FILMS, FAMOUS, FANCIFUL, FROLICSOME & FANTASTIC
Classic Movies from Cinema’s Golden Age
John Howard Reid
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Copyright (c) 2011 by John
Howard Reid
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Hosted by John Howard Reid
Hollywood Classics 15
2011
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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 and Thrills
11. Movies Magnificent: 150 Must-See Cinema Classics
12. These Movies Won No Hollywood Awards: A Film-Lover’s Guide to the Best of the Rest
13. Movie Mystery & Suspense
14. America’s Best, Britain’s Finest: A Survey of Mixed Movies
15. Films Famous, Fanciful, Frolicsome & Fantastic: Classic Movies from Cinema’s Golden Age
16. Hollywood Movie Musicals: Great, Good and Glamorous
17. Hollywood Classics Index to Books 1-16: “A” - “Z”
18. More Movie Musicals: 100 Best Films plus 20 “B” Pictures
19. Success in the Cinema: Money-Making Movies and Critics’ Choices
20. Best Western Movies: Winning Pictures, Favorite Films and Hollywood “B” Entries
21: Great Cinema Detectives: Best Movies of Mystery, Suspense & Film Noir
22. Great Hollywood Westerns: Classic Pictures, Must-See Movies & “B” Films
23. Science Fiction & Fantasy Cinema: Classic Films of Horror, Sci-Fi & the Supernatural
24: Hollywood’s Classic Comedies featuring Slapstick, Romance, Music, Glamour or Screwball Fun!
25: Hollywood Classics Title Index to All Movies Reviewed in Books 1-24
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OTHER MOVIE BOOKS
by John Howard Reid
26. CinemaScope
One: Stupendous in Scope
27. CinemaScope Two: 20th
Century Fox
28. CinemaScope 3: Hollywood Takes the Plunge
29. Silent Films & Early Talkies on DVD: A Classic Movie Fan’s Guide
31. Mystery, Suspense, Film Noir and Detective Movies on DVD: A Guide to the Best in Cinema Thrills
32. WESTERNS: A Guide to the Best (and Worst) Western Movies on DVD
33. British Movie Entertainments on VHS and DVD
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Table of Contents
Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops 1955
B
Big Time Operators (see Smallest Show on Earth)
C
Chandu on the Magic Island (see Return of Chandu)
Creatures of the Jungle (see White Orchid)
D
E
F
Forsyte Saga (see That Forsyte Woman)
G
Gentlemen Marry Brunettes 1955
Glen Gary and His Casa Loma Orchestra 1942
H
I
Interference (see Easy Living)
Isle of Forgotten Sins (see Monsoon)
It Shouldn’t Happen to a Dog 1946
It’s in the Bag (see Fifth Chair)
J
K
L
Love on a Budget (see Play-Girl)
M
Mala, Secret Agent of the South Seas
(see Robinson Crusoe of Clipper Island)
Mister Wong at Headquarters (See Fatal Hour)
Mystery of the Wentworth Castle (see Doomed To Die)
N
O
Old Mother Riley’s New Venture 1949
Operation Cicero (see Five Fingers)
P
Q
R
Robin Hood of the Range 1941 (see “Robin Hood of the Pecos”)
Robinson Crusoe of Clipper Island 1936
Robinson Crusoe of Mystery Island 1936 (see “Robinson Crusoe of Clipper Island”)
S
Strange Love of Molly Louvain 1933
T
That Mad Mr Jones (see Fuller Brush Man)
Transcontinent Express (see Rock Island Trail)
U
W
White Huntress (see Golden Ivory)
Wild Irish Nights (see Old Mother Riley’s New Venture)
Y
Fred Zinnemann (an article on the famous director)
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Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops
Bud Abbott (Harry Pierce), Lou Costello (Willie Piper), Lynn Bari (Leota Van Cleef), Fred Clark (Joseph Gorman), Maxie Rosenbloom (Hinds), Frank Wilcox (Rudolph Snavely), Harold Goodwin (cameraman), Mack Sennett (himself), Roscoe Ates (stuttering wagon driver), Paul Dubov (Jason), Joe Besser (Hunter), Murray Leonard (studio guard), Harry Tyler (nickelodeon pianist), Carole Costello (nickelodeon cashier), Jack Stoney, Henry Kulky (brakeman), Joe Devlin (policeman), William Haade (hobo ringleader), Heinie Conklin (comic), Houseley Stevenson junior (pilot), Jack Daly (burglar), Hank Mann (prop man), Byron Keith (officer), Sam Flint (conductor), Marjorie Bennett (patron Willie sits on), Charles Dorety (watermelon man), Donald Kerr (studio projectionist), Forrest Burns, Don House (cops), Pat Costello (Lou’s double), Colin Campbell, Frank Hagney.
Director: CHARLES LAMONT. Screenplay: John Grant. Story: Lee Loeb. Photography: Reggie Lanning. Film editor: Edward Curtiss. Art directors: Alexander Golitzen, Bill Newberry. Set decorators: Russell A. Gausman and Julia Heron. Costumes designed by Jay A. Morley junior. Make-up: Bud Westmore. Hair styles: Joan St Oegger. Music director: Joseph Gershenson. 2nd unit director: Tom Shaw. Stunts: Bob Herron, Carey Loftin, Vic Parks. Assistant directors: William Holland (1st), Ira S. Webb (2nd). Sound recording: Leslie I. Carey and William Hedgcock. Western Electric Sound Recording. Producer: Howard Christie.
Copyright 1 December 1954 by Universal Pictures Co., Inc. A Universal-International Picture. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: February 1955. U.K. release: February 1955. Australian release: 1 July 1955. Sydney opening at the Lyceum. 8 reels. 7,083 feet. 79 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: A New York confidence man poses as a Russian film director in 1912 Hollywood.
NOTES: Abbott and Costello’s second last film for Universal. Meet the Mummy (1955) followed. Their last movie, Dance With Me, Henry (1956), was released by United Artists.
Carole Costello is Lou’s daughter.
The silent film shown at the beginning of the picture is Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1927), featuring Margarita Fisher (wife of the film’s director, Harry Pollard) as Eliza.
COMMENT: A reasonably amusing A&C entry, whose main drawback is Fred Clark. Fred’s heavy-handed impersonation of a Michael Curtiz-type director becomes not only wearisome but slows down the action. Special effects are likewise a bit wonky, though the plane, train and other chase episodes are otherwise expertly handled with engrossing running inserts and exciting camerawork. In fact, by the humble standards of the later A&Cs, production values are surprisingly elaborate. Our two comics are also in fine fettle, taking their cue from a surrounding combination of seasoned character players and silent film veterans.
