Memorial Day Musical Monday: This is the Army (1943)

Posted on May 26, 2014 by Jnpickens

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 500. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
“This is the Army” –Musical #488

Studio:
Warner Brothers

Director:
Michael Curtiz

Starring:
Joan Leslie, Ronald Reagan, George Murphy, Charles Butterworth, George Tobias, Alan Hale, Dolores Costello, Una Merkel, Rosemary DeCamp, Dan Dailey (uncredited), Gary Merrill (uncredited), Gene Nelson (uncredited), Herb Anderson (uncredited), Victor Mature
As themselves: Frances Langford, Kate Smith, Joe Louis, Irving Berlin

Plot:

The movie starts in 1917, when dancer Jerry Jones (Murphy) is drafted to fight in World War I. Before leaving, he marries his sweetheart Ethel (DeCamp).
But before the soldiers are shipped overseas, Jones stages an all-soldier Broadway show called “Yip Yip Yaphank.” While fighting in France, Jones hurts his leg and will no longer be able to dance.
When he returns to the states, he becomes a producer, and his buddy Eddie Dibble (Butterworth) -who was the bugler in the Army-opens a music store.
Over 20 years pass, and we see Jones’s son Johnny (Reagan) preparing to fight in World War II. Dibble’s daughter Eileen (Leslie) wants to get married before Johnny goes overseas, but he doesn’t want to potentially leave her as a young widow.
Now that Johnny is in the military, he is given the order to create a military show just like his dad. This time, it’s called “This is the Army.”
Once the plot is set up, the remainder of the movie is the the actual show “This is the Army” including musical performances, a magic act, a comedian and acrobats.

Character actor Charles Butterworth is the bugler in World War I in “This is the Army”

Trivia:
-The movie came from two Irving Berlin shows “Yip Yip Yaphank” and “This is the Army,” according to a disclaimer from Warner Brothers at the beginning of the film. The cast of both the stage and play version of “This is the Army” included soldiers who were performers in civilian life.
-The original Broadway play of “This is the Army” came by request of the United States War Department. Irving Berlin received a letter in 1942 asking him to do a revival of the World War I show, “Yip Yip Yaphank,” to help raise funds for the Army Emergency Relief. Berlin had already considered doing this, but knew he had to change the title, according to The Complete Lyrics of Irving Berlin edited by Robert Kimball, Linda Emmet
-Warner Brother’s first three strip Technicolor film.
-Warner Brother’s top film of 1943, earning $9,555,586.44. The money made was donated to the Army Emergency Relief.
-This is actress Dolores Costello’s last film.

Notable Songs:
-God Bless America sung by Kate Smith
-What Does He Look Like sung by Frances Langford
-This is the Army Mr. Jones sung by the chorus
-I’m Getting Tired So I Can Sleep sung by James Burrell
-Ladies of the Chorus sung by Alan Hale (dressed as a woman)
-I Left My Heart at the Stagedoor Canteen sung by Earl Oxford
-That’s What the Well Dressed Men in Harlem Wear sung by James Cross, featuring boxer Joe Louis
-Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning sung by Irving Berlin

Highlights:
-A disclaimer before the film noted that the Army does not condone black face, which is used in a number during the film, but says it is a part of history.
-Irving Berlin singing “Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning” in a rare film appearance.
-Real color footage of the attack of Pearl Harbor during the montage of the bombing.
-Alan Hale dressed as a woman in the musical number “Ladies in the Chorus.”
-Warner Brother stars such as Joan Leslie, Ronald Reagan, George Murphy, Alan Hale, Charles Butterworth and Una Merkel in color!
-One of the character actors does fairly convincing speech impersonations of Herbert Marshall, Charles Boyer, Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt.

My Review:

The romance between Joan Leslie and Ronald Reagan took up probably 20 minutes of this film.

Like the rest of Hollywood during World War II, Warner Brothers was releasing star spangled patriotic films. Around this same time, “Hollywood Canteen” (1944) and “Thank Your Lucky Stars” (1943) were released. All three films focus mainly on musical performances and celebrity appearances (Kate Smith, Frances Langford, Joe Louis) and a very thin plot.

Other studio equivalents would be MGM’s “Two Girls and a Sailor” (1944) and Paramount’s “Star Spangled Rhythm” (1942).

But while the other four listed musicals still hold attention and are fun, somehow “This is the Army” falls flat. The initial plot set up seems promising, but after the first 45 minutes, the movie turns into musical number after number after number with little plot interlude. That is where “This is the Army” differs from similar films. For example, in “Hollywood Canteen,” you have the romance of Joan Leslie and Robert Hutton between the different performances.

