Category Archives: Musical Monday

Musical Monday: Young at Heart (1954)

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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:
Young at Heart (1954) – Musical #26

Studio:
Warner Bros.

Director:
Gordon Douglas

Starring:
Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Gig Young, Ethel Barrymore, Dorothy Malone, Elisabeth Fraser, Alan Hale Jr., Lonny Chapman

Plot:
The musical family the Tuttles are led by the widower father, Gregory (Keith), his three daughters Laurie (Day), Fran (Malone) and Amy (Fraser), as well as his unmarried sister Aunt Jessie (Barrymore). Their lives start to change as the daughters begin falling in love and getting married. Fran convinces herself that she is in love with and will marry Bob Neary (Hale Jr). Then young composer Alex (Young) comes to board with the Tuttles. Another guest turns the family upside down as well, the moody songwriter Barney Sloan (Sinatra). All of the sisters love Alex, but it’s Laurie that he wants to marry, but will she marry Alex if it hurts her sisters?

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Musical Monday: You’ll Find Out (1940)

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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:
“You’ll Find Out” (1940)– Musical #376

Studio:
RKO Radio Pictures

Director:
David Butler

Starring:
Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Helen Parrish, Dennis O’Keefe, Alma Kruger
As themselves: Kay Kyser, Ginny Simms, Harry Babbit, Ish Kabbible

Plot:
Kay Kyser (himself) and his band are hired to perform at the 21st birthday party of heiress Janice (Parrish). The party is held at her estate that she hasn’t visited in years. When the band and guests arrive, they notice strange happenings, like Judge Spencer Mainwaring (Karloff) who handles the estate of Janice’s aunt Margo (Kruger). Aunt Margo also looked to Prince Saliano (Lugosi) for spiritual guidance, who Janice does not trust, and Karl (Lorre) who says he also has psychic powers. Janice believes her life is in danger and Kay and his band manager (O’Keefe) get to the bottom of it.

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Musical Monday: George White’s Scandals (1945)

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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.

Jack Haley, Joan Davis, Gene Krupa in “George White Scandals”

This week’s musical:
George White Scandals (1945) – Musical #348

Studio:
RKO Radio Pictures

Director:
Felix E. Feist

Starring:
Joan Davis, Jack Haley, Phillip Terry, Martha Holliday, Margaret Hamilton, Glenn Tryon, Jane Greer (billed as Bettejane Greer), Audrey Young, Rose Murphy, Fritz Feld, Beverly Wills, Tommy Noonan (uncredited), Dorothy Sebastian (uncredited)
Themselves: Gene Krupa, Ethel Smith

Plot:
The George White Scandals are being cast and rehearsals are beginning … and romances are budding. Joan Mason (Davis) was in the Scandals as a child star is now performing in them as an adult. She recently got engaged to her co-star Jack Evans (Haley), but his sister Clarabelle (Hamilton) hates Joan. Tom McGrath (Terry), who is leading the show, has no time for chorus girls, but Jill Martin (Holliday) works to set herself apart from the others to get noticed. Jill is secretly the daughter of a former Scandals star, who married nobility, and she doesn’t want the rest of the cast to find out.

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Musical Monday: Damn Yankees (1958)

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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:
Damn Yankees (1958) – Musical #243

Studio:
Warner Brothers

Director:
George Abbott, Stanley Donen

Starring:
Tab Hunter, Gwen Verdon, Ray Walston, Russ Brown, Shannon Bolin, Robert Shafer, Rae Allen, Jean Stapleton, Bob Fosse (uncredited)

Plot:
Joe Boyd (Shafer) is a fan of the Washington Senators baseball team and says he would sell his soul to the Devil if they could just succeed. And then Applegate (Walston) appears, who makes a deal with Joe to save the Washington Senators and win the pennant. Applegate makes Joe young Joe Hardy (Hunter) who becomes a star baseball player, though no one knows where he came from. However, Joe signed a short-term contract with the Devil, who tries to convince him not to go back home.

