Reunion (1936 film)

1936 film

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The Reunion

Directed by|

* Norman Taurog
* Ed O'Fearna

Screenplay by|

* Sam Hellman
* Gladys Lehman
* Sonya Levien

Story by| Bruce Gould
Produced by|

* Earl Carroll
* Harold Wilson
* Bogart Rogers

Starring|

* The Dionne Quintuplets
* Jean Hersholt
* Rochelle Hudson
* Helen Vinson
* Slim Summerville
* Robert Kent
* Dorothy Peterson
* John Quelan
* Alan Dinehart
* J. Edward Bromberg
* Sara Haden
* Montagu Love
* Tom Moore
* Katharine Alexander

Cinematography| Daniel B. Clark
Edited by| Jack Murray
Distributed by| 20th Century Fox

Release date

* November 20, 1936 (1936-11-20)

Running time

| 79 minutes
Country| United States
Language| English

Reunion is a 1936 American comedy film and directed by Norman Taurog and starring the Dionne Quintuplets, Jean Hersholt and Rochelle Hudson. It was produced and distributed by 20th Century Fox.

## Plot

[edit]

Newspapers around the world proclaim the birth of the 3,000th baby in Moosetown, Canada, who was delivered by Dr. John Luke, known for delivering the famous Wyatt quintuplets. To honor the doctor on his retirement and to publicize their town, the Moosetown Chamber of Commerce decides to hold a reunion of all the babies delivered by the doctor. Some of those babies have since become famous. The first baby he delivered, Phillip Crandall, is now a governor. One other is the motion picture star, Janet Fair.

Phillip and his wife are childless. Phillip is against adoption because he fears that his opponent in the upcoming election would suggest that the adopted baby was his from the past. He decides to go to the reunion to renew his friendship with Dr. Luke, whom he hasn't seen since a fishing trip twelve years earlier. When Janet, who is down on her luck, learns from her agent that she has the lead in a New York show, she decides to accept the invitation to the reunion for the publicity she hopes it will bring.

In Atlanta, the quintuplets' father (Asa Wyatt) is upset when his rival (Constable Jim Ogden) excitedly brags that his wife is due any minute to give birth to six babies because two fortune-tellers have told him so. When Jim's wife gives birth to one baby, Jim is disappointed at first, but as he plays with his new baby daughter he tells her that he'd rather have her than six or sixty babies.

After Dr. Luke's nephew Tony arrives from Tennessee to take Dr. Luke's position, Tony receives a call from a woman in Toronto. This upsets nurse Mary McKenzie, Tony's sweetheart. Many of the thousands who come to the reunion throng around Janet, who is pleased to see her old friend, bachelor Charlie Renard. Phillip is attracted to an orphan named Rusty, who Dr. Luke says was born eleven years ago to a woman who died of a broken heart. The mention of the woman's name greatly affects Phillip.

Dr. Richard Sheridan and his wife Gloria then arrive from Toronto, and Gloria (the woman who called Tony) tells him that she plans to divorce Dick. Dick is a workaholic whom she no longer loves. When Dr. Luke (surmising the affair between Tony and Gloria) berates his son, Tony admits that he doesn't love Gloria. Although Dr. Luke pleads with him to end the affair, Tony refuses, feeling that he owes it to Gloria to carry on. When Dr. Luke tries to convince Gloria that Tony doesn't love her, but that he loves Mary, she becomes indignant. Dr. Luke then convinces her to freshen up in a bedroom and arranges for Mary to meet Tony in an adjoining room. When Dr. Luke makes Tony admit that an older woman has made a fool of him, Gloria overhears and leaves in an agitated state. Although Tony confesses that he loves Mary, she says she cannot love anyone who could turn his affections off and on at will.

At the reunion gathering, Dr. Luke instructs Rusty to repeatedly make a gesture identical to one that Phillip makes. Won over by the boy, Phillip asks Dr. Luke about adoption formalities. When a telegram arrives from Janet's agent stating that the deal for the role in the New York play is off because the producer wants a younger woman, Janet, who is shaken, goes inside. The gathered then watch as the quintuplets arrive, each in a pony-drawn carriage, and play in a fenced-in enclosure. Dick tells Dr. Luke that he and Gloria, after a long talk, have decided to go abroad for a second honeymoon. Gloria shakes Dr. Luke's hand. Dr. Luke then learns that Janet has shot herself.

