HOLLYWOOD
MOVIE MUSICALS
Great, Good and Glamorous
John Howard Reid
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Copyright (c) 2011 by John Howard Reid
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HOLLYWOOD
CLASSICS 16
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Other Books in the “Hollywood Classics” series:
1. New Light on Movie Bests
2. “B” Movies, Bad Movies, Good Movies
3. Award-Winning Films of the 1930s
4. Movie Westerns: Hollywood Films the Wild, Wild West
5. Memorable Films of the Forties
6. Popular Pictures of the Hollywood 1940s
7. Your Colossal Main Feature Plus Full Support Program
8. Hollywood’s Miracles of Entertainment
9. Hollywood Gold: Films of the Forties and Fifties
10. Hollywood “B” Movies: A Treasury of Spills, Chills & Thrills
11. Movies Magnificent: 150 Must-See Cinema Classics
12. These Movies Won No Hollywood Awards
13. Movie Mystery & Suspense
14. America’s Best, Britain’s Finest
15. Films Famous, Fanciful, Frolicsome and Fantastic
16. Hollywood Movie Musicals
17. “Hollywood Classics” Index Books 1-16
18. More Movie Musicals
19. Success in the Cinema
20. Best Western Movies
21. Great Cinema Detectives
22. Great Hollywood Westerns
23. Science-Fiction & Fantasy Cinema
24. Hollywood’s Classic Comedies
25. Title Index to All Movies Reviewed in Books 1—24
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Additional Movie Books by John Howard Reid
CinemaScope
One: Stupendous in Scope
CinemaScope Two: 20th
Century-Fox
CinemaScope 3: Hollywood Takes the Plunge
Mystery, Suspense, Film Noir and Detective Movies on DVD: A Guide to the Best in Cinema Thrills
WESTERNS: A Guide to the Best (and Worst) Western Movies on DVD
British Movie Entertainments on VHS and DVD
Silent Films & Early Talkies on DVD: A Classic Movie Fan’s Guide
http://www.filmindex.0catch.com
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Table of Contents
Artie Shaw and His Orchestra (1939)
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Beyond the Blue Horizon (1942)
Borrah Minevitch and His Harmonica School (1943)
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Everything Happens At Night (1939)
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George Hall and His Orchestra (1937)
Glorifying the American Girl (1929)
Goldilocks and the Three Bears (1939)
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Invitation to the Dance (1957)
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Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra (1938)
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King Kelly of the U.S.A. (1934)
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My Friend Irma Goes West (1950)
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Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938)
Rose of Washington Square (1939)
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Something To Sing About (1937)
Stan Kenton and His Orchestra (1946)
Sunday Night at the Trocadero (1937)
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Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967)
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Where Did You Get That Girl? (1941)
Where Do We Go From Here? (1945)
Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962)
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Pat Kirkwood (Vesta Tilley), Laurence Harvey (Walter de Frece), Jerry Stovin (Frank Tanhill), Jerry Verno (Harry Ball), Clive Morton (Henry de Frece), Marjorie Rhodes (Bessie), Leonard Sachs (Richard Warner), Ballard Berkeley (Andrews), Margaret Sawyer (Vesta Tilley as a child), Franklyn Scott (doctor), Concepta Fennell (nurse 1), Una Venning (matron), David Hurst (Perelli), Roland Brand (customs officer), Philip Ashley (ship’s officer), Peter Carlisle (Hammerstein), John Kelly (chairman of committee), George Margo (Tony Pastor), Rita Stevens (Carmelita), June Clyde (Lottie Gilson), Cyril Chamberlain (Villiers), Barbara Graley (nurse 2), Jane Hardie (nurse in corridor), Graham Stewart (press reporter), Geoffrey Tyrrell (secretary), Margo Johns (1st woman in hospital), Mark Baker (George M. Cohan), Sydney Keith (Mr Teller), Howard Greene (corporal), Marjorie Lawrence (Mary, the maid), Olwen Brookes (housekeeper), Stella Bonheur (2nd woman in hospital), Terry Cooke (Dan Leno, Jnr), John Mott (singer), Eric Chitty (waiter), Tom Gill (manager), Charles Victor (stagehand), and the Television Toppers.
Directed by COMPTON BENNETT. Screenplay by Hubert Gregg and Peter Blackmore. Based on Recollections of Vesta Tilley by Lady de Frece. Associate producer: Gerald Thomas. Director of photography: Jack Asher. Color by Eastman Colour. Art director: Norman Arnold. Film editor: Peter Boita. Music directed by Muir Mathieson, and played by Sinfonia of London. Production manager: “Freddie” Pearson. Camera operator: Leo Rogers. Assistant director: Rene Dupont. Sound recordist: Bill Sawyer. Sound editor: Eric Boyd-Perkins. Set continuity: Rita Davison. Make-up: Jill Carpenter. Hairdressing: Bernadette Ibbetson. Shoes by Rayne. Miss Kirkwood’s dresses designed by Cynthia Tingey. R.C.A. Sound Recording. Color processed by Humphries Laboratories. A Beaconsfield Production, made at Beaconsfield Studios, England. Presented by Romulus. Producer: Peter Rogers.
Songs: “The Midnight Son”, “The Afternoon Parade”, “Algy”, “Following in Father’s Footsteps”. “Monty from Monte Carlo”, “The Seaside Sultan”, “The Prodigal Son”, “What a Nut”, “Sweetheart May”, “The Boys That Mind the Shop”, “Six Days’ Leave”, “Jolly Good Luck to the Girl That Loves a Soldier”, “The Anchors Weighed”, “The Army of Today’s All Right”. “After the Ball” by Charles K. Harris.
Not copyrighted and never theatrically released in the U.S.A., though available to TV stations (in black-and-white prints only) through American Continental. U.K. release through Independent Film Distributors in association with British Lion: 18 August 1957. Australian release through Universal-International: 19 February 1959 (sic). 8,031 feet. 89 minutes. Cut to 77 minutes in Australia, 84 minutes in New Zealand.
SYNOPSIS: It is an old time music hall in 1868 and the chairman is Harry Ball. Watching in the wings is his young daughter Tilley who is applauding every act with great enthusiasm. In their dingy lodgings that night Tilley kisses her father goodnight and goes to her room in a mysterious manner. Puzzled, Harry follows her and sees Tilley dressed as a little boy singing before a selected audience of her favourite dolls. Harry thinks the act good enough for the theatre and an act known as “Harry Ball, the tramp musician, assisted by the Great Little Tilley” is born.
The years pass slowly and the name of Tilley gets larger while that of Harry diminishes. She is a favourite wherever she plays and before long is topping the bill. As she grows into her teens and becomes famous, she and her father try to think of a new name for her. While they are running over a list Harry decides to have a smoke and asks Tilley for a match. “Throw me a Vesta, Tilley,” he asks. They look at each other suddenly. They’ve found her a new name!
Vesta Tilley grows from strength to strength singing such songs as “The Anchors Weighed” “Algy” and “After The Ball”. She is also known as the first male impersonator and her entrance wearing a top hat and tails creates a sensation. Her father becomes her manager.
She meets and falls in love with Frank Tanhill, an American artist on tour in England, but when he proposes and asks her to return with him to America she refuses because she knows her father needs her. He leaves after a tearful goodbye. Vesta at the height of her beauty and fame promises to attend a hospital ball run by Henry de Frece, a famous name in the theatre, and she meets Walter, his son who loves the theatre. His father has prevented him going on the stage and has put him in an architect’s office.
VIEWERS’ GUIDE: Okay for all.