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Musical Monday: Rich, Young and Pretty (1951)

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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:
Rich, Young and Pretty (1951) – Musical #149

Studio:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Director:
Norman Taurog

Starring:
Jane Powell, Danielle Darrieux, Wendell Corey, Vic Damone, Fernando Lamas, Richard Anderson, Una Merkel, Marcel Dalio, Hans Conried
Themselves: Four Freshmen

Plot:
Jim Stauton Rogers (Corey) and his daughter Elizabeth (Powell) travel from Texas to Paris so Jim can give a speech for the United Nations. Jim has a past living in Paris, his wife and Elizabeth’s mother Marie Devarone (Darrieux) who left the two of them when Elizabeth was a baby. In the meantime, Elizabeth meets and falls in love with Andre (Damone) and Jim is worried she will face the same heartbreak he did.

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Musical Monday: A Star is Born (1954)

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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:
A Star Is Born (1954) – Musical #342

Studio:
Warner Bros.

Director:
George Cukor

Starring:
Judy Garland, James Mason, Jack Carson, Charles Bickford, Tommy Noonan, Lucy Marlow, Hazel Shermet, Amanda Blake, Irving Bacon, James Brown, Nancy Kulp (uncredited), Barbara Pepper (uncredited), Dick Simmons (uncredited), Grady Sutton (uncredited)

Plot:
Singer Esther Blodgett (Garland) is spotted by film star Norman Maine (Mason). Though Norman is one of Hollywood’s top stars, his career is on the decline due to his alcoholism. Norman helps Esther into the picture business and Esther becomes successful film star Vicki Lester. The two fall in love and marry, but will their marriage enough for Norman?

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Musical Monday: Colleen (1936)

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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:
“Colleen” (1936)– Musical #284

Studio:
Warner Brothers

Director:
Alfred E. Green

Starring:
Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, Jack Oakie, Joan Blondell, Hugh Herbert, Louise Fazenda, Paul Draper, Marie Wilson, Luis Alberni, Hobart Cavanaugh, Berton Churchill, J.M. Kerrigan, Addison Richards

Plot:
Donald Ames, III, (Powell) runs the Ames Company and works to keep his uncle Cedric (Herbert) out of business decision. But when Donald heads out on a business trip, Uncle Cedric wreaks havoc by hiring grifter Joe Cook (Oakie) and pretty chocolate dipper Minnie (Blondell), and buys a dress shop where Colleen (Keeler) works for Minnie because she loves fashion. When Donald returns, he has to clean up the mess.

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Musical Monday: Bright Lights (1930)

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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:
Bright Lights (1930)  – Musical #592

Studio:
Warner Brothers

Director:
Michael Curtiz

Starring:
Dorothy Mackaill, Frank Fay, Noah Beery, Daphne Pollard, Inez Courtney, Frank McHugh, Tom Dugan, James Murray, Edward J. Nugent, Philip Strange, Louise Beavers (uncredited), John Carradine (uncredited)

Plot:
Broadway star Louanne (Mackaill) is retiring from the stage to marry a society gentleman. However, he doesn’t know her colorful past, which she shares a watered down version to the press. Throughout her scandalous past of hula dancing at honky tonks in the Congo and dancing at a carnival show, Wally (Fay) was with her the whole time, who is in love with her. On the eve of her marriage, someone from her past shows up in the audience.

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Musical Monday: Wonder Man (1945)

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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:
Wonder Man (1945) – Musical #239

Studio:
The Samuel Goldwyn Company, distributed through RKO

Director:
H. Bruce Humberstone

Starring:
Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo, Vera-Ellen, Donald Woods, S.Z. Sakall, Allen Jenkins, Steve Cochran, Edward Brophy, Otto Kruger, Natalie Schafer, Richard Lane, Huntz Hall, Edward Gargan, Virginia Gilmore, The Goldwyn Girls

Plot:
Flashy nightclub performer Buzzy Bellew (Kaye) is killed before he can testify against gangster Ten Grand Jackson (Cochran). Buzzy then haunts his bookish twin brother Edwin Dingle (Kaye) to help him.

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Musical Monday: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967)

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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:
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967) – Musical #591

Studio:
United Artists

Director:
David Swift

Starring:
Robert Morse, Michele Lee, Rudy Vallee, Anthony ‘Scooter’ Teague, Maureen Arthur, Carol Worthington, Kathryn Reynolds, Sammy Smith, Ruth Kobart, Anne Seymour (uncredited), Virginia Sale (uncredited), Tucker Smith (uncredited)

Plot:
J. Pierrepont Finch (Morse) is a window washer who buys a book called “How to Succeed in Business,” which tells you how to climb the ladder of success. Finch follows the book by pretending he is hard at work and outsmarting other corporate leaders to work his way to the top.

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