Blessed Event

Blessed Event
Directed by	Roy Del Ruth
Written by	Howard J. Green
Based on	Blessed Event 1932 play by Manuel Seff and Forrest Wilson
Starring	Lee Tracy Mary Brian
Cinematography	Sol Polito
Edited by	James Gibbon
Music by	Frank Marsales
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Release date	September 10, 1932 (1932-09-10)
Running time	80 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Blessed Event is a 1932 American pre-Code comedy-drama film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring Lee Tracy as a newspaper gossip columnist who becomes entangled with a gangster. The Tracy character (Alvin Roberts) was reportedly patterned after Walter Winchell, famous gossip columnist of the era. The film marked Dick Powell's film debut.

Plot

Alvin Roberts feuds with singer Bunny Harmon. Roberts reports on society people who are expecting a "blessed event", i.e. going to have a child. One such report antagonizes a gangster in a delicate situation, who sends over a henchman to threaten him. Roberts manages to turn the tables on the gangster.

The character of Bunny Harmon is a parody of Rudy Vallee, as both of them sing and play saxophone, and Vallee's band was called the Connecticut Yankees, while Harmon's is the Green Mountain Boys, a reference to another New England state, Vermont. The feud between Roberts and Harmon is a parody of the real-life (contrived) feud between Walter Winchell and bandleader Ben Bernie.

Cast

• Lee Tracy as Alvin Roberts
• Mary Brian as Gladys Price
• Dick Powell as Bunny Harmon
• Allen Jenkins as Frankie Wells
• Ruth Donnelly as Miss Stevens
• Emma Dunn as Mrs. Roberts
• Edwin Maxwell as Sam Goebel
• Ned Sparks as George Moxley
• Walter Walker as Mr. Miller
• Frank McHugh as Reilly
• Herman Bing as Emil
• George Chandler as Hanson (uncredited)
• Isabel Jewell as Dorothy Lane (uncredited)

External links

• Blessed Event at the TCM Movie Database
• Blessed Event at IMDb
• Blessed Event at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films