COMMENT: Few names from the 19th century music hall still ring a bell with movie fans in 2006. One exception is Vesta Tilley. Although she retired way back in 1919, her fame was so great, she is still a household name in many parts of England today. Odd that when she first achieved show business success, she was known as “The Pocket Sims Reeves”. Although a favorite comedian of the 1860s, Mr Reeves is now completely forgotten, whereas his little clone still lives on in the minds and hearts of an overwhelmingly adoring public that passed her legend on to succeeding generations.
Although sumptuously photographed, this film account of Vesta Tilley’s life and times is a bit disappointing. True, it has atmosphere, and whenever it’s on stage, it’s lively and exciting. But the back-stage story, though no doubt partly true, is dull and cliched. Compton Bennett’s leaden direction does not help.
Also to be deplored is the characteristically unpleasing portrait delivered by Laurence Harvey as Miss Tilley’s second suitor and eventual husband. Mr Harvey is supposed to be sympathetic here, but fails dismally.
Production values, however, leave nothing to be desired. The sets and costumes, in wondrous color photography, look both right (authentically in period) and bright. Moreover the songs are put over with considerable gusto, not only from Miss Kirkwood, but they are backed up with astonishing expertise by a concert orchestra (the Sinfonia of London) rather than a band.
OTHER VIEWS: This biography of Vesta Tilley, the famous British music hall star, comes out as a very slow slice of musical history. Pat Kirkwood manages to breathe life into a great deal of it, especially when she renders some characteristic old songs like “Following in Father’s Footsteps”, “Algy” or the title tune. The film has nostalgic, sentimental appeal and there’s plenty of lovingly-recreated Edwardian-period atmosphere. But hampered by its plodding and unremarkable off-stage story, the film often barely crawls along. Still, with her bell-clear voice and spring-heeled vitality, Miss Kirkwood makes up for a lot.
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Betty Hutton (Annie Oakley), Howard Keel (Frank Butler), Louis Calhern (Buffalo Bill), J. Carroll Naish (Sitting Bull), Edward Arnold (Pawnee Bill), Keenan Wynn (Charlie Davenport), Benay Venuta (Dolly Tate), Clinton Sundberg (Foster Wilson), James H. Harrison (Mac), Bradley Mora (Little Jake), Diana Dick (Nellie), Susan Odin (Jessie), Eleanor Brown (Minnie), Chief Yowlachie (Little Horse), W. P. Wilkerson, Shooting Star, Charles Mauu, Riley Sunrise, Tom Humphreys, John War Eagle (Indian braves), Edith Mills, Dorothy Skyeagle (squaws), Sue Casey, Mary Ellen Gleason, Mary Jane French, Meredith Leeds, Helen Kimball, Dorinda Clifton, Mariette Elliott, Judy Landon (cowgirls), Jack Trent, Michael Dugan, Carl Sepulveda, Warren Macgregor, Carol Henry, Archie Butler, Fred Gilman (cowboys), Tony Taylor (little boy), Ed Kilroy (guest), William Tannen, Al Rhein, Charles Regan (barkers), Evelyn Beresford (Queen Victoria), Andre Charlot (President Loubet of France), Nino Pipitone (King Victor Emanuel), John Mylong (Kaiser Wilhelm II), Elizabeth Flournoy (Helen), Nolan Leary, Budd Fine (immigration officers), John F. Hamilton (ship’s captain), Marjorie Wood (Constance), Mae Clarke Langdon (Mrs Adams), Lee Tung Foo (waiter), Robert Malcolm (conductor), Anne O’Neal (Miss Willoughby), William Bill Hall (tall man), Edward Earle (footman), Frank Wilcox (Clay).
Directed by GEORGE SIDNEY from a screenplay by Sidney Sheldon, from the musical stage play — book by Herbert Fields and Dorothy Fields, music and lyrics by Irving Berlin — presented by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Photographed in Technicolor by Charles Rosher. Musical numbers staged by Robert Alton. Music director: Adolph Deutsch. Associate music director: Roger Edens. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons, Paul Groesse. Film editor: James E. Newcom. Set decorations: Edwin B. Willis, Richard A. Pefferle. Costumes: Helen Rose, Walter Plunkett. Hair styles: Sydney Guilaroff, Martha Acker. Make-up: Jack Dawn, Ben Lane. Special effects: A. Arnold Gillespie, Warren Newcombe. Camera operator: John Nikolaus, Jr. Technicolor color consultants: Henri Jaffa, James Gooch. Montage: Peter Ballbusch. Grip: Leo Monlon. Gaffer: M. D. Cline. Still camerman: Edward Hubbell. Script supervisor: Jack Aldworth. Assistant director: George Rhein. Production manager: Eddie Woehler. Sound: Douglas Shearer, N. Fenton. Songs: “Colonel Buffalo Bill” (chorus); “I Got the Sun in the Morning” (Betty Hutton), “You Can’t Get a Man with a Gun” (Betty Hutton); “They Say It’s Wonderful” (Betty Hutton and Howard Keel); “My Defences Are Down” (Keel); “Doin’ What Comes Naturally” (Hutton); “There’s No Business Like Show Business (Hutton, Keel, Wynn and Calhern); “The Girl That I Marry” (Keel); “Anything You Can Do” (Hutton, Keel); “I’m an Indian Too” (Hutton). An additional song “Let’s Go West Again”, was deleted from the film after its first preview. Producer: Arthur Freed.
Copyright 21 April 1950 by Loew’s Inc. An M-G-M picture. New York opening at Loew’s State: 17 May 1950. U.S. release: 23 May 1950. U.K. release: 9 October 1950. Australian release: 13 December 1950. 9,674 feet. 107 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: It was a day of mixed blessings for Phoebe Mozee when she first met up with Bill Cody, proprietor of a Wild West Show. On the one hand, she found everlasting fame as the star of his show. On the other hand, Cody continually borrowed money from her or deferred her salary as, due to his mismanagement, the Wild West Show plunged from one financial crisis to another. Mozee and her husband, a former sharpshooter named Frank Butler who gave up his own career to manage hers, made many attempts to break with Cody. Finally Fate took a hand when Mozee was critically injured when Cody’s special train was wrecked. She lingered on for many years, a pitiful pain-wracked shadow, until Death eventually released her in 1926. Her husband, Frank Butler, who had lovingly cared for her during her lengthy illness, and who had often declared he couldn’t live without her, indeed died of grief a few days later.
That, my friends, is but a flimsy precis of the true story of Annie Oakley. But it seems to me, as a writer, that anyone who couldn’t weave a vividly moving play and film out of these elements, has no business writing at all! Instead of the real Annie Oakley, the real Buffalo Bill, we are handed a lot of raucous, garish and/or cloying clichés. The characters of Oakley and Cody are as far removed from real life as possible. I can only conclude that the writers deliberately decided to present characters that were in all respects exactly opposite to the truth. The real Cody, so beset with his own importance and glorification, was a faker and fraud on such a large scale that he managed to create a legend, despite his own breathtaking incompetence. The real Annie was demure and unassertive, uneducated yet eager to learn, unsophisticated but no fool, reticent rather than garrulous, even when poor always extremely neat and tidy in appearance, possessing a quiet assurance in her skill as a sure-shot. (Well, almost sure. One day she shot at 5,000 glass balls, tossed into the air. She missed 228 times).
NOTES: M-G-M production number: 1450.
The film commenced under Busby Berkeley’s direction with Judy Garland in the title role and Frank Morgan as Buffalo Bill. The film closed down after Garland became ill (she had already recorded all the songs). Betty Hutton was borrowed from Paramount to replace Garland. Frank Morgan died on 18 September 1949. Louis Calhern was then brought in and shooting recommenced under George Sidney.
