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

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.

Trivia:
• The second film in the Teen Ager series.
• Working titles were High School Scandals and Sweet Sixteen.
• Freddie Stewart plays a dual role.
• Anne Rooney replaced Judy Clark as Addie Rogers.

June Pressier and Freddie Stewart

Highlights:
• Elderly ladies singing on the radio
• The visual jukebox Freddie brings to the Teen Canteen
• Dancing in the “Let’s Drop the Subject.”

Jackie Moran and Frankie Darro with baby, Terry Lee Carson

Notable Songs:
• “Let’s Drop the Subject” performed Freddie Stewart, June Pressier, Noel Neill, Anne Rooney, students
• “Don’t Blame Me” performed by Freddie Stewart
• “Patience and Fortitude” performed by Freddie Stewart and the cast
• “Cuban Rhapsody” performed by Chuy Reyes and his Orchestra

Anne Rooney, Freddie Stewart, June Pressier, Warren Mills, Noel Neill

My review:
A month after JUNIOR PROM (1946) was released, Monogram Pictures released another Teen Agers film: FREDDIE STEPS OUT (1946).

In the second of eight Teen Ager films, Freddie Stewart plays a dual role: Crooner Frankie Troy and Whitney High Student, Freddie Trimball. Frankie decides he’s fed up with show business and disappears. Freddie’s classmates see how similar he and Frankie look. They write Frankie’s agent saying they found the singer so they can get a reward, saying the singer has amnesia and so that’s why he won’t know who he is. The plan of course goes wrong, when Frankie’s wife shows up with her baby. The baby then gets passed around to the students, because they don’t know who it belongs to.

There are some oddities here, but I understand why they did it. Monogram Pictures assumed their audience wasn’t very bright, because the film starts saying Dodie (June Pressier) took a year off from school for an illness that’s never explained. Of course, this briefly is tied into the baby mystery, as the principal wonders if the baby is Dodie’s. However, with the two series films being released a month apart, it’s a bit weird (though I know it’s just a story).

The baby antics get tiring, but the baby, played by Terry Lee Carlson, is adorable.

While I prefer JUNIOR PROM to FREDDIE STEPS OUT, this one still has some laughs and fun tunes.

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