Second Fiddle

• Director: Sidney Lanfield
• AMG Rating:
• Genre: Musical
• Movie Type: Showbiz Comedy, Satire
• Themes: Rags To Riches, Love Triangles
• Main Cast: Tyrone Power, Rudy Vallee, Edna May Oliver, Mary Healy
• Release Year: 1939
• Country: US
• Run Time: 86 minutes

Plot

Sonja Henie, the Norwegian skating star, reportedly played second fiddle to no one at Fox in the late '30s, and this backstage musical extravaganza is all Henie. Taking a leaf from producer David O. Selznick, Consolidated Pictures send public relation expert Tyrone Power in search of an unknown to star in the studio's upcoming production of Girl of the North. Power returns to Hollywood with Minnesota schoolmarm (and figure skating expert) Trudy Hovland in tow, and then manufactures a romance between the girl and stolid leading man Roger Maxwell (Rudy Vallee). The ensuing complications are quickly solved and the new star is able to perform a flashy finale to Irving Berlin's "The Song of the Metronome." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Cast

• Tyrone Power - Jimmy Sutton
• Rudy Vallee - Roger Maxwell
• Edna May Oliver - Aunt Phoebe Hovland
• Mary Healy - Jean Varick

Lyle Talbot - Willie Hogger; Alan Dinehart - George "Whit" Whitney; Minna Gombell - Jenny; Stewart Reburn - Skating Partner; Spencer Charters - Joe Clayton; John Hiestand - Announcer; George Chandler - Taxi Driver; Irving Bacon - Justice of the Peace Harvey Vaughan; Maurice Cass - Justice of the Peace Alex Blank; Ralph Brooks - Dining Extra; A.S. Byron - Bit; Frank Coghlan, Jr. - Call Boy; Donald Douglas - Director; Edward Earle - Greg; Fern Emmett - Woman; Sonja Henie - Trudi Hovland; Leyland Hodgson - Henry the Maitre d'Hotel; The King Sisters - Themselves; Robert Lowery - Orchestra Leader; Lillian Porter - Jimmy's Girl; Purnell Pratt - Abbott the Editor; Jed Prouty; Cyril Ring - Florist; Brian Sisters - Specialty; Gertrude Sutton; Charles Tannen - Assistant Director; Minerva Urecal - Miss Bland the School Principal; Dale Van Sickel - Musician; Charles Lane - Studio Chief; Charles Brokaw; Harold Goodwin - Photographer; Angela Blue

Credit

Richard Day - Art Director, Hans Peters - Art Director, Harry Losee - Choreography, Royer - Costume Designer, Sidney Lanfield - Director, Robert L. Simpson - Editor, Irving Berlin - Composer (Music Score), Louis Silvers - Musical Direction/Supervision, Leon Shamroy - Cinematographer, Gene Markey - Producer, Darryl F. Zanuck - Producer, Thomas K. Little - Set Designer, Harry Tugend - Screenwriter, George Bradshaw - Short Story Author