Garland version shooting from 7 March to 21 May 1949.
Hutton version shooting from 10 October to 16 December 1949, with one day of re-takes on 6 February 1950.
The stage musical opened on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre on 16 May 1946 and ran a phenomenal 1,147 performances. Ethel Merman and Ray Middleton starred. Dolores Gray starred in the London production which did even better, running 1,304 performances.
Negative cost: $3,768,785, including $1,877,528 spent on the abandoned Judy Garland version.
Initial domestic gross, only $4,650,000, although placing the film equal third at the U.S./Canadian box-office for 1950, meant that M-G-M was up for a whopping loss. Fortunately, overseas rentals plus a domestic re-issue in 1956-57 increased the studio’s total gross return to $8,010,000.
Although Conrad Salinger’s orchestrations made a major contribution to the score, only Adolph Deutsch and Roger Edens were awarded the year’s most prestigious Hollywood award for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture. (Music co-ordinator Lela Simone deserved recognition too). Annie defeated Cinderella, I’ll Get By, Three Little Words and West Point Story.
Number 3 at U.K. ticket windows, number 7 in Australia.
VIEWERS’ GUIDE: Unsuitable for historians, admirers of Truth and lovers of Drama. Very suitable for the light-of-brain and those who dote on empty spectacle and shallow story-telling.
COMMENT: A disappointment. Too long, too talky, too loud. Betty Hutton plays the title role in a stridently raucous manner; Howard Keel, in his first American film, is a tuneful but colorless Frank Butler; and the support players tend to act with all stops out. The script would be improved by considerable trimming — it seems to go on and on, shuffling long-windedly from one dreary anti-climax to the next. The direction and other production credits are so meticulously smooth all the vitality has gone right out of them. Even the big musical production numbers are staged in a dull and uninteresting fashion. Only the songs remain — and a great deal of their appeal has been whittled away by loud and cumbersome orchestrations.
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Gloria Henry (Margie McGregor), Stuart Hall (Bill Nolan), June Vincent (Pamela Trent), Mary Eleanor Donohue (Toni McGreggor), Hezzie, Ken, Gil and Gabe, the Hoosier Hot Shots (themselves), Pierre Watkin (vet), Dorothy Porter (herself), Douglas Fowley (Miss Trent’s handler), Fred F. Sears (track steward), Dick Elliott (estate agent), Eddy C. Waller (Boggs), Nicholas Joy (man with canary), Norm Leavitt (man in lobby), Zurich Haupelmeyer [Syd Taylor] (Sheriff Dibble), Cottonseed Clark, The Texas Rangers (themselves).
Director: RAY NAZARRO. Original screenplay: Barry Shipman. Photography: Rex Wimpy. Film editor: Paul Borofsky. Art director: Cary Odell. Set decorations: James Crowe. Music supervision: Paul Mertz. Music director: Mischa Bakaleinikoff. Producer: Colbert Clark.
Copyright 26 July 1948 by Columbia Pictures Corp. No New York opening. U.S. release: 29 July 1948. U.K. release: June 1950. Australian release: 8 September 1950. 7 reels. 5,791 feet. 64 minutes.
U.K. release title: WRONG NUMBER.
SYNOPSIS: The Hoosier Hot Shots are involved with a scheming beauty in this racetrack story in which the Hot Shots discover that a horse will trot like a champion only when he hears a march played on a washboard.
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Okay for all.
COMMENT: Besides the Charlie Starrett westerns, Colbert Clark’s “B”-picture production team also turned out a number of minor musicals, of which this is a fair sample. Almost all of them have a western background, though in this one the background is scarcely noticeable as the foreground is occupied by harness racing. Oddly enough, aside from the obligatory carnival montage immediately after the credit titles, there is very little stock footage — even the two racing sequences being freshly staged, and on location too!
The plot is a hoary amalgam of racing clichés (the climax was more effectively staged by the Marx Brothers in A Day at the Races) and the Hoosier Hot Shots are individually completely colorless. It would be impossible to recognise one of them, even if you bumped into him on the street on leaving the cinema! But together they make an agreeable enough screen presence, and we like their delayed entrance.
The girls are rather better, Gloria Henry a fetching heroine, June Vincent an attractive villainess, and there’s slinky Dorothy Porter caroling “Sweetheart of the Blues”. The other songs are equally pleasant.
Ray Nazarro’s direction is capable, though other credits are undistinguished. Still, all in all, the film is a passable enough time-filler.
OTHER VIEWS: A light-hearted but ineffectual comedy into which a number of musical interludes are routinely woven.
— Monthly Film Bulletin.
A competent, second-string director who never made the big-time on the big screen, Ray Nazarro ended up in TV where he directed such shows as “Mickey Spillane”, “State Trooper” and “Fury”. On the big screen, his most successful movies were Al Jennings of Oklahoma and Cripple Creek.
[All the unsigned review snippets in “Other Views” throughout this book were originally written by John Howard Reid for various publications (Films and Filming, Photoplayer, The Union Recorder, Sydney Shout – all, alas, now defunct) using a variety of pseudonyms, including George Addison, Tom Howard, Charles Freeman, Xavier Xerxes…]
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Artie Shaw and His Orchestra, featuring Helen Forrest (vocalist) and Tony Pastor (singer and saxophonist).
Director: ROY MACK. Photography: Ray Foster. Songs: “Begin the Beguine” (orchestral) by Cole Porter; “Non-Stop Flight” by Artie Shaw; “Let’s Stop the Clock” (Forrest) by J. Fred Coots (music) and Haven Gillespie (lyrics); “Prosschai: A Russian Goodbye” (Pastor) by Artie Shaw; “Nightmare” (orchestral) by Artie Shaw.
Copyright 29 April 1939 by The Vitaphone Corporation. Released through Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc. A Vitaphone Melody Master. 1 reel. 10 minutes.
COMMENT: Shaw and his boys (and girl) are in top form in this routinely directed if attractively photographed and superbly recorded short subject. I loved the orchestra’s swinging interpretation of “Begin the Beguine”.
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Jane Powell (Athena), Debbie Reynolds (Minerva), Edmund Purdom (Adam Shaw), Vic Damone (Johnny Nyle), Louis Calhern (Mulvain), Evelyn Varden (Mrs Mulvain), Linda Christian (Beth Hallson), Ray Collins (Tremaine), Virginia Gibson (Niobe), Dolores Starr (Calliope), Carl Benton Reid (Griswolde), Howard Wendell (Grenville), Bess Flowers (Mrs Grenville), Henry Nakamura (Roy), Steve Reeves (Ed Perkins), Kathleen Freeman (Adam’s secretary), Richard Sabre (Bill Nicholls), Jane Fischer (Medea), Cecile Rogers (Ceres), Nancy Kilgas (Aphrodite), Harlan Warde (TV director), Joe Gold, Ed Fury, Robert Dix, Irvin “Zabo” Koszewski (contestants), Pat Flaherty (contest judge), Marjorie Bennett (health food customer), Lillian Culver (Mrs Tremaine), Bert Goodrich (bodybuilder).
Director: RICHARD THORPE. Screenplay: William Ludwig, Leonard Spigelgass. Story: Charles Walters, Esther Williams. Photographed in Eastman Color by Robert Planck. Film editor: Gene Ruggiero. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons and Paul Groesse. Set decorators: Edwin B. Willis and Henry W. Grace. Costumes designed by Helen Rose, Walter Plunkett. Hair styles: Sydney Guilaroff. Make-up: William Tuttle. Color consultant: Alvord Eiseman. Assistant director: Arvid Griffen. Sound recording supervisor: Wesley C. Miller. Producer: Joe Pasternak.
