Monthly Archives: September 2021

Watching 1939: Daughters Courageous (1939)

Posted on by

In 2011, I announced I was trying to see every film released in 1939. This new series chronicles films released in 1939 as I watch them. As we start out this blog feature, this section may become more concrete as I search for a common thread that runs throughout each film of the year. Right now, that’s difficult.

1939 film:
Daughters Courageous (1939)

Release date:
June 23, 1939

Cast:
Fay Bainter, Claude Rains, John Garfield, Priscilla Lane, Rosemary Lane, Lola Lane, Gale Page, Jeffrey Lynn, May Robson, Dick Foran, Frank McHugh, George Humbert

Studio:
Warner Bros.

Director:
Michael Curtiz

Plot:
After her husband left 20 years ago, Nan Masters (Bainter) has been raising her four daughters on her own ever since: Tinka (Rosemary Lane), Linda (Lola Lane), Cora (Page) and Buff (Priscilla Lane). The sisters are high spirited, adore their mother and have fun with their boyfriends (Lynn, Foran, McHugh). Nan decides to remarry and gets engaged to her Sam Sloane (Crisp), who has been a fixture in the family for 12 years. Shortly after their engagement, Nan’s ex-husband Jim Masters (Rains) turns up in the home; turning the household upside down.

Continue reading →

Musical Monday: High School Hero (1946)

Posted on by

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.

high school heroThis week’s musical:
High School Hero (1946) – Musical #674

Studio:
Monogram Pictures

Director:
Arthur Dreifuss

Starring:
The Teenagers: Freddie Stewart, June Preisser, Jackie Moran, Noel Neill, Anne Rooney, Warren Mills
Adults: Milton Kibbee, Belle Mitchell, Douglas Fowley, Dick Elliott, Lita Baron (billed as Isabelita), Leonard Penn, Pierre Watkin
Themselves: Freddie Slack, Jan Savitt

Plot:
The Whitney High School football team has never beat Fairview High School in a football game. That isn’t the school’s only issues. Editor of the school newspaper Betty Rogers (Neill) is concerned the paper will be shut down, because of low circulation and no news. Football player and performer Freddie Trimble (Stewart) is also distressed because the students are being replaced by professional talent in the town bizarre. The teens get into trouble while they try to solve the issues. Freddie tries to get Jan Savitt (himself) and Chi-Chi (Baron) to perform at the bizarre, and Freddie’s girlfriend thinks he’s cheating on him. And Dodie Rogers (Preisser) disguises as a boy to help the football team win.

Continue reading →

Watching 1939: Boys’ Reformatory (1939)

Posted on by

In 2011, I announced I was trying to see every film released in 1939. This new series chronicles films released in 1939 as I watch them. As we start out this blog feature, this section may become more concrete as I search for a common thread that runs throughout each film of the year. Right now, that’s difficult.

1939 film:
Boys’ Reformatory (1939)

Release date:
May 1, 1939

Cast:
Frankie Darro, Grant Withers, Lillian Elliott, Frank Coghlan Jr., David Durand, Warren McCollum, Ben Welden, Pat Flaherty, George Offerman Jr.

Studio:
Monogram Pictures

Director:
Howard Bretherton

Plot:
Tommy Ryan (Darro) has lived with the O’Mearas most of his life since becoming an orphan. He views Mrs. O’Meara (Elliott) as his mother and thinks of Eddie O’Meara (Coghlan Jr.) as his brother. When Eddie gets mixed up with a group of rough teenagers and goes in on a fur theft job, Tommy takes the blame, not wanting to break the heart of Mrs. O’Meara. Tommy is sentenced with serving time in reform school until he’s 21 years old, and he makes Eddie promise that he has to stay out of trouble as a trade. However, Eddie also ends up in the reformatory.

boys reformatory2

Frank Coghlan Jr., Frankie Darro and David Durand

Continue reading →

Musical Monday: Song of the Open Road (1944)

Posted on by

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.

song of the open roadThis week’s musical:
Song of the Open Road (1944) – Musical #679

Studio:
United Artists

Director:
S. Sylvan Simon

Starring:
Jane Powell, Regis Toomey, Reginald Denny, Rose Hobart, Jackie Moran, Bonita Granville, Peggy O’Neill, Bill Christy, Hugh Beaumont, Irving Bacon (uncredited), Edward Gargan (uncredited), Irene Tedrow (uncredited)
Themselves in cameo appearances: Edgar Bergan, Charlie McCarthy, W.C. Fields, Sammy Kaye and His Orchestra, the Condos Brothers (Nick Condos, Steve Condos), Chuck Faulkner Band

Plot:
When child actress Jane Powell (Powell) meets a group of kids from the American Youth Hostels while making a picture, she realizes the fun she’s missing out on while having a busy movie schedule. Tired of the pressures of movie making, Jane runs away and joins another youth hostel under a different name.

Continue reading →

Watching 1939: Here I Am a Stranger (1939)

Posted on by

In 2011, I announced I was trying to see every film released in 1939. This new series chronicles films released in 1939 as I watch them. As we start out this blog feature, this section may become more concrete as I search for a common thread that runs throughout each film of the year. Right now, that’s difficult.

here i am stranger41939 film:
Here I Am a Stranger (1939)

Release date:
Sept. 29, 1939

Cast:
Richard Greene, Richard Dix, Brenda Joyce, Roland Young, Gladys George, George Zucco, Kay Aldridge (billed as Katherine Aldridge), Russell Gleason, Edward Norris, Henry Kolker

Studio:
20th Century Fox

Director:
Roy Del Ruth

Plot:
When David (Greene) was a baby, his mother Clara (George) took David and left her husband Duke (Dix), because he couldn’t keep a job and was an alcoholic. Clara later marries a wealthy man and David grows up in society; eventually starting college at Stafford University. While at Stafford, David meets Professor Daniels (Young) and his daughter Simpson (Joyce). Professor Daniels knew David’s real father and speaks highly of him as an athlete and writer. David seeks out his father and their relationship changes some of his views.