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Ray Milland (Nick Beal), Audrey Totter (Donna Allen), Thomas Mitchell (Joseph Foster), George Macready (Reverend Garfield), Fred Clark (Frankie Faulkner), Henry O’Neill (Judge Hobbs), Geraldine Wall (Martha Foster), Darryl Hickman (Larry Price), Nestor Paiva (Karl), King Donovan (Peter Wolfe), Charles Evans (Paul Norton), Erno Verebes (Cox, the tailor), Arlene Jenkins (Aileen), Pepito Perez (poster man), Joey Ray (Tommy Ray), Stuart Holmes, Tom Whitehead (ministers), Lester Dorr, Ethan Laidlaw (fishermen), Tim Ryan (Detective Dodds), Harold Vermilyea (chief justice), Douglas Spencer (Henry T. Finch), Percy Helton (Kafka), James Davies (gym instructor), John Shay (assistant district attorney), Maxine Gates (Josie), Tom Dugan (man), Donya Dean (information girl), Charles Flickinger (page boy), Steve Pendleton (Sergeant Hill), Phil Van Zandt (watchman), Jean Ruth (adding machinist), Pat Phelan (photographer), Pat O’Malley, Frank Mayo, Howard M. Mitchell (committee men), Elaine Riley (telephone girl), Everett Glass, Edward Biby (party guests), James Burke (bum), Don Shelton (banker), Robert R. Stephenson (truck driver), Allan Douglas, Jerry James (phone workers), Jimmie Dundee (tough politician), Julia Faye, Frances Morris, Richard Kipling (reformers), Theresa Harris (Opal), Jean Marshall (secretary), Sid Tomack (bartender), Ralph Montgomery, Diane Stewart, Bess Flowers, Al Ferguson, James Cornell, Louise Saraydar (pedestrians), Bob Coleman (bellhop), Helen Chapman (stenographer), Frank Darien (assistant tailor), Jack Gargan, Harold Gardiner, Bret Hamilton, Weldon Heyburn, Kippee Valez, Ben Mantz, Virginia Whitmore (bits), Billy Snyder (politician), Bill Sheehan (porter), Diana Mumby (girl), Alyn Lockwood (woman in China Coast café), Orley Lindgren (boy with note), Geraldine Jordan (switchboard operator/Salvation Army worker), Ray Dolciame (Tony).
Director: JOHN FARROW. Screenplay: Jonathan Latimer. Original story: Mindret Lord. Uncredited screenplay contributor: John Farrow. Photography: Lionel Lindon. Art directors: Hans Dreier and Franz Bachelin. Set decorators: Sam Comer, Ross Dowd. Film editor: Eda Warren. Costumes designed by Mary Kay Dodson. Make-up: Wally Westmore. Make-up men: Delven Armstrong, Ted Larson. Hair styles: Gale McGarry, Merle Reeves. Music: Franz Waxman. Included in the music score are excerpts from “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” by Martin Luther, “Said I To My Heart, Said I” by Earl Robinson and E.Y. Harburg, “In the Sweet Bye and Bye” by J. P. Webster and S.F. Bennett, and “There’s Mercy Still For Thee” by Herbert Booth. Stills: Ed Henderson. Chief electrician: Stanley Williams. Grip: Charles Sickler. Camera operator: William Rand. Set continuity: Charles Morton. Assistant director: Francisco Day. Production managers: Stanley Goldsmith, John Murphy. Sound recording: Philip Wisdom, Gene Garvin. Western Electric Sound Recording. Producer: Endre Bohem.
Copyright 4 March 1949 by Paramount Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Paramount: 9 March 1949. U.S. release: 4 March 1949. U.K. release: September 1949. Australian release: 10 November 1949. 8,463 feet. 93 minutes.
U.K. release title: The Contact Man.
SYNOPSIS: A crooked politician accepts help from the devil.
NOTES: Second of only two Hollywood movies produced by writer, Endre Bohem. John Farrow directed the first, Night Has a Thousand Eyes in 1948.
COMMENT: Alias Nick Beal is one of the best examples of Farrow’s work, marred only by the conclusion forced on him by Paramount’s front office. Despite this, Farrow still regarded it as his best film when I interviewed him in March 1961.
An engrossing political drama, directed with intensity and atmospheric flair, Alias Nick Beal retains every whit of its power and appeal in 2011. It is a modern morality play, brought to vivid life by a combination of terse writing, charismatic acting, stunning camerawork and offbeat visual effects.
Latimer was Farrow’s regular writer at this period. He’d worked with him on The Big Clock, Night Has a Thousand Eyes and Beyond Glory. Subsequent collaborations were Copper Canyon, Plunder of the Sun and Botany Bay.
The Nick Beal script has all the virtues of the superlative movies in this series, and none of the vices of the clinkers (Night Has a Thousand Eyes and Botany Bay). Farrow himself worked closely with Latimer on the screenplay, but, following his usual practice, did not claim any writing credit.
The best of the Latimer-Farrow screenplays have the following characteristics: (1) A plot that is familiar in outline transforms into a story rivetingly fresh and original, not so much by unexpected plot twists but by developing and rounding out the characters and often giving them unusual traits; (2) A fondness for the bizarre; (3) Sharp, naturalistic dialogue; (4) A meticulous attention to detail.
A martinet on the set, Farrow often found it difficult to assemble the actors he wanted. He directed five films with Alan Ladd, but did not relish these assignments. He hated working with George Coulouris. On the other hand, many stars like Barbara Stanwyck disliked working with Farrow and actually fought the studio to get out of such roles. The only featured player who really enjoyed his Farrow casting was Ray Milland. In fact, Milland and Farrow had a professional rapport unmatched in the director’s usual relationships with his stars.
For Nick Beal, Audrey Totter was borrowed from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Other players like Thomas Mitchell were also new to Paramount (and Farrow).
Lionel Lindon’s camerawork must be ranked as outstanding, his somber lighting considerably enhancing the eerie mood and atmosphere of the story.
Throughout his screen career, Farrow displayed a particular interest in the degree to which camera movement could involve an audience. In fact, he invented several devices to ensure free movement of the camera during the long, complicated takes of which he was a master.
OTHER VIEWS: I’m glad you liked The Big Clock, but I don’t agree with you that it’s my best film. I consider the best picture I have made to be Alias Nick Beal. This was a film made with both inspiration and honesty. It was good in very sense of the word. I said what I wanted to say, and the way I wanted to say it, without any studio interference. The only problem with the studio occurred when the picture was finished. When I made the picture, it was called The Dark Circle. But Paramount’s New York office lost heart. They changed the ending and the title and then advertised it to fit its new name!
— John Farrow.
Despite a melodramatic ending, the story is a powerful and absorbing one, though destined for the thoughtful patron rather than the simple entertainment seeker, since there is no attempt at light relief. Ray Milland and Thomas Mitchell are equally impressive, and there is strong support from the remainder of the cast.
— Monthly Film Bulletin.
Milland makes a gentlemanly Lucifer. His evil aura is a fine work of subtle and ironic understatement.
— Robert Hatch in The New Republic.
Nick Beal! I loved that picture! It was my first hand at directing. I asked John. I said, “Do you mind if I suggest a few shots? I want to learn about directing.” I was always more interested in directing than acting. Always! I said, “In that waterfront dive, let’s build the furniture up kind of cockeyed, so that all the planes are out of true. And let’s change the names of the strange people you see there. They’re just stock names.” There was one little fellow, a good little actor, Percy Helton, in all John Farrow’s films. I said, “Let me walk past him and just say, ‘Good evening, Kafka!’ Just that! And when I’m on the wharf outside in the fog, they had some cornball kind of music for me to whistle. I said, ‘Let me whistle something different.’ So I whistled the Berceuse from Jocelyn and John said, ‘That sounds great!’ and he printed it. Those little things came in like that. A lot of other shots I did. I hid behind Thomas Mitchell and when he moved the audience saw me and wondered where I came from. Farrow was very good for me and very good with me. We got along very well together though he was the most disliked man at Paramount, but a good director.