Songs by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane: “Vocalize” (Powell), “I Never Felt Better” (Powell, Reynolds and “sisters”), “The Girl Next Door” (Damone), “Venezia” (Damone), “Love Can Change the Stars” (Powell, Reynolds and “sisters”), “Just the Right Minute” (Powell), “Faster Than Sound”, “You Can’t Beat Nature”, “Harmonize”, “Imagine”, “Competition”. Aria, “Chacun le Sait” from The Daughter of the Regiment by Donizetti, (Powell). Choreography: Valerie Bettis. Music orchestrated by Robert Van Eps. Music supervised and conducted by George Stoll. Vocal supervisor: Jeff Alexander.
Copyright 9 December 1954 by Loew’s Inc. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. U.S. release: 5 November 1954. New York opening at the Globe (replacing a one-week season of This Is Your Army coupled with Utopia): 21 December 1954 (ran three weeks, before giving way to Theodora, Slave Empress). U.K. release: 20 December 1954. Australian release: 27 December 1954. 8,624 feet. 96 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: The slap-happy script revolves around an eccentric family of seven nubile sisters who are being housed in a weird, mountain-top retreat by their paternal grand-parents. (The mother and father of these potential seven brides are not even so much as mentioned).
COMMENT: This silly little musical has improved with age. True, the screenplay is just as stupidly inconsistent. Many audiences will still find many minor details a source of irritation. For example, Powell makes a catty comment to Christian that she shouldn’t wear a girdle when it’s patently obvious that lovely, svelte Linda is not wearing such a garment, whereas Miss Powell herself is. Nakamura comments that Powell spoke Japanese with a Spanish accent. She didn’t. An extended sequence shows the sisters “renovating” Purdom’s living room to let in lots of flies, bees and fresh air, because they believe in living close to nature. Later, however, the script pointedly demonstrates their own living room is glassed in. Calhern claims to look like a man of 58 (close enough to his real age when this film was made), but he is made up to look at least ten years older. If the bulging sack in the store is as heavy as the script claims, Steve Reeves is risking serious injury by the way he stoops down to pick it up. In point of fact it is obviously a bag filled with inflated balloons. No health store would ever sell such a weird assortment of produce as the Mulvain’s, and hope to remain in business. The store is undoubtedly operating at a loss. No explanation is given as to where the grandparents derive the considerable income necesary to sustain their fads. These fads themselves form a most unlikely conglomerate of vegetarianism, mixed with Isadora Duncan dancing, Muscle Beach bodybuilding, astrology and fake spiritualism. Yes, it could have been fun to throw all this stuff into the mix, but the screenplay meticulously sidesteps all opportunities for sidesplitting humor or even mild satire. In fact the whole ridiculous set-up is actually treated quite seriously. The audience is not encouraged to laugh at crazy Calhoun and stubbornly dizzy Powell at all. Instead, it’s Mr Purdom who cops all the flack and becomes the innocent butt of almost very “joke”.
Alas, although he carries the burden of generating just about every jot of the picture’s amusement, Purdom is close to a dead loss. Lines that might have tickled an audience in the mouth of a halfway competent actor (Tony Randall would have been ideal in the role) are completely negated by Purdom’s suffocating delivery and insufferable lack of charm. The only player who seems to realize the movie requires a light touch, Debbie Reynolds, disappears for long stretches. With few exceptions (Linda Christian plays the society princess to perfection), all the actors make unduly heavy weather of the script. Director Thorpe must also bear a share of the blame. Routine at best, glaringly incompetent at worst, Athena fails to made the grade as one of Thorpe’s better efforts.
Whereas the plot seems even less amusing than in 1954, the musical numbers have improved. At the time, they were judged as routine at best. Now they seem almost sprightly. Both Mr Damone and Miss Powell are in good voice. Debbie Reynolds sings agreeably too.
OTHER VIEWS: Once I used to look forward to a new M-G-M musical, but 1954 has proved a most disappointing year. My colleagues and I yawned incessantly at the preview of Athena. Not only did the story plod along at the pace of an elephant, both the situations and the characters were totally unbelievable. Why was Jane Powell wasted in such a minor musical? She did her valiant best and sang delightfully, but her role was poorly conceived and unappealing. Edmund Purdom likewise seemed awkward and ill-at-ease. Debbie Reynolds and Vic Damone emerged as the only bright sparks in this otherwise dreary picture.
– Debra Hayward in Photoplayer.
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Dean Martin (Sergeant Vic Puccinelli), Jerry Lewis (Pfc. Korwin), Mike Kellin (Sergeant McVey), Jimmy Dundee (Eddie), Dick Stabile (Pokey), Tommy Farrell (Corporal Clark), Frank Hyers (Corporal Shaughnessy), Dan Dayton (Sergeant Miller), William Mendrek (Captain Caldwell), Kenneth Forbes (Lieutenant Davenport), Paul Livermore (Private Edwards), Ty Perry (Lieutenant Terray), Jean Ruth (Millie), Angela Greene (Mrs Caldwell), Polly Bergen (Helen Palmer), Douglas Evans (colonel), Steven Roberts (doctor), Al Negbo (orderly), Dewey Robinson (bartender), Lee Bennett (soldier).
Director: HAL WALKER. Screenplay: Fred F. Finkelhoffe. Based on the stage play by James B. Allardice. Photography: Stuart Thompson. Film editor: Paul Weatherwax. Art director: George Jenkins. Dialogue director: Joan Hathaway. Music director: Joseph J. Lilley. Songs: “Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ra” (Martin), “You and Your Beautiful Eyes” (Martin), “Beans” (Lewis), “Tonda Wanda Hoy” (Martin), by Mack David and Jerry Livingston. Make-up: Lou Greenway. Wardrobe: Jack Dowling. Production manager: Norman Cook. Assistant director: Alvin Ganzer. Assistant to the producer: Verne Alves. Sound technician: Frank McWhorter. Producer: Fred F. Finkelhoffe. Executive producer: Abner J. Greshler.
Copyright 23 January 1951 by York Pictures Corp. and Screen Associates, Inc. Released by Paramount: 17 January 1951 (U.S.A.), 1 June 1951 (Australia). New York opening at the Paramount: 24 January 1951. Sydney opening at the Prince Edward: 1 June 1951 (ran 4 weeks). 8,514 feet. 94 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: The title says all.
NOTES: The stage play opened on Broadway at the Booth on 3 August 1949, running 151 performances. Ezra Stone directed Gary Merrill, Sara Seegar, Mike Kellin, Tad Mosel and Maxine Stuart. The play was produced by Henry May and Jerome E. Risenfeld in association with Charles Ray McCullum.
Film debut of Mike Kellin (repeating his stage role).
Number 9 at the U.S./Canadian Box-office for 1951.
VIEWERS’ GUIDE: Borderline.
COMMENT: Very obviously based on a one-set stage play. No attempt has been made to move the stage action outside, the only changes of scene being to accommodate some songs and two routines for Lewis — a female impersonation and an encounter with an obstacle course (neither of which are very funny, though he does join Dean Martin for a devastatingly accurate lampoon of Barry Fitzgerald in Going My Way). It is obvious that Lewis’ part has been expanded for the screen, though his role is still (mercifully) of moderate size. Dean Martin is given more footage and there are engaging performances by Polly Bergen as a dumb delicacy and Mike Kellin as a whistle-happy NCO. The direction is competent, but totally undistinguished (except for the attractive silhouette at the finish of Martin’s phonodisc song). Production values are minor. Paramount must have cleaned up on this one. I doubt if the negative cost exceeded $500,000. Most of the action is confined to the one set, and that set must be one of the cheapest ever constructed for a major film! The Foreword is composed of well-worn newsreel footage and the number of extras is minimal. Photography and other credits are no more than serviceable.
