Damon Runyon
One December day around Christmastime I am in the city of Las Vegas talking to Harry the Horse about this and that, when I hear this yarn about a citizen by the name of Murray Crown (Tom Arnold), who runs a clip joint which he prefers to call a casino. It seems that this Murray Crown not only has the John Laws breathing down his neck, but it is also a fact that he is married to this doll called Shirley (Katey Sagal), who is known far and wide as the green-eyed type.
This musical is based on four short stories by Damon Runyon. In one tale, gambler Feet Samuels sells his body to science just as he realizes that Hortense loves him and that he would rather live than die. In another story, Harriet's parrot is killed, and she has problems dealing with her loss. Then, there is a gambler, "Right", who has bloodhounds on his trail when he becomes a murder suspect. Finally, "The Brain" is bleeding profusely, and his friends search for a way to save his life through a blood transfusion.
Sorrowful Jones is a cheap bookie in 1930's. When a gambler leaves his daughter as a marker for a bet, he gets stuck with her. His life will change a great deal with her arrival and his sudden love for a woman also involved in gambling operations.
Damon Runyon's fairytale, sweet and funny, is told by director Frank Capra. Boozy, brassy Apple Annie, a beggar with a basket of apples, is as much as part of downtown New York as old Broadway itself. Bootlegger Dave the Dude is a sucker for her apples --- he thinks they bring him luck. But Dave and girlfriend Queenie Martin need a lot more than luck when it turns out that Annie is in a jam and only they can help: Annie's daughter Louise, who has lived all her life in a Spanish convent, is coming to America with a Count and his son. The count's son wants to marry Louise, who thinks her mother is part of New York society. It's up to Dave and Queenie and their Runyonesque cronies to turn Annie into a lady and convince the Count and his son that they are hobnobbing with New York's elite.
Gambler Nathan Detroit has few options for the location of his big craps game. Needing $1,000 to pay a garage owner to host the game, Nathan bets Sky Masterson that Sky cannot get virtuous Sarah Brown out on a date. Despite some resistance, Sky negotiates a date with her in exchange for bringing people into her mission. Meanwhile, Nathan's longtime fiancée, Adelaide, wants him to go legit and marry her.
Herman owes a lot of gambling debts. To pay them off, he promises the mob he'll fix a horse, so that it does not run. He intends to trick his animal-loving cousin Virgil, an apprentice veterinarian, into helping him. Of course, he doesn't tell Virgil what he is really up to. Mistaken identities are assumed, while along the way, Virgil meets a female vet and Herman falls for the owner of the horse.
A musical comedy based on several Damon Runyon short stories. When a bookie on the run, Robert 'Numbers' Foster, falls for a pretty country songbird, Emily Ann Stackerlee , he'll do anything to help her make it big -- including a stint in jail to pay for his crimes. But will the tough guy's sacrifice of the heart pay off when it comes to his girlfriend's singing career?
A gangster and his wife attempt to go straight. Comedy. Remake of the 1938 film "A Slight Case of Murder".
When the Lemon Drop Kid accidentally cheats gangster Moose Moran out of his track winnings, the Kid promises to repay Moose the money by Christmas. Creating a fake charity for "Apple Annie" Nellie Thursday, the Kid tricks his gang into donning Santa suits and "collecting dough for old dolls" like Nellie who have nowhere to live.
Johnny One-Eye was adapted from one of Damon Runyon's lesser-known stories. Pat O'Brien and Wayne Morris star as Martin Martin and Dane Cory respectively, former partners in crime who have long since split up. When a new district attorney puts the heat on, Cory, anxious to save his own hide, accuses Martin of an unsolved murder. Holed up in abandoned house, Martin is befriended by a little girl (Gayle Reed) and her dog. It so happens that the girl is the daughter of the crusading DA, and thereby hangs the rest of this tale. Produced by Benedict Bogeaus, Johnny One-Eye co-stars Bogeaus' wife Dolores Moran as a moll named Lily White. The film represented the last directorial assignment of Robert Florey, who retired shortly afterward.
A young girl is left with the notoriously cheap Sorrowful Jones as a marker for a bet. When her father doesn't return, he learns that taking care of a child interferes with his free-wheeling lifestyle. Sorrowful must also evade crooked gangsters and indulge in a bit of horse-thieving.
