The Matinee Idol

The Matinee Idol

Here's a real comedy of the theater, which takes you behind the scenes of a thrilling melodrama and shows you how they acted in the old ten-twenty-thirties. You'll learn how to make love and say nice things to your sweetheart.

NR 1928 · 56 min · ★ 6.6 · Romance, Comedy

The famous matinee idol and blackface comedian, Don Wilson, heads out of town to escape adulation. There, calling himself Harry Mann, he accidentally joins a traveling acting troupe, and falls in love with Ginger Bolivar, who runs the troupe and stars in their Civil War melodrama. Don's producer sees the play, and thinks it's a comic masterpiece, and just what Don's Broadway show needs. But when Ginger finds out she's been played for a fool, will she forgive Don? Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. in 1997.

Directed by Frank Capra · Written by Ernest Pagano

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Cast

Bessie Love Ginger Bolivar
Johnnie Walker Don Wilson - aka Harry Mann
Ernest Hilliard Arnold Wingate
Lionel Belmore Jasper Bolivar
David Mir Eric Barrymaine
Joe Bordeaux Auditoning Actor (uncredited)
Sidney Bracey Don's Valet (uncredited)
Sidney D'Albrook J. Madison Wilberforce (uncredited)
Mary Gordon Woman in Audience (uncredited)

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