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Charles Laughton (John Sheridan), Deanna Durbin (Kim Walker), Franchot Tone (Paul Taylor), Helen Broderick (Nora), Stanley Ridges (Gilbert), Donald Meek (Martin), Charles Halton (Dunlap), Regina Wallace (head nurse), Douglas Wood (Hapgood), Ray Walker (Daniels), Lynn Whitney (Martha Manners), Emmett Vogan (man at party), George Chandler (bellboy).
Director: RICHARD WALLACE. Producer: Felix Jackson. Associate producer: Howard Christie. Screenplay: Edmund Beloin. Original story: Edmund Beloin, Sig Herzig. Photography: Hal Mohr. Music score: Miklos Rozsa. Film editor: Ted J. Kent. Art directors: John B. Goodman, Robert Clatworthy. Set decorations: Russell A. Gausman, Oliver Emert. Costumes: Travis Banton. Miss Durbin’s songs supervised by Edgar Fairchild. Vocal coach: Al Proctor. Hair styles: Carmen Dirigo. Make-up: Jack P. Pierce. Assistant director: William Holland. Sound recording: Bernard B. Brown, Joe Lapis.
Copyright 10 January 1946 by Universal Pictures Co., Inc. U.S. release: 18 January 1946. U.K. release: 11 May 1946. New York opening at Loew’s Criterion: 24 January 1946. Australian release: 11 April 1946. 7,943 feet. 88 minutes.
NOTES: Thanks to the presence of Deanna Durbin, a top attraction worldwide in 1946.
VIEWERS’ GUIDE: Okay for all.
COMMENT: Enjoyable light comedy/drama about a waitress who tricks her way into the lead in a show with a letter supposedly written by the absent star. The cast play with convincing ease. Deanna Durbin sings “Lover”, Tosti’s “Good-bye” and “Danny Boy”. It’s a fable but it has its beguiling qualities, in particular the director’s light touch and the fine supporting cast.
— E.V.D.
OTHER VIEWS: Attractively acted, competently directed, captivatingly photographed, with entrancing music, alluring sets and engaging costumes. Laughton steals the show.
— G.A.
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Mario Lanza (Renaldo Rossano), Doretta Morrow (Bridget Batterson), James Whitmore (Sergeant Batterson), Dean Miller (Ben Jones), Paula Corday (Francesca Landers), Jeff Donnell (Patty Ware), Spring Byington (Mrs Montville), Curtis Cooksey (General Montville), Don Porter (Captain Loring), Eduard Franz (Albert Parkson Foster), Bobby Van (Artie Pilcer), Ralph Reed (Horsey), Celia Lovsky (Mrs Rossano), Alexander Steinert (Maestro Paradori), William “Bill” Phillips (draft sergeant).
Director: ALEXANDER HALL. Screenplay: Karl Tunberg, Leonard Spigelgass. Story: Ruth Brooks Flippen, Sy Gomberg. Photographed in Technicolor by Joseph Ruttenberg. Film editor: Albert Akst. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons, William Ferrari. Set decorators: Edwin B. Willis, Robert P. Fox. Costumes: Helen Rose. Make-up: William Tuttle. Hair styles: Sydney Guilaroff. Special effects: A. Arnold Gillespie, Warren Newcombe. Technicolor color consultants: Henri Jaffa, James Gooch. Music: Johnny Green. Music director: Jeff Alexander. Music advisor: Irving Aaronson. Opera sequences staged by Wolfgang Martin. Songs: “The Lord’s Prayer” (Lanza) by Albert Hay Malotte; “Granada” by Augustin Lara; “Lee-Ah-Loo” by John Leeman, Ray Sinatra; “The Song Angels Sing” by Paul Francis Webster, Irving Aaronson (adapted from 3rd movement of Third Symphony by Johannes Brahms); “You Do Something To Me” by Cole Porter; “All the Things You Are” by Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein II; “Be My Love” (Morrow) and “Because You’re Mine” (Lanza), both by Nicholas Brodszky, Sammy Cahn; “The Sextette” from Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti, Salvatore Cammarano; “Addio Alla Madre” from Cavalleria Rusticana by Pietro Mascagni, Guido Menasci, Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti; “Addio” from Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi, Francesco Maria Piave; “Il Balen del Suo Sorriso” and “Miserere”, both from Il Trovatore by Giuseppe Verdi, Salvatore Cammarano; “Casta Diva” from Norma by Vincenzo Bellini, Felice Romani; “O Paradiso” from L’Africaine by Giacomo Meyerbeer, Eugéne Scribe. Assistant director: Bert Glazer. Sound supervisor: Douglas Shearer. Western Electric Sound System. Producer: Joseph Pasternak.
Copyright 28 August 1952 by Loew’s Incorporated. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 25 September 1952. U.S. release: October 1952. U.K. release: 29 December 1952. Australian release: 17 December 1952. 103 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Opera singer is drafted into the army.
NOTES: Nominated for a prestigious Hollywood award for Best Song, “Because You’re Mine” by Nicholas Brodszky (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics), losing to the title song from High Noon.
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Okay for all.
COMMENT: I’ve been avoiding this film for years, but it turns out to be quite a pleasant surprise. In fact, the first half, which ingeniously rings the changes on that old new recruit/tough sergeant routine, is astonishingly entertaining. The second half unfortunately is much more conventional when misunderstood romance rises to the forefront, but Whitmore still manages to keep his end up, and Lanza throughout is in excellent voice. His rendition of “The Lord’s Prayer” is nothing short of moving and would be alone worth the price of admission. Miss Morrow is a very pleasant soprano (especially when not forcing her voice, as in her lighter numbers) and nice-looking too! Hall’s direction is competent, even occasionally deft. Jeff Donnell and rival soprano Paula Corday (that is not her own voice surely!) round out the cast nicely. Bobby Van manages to get in a few dance steps (and play a clever chorus). Spring Byington has a couple of small scenes. Miss Morrow sings Cole Porter’s standard “You Do Something To Me” delightfully.
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Al Ritz, Jimmy Ritz, Harry Ritz (The Three Jolly Jesters), Carol Bruce (Joan Barry), Dick Foran (Bill Edwards), Johnny Downs (Danny), William Demarest (Police Chief McKenzie), Sonny Dunham and His Band (themselves), Grace McDonald (Babs), Richard Davies (Clay Martin), William Ruhl (Officer Flynn), Kernan Cripps (Officer Doyle), Lew Kelly (Hank, the stagehand), Ray Kellogg (Dunham vocalist), Russell Hicks (Harry B. Kemp), Jack Arnold, a.k.a. Vinton Haworth (Bobby Leonard, MC) Johnnie Berkes (bearded man), Claire Whitney (society woman no. 1), Ruth Lee (society woman no. 2), Duke York (first hood), Bob Barron (second hood), Mickey Simpson (third hood), Emmett Lynn (Charlie, the undertaker), Hal Belfer (Wally Raymond), Jane Cowan (debutante), Henry Hall (grandpa), Eddie Coke (grandson), Forbes Murray (husband), William Cabanne (young man), Charles Sullivan (waiter), Jack C. Smith (cop), Ethan Laidlaw (tough man in audience), Eleanor Counts (cigarette girl).