The lack of plot interlude is honestly disappointing, because actress Joan Leslie and some of the other leads are maybe on screen for 20 to 30 minutes in the two hour and five minute film.

On a more technical side, the DVD print that came in the 2008 “Homefront Collection” isn’t very good. In close shots, the color is gorgeous. But in a few scenes, it looks over exposed and washed out.

When I first saw this movie in 2009, I really enjoyed it. Now I found I was rather bored. I appreciate any patriotic World War II film, because it gives you a feel of what audiences wanted during the war. After all, this was Warner Brother’s top film of 1943, so apparently audiences enjoyed it at the time. Or maybe they were watching the movie so their money would be donated to the Army Emergency Relief.

I feel that the movie could have been better structured. Actors like Una Merkel, Dolores Costello, George Murphy and Charles Butterworth are wasted in this film because they barely have any screen tirme. Less songs and more plot in this slightly over two hour film would have been more enjoyable.

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Actress takes break from screen for war effort

Posted on May 25, 2014 by Jnpickens

Publicity photo of Madeleine Carroll from the 1930s.

She went from being one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood at $250,000 a year to working for the Red Cross at $125 a month.

After starring in two Alfred Hitchcock films and the star studded “Prisoner of Zenda” (1937), English actress Madeleine Carroll left films for six years.

Carroll said she had a new career: helping win the war.

Before the bombing of Pearl Harbor in the United States, Carroll’s sister Marguerite Guigette Carroll was killed on Oct. 7, 1940, in a German air raid in London.

“My younger sister learned how to be a very excellent typist but was killed at her typewriter by a direct hit from a German bomb in London’s Blitz,” Carroll said in a 1949 Rotary Club speech. “It seems to me that had the generation previous to hers been more interested in encouraging good neighborliness between countries, there is a chance my sister might be alive today.”

But before her sister was killed, Carroll turned over her French chateau for children removed from Paris and other French cities. She also started holding benefits in Hollywood to send money to Europe, according to a Jan. 21, 1940, article in the Pittsburgh Press.

In 1942, Carroll married newcomer actor Sterling Hayden. Hayden felt his place was fighting in the war and after two roles in Hollywood he enlisted in the Marines.

Madeleine Carroll training at the American University in Washington for service in the Red Cross in 1943.

“I’m the proudest woman in the world because my husband will be a buck private in the Marines,” Carroll was quoted in an Oct. 23, 1942, article in the Milwaukee Journal, “Madeleine Carroll Shelves film career for duration” by Sheliah Graham. “I want to participate in the best of my ability to winning the war. We both feel that glamour has no place during this difficult period.”

Carroll and Hayden even changed their names, because they felt their star status could be detrimental to their new wartime careers. The two became Sterling and Madeleine Hamilton, according to a June 1943 article in the St. Petersburg Times, “Two Film Stars Change Their Names.”

Carroll’s first job in war work was in the newly formed US Seaman’s Service in New York as the director of entertainment, which was like the USO for Merchant Marines.

“I chose this work because while a great deal is done for the boys in the Army and the Navy, people are inclined to forget the boys not in uniform who risk and lose their lives on the ships taking food and supplies to the allied soldiers,” Carroll was quoted in the 1942 Milwaukee Journal article. “We want to raise enough money to open clubs and recuperation centers in all the big cities and American ports…we want to take care of the merchant seaman who are maimed, or otherwise ill, after the war as well as during.”

After spending 18 months with the US Seaman’s Service, Carroll worked over seas with the Red Cross.

She worked with the American Red Cross at the 61st station Army hospital in Foggia, Italy, where she hoped to be assigned as a staff aid in an evacuation hospital.

“I’m grateful to be in the Red Cross, because none of the girls stare or act like I’m a celebrity,” Carroll said in a March 20, 1944, Associated Press brief in the St. Petersburg Times.

Madeleine Carroll looking after war orphans in her French Chateau

Along with working in the hospital, Carroll worked on the hospital train for four months taking wounded men to ships that took them home, according to a May 9, 1945, Milwaukee Journal article.

Each train carried 300 to 400 men with three bunks on each side holding a wounded man. Carroll estimated working with 25,000 military men, the article described.

She recalled a time when a man with a leg injury helped on the train by shining a lantern on a man in a lower bunk with a chest injury so bad that his ribs were exposed, according to the 1945 article.

