Dreamboat (film)

Dreamboat
Directed by	Claude Binyon
Written by	Claude Binyon
Based on	Love Man 1950-1 Collier's serial story by John D. Weaver
Produced by	Sol C. Siegel
Starring	Clifton Webb Ginger Rogers Anne Francis Jeffrey Hunter
Cinematography	Milton R. Krasner
Edited by	James B. Clark
Music by	Cyril J. Mockridge
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	July 26, 1952 (1952-07-26)
Running time	83 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$2 million[1][2]

Dreamboat is a 1952 American comedy film directed by Claude Binyon, starring Clifton Webb, Ginger Rogers, Anne Francis and Jeffrey Hunter.

Webb plays a college professor with a glamorous past which he would rather have forgotten.

Plot[]

Anne Francis and Clifton Webb in Dreamboat

The respectable lives of English Literature lecturer Thornton Sayre and his daughter, Carol, are severely disrupted when it is revealed that he was once a matinee idol known as El Toro (based on Zorro) and other romantic figures and widely known as the "Dreamboat"; his films are now being broadcast on television in a show hosted by his former co-star, Gloria Marlowe.

The college administration committee ask for his resignation, but their president Dr Mathilda May Coffey 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.

His daughter is belittled by fellow students due to the revelation. Her father affirms that he was a teacher before he was an actor.

Thornton hastily leaves for New York to get an injunction against the show, taking Carol along. There they meet Sam Levitt, the man responsible for airing the movies. While Sam and Gloria try to get Thornton to change his mind, Sam has underling Bill Ainslee show Carol the sights.

Undaunted, Thornton eventually gets his injunction, but his life is irreparably changed: he is fired after spurning Coffey's advances, and Bill and Carol have fallen in love and are planning to get married.

When Gloria gloats over his setbacks, Thornton reveals that a major movie studio is interested in reviving his film career. Months later, Bill and Carol attend Thornton's premiere in Sitting Pretty - a real film starring Clifton Webb. Gloria then reveals to Thornton that she has bought his contract and is now his boss.

Cast[]

Music[]

The film featured the 1920 standard Al Jolson hit Avalon, written by Al Jolson, Buddy DeSylva and Vincent Rose.

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dreamboat (1952 film).

• Dreamboat at the TCM Movie Database
• Dreamboat at IMDb
• Dreamboat at AllMovie
• Dreamboat at the American Film Institute Catalog