One Heavenly Night Reviews

On a trip to Europe, Samuel Goldwyn saw Evelyn Laye on the British stage and was captivated by her. Upon returning to America, he set out to create a vehicle that he was certain would catapult the actress-singer to stardom. He hired Pulitzer Prize-winning authors Louis Bromfield and Sidney Howard to come up with a story and their collaboration resulted in ONE HEAVENLY NIGHT. Set in Budapest, the film stars Laye as a flower girl who is persuaded to pose as Tashman, a sultry cabaret singer. As the entertainer, she is pursued by Boles, a dashing count. Laye falls for the count, but Tashman complicates matters when she reveals the duplicity and attempts to woo Boles herself. Boles knows true love though, and he finds Laye, who has fled after being exposed, and claims her for his wife. Laye made a memorable debut in the film, and the rest of the cast is good, as is the score, but the entire project was undone by the trite story. The movie proved to be a box-office failure for Goldwyn's production company and he was so unnerved by it that he never made another operetta, nor did he ever again cast Laye, Boles, Tashman, or Errol in any of his films. As for Laye, she made four more films in Hollywood, ending with PRINCESS CHARMING (1935), then returned to the British stage where she remained a popular star into the 1950s. Musical numbers in ONE HEAVENLY NIGHT include "I Belong to Everybody" (Tashman); "Along the Road of Dreams" (Laye); "My Heart Is Beating," "Heavenly Night (When Evening Is Near)" (Boles, Laye); "Goodnight Serenade" (Boles, Laye, men's chorus), all with music by Nacio Herb Brown and Bruno Granichstadten and lyrics by Edward Eliscu and Clifford Grey.