Out of the Blue | |
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Directed by | Gene Gerrard |
Screenplay by | Bert Lee Frank Miller R.P. Weston |
Based on | Little Tommy Tucker 1930 play by Desmond Carter and Caswell Garth[1] |
Produced by | John Maxwell |
Starring | Gene Gerrard Jessie Matthews Kay Hammond |
Cinematography | Arthur Crabtree Ernest Palmer |
Edited by | Edward B. Jarvis |
Music by | Vivian Ellis |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Pathé Pictures International |
Release date |
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Running time | 88 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Out of the Blue is a 1931 British musical film directed by Gene Gerrard and starring Gerrard, Jessie Matthews and Kay Hammond.[2] It was produced by British International Pictures at the company's Elstree Studios near London. The film's sets were designed by the art director David Rawnsley.
It was Matthews' first major film role.[3] A baronet's daughter falls in love with a radio star who is engaged to marry her sister. The film was not a success, but led to Matthews being cast in There Goes the Bride and given a contract by Gainsborough Pictures.[3] Matthews later wrote in her autobiography, "Out of the Blue was adapted from a stage musical and never should have left the boards."[4] John Orton served as a supervising director.[2]
Impoverished aristocrat's daughter Tommy Tucker (Jessie Matthews) is in love with radio announcer Bill Coverdale (Gene Gerrard), but he is engaged to her more glamorous sister Angela (Kay Hammond), who he does not love. Seeking escape from this hopeless situation, and her life of genteel poverty, Tommy flees abroad to Biarritz to become a nightclub singer.
TV Guide and Britmovie both called the film "lightweight."[5][6]