Musical Monday: Let’s Make Music (1940)

Posted on by
Reply

It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Let’s Make Music (1940) – Musical #268

Studio:
RKO Radio Pictures

Director:
Leslie Goodwins

Starring:
Jean Rogers, Elisabeth Risdon, Joseph Buloff, Joyce Compton, Benny Bartlett, Louis Jean Heydt, Bill Goodwin, Frank Orth, Grant Withers, Benny Rubin, Gale Sherwood (billed as Jacqueline Nash), Donna Jean Dolfer, Walter Tetley
As themselves: Bob Crosby, The Bob Crosby Orchestra, Bob Haggart, Ray Bauduc

Plot:
Small town high school teacher, Malvina Adams (Risdon), teaches a classical music class that most of the students find boring. In an effort to excite the students about music, she writes a school spirit song. The students don’t like it, but she sends it to a music publisher. Bandleader Bob Crosby (as himself) finds it and thinks the song is great, inviting Malvina to New York City to perform it. Her niece, Abby (Rogers), objects to her aunt going to the city and joins, but Malvina decides she’s going to have fun with her new success.

Continue reading →

Musical Monday: Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962)

Posted on by
Reply

It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962) – Musical #824

Studio:
Paramount Pictures

Director:
Norman Taurog

Starring:
Elvis Presley, Stella Stevens, Jeremy Slate, Laurel Goodwin, Benson Fong, Robert Strauss, Guy Lee, Frank Puglia, Lili Valenty, Beulah Quo, Ginny Tiu, Elizabeth Tiu, Alexander Tiu, Mary Treen (uncredited), Gavin Gordon (uncredited)

Plot:
Ross Carpenter (Presley) has dreams of buying his own boat, but in the meantime, he’s having too earn his money by working as a fishing guide in Hawaii. However, when his employer, Papa Stavros (Puglia), becomes ill, Ross is going to have to find other means of employment. He goes to share his sorrow with his sexy girlfriend, Robin (Stevens), where he meets wealthy but sweet Laurel (Goodwin), which causes issues with Robin. When wealthy Wesley Johnson (Slate) buys Stavros’s boat, Ross battles him for access to the sailboat and also the affections of Laurel.

Continue reading →

Musical Monday: Big Timers (1945)

Posted on by
Reply

It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Big Timers (1945) – Musical #836

Studio:
All American

Director:
Bud Pollard

Starring:
Stepin Fetchit, Francine Everett, Lou Swarz, Gertrude Saunders, Ed Hunter, Duke Williams, Elveta Hunter, Milton Woods, Walter Earle
Specialty Acts: Rocky Brown, Skylight, Tarzana, The All American Girl Band

Plot:
Betty Washburn (Everett) is engaged to Tom Powers (Williams), whose family is eager to meet Betty and her family. The problem is, Tom is wealthy and Betty’s mother (Swarz) works as a maid in a swanky apartment building. A performer in the building, Mabel Page (Saunders), lets the Washburns use her apartment and puts on a special performance for the Powers family.

Continue reading →

Musical Monday: Stars on Parade (1946)

Posted on by
Reply

It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Stars on Parade (1946) – Musical #835

Studio:
All-American

Director:
Joseph Seiden

Starring:
Milton Wood, Francine Everett, Jane Cooley, Duke Williams, Claire Graham, Lou Swarz, Dan Michaels, Jimmy Wills
Themselves: Bob Howard, Ray Greene, Eddie South, Una Mae Carlisle, Phil Moore and his Orchestra (The Phil Moore Four)

Plot:
When Johnny Bennett (Wood) is drafted to serve in World War II, he leaves his sister Jane (Cooley) in charge of his radio station. While she has tried to carry on without him, the radio station has lost advertisers. When he returns, Johnny tries to revive the station. When radio star Lucille Nester (Graham) is stranded in town when her car breaks down, she begins to woo Johnny, much to the chagrin of his girlfriend, Patty (Everett), who has waited on his return from the war.

Continue reading →

Musical Monday: Rock n’ Roll Revue (1955)

Posted on by
Reply

It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Rock n’ Roll Revue (1955) – Musical #834

Studio:
Studio Films Inc.

Director:
Joseph Kohn

Starring:
Host: Willie Bryant
As themselves: Duke Ellington and His Orchestra, Larry Darnell, Cholly Atkins and
Charles ‘Honi’ Coles (billed as Cole & Atkins), The Clovers, Dinah Washington, Nat King Cole, Big Joe Turner

Plot:
A musical review of the top performers of the time.