— Ray Milland, interviewed by Barrie Pattison.
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The voices of: Kathryn Beaumont (Alice), Ed Wynn (Mad Hatter), Richard Haydn (Caterpillar), Sterling Holloway (Cheshire Cat), Jerry Colonna (March Hare), Verna Felton (Queen of Hearts), Heather Angel (Alice’s sister), Pat O’Malley (Tweedledum/Tweedledee/Walrus/Carpenter/Oysters), Bill Thompson (White Rabbit), Joe Kearns (Door Knob), Bill Thompson (Dodo), Ed Penner (Eaglet), Larry Grey (Bill, the Lizard), Doris Lloyd (Rose), Queenie Leonard (other flower voices), Stan Freberg (Jabberwock), Rhythmaires (Singing Group Voices in the Jabberwock sequence), Stan Freberg and Daws Butler (augmented Voices in Jabberwock sequence), Queenie Leonard (Bulb-Horn Bird in Tree), Jim MacDonald (Dormouse), Dink Trout (King of Hearts), Larry Grey and Ken Beaumont (Card Painters), Mello-Men (Vocal Group of Card Painters), Don Barclay, Pinto Colvig (Flamingos).
Directed by CLYDE GERONIMI, HAMILTON LUSKE and WILFRED JACKSON. Directing animators: Milt Kahl, Ward Kimball, Frank Thomas, Eric Larson, John Lounsbery, Ollie Johnston, Wolfgang Reitherman, Mark Davis, Les Clark and Norman Ferguson. Special processes: Ub Iwerks. Film editor: Lloyd Richardson. Character animators: Hal King, Judge Whitaker, Hal Ambro, Bill Justice, Phil Duncan, Bob Carlson, Don Lusk, Cliff Nordberg, Harvey Toombs, Fred Moore, Marvin Woodward, Hugh Fraser and Charles Nichols. Effects animators: Josh Meador, Dan MacManus, George Rowley and Blaine Gibson. Screenplay: Winston Hibler, Bill Peet, Joe Rinaldi, Bill Cottrell, Joe Grant, Del Connell, Ted Sears, Erdman Penner, Milt Banta, Dick Kelsey, Dick Huemer, Tom Oreb and John Walbridge, adapted from book, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There”, by Lewis Carroll (pseudonym of Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson). Music score: Oliver Wallace. Orchestrations: Joseph Dubin. Songs: “Very Good Advice”, “In a World of My Own”, “All in a Golden Afternoon”, “Alice in Wonderland”, “The Walrus and the Carpenter”, “The Caucus Race”, “I’m Late”, “Painting the Roses Red”, “March of the Cards”, by Bob Hilliard and Sammy Fain. “’Twas Brillig” by Don Raye and Gene DePaul. “A Very Merry Un-birthday” by Mack David, Al Hoffman, and Jerry Livingston. “We’ll Smoke the Blighter Out”, “Old Father William”, “A-E-I-O-U” by Oliver Wallace and Ted Sears. Vocal arrangements: Jud Conlon. Production supervisor: Ben Sharpsteen. Color by Technicolor. Sound recording: O.C. Slyfield, Robert O. Cook and Harold J. Steck. Producer: Walt Disney. Walt Disney Productions. Released by RKO Radio Pictures.
Copyright 4 May 1951 by Walt Disney Productions. New York opening at the Criterion: 28 July 1951. U.S. release: 28 July 1951. U.K. release: 20 August 1951. Australian release: 21 December 1951. Sydney opening at the Plaza. 6,772 feet. 75 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Walt Disney bought the film rights to Alice from Paramount and announced his intention to make a cartoon version as early as May 20th, 1938. On November 15th, 1940 Disney stated that Alice was to be his next work and that he had already engaged Deems Taylor to compose the music.
Disney’s Alice bears no more than a passing resemblance to the Alice of Carroll and Tenniel, published in 1865, and the film is best regarded as an original work. In that way it can be seen as a typical piece of Disney whimsy, more frantic than usual and with more reliance on slapstick, but just as inventively characterized, just as vividly drawn and colored in impeccable three-dimensional style with flawless synchronization of image and sound (including an amusing use of music to counterpoint the action), and with just as much assurance and technical polish. None of his imitators have ever been able to approach Disney in sheer technical expertise, in his loving, no-expense-spared attention to the minutest degree of detail. They may argue that they don’t want to emulate Disney, but the fact remains that they can’t afford to, and therefore they have no choice. Just as no-one can compete with Disney on his home ground — he is the undisputed master of the traditional cartoon — so he rarely ventures forth to do battle with the avant-garde, and when he has done so he has at the best (with the one exception of the brilliantly outré delirium tremens sequence in Dumbo) been only moderately successful. The few attempts in Alice in Wonderland, notably in the Enchanted Forest sequence, where his love of the bizarre and grotesque gets full play, are among Disney’s least appealing. Otherwise Alice is a delight.
NOTES: Layout: Mac Stewart, Hugh Hennesy, Tom Codrick, Don Griffith, Charles Philippi, Thor Putnam, A. Kendall O’Connor, Lance Nolley. Backgrounds: Ray Huffine, Ralph Hulett, Art Riley, Brice Mack, Dick Anthony, Thelma Witmer.
Color stylists John Hench, Mary Blair, Claude Coats, Don Da Gradi and Ken Anderson gave the film a haunting, dream-like atmosphere through the use of shapes and colors which verged on the surreal, while the animators vied with one another to produce wildly comic sequences, which owed more to the Studio’s short subjects and compilation movies than to any of its conventional features. As a result, the picture had, what Walt himself called ‘the tempo of a three-ring circus’, and animator Ward Kimball later felt that one of the film’s problems was its unrelenting mood of zaniness.
After some 50,000 man hours and some 700,000 drawings, Alice in Wonderland was completed, at a cost of almost $4 million, and premiered at London’s Leicester Square Theatre on 26 July 1951.
— Richard Hollis and Brian Sibley in The Disney Studio Story.
Oliver Wallace was nominated for a prestigious Hollywood award for scoring of a musical, losing to An American in Paris.
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Too bizarre for younger children.
COMMENT: If I hadn’t regarded Alice in Wonderland as one of the masterpieces of all time, for both adults and children, I would not have undertaken a film version. I undertook it with the greatest respect.
However, there are more than 80 characters in the two Alice books and they move in and out of the narrative very erratically. It was imperative that we create a plot structure, for Carroll had had no need for such a thing. We decided that Alice’s curiosity was the only possible prime mover for our story and generator of the necessary suspense. The result is a basic chase pattern.
