Themes: Work Ethics, Haunted By the Past, Actor's Life
Main Cast: Clifton Webb, Ginger Rogers, Anne Francis, Jeffrey Hunter, Elsa Lanchester
Release Year: 1952
Country: US
Run Time: 83 minutes
Plot
Dreamboat stars Clifton Webb as Thornton Sayre, the perfectionist professor of literature at a sedate Midwestern university. Widowed and with a pretty daughter (Anne Francis), Sayre has given no clue to his previous life before becoming a teacher. But thanks to television, everyone discovers that Sayre is actually Bruce Blair, a former silent screen star known as "America's Dreamboat." Sayre's onetime leading lady (Ginger Rogers) has made a comeback hosting screenings of her old films on TV, and the result is acute embarrassment for both the professor and his college. Sayre takes the case all the way to court, where he wangles a compromise agreement: he will permit his films to be televised as long as they're not "doctored" to accommodate commercial endorsements (this was based on a real-life lawsuit involving cowboy Gene Autry -- which Autry lost). The ensuing publicity costs Sayre his college job, but the renewal of interest in his old films results in a new movie contract. Although silent movies and singing commercials are easy satirical targets, Dreamboat still delivers the laughs, and it's fun to see Clifton Webb camping it up as a "Doug Fairbanks" type. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Although it has other estimable names in its cast, Dreamboat is a vehicle for Clifton Webb, and rarely has any actor been so perfectly right to take the helm of a picture. It could have been made with another actor (perhaps William Powell) in the role, and the results might still have been entertaining, for Claude Binyon's screenplay is sharp and witty and his direction is surefooted and agile. But no one would be able to match Webb. There's not another actor whose eyebrow can arch in precisely the same way -- or even ways, for the degree to which Webb lifts an eyebrow reveals whether he has just spotted a fool, resisted temptation to make a retort, or felt a slight wound to his ego. No one else is capable of letting indignation spew forth quite so freely and comically, or of delivering a quip with the same level of archness. No one else can make primness so entirely amusing or can burst forth with so much sarcasm without alienating a viewer. Again, Binyon's contribution shouldn't be diminished, for he has created this perfect showcase. And the rest of the cast, including an hysterically funny Ginger Rogers and an equally amusing Elsa Lanchester, should be given their due. But in the end, it's Webb that elevates Dreamboat from a good comedy to a truly memorable one. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Fred Clark - Sam Levitt; Paul Harvey - Harrington; Ray Collins - Timothy Stone; Helene Stanley - Mimi; Richard Garrick - Judge Bowles; George Barrows - Commandant; Jay Adler - Desk Clerk; Marietta Canty - Lavinia; Emory Parnell - Used Car Salesman; Helen Hatch - Mrs. Faust; Harry V. Cheshire - Macintosh; Everett Glass - George Bradley; Paul Maxey - Clarence Bornay; Sandor Szabo, Sr. - Giant Arab; Lee Turnbull - Denham; Helen Brown - Dorothy; Howard Banks - Hotel Clerk; Jack Mather - Hotel Detective; Matt Mattox - Man in ccommercial; Gwen Verdon - Girl in Commercial; Richard Allan - Student; Laura Brooks - Mrs. Gunther; Steve Carruthers - Bit Man; Leo Cleary - Court Clerk; Jean Corbett - Bit Girl; Robert Easton - TV commercial actor; Fred Graham - Bartender; Victoria Horne - Waitress; Richard Karlan - Husband; Paul Kruger - Doorman; Alphonse Martell - Maitre D'; Clive Morgan - French captain; Robert Nichols - Student; Vicki Raaf - Receptionist; Mary Treen - Bit Wife; Robert B. Williams - Photographer; May Wynn - Cigarette Girl; Tony DeMario - Waiter; Don Kohler - Photographer; Joe Recht - Busboy; Warren Mace - Bit Man; Al Herman - Drunk; Barbara Woodell - Receptionist
The respectable lives of Professor of English literature Thornton Sayre (Clifton Webb) and his daughter Carol (Anne Francis) are severely disrupted when it is revealed that he was once a matinee idol known as "Dreamboat". His films are being reshown on a television show hosted by his former costar Gloria Marlowe (Ginger Rogers). The college administrators clamor for his resignation, but President Mathilda May Coffey (Elsa Lanchester) requests and is given discretionary power to decide what to do. In private, she admits to Thornton that she had been one of his biggest fans.
Thornton hastily leaves for New York to get an injunction against the show, taking Carol along. There they meet Sam Levitt (Fred Clark), the man responsible for airing the movies. While Sam and Gloria try to get Thornton to change his mind, Sam has underling Bill Ainslee (Jeffrey Hunter) show Carol the sights. Undaunted, Thornton eventually gets his injunction, but his life is irreparably changed. He is fired, and Bill and Carol have fallen in love and are planning to get married.
When Gloria gloats over his setbacks, he reveals that a major movie studio is interested in reviving his film career. She then reveals that she bought his contract and is now his boss. Months later, Bill and Carol watch Thornton in Sitting Pretty - a real film starring Clifton Webb.
Cast
Clifton Webb as Thornton Sayre / "Dreamboat" / Bruce Blair