Director: EDWARD F. CLINE. Screenplay: Stanley Roberts, Mel Ronson. Original story: Stanley Roberts. Photography: George Robinson. Art directors: Jack Otterson, Harold H. MacArthur. Set decorations: Russell A. Gausman, Ira S. Webb. Songs: Don Raye, Gene De Paul. Music director: Charles Previn. Costumes: Vera West. Assistant director: Melville Shyer. Sound recording: Bernard B. Brown. Sound technician: William Fox. Associate producer: Howard Benedict.
Copyright 28 September 1942 by Universal Pictures Co., Inc. No New York opening. U.S. release: 4 December 1942. Australian release: 1 April 1943. 5,462 feet. 60 minutes.
U.K. release title: OFF THE BEATEN TRACK.
SYNOPSIS: The main setting was a barn theater in the Berkshire Mountains where Carol Bruce was presenting a pre-Broadway musical comedy in which two guest stars on two successive evenings were shot and killed during the performances. “Somebody doesn’t want you around here,” said police chief William Demarest to Bruce. He then ordered everybody, including the audience, to return on Saturday night when a new guest act would take over. Naturally, no one would touch the place — except the Three Jolly Jesters (the Ritz Brothers).
NOTES: Behind the Eight Ball was the first picture on a three-year contract for The Three Ritz Brothers that would wind up, for many years, their middling film career that had begun at 20th-Century Fox in the thirties. Succeeding Universal vehicles for Al, Jimmy and Harry were Hi’ Ya Chum and Never a Dull Moment.
VIEWERS’ GUIDE: Okay for all.
COMMENT: If you find the Ritz Brothers amusing you will doubtless give this “B” mystery a higher rating. It is fairly lavishly produced and the little theatre background is not unattractive. The plot maintains interest, though mystery connoisseurs will find it easy to pinpoint the identity of the murderer despite directorial red herrings in which just about everyone (including the janitor) is made to look menacing.
OTHER VIEWS: The Ritz Brothers get involved in auditioning for a play, murder, and mayhem. Nice dumb Ritz Brothers movie with broad comedy, burlesque and good 1940s band music. Songs include “Bravest of the Brave,” “You Don’t Know What Love Is,” “Keep ‘Em Laughing,” “Atlas,” “Mr Five By Five,” “Wasn’t It Wonderful?” “Riverboat Jamboree,” “Golden Wedding Day,” “Don’t You Think We Ought To Dance?” (Don Raye, Gene De Paul), “When My Baby Smiles At Me” (Andrew B. Sterling, Harry von Tilzer).
— Motion Picture Guide.
The original Don Raye-Gene DePaul songs were above average for a “B” musical and included one Hit Parade topper, “Mr Five by Five” (“Fifteen chins and a ton of jive”), sung by Grace McDonald with the swinging Dunham band. Universal’s busiest female dancer, McDonald (whose “style” consisted of clutching her knee-length skirts when she tapped) teamed for dance and romance with eternal collegian Johnny Downs. Their big number — “Don’t You Think We Ought to Dance?” — was a pleasant, easy old vaudeville-like turn. Bruce’s musical high point was her warmly wistful vocal reminiscent of “Thanks for the Memory,” “Wasn’t It Wonderful?” This song had an offbeat bittersweet quality that depicted the marriage of Bruce and Downs in the show-within-the-show, surrounded by bridesmaids in white, followed a year later by divorce, the bridesmaids now in black, and then reconciliation.
The Ritz Brothers’ peak in this outing was probably their bodybuilding satire opener, “Atlas” (“Charles Atlas did it!”).
The Hollywood Reporter’s careful but fair review of Behind the Eight Ball was nevertheless among the rare positive evaluations. “Entertaining with their usual violence, the Ritzes knock themselves out to be amusing and, where they are popular, will give this lesser musical considerable bounce,” the paper wrote. “The Howard Benedict production has one of the most tuneful musical scores in the long line of dance band featured attractions Universal has been turning out as moneymakers.”
— Doug McClelland.
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Dorothy Lamour (Tama), Richard Denning (Jakra), Jack Haley (Squidge), Patricia Morison (Sylvia), Walter Abel (Thornton), Helen Gilbert (Carol), Elizabeth Patterson (Mrs Daly), Edward Fielding (Judge Chase), Gerald Oliver Smith (Chadwick), Frank Reicher (Sneath), Abner Biberman (La’oa), Charles Stevens (Panao), Charles Cane (Broderick, the chauffeur), Bill Telaak (Willys, the footman), Warren Ashe (Alvin Chase), Ann Doran (Margaret Chase), Ann Todd (Tama as a child), Inez Palange (native nurse), King Kong (squat native), Barbara Britton (Pamela), Frances Gifford (Charlotte), Eleanor Stewart (Diana), Carlie Taylor, Russell Heustis, Eric Alden, Bert Moorhouse (photographers), John Holland (Herrick), Joe Bautista, E. Baucin, Bobby Barber, Tom Plank, Ralph Soneuya, Rito Punay (members of La’oa’s gang), Dagmar Oakland, King Mojave, Gale Ronn, Kenneth Gibson, Mary Dunbar, Mildred Mernie, David Newell, Monya Andre, Keith Richards, William Cabanne (guests at Chase’s residence), Laurie Douglas, Ella Neal (girls at circus), Vera Lewis (woman at circus), and “Gogo” (himself, a chimpanzee).
Director: ALFRED SANTELL. Screenplay: Frank Butler. Based on an original story by E. Lloyd Sheldon and Jack DeWitt. Photographed in Technicolor by William C. Mellor. Technicolor photographer: Charles P. Boyle. Film editor: Doane Harrison. Art directors: Hans Dreier and Earl Hedrick. Costumes: Edith Head. Make-up: Wally Westmore. Technicolor color consultants: Natalie Kalmus, Henri Jaffa. Special photographic effects: William Pereira, Gordon Jennings. Transparencies: Farciot Edouart. Music: Victor Young. Songs: “Beyond the Blue Horizon” (orchestra) by Richard A. Whiting, W. Franke Harling, Leo Robin; “A Full Moon and Empty Heart” (Lamour) by Mort Greene (lyrics) and Harry Revel (music); “Pagan Lullaby” (Lamour) by Frank Loesser and Jule Styne. Sound recording: Harry Mills, Don Johnson. Western Electric Sound System. Associate producer: Monta Bell.
Copyright 1 May 1942 by Paramount Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Paramount: 24 June 1942. U.S. release: 9 May 1942. Australian release: 27 August 1942. Sydney opening at the Prince Edward as a support to My Heart Belongs to Daddy: 21 August 1942 (ran 5 weeks). 6,847 feet. 76 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Is jungle girl a missing heiress? She returns to Africa (?) to recover documents that will establish her identity.
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Although basically light entertainment, the scenes with the rogue elephant and the vicious Biberman character are too grim for children.
COMMENT: Technicolor was an essential ingredient of this type of wartime escapist entertainment. Only 14 Technicolor movies (the lowest for the decade) were released in 1942, and just about all of them utilized exotic settings or backgrounds. This one has some further pluses in exciting special effects work (even if undercranking is occasionally too obvious), an appealing cast and a script that takes neither itself nor its humors too seriously. Nonetheless it firmly delivers what the advertising posters both promise and imply: Action, Romance, Glamor, Thrills, Humor. Only with the last do we have any reservations. Mr Haley tries a little too hard to inject life into his stale routines and dialogue. I know it’s hard to out-act monkeys — especially when the director panders them with so many intercut close-ups — but Haley’s approach is too clumsy, too heavy-handedly artificial. Maybe Santell was right to turn his camera over to the monkeys. They’re funny, they’re natural, they’re great little actors (though we suspect astute film editing occasionally helps them out). We like the tiger too.