We then tried out every episode in both Alice books on our own test audience of some 500 persons. There are many characters that antagonized, repelled or confused even the most steadfast of Alice’s admirers. Some were pretty callous, and several were depressingly lugubrious. The child that turns into a pig in Alice’s arms, for example, was revolting according to one of our early tests. Other tests indicated that the sad and weepy Mock Turtle and Gryphon were without other compensating interest.
A good example of how we worked out our problems is the way we animated the famous Tea Party. We have the Mad Hatter and the March Hare chant the “Unbirthday” lines which Humpty-Dumpty originally spoke in Through the Looking-Glass. The Tea Party is a perfectly appropriate occasion, and we thus eliminated Humpty-Dumpty, which we wanted to do anyway, because he was too talky.
Another example is the way we shifted the reading of the dry history lesson from its original context in the Caucus Race, to the opening scene of our picture. Putting it there gives more coherence to all that follows, since it puts the reason for Alice’s descent into the rabbit hole where it is most effective dramatically, i.e., at the beginning. And no violence is done to Carroll’s mood, nor to any of the character relationships.
We combined the four Queens and the Duchess into one figure, the raucous Queen of Hearts, who keeps demanding more decapitations. Many minor figures, casually alluded to, were not included in even our first muster. All told, our picture has 35 of the 80 or so original characters. In addition, we created one new character — the personified Door Knob, who guards the precincts of Wonderland. He was invented in order to avoid a long explanatory monologue at the beginning of the story and to give Alice a foil to talk to.
Now we had another problem — the Tenniel illustrations. It is not easy technically to turn book illustrations into animated cartoons, and the cross-hatched etchings of Tenniel could not be animated just as they are. They had to be re-done in clean pen line and in the brilliant hues that Technicolor can reproduce. They had to seem round, not flat. They had to be made mobile and be seen in a life-like flow of action from various angles. For the cartoon medium, the characters virtually had to be born anew, since their behavior would have to be conveyed in movement, rather than with words and pen-and-ink drawings.
And yet, I think we have managed to follow Tenniel in such close detail that no-one can say our delineations distort the images Carroll and Tenniel worked out together. But there are some slight deviations: The features of our Alice are more youthful and we have made her figure less stubby and her hair more kempt. Though her costume is unchanged, we have given her plain instead of striped stockings in order to save drawing time and for reasons related to Technicolor. We are somewhat less realistic than Tenniel in portraying some of the animal characters. We have made the Walrus, the March Hare and the White Rabbit more humanesque, for example.
— Walt Disney.
OTHER VIEWS: “The Lewis Carroll version of Alice in Wonderland was always a favorite of mine, but I think we blew it in the Disney version. It degenerated into a loud-mouthed vaudeville show. There’s no denying that there are many charming bits in our Alice, but it lacks warmth and an over-all story glue. Alice suffered from too many cooks — directors. Here was a case of five directors each trying to top the other guy and make his sequence the biggest and craziest in the show. This had a self-canceling effect on the final product. For example, I was in charge of the animation for the Mad Tea Party, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, and the Cheshire Cat, but because all the other sequences in the show tried to be “mad”, the result was that the only really “mad” thing in the whole picture, in my opinion, turned out to be the Cheshire Cat! Why? Because compared to the constant all-out, wild gyrations of the other characters, he played it real cool. His quiet, underplayed subtleties consequently stole the show!”
— Ward Kimball, interviewed by Leonard Maltin in Film Fan Monthly.
Nearly all the characters — the Caterpillar is one of the few successful elements — have been twisted to suit Disney’s tricks and mannerisms, so that their actions and their dialogue are incongruous appendages rather than realizations of the Lewis Carroll originals. If you don’t care about Lewis Carroll and like Disney, you will find the film a fair example of his later period — relentlessly ingenious, bright and crowded with movement; but if you like Lewis Carroll, the only advice is to stay away.
— Gavin Lambert in the Monthly Film Bulletin.
Inevitably, some incidents which are someone’s favorites have had to go. I still mourn, for instance, the absence of the Duchess, the Sneezing Baby and the Fish and Frog Footmen. I still regret that the White Knight and the White Queen are not present.
On the other hand, I thoroughly enjoyed the Caterpillar — and I think Lewis Carroll would have liked him there, too. The White Rabbit was in character and the Queen was as bloodthirsty as one could wish.
Her court of playing cards and her pasteboard guards displayed themselves as only Disney’s artists could make them, and the singing flowers had immense charm and were a strictly fair blend of Disney and Carroll.
But I did not like the jivey Cheshire Cat; I thought the Mad Hatter’s tea party too complicated; and I did not care for the strange, rather unhealthy dream animals who cluster around Alice in the Tulgay Wood sequence.
I could go on listing likes and dislikes; everyone who has read Alice will do the same after they have seen the picture; and the degree to which each individual will enjoy the picture depends upon his flexibility of mind.
— Leonard Wallace.
Not Walt Disney at his best or in his most imaginative vein and lacking the delight of real wit, the film nevertheless has charm and remains reasonably faithful to the original. Some of the voices are perfectly matched to the animation, notably Jerry Colonna, Sterling Holloway and Richard Haydn. Despite reservations, it’s an enjoyable flight into Wonderland.
— E.V.D.
As usual, the sound track was recorded first and a film record of the live performers speaking their lines was made as a guide to the animators. The drawing of the Mad Hatter was closely modeled on Ed Wynn and the features of Jerry Colonna can easily be discerned in the March Hare.
I would dispute Disney’s statement that Carroll had no need of a plot. Through the Looking Glass has one of the most ingenious and original plot structures in the whole history of world literature. Though it has been done many times since (mostly by science fiction writers) I know of no earlier attempt than Carroll’s to base a fictional narrative on animated chess pieces. Considering the staggering difficulties involved in dovetailing a chess game with an amusing nonsense fantasy, Carroll does a remarkable job. At no time, for example, does Alice exchange words with a piece that is not then on a square alongside her own. Queens bustle about doing things while their husbands remain relatively fixed and impotent, just as in actual chess games. The White Knight’s eccentricities fit admirably the eccentric way in which Knights move; even the tendency of the Knights to fall off their horses, on one side or the other, suggests the Knight’s move, which is two squares in one direction followed by one square to the right or left.
However, both the White Knight and the Red Knight are missing from this version, as are the Lion and the Unicorn (again!), the Mouse, the Lory and the Duck, Father William and his son, the Old Frog, the Leg of Mutton and the Pudding, as well as the characters mentioned by earlier commentators.
As to whether Carroll himself would care for this version, the answer would be negative as he regarded the U.S.A. as literally a dump on which to get rid of shoddy merchandise.
It is odd that until 1972 English picture-makers made no attempt to film Alice, though there is a French movie called Alice au Pays des Merveilles made in 1948 with an English cast (Carol Marsh, Stephen Murray, Felix Aylmer, Pamela Brown) directed by Marc Maurette, Lou Bunin and Dallas Bower. The film was a not altogether successful combination of live action and puppets.
—John Howard Reid writing as George Addison.
One of the most striking visual effects in the Disney film was obtained by having the Caterpillar illustrate his words by blowing multicolored smoke rings that assumed the shapes of letters and objects.
— Martin Gardner.