Carroll was not trained as a nurse, but tried to keep the men’s morale up with cookies, music or comforting them.

“I never have known a man too wounded to eat a cookie,” she said.

“How nice it is to be served by Princess Flavia,” one soldier said, reaching his arm out to her, referencing her role in “Prisoner of Zenda.”

After V-E Day, Carroll helped unwed mothers in France, according to a Nov. 14, 1945, Milwaukee Journal article, “Madeleine Carroll caring for war babies born in France out of wedlock.”

Carroll received letters from girls worried about bringing up a baby on their own with an unknown father. She met girls with babies at her door step in France.

At the time the article was published, Carroll helped 40 mothers. Carroll helped with hospital bills, background checks on potential parents and adopting out the children, according to the article.

In each article written between 1942 and 1946, Carroll was credited as “the former actress” or “retired star.”

Several times she was quoted as saying she was incredibly happy and never wanted to return to films.

Hayden and Carroll divorced in 1946, and they both eventually returned to Hollywood, both making their first film back in 1947.

While Hayden’s career took off in the 1950s, with films like “Asphalt Jungle,” Carroll made three more films and made four television appearances. She retired from acting in 1955 and lived the remainder of her life out of the public eye.

Even while helping with the war effort, whenever a soldier would ask her “Are you really Madeleine Carroll,” she replied “Don’t let them kid you.”

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Musical Monday: Everything I Have is Yours (1952)

Posted on May 19, 2014 by Jnpickens

This week’s musical:
“Everything I Have is Yours” –Musical #486

Studio:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Director:
Robert Z. Leonard

Starring:
Gower Champion, Marge Champion, Dennis O’Keefe, Monica Lewis, Dean Miller, Elaine Stewart

Plot:
Married dancing couple Pamela (Marge) and Chuck Hubbard (Gower) make it big in a show on Broadway. The first night of their success, Pamela finds out she’s pregnant and can’t continue dancing. Once the baby comes, Pamela is encouraged to stay home and raise her child. Problems arise in Pamela and Chuck’s marriage as his fame grow.

Monica Lewis’s character causes problems for Gower and Marge Champion.

Trivia:
-The lead couple in the film, Marge and Gower Champion, were married in real life from 1947 until their divorce in 1973. The dancing couple had two children, Gregg (b. 1956) and Blake (b. 1962). The Champions starred in several other films together such as “Show Boat” (1951), “Lovely to Look At” (1952) and “Jupiter’s Darling” (1955)
-Originally supposed to star Red Skelton and Vera-Ellen, according to TCM.
-Gower Champion did most of the choreography for the film.

Marge and Gower Champion star together in “Everything I Have is Yours”

Highlights:
-It’s always a delight to watch the married couple dance together. Both Marge and Gower were excellent dancers and their moves, technique and dancing chemistry make all of their numbers exciting to watch.

Notable Songs:

-Everything I Have is Yours sung by Gower Champion and later by Monica Lewis
-Derry Down Dilly sung by Marge Champion
-“Seventeen Thousand Telephone Poles” sung by Monica Lewis

My Review:

When you glanced at this film in your TCM Now Playing Guide, you may have thought, “Ah, a musical starring Marge and Gower Champion in Technicolor. Sounds like a fluffy b-musical.”

And I can’t say I thought much different. I figured this would be a colorful splash of fun with several fantastic numbers. But I was wrong. This is an honest dramatic musical that look at the issues with marriage and fame.

Real life married dancers Marge and Gower Champion play a dancing married couple in the film. Though Marge didn’t give up her career for children like in the movie, the Champions in the movie and in real life both end in divorce. However, in true Hollywood form- the couple is unhappy in their divorced life and they are in each other’s arms in the last frame.

I enjoy the plot line, because I think it shows a fairly honest look at marriage. They are joyous as newlyweds, happy when the baby comes, but Pamela gets restless. She has little to do at home, because the baby has a nurse, and she wants to go back to work and dance with Chuck. But Chuck is having hit after hit with his new partner Sybil (Lewis). Jealousy also arise as Sybil is making eyes at Chuck. When Pamela finally takes an offer for a how- the marriage is blown to smithereens.

“Petty details all add up until the roof blows up,” the film says after they get a divorce.

The dancing is also a real treat of this film. Marge and Gower Champions’ dances together are exciting, interesting to watch and seamless. Their movements together and fluid and their chemistry is evident through their moves.

In several other MGM musicals the Gowers are supporting stars with a large dance number added in. This is one of the few, if not the only, where the Gowers are the leads in the film, and that makes it a real treat.

