Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Hollywood Movie Musicals: Great, Good and Glamorous
    Hollywood Movie Musicals: Great, Good and Glamorous
    Hollywood Movie Musicals: Great, Good and Glamorous
    Ebook525 pages6 hours

    Hollywood Movie Musicals: Great, Good and Glamorous

    By John Howard Reid

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    In the golden years of cinema, Hollywood's Christmas present to ardent movie fans was almost always a brace of spectacular musicals. In those days, musicals easily rated as the most popular genre of movies. They were eagerly anticipated not only by the carriage trade but working-class audiences as well. This book provides a guide to over 150 of these crowd-pleasing, musical delights, ranging from "Annie Get Your Gun" to "Ziegfeld Girl". To give you an idea of the scope of this book here are just ONE of those 150 entries: ROAD TO RIO: Bing Crosby (Scat Sweeney), Bob Hope (Hot Lips Barton), Dorothy Lamour (Lucia Maria De Andrade), Gale Sondergaard (Catherine Vail), Frank Faylen (Trigger), Joseph Vitale (Tony), Frank Puglia (Rodrigues), Nestor Paiva (Cardoso), Robert Barrat (Johnson), Jerry Colonna (cavalry captain), Wiere Brothers (musicians), Andrews Sisters, Carioca Boys, Stone-Baron Puppeteers (themselves), George Meeker (Sherman Maley), Stanley Andrews (Captain Harmon), Harry Woods (ship's purser), Tor Johnson (Samson), Donald Kerr (steward), Stanley Blystone (assistant purser), George Sorel (prefeito), John "Skins" Miller (dancer), Alan Bridge, (ship's officer), Arthur Q. Bryan (Stanton), Babe London (woman), Gino Corrado (barber), George Chandler (valet), Paul Newlan, George Lloyd (butchers), Fred Zendar (stevedore), Ralph Gomez, Duke York, Frank Hagney (roustabouts), Ralph Dunn (foreman), Peipito Perez (dignified gentleman), Ray Teal (Buck), Brandon Hurst (barker), Barbara Pratt (airline hostess), Tad Van Brunt (pilot), Patsy O'Bryne (charwoman), Raul Roulien (cavalry officer), Charles Middleton (farmer), Albert Ruiz, Laura Corbay (specialty dancers), Frank Ferguson (Buck's foreman). Director: NORMAN Z. McLEOD. Screenplay: Edmund Beloin, Jack Rose. Photography: Ernest Laszlo. Film editor: Elsworth Hoagland. Art directors: Hans Dreier, Earl Hedrick. Set decorators: Sam Comer, Ray Moyer. Costumes: Edith Head. Make-up: Wally Westmore. Special photographic effects: Gordon Jennings, Paul Lerpae. Process photography: Farciot Edouart. Assistant director: Oscar Rudolph. Sound recording: Harold Lewis, Walter Oberst. Western Electric Sound System. Producer: Daniel Dare. Songs: "But Beautiful" (Crosby); "You Don't Have To Know the Language" (Crosby, Andrews Sisters); "Experience" (Lamour); "Apalachicola, Fla" (Crosby, Hope); "Cavaquinho" (Wiere Brothers) -- all by Johnny Burke (lyrics) and James Van Heusen (music), who wrote another song, "For What?" for the Andrews Sisters, but this was deleted; "Brazil" (orchestral) by Ary Barroso (music), Bob Russell (lyrics). Music director: Robert Emmett Dolan. Music associate: Troy Sanders. Vocal arrangements: Joseph J. Lilley. Dances staged by Bernard Pearce and Billy Daniels. Executive producers: Bing Crosby, Bob Hope. Copyright 25 August 1947 by Bing Crosby Enterprises, Inc., and Hope Enterprises, Inc. Released through Paramount. New York opening at the Paramount: 18 February 1948. U.S. release: 25 December 1947. U.K. release: 29 March 1948. Australian release: 6 May 1948. 9,144 feet. 101 minutes. SYNOPSIS: After a wonderfully stimulating special effects cross-country montage sequence in which our ever-helpful crooner identifies himself firstly as Frank Sinatra, than as Gene Autry, Bing and Bob sing and dance their way through "Apalachicola, Fla", after which they burn down a whole carnival. And this is just for openers. Fleeing from the vengeance of the carnival owner, they stow away on board a luxury passenger ship bound for Rio where they meet and rescue a beautiful heiress who is being craftily mesmerized by her evil aunt. The aunt's two goons hunt the boys down, but... NOTES: Fifth of the seven Road pictures. With a domestic rentals gross of $4.5 million , this was the number one boxoffice attraction in the U.S. and Canada in 1948. Best Actor, Bing Crosby -- Photoplay Gold Medal Award. (Alas, no space left for the Review itself!)

