She was forever known as the "Oomph Girl" after Warner Brothers conducted a contest of Hollywood starlets naming the top actress with the most sex appeal. Ann Sheridan won the promotional contest to headline her first lead role in April 1940's "It All Came True."
Initially embarrassed by the promotional ploy by Warner Brothers to elevate her film career beginning in 1934, Sheridan's crowning as the "Oomph Girl" catapulted her into higher budgeted pictures. She beat actresses Alice Faye, Carole Lombard, Hedy Lamarr and Marlene Dietrich among others, but said winning was similar to the sound of old men bending over to tie their shoes. The studio got the idea of the contest when gossip columnist Walter Winchell, an admirer of Sheridan after seeing her as James Cagney's girlfriend in 1938's "Angels with Dirty Faces," wrote she had "oomph." Forming a committee of judges made up of studio filmmakers, including Busby Berkeley and Rudy Vallee, the panel named Sheridan the winner possessing "a certain indefinable something that commands male interest."
Sheridan shrugged off the crown until actor Paul Muni told her she would be a fool not to ride the wave of excitement of the "Oomph Girl." In retrospect she admitted right before the release of "It All Came True" she no longer "bemoaned the 'oomph' tag. I know if it hadn't been for 'oomph' I'd probably still be in the chorus." Sheridan received over 250 weekly mailed marriage proposals. And she became one of the most popular pin-up girls during World War Two.
As Sarah Jane, Sheridan plays an aspiring nightclub singer who lives in a boarding house with her mother, Maggie Ryan (Una O'Connor). The house is mortgaged by Mrs. Nora Taylor (Jessie Busley), who dreams her musician son Tommy (Jeffrey Lynn of Deanna Durbin films fame) will return from a five-year hiatus to rescue her from debt. He does, but only with the help from night club owner and murderer Chips Maquire (Humphrey Bogart), who becomes a boarder hiding from the police.
The third-billed Bogart behind Sheridan and Lynn continued to be typecast as a gangster like he was in "It All Came True," but this role came with a comedic edge. It was one of his meatier roles after George Raft turned it down, calling it a "Humphrey Bogart part." Bogie shows his warm side by not only paying Mrs. Taylor debt, but transitioning the boarding house into a respectable dinner show place, with Sarah Jane singing the original tunes Tommy has composed on his piano. The actor drew headlines from his performance such as "Bogart Steals Comedy Honors," "Humphrey Bogart Excells," and "Humphrey Bogart Tops," a recognition to his acting talents by the press. A good friend of Bogie's, writer Louis Bromfield, who authored the book 'Better Than Life,' which the film was based on, wrote a letter to producer Hal B. Wallis noting, "I doubt that his talents as a comedian, which are very great, have been enough appreciated." Less than a year later Bogart would become one of Hollywood's most popular actors with his appearances in two Wallis-produced movies, 1941s "High Sierra" and "The Maltese Falcon." Bogie's public appeal rose so much that by the time "It All Came True" was re-released in 1945, his name appeared above Sheridan's in the opening credits.
Film reviewer Dennis Schwartz praised "It All Came True," writing, "This ignored gangster comedy is a treat because Sheridan and Bogie give it star power, while the character actor supporting cast are wonderfully zany. Bogie has the film's best line: "I hate mothers: all this 'silver-threads-among-the-gold' stuff!"
Initially embarrassed by the promotional ploy by Warner Brothers to elevate her film career beginning in 1934, Sheridan's crowning as the "Oomph Girl" catapulted her into higher budgeted pictures. She beat actresses Alice Faye, Carole Lombard, Hedy Lamarr and Marlene Dietrich among others, but said winning was similar to the sound of old men bending over to tie their shoes. The studio got the idea of the contest when gossip columnist Walter Winchell, an admirer of Sheridan after seeing her as James Cagney's girlfriend in 1938's "Angels with Dirty Faces," wrote she had "oomph." Forming a committee of judges made up of studio filmmakers, including Busby Berkeley and Rudy Vallee, the panel named Sheridan the winner possessing "a certain indefinable something that commands male interest."
Sheridan shrugged off the crown until actor Paul Muni told her she would be a fool not to ride the wave of excitement of the "Oomph Girl." In retrospect she admitted right before the release of "It All Came True" she no longer "bemoaned the 'oomph' tag. I know if it hadn't been for 'oomph' I'd probably still be in the chorus." Sheridan received over 250 weekly mailed marriage proposals. And she became one of the most popular pin-up girls during World War Two.
As Sarah Jane, Sheridan plays an aspiring nightclub singer who lives in a boarding house with her mother, Maggie Ryan (Una O'Connor). The house is mortgaged by Mrs. Nora Taylor (Jessie Busley), who dreams her musician son Tommy (Jeffrey Lynn of Deanna Durbin films fame) will return from a five-year hiatus to rescue her from debt. He does, but only with the help from night club owner and murderer Chips Maquire (Humphrey Bogart), who becomes a boarder hiding from the police.
The third-billed Bogart behind Sheridan and Lynn continued to be typecast as a gangster like he was in "It All Came True," but this role came with a comedic edge. It was one of his meatier roles after George Raft turned it down, calling it a "Humphrey Bogart part." Bogie shows his warm side by not only paying Mrs. Taylor debt, but transitioning the boarding house into a respectable dinner show place, with Sarah Jane singing the original tunes Tommy has composed on his piano. The actor drew headlines from his performance such as "Bogart Steals Comedy Honors," "Humphrey Bogart Excells," and "Humphrey Bogart Tops," a recognition to his acting talents by the press. A good friend of Bogie's, writer Louis Bromfield, who authored the book 'Better Than Life,' which the film was based on, wrote a letter to producer Hal B. Wallis noting, "I doubt that his talents as a comedian, which are very great, have been enough appreciated." Less than a year later Bogart would become one of Hollywood's most popular actors with his appearances in two Wallis-produced movies, 1941s "High Sierra" and "The Maltese Falcon." Bogie's public appeal rose so much that by the time "It All Came True" was re-released in 1945, his name appeared above Sheridan's in the opening credits.
Film reviewer Dennis Schwartz praised "It All Came True," writing, "This ignored gangster comedy is a treat because Sheridan and Bogie give it star power, while the character actor supporting cast are wonderfully zany. Bogie has the film's best line: "I hate mothers: all this 'silver-threads-among-the-gold' stuff!"