Category Archives: Musical Monday

Musical Monday: Sweet Adeline (1934)

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

This week’s musical:
Sweet Adeline (1934) – Musical #195

Studio:
Warner Bros.

Director:
Mervyn LeRoy

Starring:
Irene Dunne, Donald Woods, Hugh Herbert, Ned Sparks, Joseph Cawthorn, Wini Shaw (billed as Winifred Shaw), Louis Calhern, Nydia Westman, Dorothy Dare, Phil Regan, Noah Beery (uncredited), Milton Kibbee (uncredited)

Plot:
In the early 1900s, Adeline Schmidt (Dunne) is the daughter of a beer garden owner (Cawthorn). He disapproves of show business and his daughter’s romance with composer Sid Barnett (Woods). The show Sid wrote is produced, and Adeline gets the lead. In her success, Adeline starts seeing the rich Major Day (Calhern), leaving Sid feeling jilted.

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Musical Monday: Heidi (1937)

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

This week’s musical:
Heidi (1937) – Musical #621

Studio:
20th Century Fox

Director:
Allan Dwan

Starring:
Shirley Temple, Jean Hersholt, Arthur Treacher, Helen Westley, Thomas Beck, Mary Nash, Sidney Blackmer, Pauline Moore, Mady Christians, Marcia Mae Jones, Delmar Watson, Sig Ruman

Plot:
Heidi (Temple) is an orphan who has been living with her aunt Dete (Moore) for six years since her parents died. Dete abruptly takes Heidi to her grandfather’s (Hersholt) when she has a job offer in Frankfurt. Her grandfather, Adolph Kramer, has the reputation of being as a grump in the village, because he has lived alone since turning out Heidi’s father when he married her mother. While the two are bonding, Dete returns to get Heidi so she can be a companion to a rich, wheelchair-bound girl (Jones).

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Musical Monday: Tall, Dark and Handsome (1941)

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

This week’s musical:
Tall, Dark and Handsome – Musical #619

Studio:
20th Century Fox

Director:
H. Bruce Humberstone

Starring:
Cesar Romero, Virginia Gilmore, Milton Berle, Charlotte Greenwood, Sheldon Leonard, Stanley Clements, Frank Jenks, Barnett Parker, Marc Lawrence, Paul Hurst, Mary Treen, Vickie Lester, Marion Martin, Fred ‘Snowflake’ Toones (uncredited)

Plot:
Set at Christmas 1928 in Chicago, gangster Shep Morrison (Romero) spots Judy Miller (Gilmore) working as a babysitter for children while mothers shop. Thinking Judy loves children, Shep pretends he has a son. In reality, Judy has ambitions to be a singer.

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Musical Monday: Mame (1974)

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

This week’s musical:
Mame (1974) – Musical #523

Studio:
Warner Bros.

Director:
Gene Saks

Starring:
Lucille Ball, Robert Preston, Bea Arthur, Bruce Davison, Kirby Furlong, Jane Connell, George Chiang, Joyce Van Patten, Don Porter, John McGiver, Audrey Christie, Bobbi Jordan, Doria Cook-Nelson (billed as Doria Cook), Burt Mustin

Plot:
Set in the late-1920s and early 1930s, nine-year-old Patrick (Furlong) goes to live with his only living relative, Auntie Mame (Ball), after his father dies. Mame is eccentric, free-spirited and lives unconventionally.

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Musical Monday: The Great Ziegfeld (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 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
The Great Ziegfeld (1936) – Musical #214

Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Director:
Robert Z. Leonard

Starring:
William Powell, Myrna Loy, Luise Rainer, Frank Morgan, Virginia Bruce, Reginald Owen, Nat Pendleton, Ernest Cossart, Joseph Cawthorn, Jean Chatburn, Herman Bing, Raymond Walburn, Thomas Clarke (uncredited), Mickey Daniels (uncredited), Williams Demarest (uncredited), Ann Gillis (uncredited), Ruth Gillette (uncredited), Joan Holland (uncredited), Suzanne Kaaren (uncredited), Dennis Morgan (uncredited), Dennis O’Keefe (uncredited), Buddy Doyle (uncredited)
Themselves: Fanny Brice, Ray Bolger, Harriet Hoctor
Ziegfeld Girls: Wanda Allen, Lynn Bailey, Monica Bannister, Lynn Bari, Bonnie Bannon, Sheila Browning, Edna Callahan, Diane Cook, Pauline Craig, Hester Dean, Susan Fleming, Virginia Grey, Mary Halsey, Jeanne Hart, Patricia Havens-Monteagle, Marcia Healy, Margaret Lyman, Frances MacInerney, Julie Mooney, Pat Nixon, Carlita Orr, Claire Owen, Wanda Perry, Evelyn Randolph, Venita Varden, Dolly Verner

Plot:
Fictional musical biography of Broadway impresario, Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. (Powell). The film chronicles his rise from carnival barker to one of the United States’ most powerful entertainment figures in the United States. It also includes his romances and marriages to Anna Held (Rainer) and Billie Burke (Loy).

