Every Night at Eight (1935)
Directed by Raoul Walsh
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Synopsis by Hal Erickson
Alice Faye, Frances Langford, and Patsy Kelly play three humble factory workers (with a Hollywoodized wardrobe beyond the budget of any genuine factory girl) who occasionally sing together for the fun of it. They harbor dreams of becoming famous, but the prospect isn't likely until bandleader George Raft hears the girls harmonizing. He promotes the girls into top radio stars, while each of the girls entertains romantic thoughts about Raft. (And yes, he does win one of them romantically, at the end of the picture). The likable but unimportant Every Night at Eight sparked a minor controversy in the rarefied world of 1960s film criticism. "Auteur" theorist Andrew Sarris pointed out a brief scene in which star George Raft awakens from a nightmare, cited other such scenes in the work of director Raoul Walsh, and used this "evidence" to support his theory that Walsh was a true auteur who left his "signature" on each of his films. Anti-auterist Pauline Kael spoke for many when she advised Sarris to go fly a kite.
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Themes
Keywords
advertising, amateur, aspiration, band [music group], bandleader, behind-the-scenes, billboard, birds, business, career, contest, dress, employee, employment, engagement, evidence, factory, factory-worker, faint, fame, fire, girl, hunger [food], love, machine, music, nightclub, orchestra, party, radio, record [world record], recording, room, show, sister, society, songwriter, talent, worker, yacht, youth