Forget about Dodgson and concentrate on the film as it is, a wacky, bizarre, typically Disney creation — or maybe not so typical as it is (despite the very conventional Alice and her equally conventional and stiffly animated to boot “sister”) far more way out than usual. I disagree with Maltin about the warmth. The film is so visually and verbally crazy and mad, warmth doesn’t matter because Alice is really just a peg to tie the madness together. I agree with his other comments. The cards are marvelous (cf the Mickey Mouse short cartoon) and the color is rich and warm and glossy and the songs are delightful.
— J.H.R.
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Dorothy Lamour (Aloma), Jon Hall (Tanoa), Lynne Overman (Corky), Philip Reed (Revo), Katherine deMille (Kari), Fritz Leiber (high priest), Dona Drake (Nea), Esther Dale (Tarusa), John Barclay (Ilkali), Norma Jean Nelson (Aloma as a child), Evelyn Del Rio (Nea as a child), Scotty Beckett (Tanoa as a child), Billy Roy (Revo as a child), Noble Johnson (Moukali), Ella Neal, Dena Coaker, Emily LaRue, Patsy Mace, Dorothy Short, Paula Terry, Carmella Casino, Esther Estrella (Aloma’s handmaidens), John Bagni (native), Nina Campana (Toots), Charlene Wyatt, Janet Dempsey (girls).
Directed by ALFRED SANTELL from a screenplay by Frank Butler, Seena Owen and Lillian Hayward, based on a story by Seena Owen and Kurt Siodmak, suggested by the stage play of the same name by LeRoy Clemens and John B. Hymer. Photographed by Karl Struss. Technicolor color consultant: Natalie Kalmus. Film editor: Arthur Schmidt. Special photographic effects: Gordon Jennings. Process photography: Farciot Edouart. Art directors: Hans Dreier and William Pereira. Costumes: Edith Head. Make-up: Wally Westmore. Associate photographers: Wilfrid M. Cline, William Snyder. Associate Technicolor color consultant: Morgan Padelford. Music director: Victor Young. Song, “White Blossoms of Tah-ni” by Frank Loesser and Frederick Hollander. Island music: Augie Goupil and His Royal Tahitians. Musical numbers staged by LeRoy Prinz. Associate music director: Andrea Setaro. Camera operator: George Clement. Sound recording: Gene Merritt, Walter Oberst. Western Electric Sound System. Associate producer: Monta Bell. Executive producer: Buddy G. De Sylva.
Copyright 29 August 1941 by Paramount Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Paramount: 27 August 1941. U.S. release: 27 August 1941. Australian release: 12 March 1942. 6,977 feet. 77 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: A native chieftain is forced to marry an exceptionally beautiful young girl. Just as he is getting used to the idea, a rival re-appears on the scene.
NOTES: Nominated for prestigious Hollywood awards for Color Cinematography, Cline, Struss and Snyder (in that order!), losing to Blood and Sand; and Special Effects Photography, Edouart and Jennings, and Sound Effects, Louis Mesenkop, losing to the same trio’s I Wanted Wings.
One of Paramount’s top-grossing domestic releases for the 1940-41 (sic) season.
The stage play opened on Broadway at the Lyric on 20 April 1925 and ran a satisfactory 163 performances. William Gargan made his Broadway debut opposite Vivienne Osborne and Frank Thomas. A.H. Van Buren directed for producer Carl Reed.
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Strictly adults.
COMMENT: A hokey old stage play has been brought up to date with some rather odd elements in addition to the usual slapstick foolery and customary trappings of tropical romance. How a masochistic sub-heroine who is also fond of voyeurism ever got past the 1941 censors is a bit of a mystery in itself. Maybe because the girl was played by such a beguiling lass as Dona Drake it was decided to let her through the net. But how then the latitude given to the chillingly sadistic Philip Reed character and his sex-hate relationship with his mistress (played with striking intensity by Katherine deMille) — especially when that relationship is so brazenly presented as here? It’s hard to believe that these were the same censors who were so coy about double beds and against whom producers went to bat to enable Rhett Butler to say, “I don’t give a damn.” Certainly Aloma of the South Seas is the most sexually explicit film produced by a Hollywood major in the 1940s and I guess the reason it survived intact is that no bluenose bothered to see it. Censorship survives on protests, complaints, public controversy.
Aside from the more-than-implied sex and the graphic violence, Aloma is pretty much the standard tropic paradise sort of affair. Many critics did in fact compare it (unfavorably) to The Hurricane, this time with a weaker story, Technicolor, a volcanic eruption and fiery floods. The color is alluring and the climax is certainly spectacular, but in most other aspects this is a lightweight Hurricane with tepid, time-twiddling principals and conventional cardboard comedians, plus the usual assortment of priests, chiefs, dancers and singers, servants and hand-maidens. As usual only the villains are full-blooded, and even with them their motives are thoroughly predictable. Despite some odd aberrations, the plot is basically as boring as it’s old-hat and ridiculous.
What gives Aloma its appeal is primarily its blatant escapism. Rarely has Technicolor been employed with such unblushing confidence in its ability to rose-tint exotic landscapes. Skimpy costumes, lush sets, lots of singing and dancing, a bit of mild clowning and some vigorous villainy set against the romantic bravado of the South Seas — what more could picturegoers ask?
OTHER VIEWS: Originally, this film was to have been produced by Jack Moss and directed by Stuart Heisler. But production was delayed and Heisler was glad of the opportunity to get out of the assignment. For the stage play by the authors of Alias the Deacon is 100% out-dated hoke. Several attempts were made to arrive at a satisfactory script. Eventually, it was decided to scrap the original play entirely, except for the title and the character of Aloma herself. The plot, dialogue and all other characters were changed — not that the result is much of an improvement. It’s still tripe. But it makes for passable, escapist entertainment, and the Technicolor photography (both of the scenery and of Miss Lamour, who was ever after identified with this role) is very, very soothing. Still, so far as pictorial beauty is concerned, this re-make cannot hold a candle to Maurice Tourneur’s 1926 version, starring Gilda Gray, Percy Marmont, Warner Baxter, and William Powell!
—John Howard Reid writing as George Addison.
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Sabu (Ali Ben Ali), Jon Hall (Haroun al Raschid), Maria Montez (Sherazad), Leif Erikson (Kamar), Billy Gilbert (Ahmad), Edgar Barrier (Hadan), Richard Lane (corporal), Turhan Bey (captain), John Qualen (Aladdin), Shemp Howard (Sinbad), Wee “Willie” Davis (Valda), Thomas Gomez (Hakim the slave trader), Jeni Le Gon (dresser to Sherazad), Robert Greig (story-teller), Charles Coleman (eunuch), Adia Kuznetzoff (slaver), Emory Parnell (harem sentry), Harry Cording (blacksmith), Robin Raymond (slave girl), Virginia Engels, Nedra Sanders, Mary Moore, Veronika Pataky, Jean Trent, Frances Gladwin, Rosemarie Dempsey, Patsy Mace, Pat Starling, June Ealey (harem girls), Andre Charlot, Frank Lackteen, Anthony Blair, Robert Barron, Art Miles, Murdock MacQuarrie (bidders), Elyse Knox (duenna), Burnu Acquanetta (Ishya), Ernest Whitman (Nubian slave), Eva Puig (old woman), Ken Christy (provost marshal), Johnnie Berkes (blind beggar), Cordell Hickman, Paul Clayton (black boys), Phyllis Forbes, Peggy Satterlee, Helen Pender, Eloise Hardt (virgins), Alaine Brandes (street slave girl), Jamiel Hasson, Crane Whitley, Charles Alvarado (officers), Duke York (archer), Mickey Simpson (hangman), Amador Gutierrez, Ben Ayassa Wadrassi, Edward Marmolejo, Daniel Barone (tumblers), Kermit Maynard (soldier), David Sharpe (double for Sabu), Carmen D’Antonio (harem queen).