Marge Champion dances in a solo number in the film.

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In the company of greatness

Posted on May 16, 2014 by Jnpickens

A guttural chuckle between bites of popcorn came from behind our movie theater seats.

Toes tapped to the film soundtrack.

My friends and I giggled with schoolgirl delight and amazement.

The 79 time Grammy nominated composer Quincy Jones was sitting behind us in the Egyptian Theater in Los Angeles.

Moments before, Jones was interviewed by TCM host Ben Mankiewicz at the 2014 Turner Classic Movies Film Festival before “The Italian Job” (1969) starring Michael Caine. Jones composed the score for the film.

Jones’s music in the film is a quirky, 1960s English style with an English jig at the end.

“Nineteen year old Elton John said only a Brit could write a song like that,” Jones said. “I said, ‘Wanna bet?'”

“The Italian Job” is a British comedic caper film about a group of men stealing gold during a traffic jam in Italy. The film is also famous for it’s use of Austin Minis in the climactic heist.

“Michael Caine is one of the greatest guys,” Jones said.

Jones gave a mischievous chuckle while recalling the time he and Caine both dated actress Raquel Welch at the same time.

“That was funny,” he said. “OH that was funny.”

Other film scores Jones composed include “The Pawnbroker” (1964), “The Slender Thread” (1965), “Walk Don’t Run” (1966) and “In Cold Blood” (1967). Along with his film work, Jones worked with musicians and performers such as Michael Jackson, Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin.

“Music in ‘In Cold Blood’ all boils down to building tension and then release,” he said. “The movie was filmed in the house where the actual murders took place. That was scary.”

Quincy Jones during an interview with Ben Mankiewicz during the TCMFF, April 11, 2014. Jones discussed his career and “The Italian Job” (Getty Images)

Author of the novel Truman Capote was mad when he learned a “black guy” was composing the music to the film. Once Capote heard the score, he relented.

“Just drama–You know,” Jones said casually, waving his hand with dismissal.

Jones was approached by Steve McQueen and Ali McGraw to compose the music for “The Getaway” (1972), replacing composer Jerry Fielding at McQueen’s request.

“I composed the music for that film in 10 days,” Jones said. “You don’t let it get around Hollywood that you can compose a film in 10 days.”

His friendship with composer Henry Mancini helped him break into the business, he said.

“When composing for a film, you look at the script with the director and decide when the music stops and starts in the film,” Jones said.

Jones discussed his time in Hollywood and relationship with celebrities. Jones was good friends with singer, actor Frank Sinatra, who gave him a ring he still wears. However, Sinatra wasn’t kind to everyone.

1964: Quincy Jones and Frank Sinatra in Sinatra’s dressing room.

“He either loved you, or he would roll over you in a Mac truck while driving it in reverse,” Jones said.

After the interview, the 81-year-old walked a few rows back and sat right down behind us. He promptly received a bag of popcorn and became just another fan.

This is a follow up vignette from the 2014 Turner Classic Movies Film Festival, April 9-April 14.

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Musical Monday: “Happiness Ahead”(1934)

Posted on May 12, 2014 by Jnpickens

This week’s musical:
“Happiness Ahead” –Musical #485

Studio:
Warner Brothers Studios

Director:
Mervyn LeRoy

Starring:
Dick Powell, Josephine Hutchinson, Frank McHugh, Ruth Donnelly, Allen Jenkins,Jane Darwell, Marjorie Gateson, John Halliday

Plot:

New York socialite Joan Bradford (Hutchinson) is unhappy with life in society. Her mother has picked out a wealthy husband for her to marry, and Joan does not love him. On New Year’s Eve, Joan ditches her parents’ high class party and goes downtown. Joan meets window washer Bob Lane (Powell) and starts posing as a working class girl so he won’t find out she comes from money. She rents an apartment on the other side of town to keep up the guise.

Trivia:

Actress Josephine Hutchinson

-Actress Josephine Hutchinson’s debut film role (though she did have a small role in the 1917 version of “The Little Princess” with Mary Pickford). Hutchinson went on to star in films such as “The Story of Louis Pasteur” (1936), “Ruby Gentry” (1952) and “North by Northwest” (1959).
-Reworked as “Here Come Happiness” (1941) and “Love and Learn” (1947).