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Musical Monday: Where Do We Go from Here? (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 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Where Do We Go From Here? (1945) – Musical #618

Studio:
20th Century Fox

Director:
Gregory Ratoff

Starring:
Fred MacMurray, Joan Leslie, June Haver, Gene Sheldon, Anthony Quinn, Carlos Ramírez, Alan Mowbray, Fortunio Bonanova, Herman Bing, Howard Freeman, Rory Calhoun (uncredited), Otto Preminger (uncredited)

Plot:
Bill Morgan (MacMurray) is eager to join the military, but he’s 4F and has been turned down by every branch of the military. Bill is in love with Lucilla (Haver), who loves a man in uniform, and Sally (Leslie) is in love with Bill. Since he can’t join the military, Bill helps with the war effort. While sorting scrap metal, he finds a magic lamp with a genie (Sheldon). Bill tries to wish himself into the military but ends up traveling throughout history.

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Musical Monday: Rosie the Riveter (1944)

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

This week’s musical:
Rosie the Riveter (1944) – Musical #617

Studio: Republic Pictures

Director: Joseph Santley

Starring:
Jane Frazee, Frank Albertson, Barbara Jo Allen (as Vera Vague), Frank Jenks, Lloyd Corrigan, Frank Fenton, Maude Eburne, Carl ‘Alfalfa’ Switzer, Tom Kennedy, Ellen Lowe, Louise Erickson, Kirby Grant

Plot:
During the World War II housing shortage, Rosie Warren (Frazee), Vera Watson (Allen), Charlie Doran (Albertson) and Kelly Kennedy (Jenks) all are fighting over one room in boarding house. They reach an agreement that Rosie and Vera can sleep in the room at night while Charlie and Kelly work the swing-shift in a war factory, and the guys sleep there during the day while the women are working in an aircraft factory. Complications arise.

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Musical Monday: Tars and Spars (1946)

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

This week’s musical:
Tars and Spars (1946) – Musical #615

Studio:
Columbia Pictures

Director: Alfred E. Green

Starring: Janet Blair, Alfred Drake, Marc Platt, Jeff Donnell, Sid Caesar, Joseph Crehan (uncredited), Hugh Beaumont (uncredited), Anita Alvarez (uncredited), Alex Romero (uncredited), Dick Winslow (uncredited)

Plot:
Howard Young (Drake) is in the U.S. Coast Guard but has had shore duty throughout the war. Though he wants to be sent out on shore duty, he is stuck with a desk job on base. His only time at sea performing a military experiment for 20 days in the raft in the base’s harbor. When he returns from the operation, he meets Christine Bradley (Blair), a SPAR who is now on the base. Howard’s friend Chuck Enders (Caesar) jokes and tells her that he is a military war hero and was shipwrecked.

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Musical Monday: The Singing Marine (1937)

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

This week’s musical:
The Singing Marine – Musical #238

Studio: Warner Bros.

Director: Ray Enright

Starring:
Dick Powell, Doris Weston, Lee Dixon, Hugh Herbert, Jane Darwell, Allen Jenkins, Jane Wyman, Larry Adler, Marcia Ralston, Guinn ‘Big Boy’ Williams, Veda Ann Borg, Henry O’Neill, Addison Richards, Eddie Acuff, Berton Churchill, Ward Bond (uncredited), Richard Loo (uncredited), Sam McDaniel (uncredited), Bert Moorhouse (uncredited),

Plot:
Bashful Marine Bob Brent (Powell) is too shy to date or converse and is most comfortable when he’s singing. His Marine buddies send him to New York to perform in an amateur radio contest, especially because his voice makes their girlfriends swoon. Bob travels with singing hopeful Peggy Randall (Weston), who he likes but is too bashful. When Bob becomes a big hit as the “Singing Marine,” his Marine friends find that he has become a snob and not willing to go back to his military life.

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Musical Monday: Murder in the Blue Room (1944)

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

This week’s musical:
Murder in the Blue Room (1944)– Musical No. 614

Studio: Universal

Director: Leslie Goodwins

Starring:
Anne Gwynne, Donald Cook, John Litel, Grace McDonald, Betty Kean, June Preisser, Regis Toomey, Nella Walker, Andrew Tombes, Ian Wolfe, Bill Williams (as Bill MacWilliams), Frank Marlowe, Milton Parsons (uncredited), Alice Draper (uncredited), Victoria Horne (uncredited)

Plot:
Twenty years ago, Nan’s (Gwynne) father was found dead in the Blue Room of the family home. For the first time since then, Nan and her mother open up the house and Nan invites her jazz singing friends to perform, the Jazzybelles (McDonald, Kean, Preisser). When one of the guests (Williams) wants to stay in the Blue Room, he is missing the next morning and everyone has to stay in the house for the investigation.

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