page_title: Damon Runyon
section_title: Film
hierarchical_section_title: Damon Runyon / Literary works / Film
caption_attribution_description: English: Promotional photograph of the film Lady for a Day starring Warren William and May Robson
context_page_description: Alfred Damon Runyon was an American newspaperman and short-story writer.
  He was best known for his short stories celebrating the world of Broadway in New York City that grew out of the Prohibition era. To New Yorkers of his generation, a "Damon Runyon character" evoked a distinctive social type from the Brooklyn or Midtown demi-monde. The adjective "Runyonesque" refers to this type of character as well as to the type of situations and dialog that Runyon depicted. He spun humorous and sentimental tales of gamblers, hustlers, actors, and gangsters, few of whom go by "square" names, preferring instead colorful monikers such as "Nathan Detroit", "Benny Southstreet", "Big Jule", "Harry the Horse", "Good Time Charley", "Dave the Dude", or "The Seldom Seen Kid". His distinctive vernacular style is known as "Runyonese": a mixture of formal speech and colorful slang, almost always in present tense, and always devoid of contractions. He is credited with coining the phrase "Hooray Henry", a term now used in British English to describe the upper class version of a loud-mouthed, arrogant twit.
context_section_description: Twenty of his stories became motion pictures.
  Lady for a Day (1933) – Adapted by Robert Riskin, who suggested the name change from Runyon's title "Madame La Gimp", the film garnered Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Director (Frank Capra), Best Actress (May Robson), and Best Adaptation for the Screen (Riskin). It was remade as Pocketful of Miracles in 1961, with Bette Davis in the Apple Annie role (fused with the "raggedy doll" from Runyon's short story "The Brain Goes Home"); Frank Sinatra recorded the upbeat title song (his rendition is not used in the film). The film received Oscar nominations for composers Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen and for co-star Peter Falk (Best Supporting Actor). In 1989, Jackie Chan adapted the story yet again for the Hong Kong action film Miracles, adding several of his trademark stunt sequences.
  Little Miss Marker (1934) – The film that made Shirley Temple a star, launched her career, and pushed her past Greta Garbo as the nation's biggest film draw of the year. Also starred Charles Bickford. Subsequent remakes include Sorrowful Jones (1949) with Bob Hope and Lucille Ball; 40 Pounds of Trouble (1962) with Tony Curtis, and Little Miss Marker (1980) with Walter Matthau, Julie Andrews, Bob Newhart and Curtis.
  The Lemon Drop Kid (1934) – Starring Lee Tracy, remade in 1951 with Bob Hope (and I Love Lucy co-star William Frawley appearing in both adaptations); the latter version introduced the Christmas song "Silver Bells".
  Princess O'Hara (1935) – Starring Jean Parker, remade in 1943 as It Ain't Hay with Abbott and Costello and Patsy O'Connor
  Professional Soldier (1935) – an adventure story starring Victor McLaglen and Freddie Bartholomew
  A Slight Case of Murder (1938) with Edward G. Robinson – remade in 1953 as Stop, You're Killing Me with Broderick Crawford and Claire Trevor
  Joe and Ethel Turp Call on the President (1939) with Ann Sothern, Lewis Stone and Walter Brennan.
  The Big Street (1942) – Henry Fonda, Lucille Ball (adapted from Runyon's story "Little Pinks")
  Butch Minds the Baby (1942) – Broderick Crawford, Shemp Howard
  Johnny One-Eye – (1950) Starring Pat O'Brien, Wayne Morris, Delores Moran, and Gayle Reed
  Money from Home (1953)  – Starring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis
  Guys and Dolls (1955)  – Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra, Vivian Blaine, and Stubby Kaye. Blaine and Kaye reprised their roles from the 1950 Broadway production. Adapted from the story "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown". The big craps game is adapted from the story "Blood Pressure".
  Bloodhounds of Broadway (1989) – Ensemble cast starring Matt Dillon, Jennifer Grey, Madonna, and Julie Hagerty, among others. The film combines elements from four stories into one large one: "A Very Honorable  Guy", "The Brain Goes Home", "Social Error", and "The Bloodhounds of Broadway".
  In 1938, his unproduced play Saratoga Chips became the basis of The Ritz Brothers film Straight, Place and Show.
caption: Dave the Dude (Warren William) and Apple Annie (May Robson) in Lady for a Day (1933)
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