Notable Songs:
-Happiness Ahead sung by Dick Powell
-Pop! Goes Your Heart sung by Dick Powell
-All Account of an Ice Cream Sundae sung by Dick Powell and Dorothy Dare
-Massaging Window Panes sung by Dick Powell and Frank McHugh

My Review:
“All in all, Mr. LeRoy seems to have made a lot out of a little,” Andre Sennwald reviewed in a 1934 New York Times film review.
Sennwald hits the nail on the head. “Happiness Ahead” has a very simple and overused plot–an unhappy heiress finds love with a working class man. However, this is a very charming film.
Like most Dick Powell musicals, Powell sings the same song about three times. With some films, this could be tiring. But somehow with Powell’s melted-butter-like-voice it is forgivable.
Though this isn’t a dramatically demanding role for Josephine Hutchinson, she is very likable in her first major film. She may not be as glamorous as Powell’s other leading ladies such as Gloria Stuart or Joan Blondell, or as cute as Ruby Keeler, but she is very pleasant to see on screen. Though Hutchinson went on to act in films through the 1970s, it is curious why her time at Warner Brothers in the 1930s and 1940s wasn’t more stellar.
As with most 1930s Warner Brothers films, the secondary actors were the biggest treat. Frank McHugh plays Powell’s window washing coworker, and Allen Jenkins and Ruth Donnelly play Hutchinson’s servants. John Halliday as Hutchinson’s understanding father is also hilarious.
This film may not be on the same level as other Powell musicals of the 1930s but it is very charming and pleasant. If you are looking to be cheered up, this film offers “Happiness Ahead.”

Dick Powell in a publicity still for “Happiness Ahead.”

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Just like Mom

Posted on May 11, 2014 by Jnpickens

My eyes welled with tears behind my 3D glasses.
“If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own back yard,” Dorothy Gale said at the end of “The Wizard of Oz” (1939).
I sat in the theater trying to collect myself during this unexpected emotional moment back in October when “Wizard of Oz” was re-released in 3D.
And then it dawned on me: I’m turning into my mother… and I’m fine with that.
For years I’d look over at Mom while we are watching a movie and say, “Mom. Why are you crying?”
Judy Garland singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” in “Wizard of Oz.”
Judy Garland singing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” in “Meet Me In St. Louis.” And then again at the end of the movie when she excitedly says, “Right here, in our hometown” about the World’s Fair.

Now I get it. Now Mom and I wipe our eyes together during the train scene of “Since You Went Away.”
I’ve cried during movies for several years–“West Side Story” and “Music for Millions” at age 13 are the earliest times I can think of.
But now in half the movies I watch, I find myself empathizing instead of sympathizing. As I have grown up, I find I share a deeper emotional connection with my mom through the movies.
At Turner Classic Movies Film Festival, I left “East of Eden” sobbing.
James Dean’s father, Raymond Massey, has a stroke in the film and they aren’t sure if he can make it.
Massey weakly whispers to his son, “Replace the nurse, but don’t get anyone else. You take care of me.”
The scene reminded me of my Mom care-giving for my Grandmama who passed away in January. Grandmama also gave me the movie as a Christmas gift one year.

James Dean talks to movie father Raymond Massey after his stroke in “East of Eden.”

When I was in elementary and middle school, I would pick on my Mom and sisters for crying during films. Now I join them.
As we get older and experience more of life, not only are we attached to the characters in the films, we can understand and relate more to what the characters in the films are going through. We may chuckle sheepishly with understanding as we reach for tissues.
Now when I see Bonnie Blue fall off her horse and break her neck in “Gone with the Wind,” I don’t think, “Stupid little girl should have listened to her parents.” I think about how the loss of a child can rip apart a family.

Scout with Boo Radley in “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

When Scout sweetly says “Hey Boo” in “To Kill a Mockingbird ” as he’s hiding behind the door, I understand the innocence of a child who sees the good in a man feared by the whole town.
When nurse Paulette Goddard says goodbye to Marine Sonny Tufts in “So Proudly We Hail,” she knows that she may not see him again because he may die in battle.
But I’m not turning into Mom just through film watching. I notice I have picked up her traits as I’m cooking, cleaning and worrying about people I care about. Maybe one day I’ll be just like Mom, but right now I’m not sure if I could even scrape a mixing bowl as beautifully as Lisa Pickens.
My parents introduced me to classic film as a toddler. Now, even through our emotions, crying is just another way movies bring us closer together.
Happy Mother’s Day

I asked Mom to make me a list of films that she cries during.
“I think the list would have been shorter if you had asked for a list that I don’t cry during,” she said.
Here is Mom’s list of weepers:

Jennifer Jones says goodbye to Robert Walker as he leaves for World War II in “Since You Went Away.”