Director: JOHN RAWLINS. Story and screenplay: Michael Hogan. Additional dialogue: True Boardman. Photographed in Technicolor by Milton Krasner. Film editor: Philip Cahn. Associate photographers: William V. Skall and W. Howard Greene. Production designers: Jack Otterson and Alexander Golitzen. Set decorations: R.A. Gausman and Ira S. Webb. Costumes: Vera West. Music composed by Frank Skinner and directed by Charles Previn. Technicolor color consultant: Natalie Kalmus. Technical advisor: Jamiel Hasson. Assistant director: Fred Frank. Sound supervisor: Bernard B. Brown. Sound technician: William Fox. Western Electric Sound System. Producer: Walter Wanger. A Walter Wanger Production.
Copyright 29 December 1942 by Universal Pictures Co., Inc. New York opening at the Rivoli: 25 December 1942. U.S. release: 25 December 1942. Australian release: 12 August 1943. 9 reels. 7,853 feet. 87 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Because of his abiding love of Sherazad, a dancing girl who promises to marry him if he becomes caliph, Kamar seizes the throne from Caliph Haroun al Raschid, his half-brother. Kamar orders his men to kill Haroun, but he escapes and is given refuge by Ali Ben Ali, an acrobat with Ahmad’s tent circus. Others in the troupe are Sinbad, Aladdin, and the star attraction, Sherazad. None know of Haroun’s true identity save Ali, who agrees to keep the discovery a secret. Unknown to Kamar, his aide Hadan has Sherazad sold into slavery in order to prevent her from becoming Queen and taking away his power.
NOTES: Nominated for the following prestigious Hollywood awards: Krasner, Skall and Greene for Color Cinematography, losing to Leon Shamroy’s The Black Swan; Golitzen, Otterson, Gausman and Webb for Color Sets, losing to My Gal Sal; Bernard Brown for Sound Recording, losing to Yankee Doodle Dandy; Frank Skinner for Scoring of a Drama or Comedy, losing to Now, Voyager.
Universal’s first three-strip Technicolor feature, and the studio’s top domestic boxoffice attraction of 1942-43.
Above are the official writing credits. Producer Walter Wanger stated at the time of the film’s New York release that the story was written by Michael Hogan, True Boardman and Eddie Hartmann from a general outline by Alexander Golitzen. Its only similarity to Burton’s classic is the title as Mr Wanger found the original “dull and dirty”.
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Adults. The story is certainly silly enough for kids, but they’re likely to take it seriously.
COMMENT: “The woman whose beauty shames the glory of the sunset” (to quote some of the rich dialogue in this delightfully escapist yet ultra-lavish and regally elegant slice of nonsense), namely Maria Montez here makes her Technicolor debut. Shortly to be crowned “Queen of Technicolor”, Montez presents an exotically fiery, tantalizingly tempestuous personality, extravagantly costumed, exquisitely groomed. That she can’t act for toffee and that her accent is often almost impenetrable simply adds to her more-than-mortal allure. Interestingly, as her boxoffice appeal was as yet unknown, she is not allowed to dominate the Nights as she did her subsequent films. Here, there’s still plenty for Jon Hall and his seemingly acrobatic sidekick Sabu to get their hands on. Turhan Bey, later to take precedence over Jon Hall as the romantic lead, is also in the cast; Leif (pronounced “Life”) Erikson and Edgar Barrier enact the villains; whilst some additional comedy relief (the whole film is just one vast howl) is skilfully provided by our favorite (if impermanent) Stooge, Shemp Howard, plus John Qualen and Sneezy Gilbert.
The trailer for this one is also a real hoot, the best of the lot. “Bagdad, city of temptations, where ruler and rogue, slaver and sinner fight for the forbidden Sherazad. A story rich and exotic as the East itself!” And that’s just for openers.
OTHER VIEWS: Alluringly accented Montez, who obviously relished her exotic roles as much as her audiences did, performed her Sherazad in a manner that would become standard practice for such screen successors as Yvonne De Carlo, Maureen O’Hara, Patricia Medina, and Rhonda Fleming: one part temperament (“Let them wait. Fools. Let them call.”), one part bravery (“Sherazad lives in fear of no man”), one part practicality (“It is my destiny to marry a king and rule a kingdom”) and a heavy dash of repressed romanticism (those smoldering looks, that sensuous walk).
— James Robert Parish in Hollywood’s Great Love Teams.
Lush color, attractive sets and costumes and plenty of action, somewhat offset by corny dialogue and plotting of predictable juvenility.
— G.A.
A most opulent offering, with harem queens, dancing beauties, graceful horses, accoutered camels, and even a fur-trimmed swimming pool — all gorgeously presented in effective Technicolor. It seems that nothing that money could buy in the way of costumes and other expensive props has been left out of the picture. It is unfortunate, in spite of this lavish outlay, the real spirit of the Nights has been lost in the glitter. But there is enough of a spectacle left to afford entertainment of a kind that brings back memories of Valentino and Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. And there are a number of gallant fights, with excellent swordplay, the like of which would be hard to find outside of a modern Western or serial. But it’s good fun whichever way you look at it.
— New Movies.
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Written and narrated by Pete Smith. Produced and directed by J.F. Leventhal, J.A. Norling. Associate director: Robert Neuschotz. Photographed in 3-D anaglyphic process (red and green). Executive producer: Pete Smith.
Copyright 26 December 1935 by Metro Goldwyn Mayer Corp. 755 feet. 8 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: “An adventure in three-dimensional photography. A man throws a baseball toward the audience, a pistol is fired, a trombone player works his slide, someone squirts seltzer, etc.”
— Leonard Maltin: The Great Movie Shorts.
NOTES: Smith bought the footage from a trio of free-lancers for $11,000. After re-editing and adding his famous narration, the film went on to gross an amazing $300,000 in initial domestic film rentals. This coup crowned Pete Smith Specialties as the number one money-making short subjects of 1936.
Sequels were The New Audioscopiks (1937) again produced by Leventhal and Norling; and his own Third Dimensional Murder (1940).
In response to the 3-D boom of 1953, M-G-M repackaged the three shorts into a composite called Metroscopix. Overseas film rentals alone topped $1 million. This would make these Pete Smith Specialties the most successful shorts of all time.
The original short was nominated for a prestigious Hollywood award in the Novelty Short Subject department, losing to Wings Over Mt Everest.
