AFI Catalog of Feature Films
Movie Detail
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Millie
Director: John Francis Dillon (Dir)
Release Date:   8 Feb 1931
Premiere Information:   New York opening: 6 Feb 1931
Production Date:   began late Nov 1930
Duration (in mins):   81 or 85
Duration (in feet):   7,606
Duration (in reels):   9
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Cast:   Helen Twelvetrees (Millie Blake Maitland)  
    Lilyan Tashman (Helen)  
    Robert Ames (Tommy Rock)  
    James Hall (Jack Maitland)  
    John Halliday (Jimmy Damier)  
    Joan Blondell (Angie Wickerstaff)  
    Anita Louise (Connie Maitland)  
    Edmund Breese (Attorney)  
    Frank McHugh (John Holmes)  
    Charlotte Walker (Mrs. Maitland)  
    Franklin Parker (Spring)  
    Charles Delaney (Mike)  
    Harry Stubbs (Mark)  
    Harvey Clark (Hawksworth)  
    Carmelita Geraghty (Miss Vall)  
    Geneva Mitchell (Clara Roscoe)  
    Otis Harlan (Luke)  
    Marie Astaire (Bobby)  
    Aggie Herring (Landlady)  
    Hooper Atchley    

Summary: Soon after her father dies, young Millie Blake leaves college to elope with businessman Jack Maitland and move to New York. Three years later, Millie, now the mother of baby Connie, frets over her wealthy husband's frequent absences and his suddenly indifferent manner. After Jack leaves on a business trip, a lonely Millie agrees to meet Angie Wickerstaff, a hometown friend, at a cabaret. There, Angie and Millie, who have been joined by Helen, Angie's gold-digging roommate, spot Jack dancing with an attractive blonde. Millie confronts Jack with his infidelity and then files for divorce, leaving Connie to be raised in prosperity by Jack and his mother. Embittered by her experience, Millie vows to be self-supporting and gets a job as a clerk at a hotel tobacco shop, where she meets newspaper reporter Tommy Rock. Although she rejects the advances of rich banker Jimmy Damier in favor of Tommy, Millie, determined to remain independent, refuses Tommy's proposals. Eventually, Millie is named the manager of all of the hotel's concessions, and Jimmy, as a favor to Millie, offers Tommy a lucrative position in his bank. To celebrate, Millie throws a nightclub party in Tommy's honor, but learns through gossip that Tommy is spending the evening with another woman. Exposed, Tommy is dumped by a heartbroken Millie, who then finds solace in the arms of Jimmy and many other men. Eight years later, Millie hears that Jimmy has been spending time with her ex-husband and ingratiating himself with the beautiful seventeen-year-old Connie. After Millie threatens him, Jimmy assures her that he will stop seeing Connie, but later sneaks the innocent girl to his country lodge. When Millie is informed by Jimmy's chauffeur that Connie is with Jimmy, she rushes to the lodge with a gun and shoots her former lover in front of her daughter. While testifying at her trial, Millie refuses to mention her daughter, but at the behest of Tommy, Connie steps forward and provides her mother with the motive that saves her life. 

Production Company: Charles R. Rogers Productions, Inc.  
Distribution Company: RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.  
Director: John Francis Dillon (Dir)
Producer: Chas. R. Rogers (Prod)
  Harry Joe Brown (Assoc prod)
Writer: Chas. Kenyon (Adpt and cont)
  Chas. Kenyon (Dial)
  Ralph Morgan (Dial)
Photography: Ernest Hall (Photog)
Film Editor: Fred Allen (Film ed)
Music: Arthur Lange (Mus dir)
Sound: Robert Pritchard (Sd tech)
Production Misc: Sid Rogell (Unit mgr)
Country: United States
Language: English

Songs: "Millie," words and music by Nacio Herb Brown.
Composer: Nacio Herb Brown
Source Text: Based on the novel Millie by Donald Henderson Clarke (New York, 1930).
Authors: Donald Henderson Clarke

Copyright Claimant Copyright Date Copyright Number
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. 6/2/1931 dd/mm/yyyy LP1984

Physical Properties: b&w:
  Sd: Western Electric Equipment

 
Genre: Drama
 
Subjects (Major): Cads
  Disillusionment
  Infidelity
  Love affairs
  Mothers and daughters
 
Subjects (Minor): Bankers
  Cabarets
  Elopement
  Gold diggers
  Gossip
  Hotels
  Justifiable homicide
  Marriage
  New York City
  Nightclubs
  Parties
  Reporters
  Saleswomen
  Seduction
  Trials

Note: Sound technician Robert Pritchard's surname was misspelled in the onscreen credits as "Prichard." According to modern sources, Charles R. Rogers produced Millie as an independent film but sold the distribution rights to RKO Radio Pictures after he was made chief executive of RKO-Pathé Studios in Jan 1931. 

Bibliographic Sources:   Date   Page
Film Daily   18 Nov 30   p. 6.
Film Daily   25 Jan 31   p. 10.
Motion Picture Herald   17 Jan 31   pp. 60-61.
Motion Picture Herald   7 Feb 31   pp. 28-29.
Motion Picture Herald   22 Mar 31   p. 92.
New York Times   7 Feb 31   p. 11.
Variety   11 Feb 31   p. 29.

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The American Film Institute is grateful to Sir Paul Getty KBE and the Sir Paul Getty KBE Estate for their dedication to the art of the moving image and their support for the AFI Catalog of Feature Films and without whose support AFI would not have been able to achieve this historical landmark in this epic scholarly endeavor.
 
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