Sunny | |
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Directed by | William A. Seiter |
Written by | Henry McCarty and Humphrey Pearson |
Based on |
Sunny by Oscar Hammerstein II and Otto A. Harbach |
Starring |
Marilyn Miller Lawrence Gray Inez Courtney |
Music by |
Jerome Kern Oscar Hammerstein II Otto A. Harbach |
Cinematography |
Ernest Haller Arthur Reeves |
Edited by | LeRoy Stone |
Distributed by | First National Pictures: A Subsidiary of Warner Bros. |
Release date
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Running time
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78 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Sunny is a 1930 all-talking Pre-Code musical comedy film, produced and released by First National Pictures, a subsidiary of Warner Brothers. The movie was based on the Broadway stage hit, Sunny, produced by Charles Dillingham, which played from September 22, 1925, to December 11, 1926. Marilyn Miller, who had played the leading part in the Broadway production, was hired by Warner Brothers to reprise the role that made her the highest-paid star on Broadway. The film starred Lawrence Gray, O. P. Heggie and Inez Courtney.
The film was completed as a full musical. Due to the backlash against musicals, however, the Warner Bros. were forced to make many cuts to the film and much of the original music is missing or severely truncated. The film had originally been announced as a Technicolor production in trade journals. This was dropped once the studio realized that the public was growing weary of musicals.
Marylin Miller plays the part of an American circus performer, doing her act in a British circus, who is engaged to a man she does not love. A former boyfriend, played by Lawrence Gray, stops by to see her before taking boat back to the United States. Miller realizing that she loves Gray, decides to run away. She embarks on the same boat that Lawrence takes. Her father, who realizes what his daughter has done, reaches the boat just as it is about to leave and manages to board it. While on board, Gray becomes engaged to be married to a wealthy socialite (Barbara Bedford). Miller learns that she will not be allowed to disembark in the United States without a passport. In order to land, Miller marries an American friend, intending to divorce him as soon as she is safely inside the United States. After arriving in the states, Miller tells Gray about her love for him. Bedford overhears them and tells Gray that she will announce their engagement at a party that very night. Disappointed, Miller decides to return to England, but Gray proposes to her just as she is about to leave.
uncredited