Category Archives: Musical Monday

Musical Monday: It’s a Pleasure (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:
It’s a Pleasure (1945) – Musical #312

Studio:
International Pictures

Director:
William A. Seiter

Starring:
Sonja Henie, Michael O’Shea, Marie McDonald, Iris Adrian, Bill Johnson, Gus Schilling, Cheryl Walker, Arthur Loft, Dave Willock (uncredited), David Janssen (uncredited)

Plot:
Don Martin (O’Shea) is a star hockey player but gets barred from the game after hitting a referee. Chris Linden (Henie) is the lead in the ice-capades and gets Don a job with the show. The show, produced by Buzz Fletcher (Johnson), is a success and Don and Chris fall in love and marry. Buzz’s wife, Gale (Fletcher), causes trouble for the couple.

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Musical Monday: Lady, Let’s Dance (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 500. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Lady, Let’s Dance (1944) – Musical #584

Studio:
Monogram Pictures

Director:
Frank Woodruff

Starring:
Belita, James Ellison, Walter Catlett, Lucien Littlefield, Maurice St. Clair, Barbara Woodell, Emmett Vogan, Harry Harvey, Jack Rice
Specialty performances: Skating team Frick and Frack (Werner Groebli and Hans Mauch), Henry Busse and His Orchestra, Mitchell Ayres Orchestra, Myrtle Godfrey, Lou Bring and His Orchestra

Plot:
Belita (Belita) is a refugee from Holland due to World War II working as a waitress at a Californian resort. When the hotel’s star dancer Dolores (Woodell) quits to get married, the hotel’s entertainment manager Jerry Gibson (Ellison) hires Belita to take her place. Belita becomes a great success while Jerry gets fired from his job and then is drafted into the Army.

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Musical Monday: Cain and Mabel (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:
Cain and Mabel (1936) – Musical #459

Studio:
Warner Brothers

Director:
Lloyd Bacon

Starring:
Marion Davies, Clark Gable, Allen Jenkins, Roscoe Karns, Ruth Donnelly, Walter Catlett, Hobart Cavanaugh, Pert Kelton, Robert Paige, E.E. Clive, Sammy White, Marie Provost (uncredited)

Plot:
After Mabel O’Dare (Davies) loses her job as a waitress, she ends up working her way up to be a musical star. Larry Cain (Gable) is a prizefighter, who is kept awake all night before a fight due to Mabel’s tap dance practice in a hotel suite above him. Mabel’s press agent (Karns) creates a romance between Mabel and Larry, unbeknownst to them, for publicity.

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Musical Monday: That Night in Rio (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 500. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
That Night in Rio (1941) – Musical #308

Studio:
20th Century Fox

Director:
Irving Cummings

Starring:
Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Carmen Miranda, S.Z. Sakall, Leonid Kinskey, Curt Bois, J. Carrol Naish, Maria Montez, Fortunio Bonanova
As themselves: Flores Brothers Trio

Plot:
Nightclub performer Larry Martin (Ameche) looks similar to the Baron Duarte (Ameche) and has an act where he poses as him. When Baron Duarte falls into financial issues and has to travel to Buenos Aires, his business partners have Larry step in to impersonate the Baron while he’s gone. Larry agrees, only if the Baron’s wife (Faye) isn’t informed that he is a stand-in.

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Musical Monday: Madam Satan (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:
Madam Satan (1930) – Musical #579

Studio:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Director:
Cecil B. DeMille

Starring:
Kay Johnson, Reginald Denny, Lillian Roth, Roland Young, Ann Sothern (uncredited), June Knight (uncredited),
Themselves: Abe Lyman and his Band

Plot:
Angela Brooks (Johnson) discovers her husband Bob (Denny) is cheating on her with Trixie (Roth). His friend Jimmy Wade (Young) tries to cover for him, but Angela isn’t fooled. To try to win her husband back, Angela goes to a wild masquerade ball on a zeppelin thrown by Jimmy. She disguises herself as the sexy Madam Satan to lure her husband back to her and make him believe that she is not cold, as he believes.