Continue reading →

Musical Monday: Jericho (1937)

Posted on by
Reply

It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Jericho (1937) – Musical #804

Studio:
Capitol Films

Director:
Thornton Freeland

Starring:
Paul Robeson, Henry Wilcoxon, Wallace Ford, Kouka (billed as Princess Kouka), John Laurie, James Carew, Lawrene Brown, Rufus Fennell, Ike Hatch, Frank Cram, Frank Cochrane, George Barraud, Federick Cooper, Henry Aubin, Eugene Cozier, Charles Farrell, Peter Gawthorne, Danny Greene, Percy Parsons, Eslanda Robeson

Plot:
The story begins during World War I on a ship heading towards France. When the ship is torpedoed, Jericho Jackson (Robeson) is trying to save men who are trapped in the boiler room so that they don’t drown. When a superior orders Jericho to forget it and evacuate, Jericho pushes the man, killing him. Despite saving several men and the defense of his friend Capt. Mack (Wilcoxon), Jericho is Court Martialed and held for murder. Jericho escapes and Capt. Mack is blamed and jailed for his escape. On a boat with another deserter (Ford), Jericho ends up in North Africa, where he meets and leads the Tuareg people.

Continue reading →

Musical Monday: Tonight We Sing (1953)

Posted on by
Reply

It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Tonight We Sing (1953) – Musical #833

Studio:
20th Century Fox

Director:
Mitchell Leisen

Starring:
David Wayne, Ezio Pinza, Roberta Peters, Anne Bancroft, Tamara Toumanova, Isaac Stern, Byron Palmer, Jan Peerce, Oskar Karlweis, Mikhail Rasummy, Steven Geray, Walter Woolf King,

Plot:
A biographical film based on the life of impresario, Sol Hurok (Wayne). Hurok shaped the careers of many top performers from ballet dancer Anna Pavlova (Toumanova), violinist Eugene Ysaye (stern) or Isadora Duncan.

Continue reading →

Musical Monday: I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now (1947)

Posted on by
Reply

It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now (1947) – Musical #832

Studio:
20th Century Fox

Director:
Lloyd Bacon

Starring:
Mark Stevens, June Haver, Martha Stewart, Reginald Gardiner, Lenore Aubert, William Frawley, Gene Nelson, Truman Bradley, George Cleveland, John Arledge (uncredited)

Plot:
Biographical film on songwriter, composer Joseph E. Howard (Stevens) and his rise to fame. Katie (Haver), the niece of Joe’s guardian, is also eager to be part of Joe’s musical career and lies to tag along. Katie continues to cause trouble along the way as he tries to find success, sabotaging Joe’s partnership with singer Lulu Madison (Stewart) and being jealous of Broadway star Fritzi Barrington (Aubert).

Continue reading →

Musical Monday: Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

Posted on by
Reply

It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) – Musical #34

Studio:
Warner Bros.

Director:
Michael Curtiz

Starring:
James Cagney, Joan Leslie, Walter Huston, Rosemary DeCamp, Richard Whorf, Irene Manning, George Tobias, Jeanne Cagney, Frances Langford, George Barbier, S.Z. Sakall, Walter Catlett, Eddie Foy Jr., Douglas Croft, Minor Watson, Chester Clute, Odette Myrtil, Patsy Parsons, Jack Young (billed as Capt. Jack Young), Leslie Brooks (uncredited), Ann Doran (uncredited), Charles Drake (uncredited), Tom Dugan (uncredited), Frank Faylen (uncredited), William Hopper (uncredited), Lon McCallister (uncredited), Dolores Moran (uncredited), Joyce Reynolds (uncredited), Charles Smith (uncredited), Frank Sully (uncredited),

Plot:
A musical biographical film of composer and playwright George M. Cohan (Cagney). The film follows stage performers Jerry (Huston) and Nellie Cohan (Decamp) as their family grows into the Four Cohans with their son George and daughter, Josie (Jeanne Cageny). As the family grows, George becomes an outspoken performer, which makes producers reluctant to hire the Four Cohans. Eventually, he breaks out on his own, and with collaborator Sam Harris (Whorf), and becomes a success on Broadway with his plays and songs.

Continue reading →

Musical Monday: The Waltz King (1963)

Posted on by
Reply

It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Waltz King (1963) – Musical #831

Studio:
Walt Disney Studios

Director:
Steve Previn

Starring:
Kerwin Mathews, Senta Berger, Brian Aherne, Peter Kraus, Fritz Eckhardt, Vilma Degischer, Kai Fischer

Plot:
Johann Strauss Jr. (Mathews) is working to become a composer. His musician father Johann Strauss Sr. (Aherne) strongly objects and wants him to become a composer.

Continue reading →