Jacob Leventhal was a 3-D movie pioneer, co-producing with Frederick Eugene Ives, the world’s third anaglyphic picture Plastigrams in 1923 (in which he uses the slide trombone effect).
John Norling went on to make America’s first Polaroid 3-D movie In Tune With Tomorrow (1939).
VIEWERS’ GUIDE: Not suitable for younger children.
COMMENT: It was certainly a happy accident that Metro had a Smith named Pete on the lot who could recognize a commercial goldmine when he saw it. It’s ironic that the studio that lagged behind every other in technical innovation — the last to fully convert its output to sound, the last to recognize the potential of color (“Why should we make our pictures in color when they’re doing all right in black-and-white?”) — became the first of the Hollywood majors to embrace 3-D, anticipating Warner Bros House of Wax by nearly 18 years.
As for the shorts themselves, they’re somewhat disappointing. The red and green cellophane viewers reduce vision by at least 50%, making the image difficult to see. The second technical problem is that though the images fuse okay, the outlines of the green can still be seen. Fortunately the 3-D effects themselves are excellent and often startling. Whilst the films are no more than a series of gimmicks, their novelty appeal is high in entertainment — especially for people who’ve never seen the far superior polaroid process.
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Mickey Rooney (Tommy Williams), Judy Garland (Penny Morris), Fay Bainter (Miss Jones), Virginia Weidler (Barbara Jo), Ray McDonald (Ray Lambert), Richard Quine (Morton Hammond), Donald Meek (Mr Stone), Alexander Woollcott (himself), Luis Alberni (Nick), James Gleason (Thornton Reed), Emma Dunn (Mrs Williams), Frederick Burton (Professor Morris), Cliff Clark (Inspector Moriarty), William A. Post Jr (announcer), Carl Stockdale (man), Dick Baron (Butch), Will Lee (waiter), Donna Reed (secretary), Joe Yule (Mason, aide to Reed), Anne Rooney, Dorothy Morris, Maxine Flores (Pit Astor girls), Stop, Look and Listen Trio, Six Hits and a Miss, Five Musical Maids (themselves), Tom Hanlon (radio man), Renee Austin (Elinor), Roger Steele (boy), Bryant Washburn (director), Charles Wagenheim (composer), Arthur Hoyt (little man customer), Jack Lipson (fat man customer), Margaret O'Brien (little girl at audition), Sidney Miller (pianist), King Baggott (man in audience), Barbara Bedford (matron), Shimen Ruskin (excited Russian), Jean Porter (“Hoe Down” dancer), Leslie Brooks (actress committee extra), Lester Dorr (writer), and Ava Gardner, Sue Garland, Roger Moore.
Director: BUSBY BERKELEY. Screenplay: Fred Finklehoffe, Elaine Ryan. Based on a story by Joseph Santley. Screen story: Fred Finklehoffe. Photography: Lester White. Film editor: Fredrick Y. Smith. Songs: “Babes on Broadway” (chorus), “How About You?” (Garland and Rooney), music and lyrics by Burton Lane and Ralph Freed; “Chin up”, “Cheerio”, “Carry on” (Garland), “Anything Can Happen in New York” (Rooney, McDonald, Quine) by Burton Lane (music) and E.Y. Harburg (lyrics); “A Bombshell from Brazil” (Rooney), music and lyrics by Roger Edens; “Hoe Down” (Garland, Rooney, McDonald), music and lyrics by Roger Edens and Ralph Freed; “F. D. R. Jones” (Garland), music and lyrics by Harold Rome; “I Belong to Glasgow” (Rooney), music and lyrics by Sir Harry Lauder; “Mamma Yo Quiero” (Rooney), music and lyrics by Jararaca and Vincente Paiva and Al Stillman. Music director: Georgie Stoll. Music adaptation: Roger Edens. Music orchestrations: Leo Arnaud, George Bassman, Conrad Salinger. Sound: Douglas Shearer. Sketch, “The Convict’s Return” by Harry Kaufman. “Ghost Theatre” created by Vincente Minnelli. Other script and sketch contributors: Robert Tree West, John Monks, Ralph Spence, Gertrude Purcell, Edmund Hartmann, Charles Reisner, Elsie Janis. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons, Malcolm Brown. Set decorator: Edwin B. Willis. Art director for musical numbers: Merrill Pye. Gowns: Kalloch. Men’s wardrobe: Gile Steele. Make-up: Jack Dawn. Technical advisor and Miss Garland’s coach: Elsie Janis. Mr Rooney’s coach for “Mama Yo Quiero”: Carmen Miranda. 2nd unit director (Woollcott prologue): George Sidney. Additional songs: “Mary Is a Grand Old Name” (Garland) by George M. Cohan; “Blackout over Broadway” (Weidler) by Burton Lane (music) and Ralph Freed (lyrics); “She Is My Daisy” (Rooney) by Sir Harry Lauder and J.D. Harper; “I’ve Got Rings on My Fingers” (Garland) by Scott, Weston and Barnes; “Yankee Doodle Boy” (Rooney) by George M. Cohan; “By the Light of the Silvery Moon” (entire juvenile cast) by Edward Madden and Gus Edwards; “Alabamy Bound” (Rooney) by Ray Henderson; “Waiting for the Robert E. Lee” (entire juvenile cast) by Lewis E. Muir and Maurice Abrahams; “Swanee River” (Rooney) by Stephen Foster. Minstrel show arranged by Roger Edens. [A deleted number, “Ballad for Americans”, was used in its entirety in Born To Sing (1943)]. Producer: Arthur Freed.
A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture, copyright 5 December 1941 by Loew’s Inc. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 31 December 1941 (ran 15 days). U.S. release: 2 January 1942. Australian release: 30 April 1942. 13 reels. 118 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Irrepressible youngsters decide to put on their own off-Broadway show.
NOTES: M-G-M production number: 1204.
Shooting from 14 July 1941 to 14 October 1941, with one day of re-takes on 7 November 1941.
Negative cost: $940,068.70.
Worldwide rentals gross: $3,859,000.
The figure for initial domestic rentals is not available, but the film placed in the U.S./Canada’s top twenty box-office attraction for 1942.
“How About You?” by Burton Lane (music) and Ralph Freed (lyrics) was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song, losing to “White Christmas” from Holiday Inn.
VIEWERS’ GUIDE: Okay for all.
COMMENT: Strictly for fans of Mickey and Judy with the egocentric Junior Yule doing impersonations all over the place (including a Carmen Miranda coached by the diminutive lady herself) and the darling of the Munchkin set oozing sentiment galore. Her scene with the British refugee children in which they are encouraged to send greetings to “mater” and “pater” in faraway war-torn London must surely be the all-time low sequence in any M-G-M musical. For maudlin sentimentality, Babes on Broadway has few equals. Still the musical numbers provide welcome oases of cheer, thanks to Busby Berkeley. Even a second-rate Buzz has more pace, verve and dazzle than all the Felix Feists of this world at their peak.