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJohn Howard Reid
    Release dateMar 25, 2011
    ISBN9781458054142
    Hollywood Movie Musicals: Great, Good and Glamorous
    Author

    John Howard Reid

    Author of over 100 full-length books, of which around 60 are currently in print, John Howard Reid is the award-winning, bestselling author of the Merryll Manning series of mystery novels, anthologies of original poetry and short stories, translations from Spanish and Ancient Greek, and especially books of film criticism and movie history. Currently chief judge for three of America's leading literary contests, Reid has also written the textbook, "Write Ways To Win Writing Contests".

    Read more from John Howard Reid

    Related to Hollywood Movie Musicals

    Related ebooks

    Music For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Generation VOGUE

      Jun 9, 2020

      Generation VOGUE
      7 min read

    • Article

      Master Of Reinvention

      Apr 14, 2022

      Master Of Reinvention
      7 min read

    • Article

      My Career in Five Songs

      Apr 6, 2021

      FEBRUARY 9, 1964, launched an untold number of rock bands in the U.S., one of them being the Lovin’ Spoonful. That night, folk guitarist John Sebastian dropped by the Greenwich Village apartment of his friend Cass Elliot to watch the Beatles on The E

      7 min read

    • Article

      Fellini: The Early Masterpieces

      Mar 1, 2018

      directed by Federico Fellini, 1953. directed by Federico Fellini, 1957. THIS IS an unpopular stance, but I don’t care for a single movie Federico Fellini directed from 1960 (the year of La Dolce Vita) through the end of his career three decades lat

      13 min read

    • Article

      Cat Power

      Dec 9, 2021

      Cat Power
      4 min read

    • Article

      A Stroll Down Abbey Road

      Jul 3, 2019

      Although it features some of their sharpest and most iconic tracks, The Beatles never banked too hard on 1969’s Abbey Road. Technically their final studio album (Let It Be came out a year later, but was recorded largely in ’68), its marketing campaig

      4 min read

    • Article

      Singin’ In The Rain

      May 5, 2019

      NAME THE GREATEST musical ever made. Now, name the finest film on the subject of filmmaking. Okay, name the greatest argument ever made for the Hollywood studio system: the grand pageant of the dream factory, sun-kissed on the Californian coast and g

      4 min read

    • Article

      My Worst Moment: William Petersen And A 'Legendary Moment In Chicago Theater History'

      Dec 29, 2017

      CHICAGO - Pensive and firm, if begrudgingly patient, the small town mayor played by William Petersen in "The Minutes," Tracy Letts' new play at the Steppenwolf (through Jan. 7), keeps all the danger of the play's final moments just under the surface.

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Ballet MASTER

      Oct 28, 2021

      The Ballet MASTER
      12 min read

    • Article

      Fame Is A Boomerang

      Jun 7, 2017

      Fame Is A Boomerang
      7 min read

    • Article

      Nikolai Medtner

      Sep 6, 2022

      Nikolai Medtner
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Hollywood Movie Musicals

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Hollywood Movie Musicals - John Howard Reid

      HOLLYWOOD MOVIE MUSICALS

      Great, Good and Glamorous

      John Howard Reid

      ****

      Published by:

      John Howard Reid at Smashwords

      Copyright (c) 2011 by John Howard Reid

      ****

      All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

      Smashwords Edition Licence Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

      ****

      Original text copyright 2011 by John Howard Reid. All rights reserved.

