over to Duffy's Tavern to look at the ledger. The accountant discovers the tavern is $1,200 short on expenses. Danny is ecstatic as he has just located some shellac, he tells Mr. O'Malley, only for him to reveal a telegram showing the bank denied his application for a loan.
Peggy learns that several film stars are in town. She informs Archie, who comes up with a plan to raise money for the veterans by hosting a massive benefit block party, with entertainment by the stars. Archie and Mr. O'Malley come up with a plan to sneak into the hotel, once inside they'll convince the stars to join the party. The pair sneak in and reach Betty Hutton's hotel room, where she is awaiting a massage. Betty assumes that they are her masseuses, which the two go with and pretend to be. She lies down for the massage and the pair does a terrible job at massaging her, when the real masseur walks in, the two attempt to run but are caught by the police. Peggy suddenly arrives, she tells Betty the reason Archie and Mr. O'Malley are here is to tell them about their benefit show and Peggy convinces Betty that they need her and her fellow stars' help for a good cause.
Betty agrees and gets the other stars to join in on the benefit show. Towards the end of the show, Mr. Duffy attempts to have Archie arrested. Meanwhile, Mr O'Malley is shocked to find a record distributor is offering him a contract to reopen the factory with a $1,200 advance payment, on the condition that the factory presses 1,500 records in one night. Mr. O'Malley agrees and, re-employs the veterans. Somehow, the men succeed and the $1,200 advance is earned. Miss Duffy, sympathetic to Archie, gets the charges against him dropped.
Once the charges are dropped, Archie informs Mr. Duffy that he is quitting as he and Betty Hutton have a thing.
Soundtrack
Two original songs were written for the film, both by Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke. They are as follows:
"Doin' It The Hard Way" — Performed by Betty Hutton
"You Can't Blame A Girl For Trying" — Performed by Cass Daley
Several songs included in the film were not originally from it. They are as follows:
"When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" — (Written by Ernest Ball)
"When Johnny Comes Marching Home" — (Written by Patrick Gilmore) peformed by Johnny Coy and Miriam Nelson
"Swinging on a Star" — (Written by Jimmy Van Heusen & Johnny Burke) performed by Bing Crosby, Betty Hutton, Sonny Tufts, Arturo de Córdova, Jean Heather, Cass Daley, Helen Walker, Diana Lynn, Dorothy Lamour, Howard Da Silva, Billy De Wolfe and Gail Russell
"His Rocking Horse Ran Away" — (Written by Jimmy Van Heusen & Johnny Burke) played during the Betty Hutton psychoanalyst sketch
"Murder, He Says" — (Written by Frank Loesser & Jimmy McHugh) played during the Betty Hutton psychoanalyst sketch
Production
Multiple studios attempted to buy the film rights to Duffy's Tavern including Leo Spitz representing Universal Pictures, who offered $250,000 for the screen rights and Jack Moss representing Columbia Pictures. On August 17, 1943, Paramount won the bid for the film rights to Duffy's Tavern for an undisclosed amount, outbidding six other Hollywood studios. The contract that Paramount organised with Gardner was for five films to be produced over five years, all based on the radio show, calling for the first film to be produced within the coming year.
The film was originally meant to be produced by Paul Jones and adapted for the screen by Mac Benoff, a writer from the Duffy's Tavern radio show, but they were replaced by Danny Dare, Melvin Frank and Norman Panama. Buddy DeSylva assumed general supervision of the film at the start of its production.
Ed Gardner temporarily relocated to Hollywood in March, 1944 to work on the film. Filming was slated to begin on July 1, 1944. Instead filming started on September 25, 1944 and ended on December 15th, 1944.
Release and reception
Duffy's Tavern premiered at the Paramount Theatre on September 5, 1945 and was opened by The Andrews Sisters with Vic Schoen and his Orchestra.
Bosley Crowther of The New York Times summarized it as, "Take it for what it is, a hodge-podge of spare-time clowning by the gang, including a large hunk of Archie, and you’ll find Duffy’s Tavern fair enough."
Film Daily wrote that, "There isn’t much to the story itself, which merely offers an excuse for bringing in such topflighters as Bing Crosby, Betty Hutton, Paulette Goddard, Dorothy Lamour, Eddie Bracken, Veronica Lake, to name but a handful, so that they may do their bit in the manner of guest stars. Most of the big names are introduced at the end in a benefit show staged to raise money to permit Victor Moore to reopen his record factory and put a lot of nice guys back to work."
Variety said that, "Utilizing the four principals of the air show. Archie. Eddie, Finnegan and Miss Duffy, the scripters have turned out a trite story of the quartet involved in a scheme to put some ex-servicemen to work, running the first 15 minutes of the film primarily as a vehicle for one Ed Gardner gag of malapropism after another. What sounds good in a half-hour radio show goes stale on celluloid. Luckily, half-way in the film, the studio has thrown the plot out of the window, concentrating on some rib-tickling burlesque where star after star does a specialty or lets his hair down."