Fanny Foley Herself
Encyclopedia
Fanny Foley Herself is an American comedy-drama film that was shot entirely in Technicolor
. The film was the second feature to be filmed using a new Technicolor process which removed grain and resulted in a much improved color. It was released under the title Top of the Bill in Britain
.
plays a widowed woman with two daughters (Helen Chandler
, Rochelle Hudson
) who attempts to revive her career as a vaudeville
performer. Her wealthy father-in-law, who believes that a vaudeville performer is not fit to bring up children properly, forces her to choose between her daughters or her career. In the end, all is forgiven and the father-in-law asks Fanny to sing one of her songs.
. No elements of the film or the soundtrack are known to exist.
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
. The film was the second feature to be filmed using a new Technicolor process which removed grain and resulted in a much improved color. It was released under the title Top of the Bill in Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
Plot
Edna May OliverEdna May Oliver
Edna May Oliver was an American stage and film actress. During the 1930s, she was one of the best-known character actresses in American films, often playing tart-tongued spinsters.-Early life:...
plays a widowed woman with two daughters (Helen Chandler
Helen Chandler
Helen Chandler was an American film and theater actress.-Career:Born in Charleston, South Carolina, Chandler began her acting career in New York at the age of nine and was on Broadway two years later in 1917...
, Rochelle Hudson
Rochelle Hudson
Rochelle Hudson was an American film actress from the 1930s through the 1960s. Hudson was a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1931.-Career:...
) who attempts to revive her career as a vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
performer. Her wealthy father-in-law, who believes that a vaudeville performer is not fit to bring up children properly, forces her to choose between her daughters or her career. In the end, all is forgiven and the father-in-law asks Fanny to sing one of her songs.
Production background
- The color work was universally praised by reviewers.
- As a result of the quality of the color work in The RunaroundThe Runaround (1931 film)The Runaround is a comedy-drama film that was photographed entirely in Technicolor. The film is important as the first to be filmed in a new Technicolor process which removed grain and resulted in a much improved color....
(1931), Radio Pictures decided to produce three more pictures in the improved Technicolor process. Only Fanny Foley Herself was completed and released in Technicolor. The titles of the two other features were Marcheta and Bird of Paradise. Marcheta seems to have been abandoned, while Bird of Paradise was changed into a black-and-white production starring Dolores Del RioDolores del RíoDolores del Río was a Mexican film actress. She was a star of Hollywood films during the silent era and in the Golden Age of Hollywood...
. - This was Edna May Oliver's first appearance in color. She would only appear in color once more, in the 19391939 in filmThe year 1939 in motion pictures can be justified as being called the most outstanding one ever, when it comes to the high quality and high attendance at the large set of the best films that premiered in the year .- Events :Motion picture historians and film often rate...
film Drums Along the MohawkDrums Along the MohawkDrums Along the Mohawk is a 1939 historical Technicolor film based upon a 1936 novel of the same name by American author, Walter D. Edmonds. The film was produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and directed by John Ford. Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert portray settlers on the New York frontier during the...
. She did not appear in the Technicolor sequences of The American VenusThe American VenusThe American Venus is an American feature film directed by Frank Tuttle, and starring Esther Ralston, Ford Sterling, Edna May Oliver, Lawrence Gray, Fay Lanphier, Louise Brooks, Kenneth MacKenna, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and released by Paramount Pictures. Brooks appears, in her first credited...
(19261926 in film-Events:*August - Warner Brothers debuts the first Vitaphone film, Don Juan. The Vitaphone system used multiple 33⅓ rpm disc records developed by Bell Telephone Laboratories and Western Electric to play back audio synchronized with film....
). - This was Helen Chandler's only appearance in a color film. She did not appear in the color sequences of Radio Parade of 1935Radio Parade of 1935Radio Parade of 1935 , released in the USA as Radio Follies, is a British comedy film directed by Arthur B. Woods and starring Will Hay, Clifford Mollison and Helen Chandler.-Plot:...
(19341934 in film-Events:*January 26 - Samuel Goldwyn purchases the film rights to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from the L. Frank Baum estate for $40,000.*February 19 - Bob Hope marries Dolores Reade...
). She may have appeared in the color sequences of the silent film The Joy GirlThe Joy GirlThe Joy Girl is an American silent comedy film starring Olive Borden, and based on the novel of the same name by May Edginton.-Plot:...
(19271927 in film-Events:*January 10 - Fritz Lang's science-fiction fantasy Metropolis premieres in Germany.*April 7 - Abel Gance's Napoleon often considered his best known and greatest masterpiece, premiers at the Paris Opéra and would demonstrate techniques and equipment that would not be used for years to...
). This film, rumored to exist at the Museum of Modern ArtMuseum of Modern ArtThe Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
, is unavailable for inspection.
Preservation status
The film is now considered to be a lost filmLost film
A lost film is a feature film or short film that is no longer known to exist in studio archives, private collections or public archives such as the Library of Congress, where at least one copy of all American films are deposited and catalogued for copyright reasons...
. No elements of the film or the soundtrack are known to exist.