Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? is a 1975 documentary film directed by Philippe Mora,[4] consisting largely of newsreel footage and contemporary film clips[5] to portray the era of the Great Depression.[6][7]
Summary
The film serves as a nostalgic and evocative scrapbook of the Depression from the Wall Street crash of 1929 to the Attack on Pearl Harbor.[8][9][10]
Cast
- The Andrews Sisters
- Fred Astaire
- Warner Baxter
- Jack Benny
- Busby Berkeley
- Willie Best
- Humphrey Bogart
- George Burns
- James Cagney
- Cab Calloway
- Eddie Cantor
- Hobart Cavanaugh
- George Chandler
- Charlie Chaplin
- Winston Churchill
- Betty Compson
- Gary Cooper
- Bing Crosby
- Frankie Darro
- Cecil B. DeMille
- Marlene Dietrich
- John Dillinger
- Walt Disney
- James Dunn
- Cliff Edwards
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
- Bill Elliot
- Madge Evans
- Stepin Fetchit
- W. C. Fields
- Dick Foran
- Gerald Ford
- Clark Gable
- Benny Goodman
- Cary Grant
- Woody Guthrie
- Gabby Hayes
- Billie Holiday
- Herbert Hoover
- J. Edgar Hoover
- Paul Robeson
- Shirley Temple
Selected films featured
- King Kong[16]
- I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang[17]
- Citizen Kane[16]
- Wild Boys of the Road[18][19]
- The Roaring Twenties[18]
- American Madness[18]
- Mr. Smith Goes to Washington[18]
- Gold Diggers of 1933[20]
- Lady Killer[20]
- G Men[20]
Accolades
1976: Nominated-Golden Globe Award for Best Documentary Film[21]
Home media
A DVD from Image Entertainment was released in 1999 and again in 2018 by Artiflix. It was also released on DVD and Blu-Ray via The Sprocket Vault.[18]
See also
All This and World War II, a similar 1976 ‘scrapbook’ documentary about World War II scored to music of the Beatles.
References
- ^ MIFF Archive:|MIFF 2023
- ^ Contemporary American Independent Film – Google Books (pg.47)
- ^ Donahue, Suzanne Mary (1987). American film distribution : the changing marketplace. UMI Research Press. p. 297. ISBN 978-0-8357-1776-2. Please note figures are for rentals in US and Canada
- ^ FilmAffinity
- ^ Documentary Films – filmsite.org
- ^ Turner Classic Movies
- ^ MUBI
- ^ TimeOut
- ^ Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
- ^ Los Angeles Press on JSTOR (Vol. 12, Issue 578, 08-15-1975, pg.22)
- ^ Eder, Richard (8 August 1975). “‘Can You Spare a Dime?’ Evokes 1930’s (Published 1975)”. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 24 June 2023.
- ^ AllMovie Review
- ^ BROTHER, CAN YOU SPARE A DIME?-Library of Congress
- ^ TV Guide
- ^ Doblu.com
- ^ a b Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? Movie Review| Roger Ebert
- ^ AllMovie
- ^ a b c d e DVD Review on Trailers from Hell
- ^ BFI
- ^ a b c Cummings, Larry B. (7 October 1975). “Breadlines and Grilled Millionaire”. The Harvard Crimson.
- ^ Golden Globes