      All rights reserved. Enquiries: johnreid@mail.qango.com

      ****

      HOLLYWOOD CLASSICS 16

      --

      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

      --

      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

      --

      Table of Contents

      After the Ball (1957)

      Annie Get Your Gun (1950)

      Arkansas Swing (1948)

      Artie Shaw and His Orchestra (1939)

      Athena (1954)

      At War With the Army (1951)

      --

      Because of Him (1946)

      Because You’re Mine (1952)

      Behind the Eight Ball (1942)

      Beyond the Blue Horizon (1942)

      Big Business Girl (1931)

      Blue Skies (1946)

      Born To Dance (1936)

      Borrah Minevitch and His Harmonica School (1943)

      Bright Lights (1930)

      Broadway Serenade (1939)

      --

      Caddy (1953)

      Calendar Girl (1947)

      Career Girl (1943)

      Car of Dreams (1935)

      Champagne Charlie (1944)

      Check and Double Check (1930)

      --

      Dixie (1943)

      Down Argentine Way (1940)

      Du Barry Was a Lady (1943)

      Duchess of Idaho (1950)

      Duffy’s Tavern (1945)

      --

      Everything Happens At Night (1939)

      Excuse My Dust (1951)

      --

      Firefly (1937)

      Flying Down To Rio (1933)

      Follow the Boys (1944)

      Follow the Fleet (1936)

      Footlight Serenade (1942)

      Funny Face (1957)

      Funny Girl (1968)

      --

      George Hall and His Orchestra (1937)

      Glorifying the American Girl (1929)

      Go Into Your Dance (1935)

      Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

      Gold Diggers of 1937 (1936)

      Goldilocks and the Three Bears (1939)

      --

      Hi Diddle Diddle (1943)

      Hips, Hips Hooray (1934)

      --

      I Love Melvin (1953)

      I’m No Angel (1933)

      In Old Caliente (1939)

      In the Navy (1941)

      Invitation to the Dance (1957)

      --

      It’s a Great Feeling (1949)

      --

      Jazz Singer (1953)

      Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra (1938)

      Jungle Book (1967)

      --

      King for a Day (1934)

      King Kelly of the U.S.A. (1934)

      Kiss Me Kate (1953)

      --

      Let George Do It (1940)

      Limelight (1952)

      Love Me Tonight (1932)

      Lullaby of Broadway (1951)

      --

      Make a Wish (1937)

      Maytime (1937)

      Merry Widow (1952)

      Mikado (1939)

      Minstrel Man (1944)

      Miss Sadie Thompson (1953)

      Moon Over Miami (1941)

      Moulin Rouge (1953)

      Murder With Music (1941)

      My Friend Irma (1949)

      My Friend Irma Goes West (1950)

      My Lucky Star (1938)

      My Wild Irish Rose (1947)

      --

      Night and Day (1946)

      --

      One Hour With You (1932)

      On Moonlight Bay (1951)

      On the Avenue (1937)

      On the Town (1949)

      --

      Pagan Love Song (1950)

      People Are Funny (1946)

      Poor Little Rich Girl (1936)

      --

      Reaching for the Moon (1930)

      Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938)

      Redheads On Parade (1935)

      Red Shoes (1948)

      Road Show (1940)

      Road to Bali (1953)

      Road to Morocco (1942)

      Road to Rio (1947)

      Roberta (1935)

      Robin Hood (1973)

      Rose of Washington Square (1939)

      --

      Sally In Our Alley (1931)

      Sensations {of 1945} (1944)

      Shall We Dance (1937)

      Shocking Miss Pilgrim (1946)

      Singin’ in the Rain (1952)

      Sitting on the Moon (1936)

      Sleeping Beauty (1959)

      Somebody Loves Me (1952)

      Something To Sing About (1937)

      Song Is Born (1948)

      Song of Love (1947)

      Song of the Plains (1939)

      Sound of Music (1965)

      Stan Kenton and His Orchestra (1946)

      Starlight Over Texas (1938)

      Stowaway (1936)

      Sunday Night at the Trocadero (1937)

      Swing High, Swing Low (1937)

      --

      Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967)

      Too Many Girls (1940)

      Top Hat (1935)

      Trocadero (1944)

      --

      Vagabond King (1956)

      Viva Las Vegas (1963)

      --

      Where Did You Get That Girl? (1941)

      Where Do We Go From Here? (1945)

      White Christmas (1954)

      Wild Over You (1953)

      Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962)

      You Were Meant For Me (1948)

      You Will Remember (1941)

      --

      Ziegfeld Follies (1946)

      Ziegfeld Girl (1941)

      --

      After the Ball

      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.

      --

      Annie Get Your Gun

      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.

      --

      the Arkansas Swing

      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…]

      --

      Artie Shaw and His Orchestra

      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.

      --

      Athena

      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.

      --

      At War With the Army

      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.

      --

      Because of Him

      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.

      --

      Because You’re Mine

      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

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1