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Fred Astaire (Tony Hunter), Cyd Charisse (Gabrielle Gerard), Jack Buchanan (Jeffrey Cordova), Nanette Fabray (Lily Marton), Oscar Levant (Lester Marton), Ava Gardner (herself), James Mitchell (Paul Byrd), Thurston Hall (Colonel Tide), LeRoy Daniels (bootblack), Robert Gist (Hal Benton), Douglas Fowley (auctioneer), Emory Parnell, Herb Vigran (train passengers), Ernest Anderson (porter), Barbara Ruick (woman alighting from train), Steve Forrest (man alighting from train), Donald Kerr (photographer), Frank Scannell, Stu Wilson, Roy Engel (reporters), Curtis Jackson (kid at penny arcade), Sue Casey (tall woman at penny arcade), Wilson Wood (knock the-cans operator), Al Hill (shooting gallery operator), Bert May, Matt Mattox, William Lundy (men in Gabrielle’s ballet), Madge Blake (gushy woman), George Sherwood, Harry Stanton, Marion Gray, Bess Flowers, Estelle Eterre, Lillian Culver (backers), Jack Gargan (Plaza doorman), Joe A. Brockman (horse-drawn cabbie), Betty Farrington (Faust's set designer), Henry Corden (Faust's conductor), Dick Alexander, Al Ferguson, Charles Regan, Jack Stoney (stagehands), Smoki Whitfield (Tide's chauffeur), Manuel Paris (cast party caterer), Dee Turnell, Jimmie Thompson, Bert May, Elynne May, Judy Landon, Ann McCrea, Robert R. Stebbins, Ted Jordan, Lyle Clark, Peggy Murray (cast members at party), Lotte Stein (Cordova's chambermaid), Dee Hartford, Eden Hartford, Julie Newmar (women in Girl Hunt ballet), Bill Foster, Shirley Lopez, Lysa Baugher (dancers), Bobby Watson (Bobby, Hunter's dresser), Jack Tester (Ivan), John Lupton (Jack, the promoter), Owen McGivney (prop man), Sam Hearn (agent), Paul Bradley (dancer in park/waiter), Stuart Holmes (old businessman), Del Moore (Hunter's servant).
Director: VINCENTE MINNELLI. Original story and screenplay: Betty Comden, Adolph Green. Narration for “Girl Hunt Ballet” written by Alan Jay Lerner. Photographed in Technicolor by Harry Jackson (borrowed from 20th Century-Fox), who replaced George Folsey who copped the blame for production delays early on in shooting. Film editor: Albert Akst (producer Freed’s brother-in-law). Production designer: Oliver Smith. Supervising art director: Cedric Gibbons. Unit art director: Preston Ames. Supervising set decorator: Edwin B. Willis. Unit set decorator: Keogh Gleason. Costumes: Mary Ann Nyberg. Make-up: William Tuttle. Hair styles: Sydney Guilaroff. Technicolor color consultants: Henri Jaffa, Robert Brower. Assistant director: Jerry Thorpe. Special effects: Warren Newcombe. Sound recording supervisor: Douglas Shearer. Western Electric Sound System. Associate producer: Roger Edens. Producer: Arthur Freed.
Songs by Arthur Schwartz (music) and Howard Dietz (lyrics): “By Myself” (Astaire), “A Shine On Your Shoes” (Astaire, Daniels), “That’s Entertainment” (Astaire, Fabray, Buchanan), “Beggar’s Waltz” (danced by Charisse), “Dancing in the Dark” (danced by Astaire and Charisse), “You and the Night and the Music” (danced by Astaire and Charisse), “I Love Louisa” (Astaire and Fabray), “New Sun in the Sky” (Charisse, dubbed by India Adams), “I Guess I’ll Have To Change My Plan” (Astaire and Buchanan), “Louisiana Hayride” (Fabray), “Triplets” (Astaire, Fabray, Buchanan), “Girl Hunt Ballet” (Astaire, Charisse), “That’s Entertainment” (reprised by Buchanan, Fabray, Levant, Astaire, and Charisse dubbed by India Adams), “High and Low” (orchestral), “Something To Remember You By” (ensemble). [Deleted songs: “Sweet Music” (Levant and Fabray), “You Have Everything” (danced by Astaire, Charisse), “Got a Bran’ New Suit” (Astaire), “Telephone Duet” — originally a segment of the “Girl Hunt Ballet” — (Astaire and Charisse), “Two-Faced Woman” (Charisse dubbed by India Adams), “Alone Together”, “Never Marry a Dancer”]. Background compositions: Main title and “Opening Night Egg” by Conrad Salinger; “Carriage in the Park” by Roger Edens and Conrad Salinger; “Off-Scene Noodles” by Adolph Deutsch; “Oedipus Rex Bridge” by Roger Edens and Alexander Courage. Dances and musical numbers staged by Michael Kidd. Music director: Adolph Deutsch. Orchestrations: Conrad Salinger, Skip Martin, Alexander Courage. Dance assistants: Alex Romero, Pat Denise. Music co-ordinator: Roger Edens.
Copyright 3 July 1953 by Loew’s Inc. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 9 July 1953 (ran 7 weeks). U.S. release: 7 August 1953. U.K. release: 15 February 1954. Australian release: 15 October 1953. 10,088 feet. 112 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: A hefty percentage of the musicals produced in Hollywood in the 1930s were of the backstage variety — musicals in which putting on a show provided the major impetus for the plot. Astaire's first film, Dancing Lady, was one of these, but thereafter, except for The Band Wagon, he avoided them. Although the setting for most of his films is show business in one form or another, almost all of his films are primarily love stories — romances about two people who happen to spend a great deal of time singing and dancing, usually with each other.
The love story concerns Astaire and his ballerina partner in the show, played by Cyd Charisse. Wary of each other at the beginning, they gradually become attracted, and finally sink into a clinch at the end. In some respects it’s unfortunate that the love story must be given subplot status, for the problems that beset the Astaire-Charisse romance are interesting and have considerable potential for development. The two are kept apart not by contrived plot devices like mistaken identity but for reasons that derive directly from fundamental plot premises: self-consciousness about the differences in their ages (Astaire was fifty-four in 1953, Charisse thirty) and about their different backgrounds (the high art world of ballet, the lowly world of tap). In addition, Charisse is already “taken” as she is the girlfriend of the show’s choreographer, played by James Mitchell.
At first Astaire and Charisse have little interest in each other offstage and evince a considerable incompatibility during rehearsals. Eventually, however, they talk over their differences and, with tension reduced, resolve to see if they can dance together. The resulting romantic duet, “Dancing in the Dark,” is the film’s highlight. Not only do they discover they can dance compatibly, but, in some remarkably ingenious choreography, they begin inadvertently to fall in love.
— John Mueller.
NOTES: M-G-M production number: 1610.
Shooting from 1 September 1952 through to 28 January 1953, with one day of re-takes on 9 February 1953.
Negative cost: $2,872,581.
Initial worldwide rentals gross: $5,655,505.
One of the top thirty box-office attractions in the U.S./Canada for 1953.
Nominated for three prestigious Hollywood awards: Best Story and Screenplay [Titanic], Best Scoring of a Musical Picture [Call Me Madam], Best Color Costume Design [The Robe].