Reaching for the Moon
About Reaching for the Moon
Wall Street man Larry Day does not know how to court anyone, so his valet Roger coaches him. He follows Vivian Benton onto an ocean liner, where cocktails dosed with a 'love potion' do the work. Then the market wipes out his fortune, and he thinks he has lost her as well.
Cast & crew
More about Reaching for the Moon
Edmund Goulding directed and wrote it, with additional dialogue by Elsie Janis, from a story by Irving Berlin. Joseph M. Schenck presented it. United Artists released it on December 29, 1930. It was planned as a Berlin musical. By mid-1930 the studio had decided the public was done with musicals, and Goulding dropped most of the songs. Costs still reached a million dollars. The original running time was 91 minutes.
Themes
Background
The story puts the 1929 market crash on a liner romance: Larry loses the fortune in the middle of the courtship.
Making
Berlin and Goulding did not get on, and the songs were the casualty. Five Berlin numbers had been recorded. One stayed in the release print.
Reviews
Variety wrote that the picture kept only a chorus of a Berlin tune, started by Bing Crosby in the ship's bar and taken up by Bebe Daniels and June MacCloy.
Music
Irving Berlin wrote the songs, and Alfred Newman directed the music. Only 'When the Folks High-Up Do the Mean Low-Down' is sung. 'Reaching for the Moon' remains as underscoring.
Preservation
The 91-minute release is not the version usually seen. Circulating prints run about 62 minutes, with a 74-minute AMC copy from 1998 and a DVD just under 72 minutes.
Notes
- Douglas Fairbanks plays Larry Day, Bebe Daniels plays Vivian Benton, and Edward Everett Horton plays the valet Roger.
- Bing Crosby, then with Paul Whiteman's Rhythm Boys, sings one chorus of 'When the Folks High-Up Do the Mean Low-Down' after a night's work at the Cocoanut Grove. Daniels and June MacCloy pick the song up.
- The title song is heard only as instrumental music, over the credits, under a love scene, and briefly at the end.
- Variety of January 7, 1931, noted that none of Berlin's songs remained except that one hot chorus.
- Surviving copies are often cut to 62 minutes. A 74-minute version played on AMC in 1998. The DVD runs just under 72 minutes.
Scenes
- Roger coaches Larry before he follows Vivian aboard.
- Crosby starts the remaining Berlin chorus in the ship's bar.
- The crash takes Larry's money while he is still at sea.
Also available
- Internet Archive (ReachingForTheMoondecember291930)