Director Santell also makes the most of his expansive budget. Despite a few obvious backdrops — Horizon was lensed entirely on Paramount sound stages — the movie is very lushly produced and glowingly photographed.
OTHER VIEWS: Pleasant, sarong-girl entertainment, beautifully photographed. Dorothy Lamour is in top form and sings “Pagan Lullaby” and “A Full Moon and an Empty Heart”. Richard Denning is a trifle miscast as the hero, but the rest of the acting is first-rate. The story, obviously inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs (Dorothy is a sort of female Tarzan with a chimp and a tiger as her jungle companions), is nonsense — but who cares?
— G.A.
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Loretta Young (Claire McIntyre), Frank Albertson (Johnny Saunders), Ricardo Cortez (R.J. Clayton), Joan Blondell (Pearl), Frank Darien (Winters), Dorothy Christy (Mrs Emery), Oscar Apfel (Morley), Judith Barrett [Nancy Dover] (Sarah Ellen), Mickey Bennett (Joe), Irving Bacon (impatient waiter), Robert Gordon (office boy), George “Gabby” Hayes (hotel clerk), Virginia Sale (Sally Curtain), The Vitaphone Orchestra (Johnny’s band), Emma Dunn.
Director: WILLIAM A. SEITER. Screenplay: Robert Lord. Story: Patricia Reilly and H.N. Swanson. Photography: Sol Polito. Film editor: Peter Fritch. Art director: Jack Okey. Costumes designed by Earl Luick. Songs: “Constantly” (Albertson) by Bert Williams (music), Jim Burris and Chris Smith (lyrics); “If I Could Be With You” (Albertson) by James P. Johnson (music) and Henry Creamer (lyrics). Music played by The Vitaphone Orchestra conducted by Leo F. Forbstein. A William A. Seiter Production.
Copyright 12 May 1931 by First National Pictures, Inc. Released through Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Strand: 11 June 1931. 75 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: College girl is in love with the leader of the college band. When he takes the band to Paris, she tries to find a job in New York.
COMMENT: Although they made few public appearances (and I’m not aware of any commercial recordings), The Vitaphone Orchestra was a great band. Here, we can see (and more, importantly hear) them at their absolute zenith. Admittedly, there’s a long wait between numbers, but that wait is worth every minute. The band really jumps in this movie. And the story is an interesting and compelling one anyway, especially when sooky Frank Albertson is not on the screen, though he does have a great scene at the climax of the film where Joan Blondell (in a rare but dazzling character role) does all the running. Loretta Young plays the heroine at the top of her form. Ricardo Cortez is no slacker either, while Frank Darien contributes his best performance ever as the sycophantic Winters. Normally humdrum William A. Seiter directs the risqué script in grand style.
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Bing Crosby (Johnny Adams), Fred Astaire (Jed Potter), Joan Caulfield (Mary O’Hara), Billy De Wolfe (Tony), Olga San Juan (Nita Nova), Mikhail Rasumny (Francois), Frank Faylen (Mack, stage manager), Victoria Horne (Martha, Mary’s maid), Karolyn Grimes (Mary Elizabeth), John M. Sullivan (Junior), Jimmy Conlin (Jeffrey, Jed’s valet), Jack Norton (nightclub drunk), Roy Gordon (Charles Dillingham), The Guardsmen (singers), Charles La Torre (Rakopolis), John Kelly (tough guy), Cliff Nazarro (Cliff, pianist), Frances Morris (hospital nurse), Vicki Jasmund, Norma Crieger, Joanne Lybrook, Louise Saraydar (female quartet), Will Wright (Dan, stage manager).
Director: STUART HEISLER. Screenplay: Arthur Sheekman. Adapted by Allan Scott from an original idea by Irving Berlin. Photographed in Technicolor by Charles Lang Jr and William Snyder. Film editor: LeRoy Stone. Art directors: Hans Dreier, Hal Periera. Set decorators: Sam Comer, Maurice Goodman. Gowns: Edith Head. Costumes: Waldo Angelo. Costumes executed by Karinska. Make-up: Wally Westmore. Technicolor color consultants: Natalie Kalmus, Robert Brower. Special photographic effects: Gordon Jennings, Paul K. Lerpae. Process photography: Farciot Edouart. Sound recording: Hugo Grenzbach, John Cope. Producer: Solomon C. Siegel.
Songs, all music and lyrics by Irving Berlin: “A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody” (Astaire and chorus), “I’ve Got My Captain Working For Me Now” (Crosby, De Wolfe), “You’d Be Surprised” (San Juan), “All By Myself” (Crosby), “Serenade to an Old-Fashioned Girl” (Caulfield dubbed by Betty Russell), “Puttin’ on the Ritz” (Astaire), “I’ll See You in C-U-B-A” (Crosby and San Juan), “A Couple of Song and Dance Men” (Astaire, Crosby), “You Keep Coming Back Like a Song” (Crosby), “Blue Skies” (Crosby), “The Little Things in Life” (Crosby), “Not for All the Rice in China” (Crosby), “Russian Lullaby” (Crosby), “Everybody Step” (Crosby), “How Deep Is the Ocean?” (female quartet), “Running Around in Circles Getting Nowhere” (Crosby), “Heat Wave” (Astaire and San Juan), “Any Bonds To-day?” (Crosby), “This Is the Army, Mr Jones” (Crosby), “White Christmas” (Crosby), “You Keep Coming Back Like a Song” (Crosby), “Blue Skies” (Caulfield dubbed by Betty Russell). The following Irving Berlin songs are used as orchestral background: Tell Me Little Gypsy, Nobody Knows, Mandy, I Wonder, Some Sunny Day, When You Walked Out Someone Else Walked In, Because I Love You, Homesick, How Many Times, The Song Is Ended, Lazy, Always, I Can’t Remember. Deleted songs: “Cheek to Cheek” (Crosby), “I’m Putting All My Eggs in One Basket” (Crosby). Choreography: Fred Astaire, Hermes Pan. Dance assistant: Dave Robel. Additional music for “Heat Wave”: Fred Astaire. Music director: Robert Emmett Dolan. Associate music director: Troy Sanders. Orchestral arrangements: Mason Van Cleave, Hugo Frey, Charles Bradshaw, Ralph Hallenbeck, Matty Matlock, Sidney Fine. Vocal arrangements: Joseph J. Lilley.
Copyright 27 December 1946 by Paramount Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Paramount: 16 October 1946. U.S. release: 27 December 1946. U.K. release: early 1947. Australian release: 13 February 1947. Sydney opening at the Prince Edward: 21 January 1947 (ran 8 weeks). 9,384 feet. 104 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Wife objects to her husband spending too little time on his business — now that’s a switch. She feels he is making too much money, buying and selling. She’d be happier if he spent less time with her and more time working harder for less money in a business where he had fewer prospects for increasing his capital. She feels so strongly about this that she leaves him flat.
NOTES: Number three at the U.S. boxoffice for 1946.
Number five at the U.K. boxoffice for 1947.
One of the top five at the Australian boxoffice for 1947.
Nominated for prestigious Hollywood awards for Scoring of a Musical Picture (won by Morris Stoloff for The Jolson Story), and Best Song — “You Keep Coming Back Like a Song” — won by “On the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe” by Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer from The Harvey Girls.