Tony takes charge of the operation with Mary as his assistant. After the operation, Tony tells Charlie that Janet will survive if she has anything to live for. Charlie calls her by her real name, Mamie. Then he kisses her face, and she takes his hand. Tony and Mary reconcile. Dr. Luke's long time nurse, Katherine Kennedy, mildly rebukes him for falsely making Phillip believe that he is Rusty's father.[1]

## Cast

[edit]

* Jean Hersholt as Dr. John Luke
* Rochelle Hudson as Mary MacKenzie
* Helen Vinson as Gloria Sheridan
* Slim Summerville as Jim Ogdan
* Robert Kent as Tony Luke
* John Qualen as Asa Wyatt
* Dorothy Peterson as Katherine Kennedy
* Alan Dinehart as Philip Crandell
* J. Edward Bromberg as Charles Renard
* Sara Haden as Ellie
* George Chandler as Jake

## Notes

[edit]

The working title of this film was They Always Come Back. Actress Maude Eburne's surname is incorrectly spelled Eburn in the onscreen credits. This was the second film featuring the Dionne Quintuplets. Their first film, The Country Doctor, a fictional account of their birth, was released earlier in 1936. The screen credits note that "Scenes of the Dionne Quintuplets were photographed at Callander, Ontario under the technical supervision of Dr. Allan R. Dafoe". Dr. Dafoe was the Canadian doctor who delivered the quintuplets on May 28, 1934.

According to the pressbook for the film, a company of eighty people from Twentieth Century-Fox arrived in Callander and began filming on August 17, 1936. The quintuplets, who were two years and three months at the time, were filmed for twenty-six days, except Sundays, for one hour a day and were paid $83,000. A special blue filter for the lights, which cameraman Daniel Clark developed for The Country Doctor was also used in this film. Helen Jerome Eddy was listed as a cast member in a The Hollywood Reporter production chart, but her participation in the final film has not been confirmed.[2]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Synopsis". Retrieved 7 June 2014.
2. ^ "Notes". Retrieved 8 June 2014.

## External links

[edit]

* Reunion at IMDb

* v
* t
* e

Films directed by Norman Taurog

* Lucky Boy (1929)
* The Diplomats (1929)
* In Holland (1929)
* The Medicine Men (1929)
* Troopers Three (1930)
* Sunny Skies (1930)
* Hot Curves (1930)
* Follow the Leader (1930)
* Finn and Hattie (1931)
* Skippy (1931)
* Forbidden Adventure (1931)
* Huckleberry Finn (1931)
* Sooky (1931)
* Hold 'Em Jail (1932)
* The Phantom President (1932)
* If I Had a Million (segments "Prologue" and "Epilogue", 1932)
* A Bedtime Story (1933)
* The Way to Love (1933)
* We're Not Dressing (1934)
* Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1934)
* College Rhythm (1934)
* The Big Broadcast of 1936 (1936)
* Strike Me Pink (1936)
* Rhythm on the Range (1936)
* Reunion (1936)
* Fifty Roads to Town (1937)
* You Can't Have Everything (1937)
* The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938)
* Mad About Music (1938)
* Boys Town (1938)
* The Girl Downstairs (1938)
* Lucky Night (1939)
* Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940)
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* Design for Scandal (1941)
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* Presenting Lily Mars (1943)
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* The Hoodlum Saint (1946)
* The Beginning or the End (1947)
* The Bride Goes Wild (1948)
* Big City (1948)
* Words and Music (1948)
* That Midnight Kiss (1949)
* Please Believe Me (1950)
* The Toast of New Orleans (1950)
* Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone (1950)
* Rich, Young and Pretty (1951)
* Room for One More (1952)
* Jumping Jacks (1952)
* The Stooge (1953)
* The Stars Are Singing (1953)
* The Caddy (1953)
* Living It Up (1954)
* You're Never Too Young (1955)
* The Birds and the Bees (1956)
* Pardners (1956)
* Bundle of Joy (1956)
* The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown (1958)
* Onionhead (1958)
* Don't Give Up the Ship (1959)
* Visit to a Small Planet (1960)
* G.I. Blues (1960)
* All Hands on Deck (1961)
* Blue Hawaii (1961)
* Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962)
* It Happened at the World's Fair (1963)
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* Tickle Me (1965)
* Sergeant Deadhead (1965)
* Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965)
* Spinout (1966)
* Double Trouble (1967)
* Speedway (1968)
* Live a Little, Love a Little (1968)