This Technicolor musical biopic stars Argentina-born Dick Haymes as Irish-American composer Ernest R. Ball. Climbing to fame with such sentimental songs as "When Irish Eyes are Smiling" (hence the title), Ball romances a lovely showgirl (June Haver), who in turn catches the eye of a charming underworld character (Anthony Quinn). Monty Woolley does a variation of The Man who Came to Dinner in his role as a roguish Broadway producer. Seldom cluttering up its story with the facts, Irish Eyes are Smiling is chiefly a showcase for the superb singing of Dick Haymes. The film was produced by legendary journalist Damon Runyon, which should surprise several citizens more than somewhat.
Abbot and Costello must find a replacement for a woman's horse they accidentally killed after feeding it some candy. They head for the racetrack, find a look-a-like and take it. They do not realize that the nag is "Tea Biscuit," a champion racehorse.
Aloysius 'Butch' Grogan leads a life of criminal activities motivated to provide for a widow and her child. He's on lookout for a gang of safe crackers when he has to also look after the baby of one of the criminals.
Meek busboy Little Pinks is in love with an extremely selfish showgirl who despises and uses him.
This entry in Warner's "Broadway Brevity" series of shorts is based on Damon Runyon's short story, "The Old Doll's House". Racketeer Lance McGowan, on the night he has decided to go straight, finds himself caught between the gunfire of two rival gangsters and, wounded by a bullet, he finds refuge in the home of a wealthy recluse. One of the gangsters is found riddled with bullets from the gun Lance dropped while making his escape, and he is arrested and tried for murder. The reclusive widow comes to the trail and testifies that Lance was her guest that night when the clock struck twelve, the time of the killing. Lance, while innocent, is also lucky, as the widow had her all her clocks set to always strike twelve, as the time her husband had died.
A crook with big feet buys shoes that are too tight from a salesman, then decides to use the store as a front for illegal gambling.
Joe and Ethel Turp are up in arms when their faithful old mailman is fired. Unable to get satisfaction on a municipal level, Joe and Ethel plead their mailman's case to the President himself.
Former bootlegger Remy Marco has a slight problem with forclosing bankers, a prospective son-in-law, and four hard-to-explain corpses.
When King's beloved horse dies, Princess tries to purchase a new nag, and that's how she inadvertently gets her hands on a "stolen" race horse. Our heroine nearly ends up with a lengthy prison term before the story is resolved during the climactic Big Race.
Mercenary Donovan is hired to kidnap Prince Peter. He learns in jail that the party in power is evil and that the Prince is in danger, so he escapes in order to put Peter back on the throne.
A pretty young socialite falls for a charming but shady hustler, who abandons her when he finds that she has been disowned by her wealthy father. Three of the hustler's partners, who have also been left high and dry by heir former associate, come up with a plan to get her to the annual Yale-Harvard football game to reunite with her former sweetheart, an honest but nerdy bookworm.
An elderly woman provides an alibi to a man she scarcely knows who is on trial for murder of his girlfriend's racketeer father.
Big Steve Halloway, gambler and proprietor of New York's Horseshoe Cabaret, where his girl, Bangles Carson sings, is in desperate need of money. He arranges for his fellow bookies, especially Sorrowful Jones, to each pay him $1,000 for his racehorse, Dream Prince, to lose. With all bets being placed at the window, Sorrowful encounters a gambler, having lost $500, wanting to place his bet but is unable to come up with $20. Instead, he places his daughter, Marthy Jane (Shirley Temple), as security, or in bookie's terms, a "marker". Having lost his bet, he commits suicide, leaving "little Miss Marker" under the care of Sorrowful Jones. As Steve hides out in Chicago to avoid investigation for his crooked bets, he entrusts Sorrowful to watch over Bangles during his absence, at which time the "gold digger" helps "tight-wod" with his trouble. When Big Steve learns Bangles is involved with Sorrowful, he returns to New York to do something about it.
To stop his mother from marrying a man he doesn't like, a young millionaire hires an ex-con in helping him fake his own kidnaping.
In this family comedy, the wealthy executive of a steel company must endure life with a strict, teetotaling wife, a wild daughter, and a deadbeat son. To gain some much needed attention, the lonesome fellow hires a hitman to kill him. Instead, the gunman kidnaps him to frighten the family into appreciating their devoted father.
Never-wed, poor, rough around the edges Apple Annie has always written to her daughter, Louise, in Spain that she is married and a member of New York's high society. Upon receiving unexpected word from Louise (who hasn't seen Annie since infancy) that she is en route to America with her new fiancé and his father, a count, so the three of them can meet her, Annie panics, despairing that her beloved daughter will be destroyed by the deception.