Gone With The Wind
Wizard of Oz
Sound of Music
Stella Dallas
One Foot in Heaven
Meet Me In St. Louis
Since You Went Away
To Kill A Mockingbird
The Best Years Of Our Lives
How Green Was My Valley
To Each His Own
Penny Serenade
Make Way For Tomorrow
Little Women ( from 1933 and 1949 )
White Christmas
Goodbye Mr. Chips
Mrs. Miniver
The Pride of the Yankees
West Side Story
So Proudly We Hail
Three Came Home
The Homecoming
The Glenn Miller Story
Born Free
Ben Hur
ET
True Grit ( with John Wayne )
Old Yeller
Parent Trap (with Hayley Mills )
Pollyanna
Little Princess ( with Shirley Temple )
Brave
Toy Story 3
Muppets Take Manhattan
Driving Miss Daisy
Field Of Dreams
Lassie Come Home
Homeward Bound
Cinderella
Little Mermaid
Harry and the Hendersons
Forrest Gump
Cheaper By The Dozen ( with Clifton Webb )
The Bishop’s Wife
It’s a Wonderful Life

With Mom, Dad and my two sisters at my sister Andrea’s wedding in February 2014.

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Musical Monday: “Two Sisters from Boston” (1946)

Posted on May 5, 2014 by Jnpickens

This week’s musical:
“Two Sisters From Boston” –Musical #85

Studio:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Director:
Henry Koster

Starring:
June Allyson, Kathryn Grayson, Jimmy Durante, Peter Lawford, Lauritz Melchoir, Ben Blue, Barbara Billingsley (uncredited)

Plot:
Abigail (Grayson) writes to her sister Martha (Allyson) and her other stuffy relatives in Boston that she is a successful opera singer in New York. In reality, she is working in a burlesque show.

Trivia:

-After June Allyson and Peter Lawford starred in this film, MGM publicity was tried to play them up as a couple. This was a common practice and the same attempt was made with her co-star Van Johnson. Allyson wrote in her autobiography that though she and Lawford had a good time together, it was never anything serious. The two later starred in “Little Women” (1949) together.
-Lauritz Melchoir’s second film, his first being “The Thrill of Romance” (1945). Born in Denmark, Melchoir was a Wagnerian tenor and debuted in 1924 in London. He debuted with the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1926. Melchoir made five Hollywood films from 1944 to 1953. In the 1940s, MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer signed singers and musicians like Melchoir and pianist Jose Iturbi to give the studio class and culture.
-Sammy Fain and Ralph Freed (brother of Arthur Freed) wrote the songs “Autumn Twilight,” “Indian Holiday,” “Lanterns in the Sky,” “More Than Ever” and “Seattle.”

Notable Songs:
-After the Show sung by June Allyson
-When Romance Passes by sung by Kathryn Grayson
-Performances by Lauritz Melchoir
-Down by the Ocean sung by Kathryn Grayson and Jimmy Durante

Highlights:
-When proper June Allyson sings takes Kathryn Grayson’s place at the burlesque show, having to undress before an audience.
-Kathryn Grayson unconventionally gets in an opera in the chorus. Lauritz Melchoir is the lead. Much to his chagrin, Grayson keeps singing notes to get attention.

My Review:
This is a cute movie, but I don’t feel it exhibits the full appeal of June Allyson and Kathryn Grayson. June Allyson’s character is a simpering proper girl, ashamed of her sister’s profession in New York.
Kathryn Grayson’s character is a bit more likable but is still a bit uppity (the roles she usually seems to be typecast in).
When I originally saw this film 12 years ago, I was watching it for June Allyson, and I was a bit disappointed in her character then.
Jimmy Durante is the real treat in this film. It’s also interesting to see Metropolitan Opera star Lauritz Melchoir in films, giving a frame of reference of who was famous in the operatic world during this time.
However…despite any character flaws…this is still a fun and enjoyable movie. There are several funny parts and at the end of the day, the movie is down right cute.

Lauritz Melchoir, Kathryn Grayson, Jimmy Durante and June Allyson in “Two Sisters From Boston.”

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Comet Over Hollywood

Home for classic movie lovers

Monthly Archives: May 2014

Memorial Day Musical Monday: This is the Army (1943)

Actress takes break from screen for war effort

Musical Monday: Everything I Have is Yours (1952)

In the company of greatness

Musical Monday: “Happiness Ahead”(1934)

Just like Mom

Musical Monday: “Two Sisters from Boston” (1946)

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