Golden Age of Hollywood's Pinnacle My mother used to reminisce about how her Dad took the whole family to see this wonderful film when it first came out. According to her, it was a real happening. Years later when I saw it at a retrospective, I suddenly realized why. I mean was there ever a greater cast assembled for one film...Irene Dunne, Allan Jones, Helen Morgan, Charlie Winninger, Helen Westley, Paul Robeson, Hattie McDaniel, Queenie Smith, etc. Dunne and Morgan are heartbreaking in their roles, Winninger and Westley in turn both hilarious and heroic, Robeson and McDaniel monumental. My favorite scene is where Captain Andy and Magnolia are reunited in Chicago when after his long search for her, he finds her at the Trocadero. Irene Dunne's rendition of "After the Ball" is haunting. Legend has it that she insisted that it be recorded live so as to convey the song's emotional magnitude. When she sings it, we the audience feel every hurt and heartache that has befallen Magnolia, and the fact that she sings it to her beloved father with whom she is now reunited is just icing on the cake. This is the penultimate film version of Edna Ferber's novel, so much more sincere and evocative than MGM's splashy color 1951 remake. The 1936 cast could act, sing and emote circles around their 1950s' counterparts. After all, most of the cast members were troupers of the old school and brought the wealth of their life experiences to each of their roles.