Continue reading →

Pages to Screen: Light in the Piazza (1962)

Posted on by

As soon as I started reading the book, I could see the story playing out in my head just as it does in the movie.

When Elizabeth Spencer’s 1960 novella “Light in the Piazza” was adapted for film, the movie is nearly identical to the original printed word. This doesn’t often happen.

In the opening pages, Margaret Johnson and her daughter Clara explore a piazza. Clara loses her hat causing her to meet Fabrizio — just like in the film.

From page one, this Italian love story was a much needed respite after finishing Glendon Swarthout’s book “Where the Boys Are.”

The book “Light in the Piazza” was a turning point in the career of Mississippi-born author, Elizabeth Spencer; featuring many firsts for her. It was her first novel not set in her home state of Mississippi, and it was her first book that featured a female protagonist.

20210812_220206

“The way I was brought up. It was considered that men did all the interesting things out in the world and women were pretty much reduced to a domestic pattern or minor careers,” Spencer was quoted in her Washington Post obituary. “The whole idea of a woman in the arts must have horrified my family at first.”

Continue reading →

Musical Monday: Freddie Steps Out (1946)

Posted on by

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:
Freddie Steps Out (1946) – Musical #478

freddie steps out

Studio:
Monogram Pictures

Director:
Arthur Dreifuss

Starring:
The Teenagers: Freddie Stewart, June Preisser, Jackie Moran, Noel Neill, Anne Rooney, Warren Mills, Ray Dolciame
Baby: Terry Lee Carlson
Adults: Milton Kibbee, Belle Mitchell, Edythe Elliott, Murray Davis, Douglas Fowley, Claire James
Themselves: Neta Geddes, Chuy Reyes and his Orchestra, Charlie Barnet and his Orchestra

Plot:
Crooner Frankie Troy (Stewart) is fed up with show business and disappears. High school student Freddie Trimball (also Stewart) is the spitting image of Troy, so Freddie’s friends try to get the disappearance reward money by taking advantage of the likeness. Frankie has a wife and baby, and when his baby gets dumped on Freddie and his friends, trouble ensues.

Continue reading →

Summer Movie Classics: An interview with John Malahy

Posted on by

Even as summer winds down, I’m still grasping to the last few weeks of summer until the fall season begins at the end of September.

Reading “Summer Movies: 30 Sun-Drenched Classics” by John Malahy is the perfect read to keep the summer feeling. Malahy highlights quintessential summer films, from MOON OVER MIAMI (1941) and GIDGET (1959) to JAWS (1975); each putting you in the sun and sand mood regardless of the weather.

20210912_124146

Continue reading →

Watching 1939: Back Door to Heaven (1939)

Posted on by

In 2011, I announced I was trying to see every film released in 1939. This new series chronicles films released in 1939 as I watch them. As we start out this blog feature, this section may become more concrete as I search for a common thread that runs throughout each film of the year. Right now, that’s difficult.

back door to heaven1939 film:
Back Door to Heaven (1939)

Release date:
April 19, 1939

Cast:
Wallace Ford, Aline MacMahon, Jimmy Lydon, Stuart Erwin, Van Heflin, Patricia Ellis, Iris Adrian, Kent Smith, Anita Magee, Bert Frohman, William Redfield, Raymond Roe, Georgette Harvey, Bruce Evans, William Harrigan, Jane Seymour

Studio:
Paramount Pictures

Director:
William K. Howard

Plot:
Frankie Rogers (Lydon as child, Ford as adult) had a tough upbringing and his grade school teacher Miss Williams (MacMahon) is the only one who believed in him. After his grade school graduation, Frankie is sent to reform school and then continues to move in and out of prison. When he’s released with two of his prison mates (Stuart, Frohman), Frankie returns back home to find things changed and that his criminal past is never far behind him.

Continue reading →

Musical Monday: Junior Prom (1946)

Posted on by

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:
Junior Prom (1946) – Musical #676

junior prom

Studio:
Monogram Pictures

Director:
Arthur Dreifuss

Starring:
The Teen Agers: Freddie Stewart, June Preisser, Judy Clark, Jackie Moran, Noel Neill, Anne Rooney, Warren Mills, Harry ‘The Hipster’ Gibson
Adults: Milton Kibbee, Belle Mitchell, Mira McKinney, Murray Davis, Charles Evans
Themsleves: Eddie Heywood, Abe Lyman

Plot:
Freddie Trimball (Stewart) is the logical choice for student body president of Whitney High School. But when the father of Jimmy Forrest (Moran) promises new football uniforms if Jimmy wins, the students — and school staff — are more interested in backing him for president. The school election also puts the Rogers sisters at odds when Dodie (Preisser) and Addie (Clark) back Freddie. But Betty (Neill), who is the editor of the newspaper, backs Jimmy in her school paper—especially when she’s wooed by his pal Roy (Darro).

Continue reading →