* v
* t
* e

Darryl F. Zanuck

Producer|

* Old San Francisco (1927)
* The First Auto (1927)
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* Parachute Jumper (1933)
* 42nd Street (1933)
* The Working Man (1933)
* Ex-Lady (1933)
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* Blood Money (1933)
* Moulin Rouge (1934)
* Looking for Trouble (1934)
* Born to Be Bad (1934)
* Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back (1934)
* The Mighty Barnum (1934)
* Folies Bergère de Paris (1935)
* Les Misérables (1935)
* Cardinal Richelieu (1935)
* Call of the Wild (1935)
* Metropolitan (1935)
* Thanks a Million (1935)
* The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo (1935)
* Professional Soldier (1935)
* The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936)
* It Had to Happen (1936)
* A Message to Garcia (1936)
* Under Two Flags (1936)
* The Road to Glory (1936)
* Poor Little Rich Girl (1936)
* Sing, Baby, Sing (1936)
* Pigskin Parade (1936)
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* Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake (1942)
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* To the Shores of Tripoli (1942)
* This Above All (1942)
* Thunder Birds (1942)
* The Purple Heart (1944)
* Wilson (1944)
* Winged Victory (1944)
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* Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
* Fury at Furnace Creek (1948)
* The Snake Pit (1948)
* Pinky (1949)
* Twelve O'Clock High (1949)
* No Way Out (1950)
* All About Eve (1950)
* David and Bathsheba (1951)
* People Will Talk (1951)
* Viva Zapata! (1952)
* The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952)
* The Egyptian (1954)
* The View from Pompey's Head (1955)
* The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956)
* Island in the Sun (1957)
* The Sun Also Rises (1957)
* The Roots of Heaven (1958)
* Crack in the Mirror (1960)
* Sanctuary (1961)
* The Big Gamble (1961)
* The Longest Day (1962)
* The Chapman Report (1962)
* The Visit (1964)

Writer|

| as Mark Canfield|

* The Desired Woman (1927) (story)
* Maybe It's Love (1930)
* Baby Face (1933) (story)
* Crack in the Mirror (1960)

|

as Melville Crossman|

* Tenderloin (story) (1928)
* State Street Sadie (story) (1928)
* Thanks a Million (story) (1935)
* A Yank in the R.A.F. (story) (1941)
* Thunder Birds (original story) (1942)
* China Girl (story) (1942)
* The Purple Heart (story) (1944)

as Gregory Rogers|

* Find Your Man (Rin Tin Tin story) (1924)
* The Lighthouse by the Sea (Rin Tin Tin story) (1924)
* Three Weeks in Paris (story, screenplay as Darryl Zanuck) (1925)
* The Midnight Taxi (story) (1928)

as self|

* A Broadway Butterfly (1925)
* Red Hot Tires (1925)
* Hogan's Alley (1925)
* The Caveman (scenario) (1926)
* The Little Irish Girl (adaptation) (1926)
* The Social Highwayman (1926)
* Footloose Widows (1926)
* Across the Pacific (adaptation) (1926)
* The Better 'Ole (screenplay) (1926)
* Tracked by the Police (Rin Tin Tin story) (1927)
* Old San Francisco (1927)
* The First Auto (story) (1927)
* Good Time Charley (story) (1927)
* Noah's Ark (story) (1928)
* My Man (story) (1928)
* Hardboiled Rose (story) (1929)
* Madonna of Avenue A (story) (1929)
* Say It with Songs (story) (1929)
* The Life of the Party (1930)
* Little Caesar (story – uncredited) (1931)
* The Dark Horse (story) (1932)
* Lady Killer (story – uncredited) (1933)
* Folies Bergère de Paris (contributing writer – uncredited) (1935)
* G Men (story) (1935)
* This Is My Affair (story – uncredited) (1937)
* Alexander's Ragtime Band (contributing writer – uncredited) (1938)
* The Great Profile (story – uncredited) (1940)
* Ten Gentlemen from West Point (1942)

People|

* Virginia Fox (wife)
* Richard D. Zanuck (son)
* Dean Zanuck (grandson)

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