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Borderline. It would be difficult for parents to explain to children why the wife could or should want to exercise such perverse authority over her husband’s business affairs, especially as he is an especially loving husband who has so structured his business that he is not only able to provide for his wife and family luxuriously, but he is able to spend far more time with them than the average working husband. She gives no reason for this remarkable behavior other than to say that she wants her husband to settle down in the one place, even though this will mean the husband has to work much longer hours for much less money. In fact, taking tax into account, considerably less money. Plus of course being subject to a multifold increase in working pressures. Her stand is not only inexcusable and unreasonable, it’s so uncaring, selfish, perverse and stupid that we can only marvel at the husband’s patience in even listening to such insane demands.
COMMENT: Great music, irritating script. If ever a film proved the popular theory that the book for a musical comedy should merely serve as a useful peg for songs and comedy routines, that film is Blue Skies. Funnily enough, the script does fulfil its peg functions admirably here. And it’s true also that at least 40% of the movie is devoted to song and dance. It’s also a fact that the public didn’t seem to mind the perverse story and supported the film in droves. Maybe most people saw the plot simply as both a peg for and interlude from the musical numbers, and therefore didn’t pay it too much mind. Maybe they thought, well the color is so nice, who cares what they’re saying. Or maybe this is a good time to slip out to the candy bar.
Aside from the unreasonable, not to say incredible perversity or shallowness of the Joan Caulfield character, another of my concerns is that the script doesn’t do at all well by Fred Astaire. His is strictly a supporting role. Not only does he disappear from the movie for long periods — Billy De Wolfe has a bigger part including a seven-minute “comedy” monologue which (to put it as graciously as possible) contrives to be both hammy yet boring — but he is painted as a perennial loser. True, the script says the same thing about the Crosby character, but anyone who succeeds in making truckloads of money, even if he is saddled to a doll-beautiful but shrewish wife, is hardly a loser in most audiences’ eyes. But the Astaire character is a loser all the way. He loses the girl, his job, his career, his livelihood — permanently — and we find him at film’s end just as we find him at the very beginning, reduced to eking out a shadow of a living from a weekly spot on radio. (How this odd casting came about is that the role was originally assigned to Paul Draper, a fine dancer who had thrilled picturegoers in the 1936 Colleen with Ruby Keeler. Unfortunately, working alongside the demanding Crosby made Draper so nervous his slight stammer became more and more pronounced as Crosby became increasingly impatient. Finally after a week’s shooting Crosby had suffered enough. Such was his clout that he had Draper replaced with Astaire on a day’s notice. Another last-minute change may also have made a difference. The movie was to have been directed by Mark Sandrich who suffered a fatal heart attack shortly before shooting was to commence. He would have brought a style and flair to the film lacking in the heavy-handed Stuart Heisler whose background was primarily in movies of the darker side like Among the Living and The Glass Key not musical comedy).
Of the support players, Olga San Juan shines as usual, whilst Mr De Wolfe does a good job in all but his unmercifully extended monologue. His partnership with Bing for “I’ve Got My Captain Working for Me Now” is one of the picture’s musical highlights.
Expansively produced with fine Technicolor photography Blue Skies is a curate’s egg of a film, very palatable in parts but indigestible as a whole.
OTHER VIEWS: Very entertaining, superbly photographed musical, which maintains interest very agreeably for about three-quarters of its length. At this point the action is suddenly halted by an obligatory yet somewhat tedious monologue by Billy De Wolfe. Forced up short at this juncture, we start to examine the story more critically. It’s a bore, it irritates us, even though it does lead into Astaire’s great production number climax, with Olga San Juan doing the honors. Although he has a silly “other man” role in the plot, Fred is at the top of his dancing form. True, he allows Crosby to make a game try to catch up with him in their song-and-dance number, but then he has the Ritz all to himself — and a chorus of Fred Astaires. Crosby of course is in top voice. The Berlin songs are all a delight. Caulfield looks beautiful in Technicolor. In fact color photography and art direction are superb. Even Heisler’s direction is smoothly proficient (except in his handling of the squawky kid), quite a good few cuts above his usual humdrum level.
— John Howard Reid writimg as George Addison.
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Eleanor Powell (Nora Paige), James Stewart (Ted Barker), Virginia Bruce (Lucy James), Una Merkel (Jenny Saks), Sid Silvers (Gunny Saks), Frances Langford (Peppy Turner), Raymond Walburn (Captain Percival Dingby), Alan Dinehart (James McKay), Buddy Ebsen (Mush Tracy), Juanita Quigley (Sally Saks), Georges & Jalna (themselves), Reginald Gardiner (policeman in park), Barnett Parker (floorwalker), J. Marshall Smith, L. Dwight Snyder, Jay Johnson, Del Porter (The Foursome), Charles Trowbridge (store demonstrator), Helen Troy (telephone operator), William & Joe Mandel (acrobats), Anita Brown (Anita, the maid), Wally Maher, Johnny Tyrrell, Franklin Parker (reporters), Harry Strang (sailor), Dennis O’Keefe (man with girl on couch), Geraldine Robertson, Mary Dees, Jacqueline Dax, Ginger Wyatt, Gay DeLys, Jean Joyce (girls), John Kelly (recruiting officer), Fuzzy Knight (pianist), George King (assistant stage manager), Jonathan Hale (Hector, the columnist), Bobby Watson (costume designer—assistant stage manager), Charles Coleman (waiter), James Flavin (ship’s officer).
Director: ROY DEL RUTH. Screenplay: Jack McGowan, Sid Silvers. Original screen story: Jack McGowan, Sid Silvers, Buddy G. De Sylva. Photography: Ray June. Film editor: Blanche Sewell. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons, Joseph Wright. Art director for musical numbers: Merrill Pye. Set decorator: Edwin B. Willis. Gowns: Adrian. Marine advisor: Commander Harvey S. Haislip, USN (retired). Songs by Cole Porter. Musical arrangements: Roger Edens. Music orchestrations: Edward B. Powell. Choral arrangements: Leo Arnaud. Dance ensembles: Dave Gould. Music director: Alfred Newman. Sound supervisor: Douglas Shearer. Western Electric Sound System. Producer: Jack Cummings.
Songs: “Rolling Home” (Silvers, Ebsen, Stewart, male chorus), “Rap-Tap-Tap on Wood” (Powell and Foursome), “Hey Babe” (Stewart, Powell, Silvers, Ebsen, Langford, Foursome, Merkel and chorus), “Entrance of Lucy James” (Walburn, Bruce and male chorus), “Love Me, Love My Pekinese” (Bruce and male chorus), “Easy to Love” (Stewart and Powell), “Easy to Love” (orchestral with acknowledgements to “Dance of the Hours” by Amilcare Ponchielli, conducted by Gardiner), “I’ve Got You under my Skin” (orchestral, danced by Georges and Jalna), “I’ve Got You under My Skin” (Bruce), “Easy to Love” (sung by Langford, danced by Ebsen, orchestra personally conducted on camera by Alfred Newman), “Swingin’ the Jinx Away” (Powell, Langford, Ebsen, Foursome and chorus), “Easy to Love” (Stewart).
Copyright 23 November 1936 by Metro Goldwyn Mayer Corp. New York opening at the Capitol: 4 December 1936. U.S. release: 27 November 1936. 11 reels. 108 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Three sailors on the town in New York. One falls for an aspiring dancer, one for a waitress, the other renews acquaintance with his wife, a hat-check girl.
NOTES: Born to Dance received two prestigious Hollywood award nominations, one for Dave Gould’s dance direction of the finale (lost to Seymour Felix’s staging of “A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody” in The Great Ziegfeld); the other for Best Song, namely “I’ve Got You under My Skin”, which lost to “The Way You Look Tonight” by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields from Swing Time.