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Musical Monday: At War with the Army (1950)

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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:
At War with the Army (1950) – Musical #581

Studio:
Paramount Pictures

Director:
Hal Walker

Starring:
Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, Polly Bergen, Mike Kellin, Jimmie Dundee, Tommy Farrell, Danny Dayton, William Mendrek, Angela Greene, Jean Ruth

Plot:
Set on an Army base during World War II, Pfc. Alvin Korwin (Lewis) and 1st Sgt. Vic Puccinelli (Martin) were friends before the war and had a nightclub act. Private Korwin wants to go home to see his newly born baby and Sgt. Puccinelli wants to be transferred overseas. Confusion ensues when a pregnant old girlfriend arrives to visit Sgt. Vic Puccinelli.

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Musical Monday: Spinout (1966)

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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:
Spinout (1966) – Musical #580

Studio:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Director:
Norman Taurog

Starring:
Elvis Presley, Shelley Fabares, Diane McBain, Deborah Walley, Dodie Marshall, Jack Mullaney, Warren Berlinger, Jimmy Hawkins, Carl Betz, Cecil Kellaway, Una Merkel

Plot:
Mike McCoy (Presley) is a carefree musician living a nomadic life with his band (Walley, Mullaney, Hawkins). Cynthia Foxhugh (Fabares) is a spoiled rich girl with her sights set on Mike. She uses her rich father (Betz) to try and get Mike. Her father also wants him to race his car. Cynthia isn’t the only one after Mike: Diana St. Clair is researching him for her book “The Perfect American Male,” and decides she needs to marry Mike. And tomboy band member Les (Walley) also likes Mike.

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Musical Monday: Looking for Love (1964)

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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:
Looking For Love (1964) – Musical #152

Studio:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Director:
Don Weis

Starring:
Connie Francis, Jim Hutton, Susan Oliver, Joby Baker, Barbara Nichols, Charles Lane, Jesse White, Chris Noel (uncredited), Madge Blake (uncredited)
Themselves: George Hamilton, Johnny Carson, Yvette Mimieux, Paula Prentiss, Danny Thomas

Plot:
Libby Caruso (Francis) has unsuccessfully tried to make it as a singer. Since she hasn’t made it, she decides to get a job so she can find a husband, get married and have babies. To help get ready in the morning, Libby invents the “Lady Valet” to hang clothes on. She meets Jim Davis (Hutton), who she falls in love with and he sees profit in the Lady Valet. While Jim tries to market the item, Libby mistakes his attention for love.

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Christmas Musical Monday: The Alcoa Hour presents The Stingiest Man in Town (1956)

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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:
The Alcoa Hour presents The Stingiest Man in Town (1956) – Musical #577

Basil Rathbone as Scrooge and Johnny Desmond as nephew Fred

Studio:
NBC

Director:
Daniel Petrie

Starring:
Basil Rathbone, Vic Damone, Johnny Desmond, the Four Lads, Patrice Munsel, John McGiver, John McGovern, Martyn Green, Alice Frost, Dennis Kohler, Bryan Herbert, Keith Herrington, Ian Martin, Robert Weede, Robert Wright, Keith Herrington

Plot:
A musical retelling of Charles Dickens’ novel, “A Christmas Carol.” Miserly Ebenezer Scrooge (Rathbone) is warned by the ghost of his friend Marley (Weede) that he needs to change his ways or he will end up chained to his sins. On Christmas Eve night, Scrooge is visited by ghosts to show him his past, present and future life to convince him to change.

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Christmas Musical Monday: By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953)

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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:
By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953)– Musical #174

Studio:
Warner Brothers

Director:
David Butler

Starring:
Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Leon Ames, Rosemary DeCamp, Billy Gray, Mary Wickes, Russell Arms, Maria Palmer, Walter ‘PeeWee’ Flannery, Merv Griffin (uncredited)

Plot:
A sequel to On Moonlight Bay (1951), the story picks up in 1918 when Bill (MacRae) returns from World War I. Marjorie (Day) is anxious to discuss their wedding plans, as he promised when he left, but Bill doesn’t want to rush into wedlock. This causes a rift in their relationship. Marjorie’s brother Wesley (Gray) is still causing trouble in this film.

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