The Madonna of Avenue A (1929)
Directed by Michael Curtiz
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Synopsis by Hal Erickson
Although there was little love lost between star Dolores Costello and director Michael Curtiz, the two Warner Bros. contractees collaborated on several films, including the early-talkie Madonna of Avenue A. Costello plays Maria Marton, an expensively educated young miss who has been led to believe that her mother Georgia (Louise Dresser) is a high-society doyenne. Our heroine is in for quite a shock when she learns that her sainted mom is actually the blowzy proprietress of a seedy dime-a-dance joint. Among the scriptwriters of Madonna of Avenue A was one Mark Canfield, a pseudonym for Warner's scriptwriter/producer Darryl F. Zanuck. The film's plot would be reworked several times, most memorably as the 1953 Doris Day vehicle Lullaby of Broadway.
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craziness, disillusionment, family-secrets, host, socialite