Category Archives: Musical Monday

Musical Monday: Oh, You Beautiful Doll (1949)

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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:
Oh, You Beautiful Doll (1949) – Musical #798

Studio:
20th Century Fox

Director:
John M. Stahl

Starring:
Mark Stevens, June Haver, S.Z. Sakall, Charlotte Greenwood, Gale Robbins, Jay C. Flippen, Andrew Tombes, Eduad Franz, Robert Gist (uncredited), Ray Walker (uncredited), Victor Sen Yung (uncredited)

Plot:
A biographical film about composer Alfred Breitenbach (Sakall), who became known as Fred Fisher for his Tin Pan Alley songs. In the film, Alfred has ambitions of composing great music, such as an opera. However, he and his family — wife Anna (Greenwood) and daughter Doris (Fisher) — are very poor. Song plugger Larry Kelly (Stevens) meets Alfred by accident and hears some of his music. Larry jazzes up portions of Alfred’s opera and writes lyrics to it, making Alfred’s music a success with mainstream music, where he is credited as Fred Fisher. Alfred struggles with being known and becoming famous off music he doesn’t like, though he and his family are living more comfortably. Outside of this, Larry and Doris are also falling in love.

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Musical Monday: Incendiary Blonde (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:
Incendiary Blonde (1945) – Musical #411

Studio:
Paramount Pictures

Director:
George Marshall

Starring:
Betty Hutton, Arturo de Córdova, Charles Ruggles, Bill Goodwin, Barry Fitzgerald, Albert Dekker, Mary Phillips, Eduardo Ciannelli, Frank Faylen (uncredited), Catherine Craig (uncredited), Johnny Johnston (uncredited), Catherine Craig (uncredited)
Themselves: Maurice Rocco, The Maxellos

Plot:
Biographical film on the life and career of performer and speakeasy owner, Texas Guinan (Hutton). Guinan was known as “queen of the nightclubs” in the 1920s. The film shows Guinan leaving home to work in a Wild West Show and then working her way up to fame through Broadway shows, films and then a leading nightclub entertainer. Along the way, Guinan pines for Bill Romero Kilgannon (de Cordova).

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Musical Monday: The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929)

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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 Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929) – Musical #795

hollywood revue7

Studio:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Director:
Charles F. Riesner

Starring:
All Performers as themselves:
Master of Ceremony: Conrad Nagel, Jack Benny
Galaxy of Stars: John Gilbert, Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Bessie Love, Anita Page, Buster Keaton, Marion Davies, Lionel Barrymore, William Haines, Marie Dressler, Cliff Edwards, Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Nils Asther, Charles King, Polly Moran, Gus Edwards, Karl Dane, George K. Arthur, Gwen Lee
Uncredited: Ann Dvorak (uncredited)

Plot:
To introduce audiences to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer stars in a talking picture, the MGM stars, all as themselves, perform a revue of songs and skits with actors Conrad Nagel and Jack Benny as the hosts.

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Musical Monday: Peter Pan (1955, 1956, 1960)

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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:
Peter Pan (1955, 1956, 1960) – Musical #792, 793, 794

Studio:
NBC

Director:
1955: Clark Jones
1956: ?
1960: Vincent J. Donehue

Starring:
1955: Mary Martin, Cyril Ritchard, Kathleen Nolan, Sondra Lee, Margalo Gillmore, Heller Halliday, Robert Harrington, Joe E. Mark, Norman Shelly, Joseph Richard Stafford
1956: Mary Martin, Cyril Ritchard, Kathleen Nolan, Sondra Lee, Margalo Gillmore, Heller Halliday, Michael Allen, Tom Halloran, Robert Banas, David Bean, Linda Dangcil,
1960: Mary Martin, Cyril Ritchard, Sondra Lee, Maureen Bailey, Margalo Gillmore, Joey Trent, Heller Halliday

Plot:
Peter Pan (Martin) visits the Darling children and tells them how he ran away from home as a baby, because he never wants to grow up. The Darling children fly to Never Never Land with Peter Pan, where they meet the Lost Boys, other children that have never grown up, and fight off Capt. Hook (Ritchard) and his pirates, who are trying to kill Peter Pan for getting even for an alligator eating his arm. The children soon get homesick and return home, promising to return.

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Musical Monday: The Littlest Angel (1969)

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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 Littlest Angel (1969) – Musical #791

littlest angel2

Studio:
Hallmark Hall of Fame

Director:
Joe Layton

Starring:
Johnny Whitaker, Fred Gwynne, Cab Calloway, E.G. Marshall, John McGiver, Tony Randall, George Rose, Connie Stevens, James Coco, Evelyn Russell, Cris Alexander, George Blackwell, Mary Jo Catlett, Lu Leonard

Plot:
On his eighth birthday, shepherd Michael (Whitaker) falls to his death while chasing a dove. He is assigned to guardian angel, Patience (Gwynne) to help him adapt to life in heaven, but Michael misses his family and wants to go home.

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Musical Monday: In Search of the Castaways (1962)

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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.

castawaysThis week’s musical:
In Search of the Castaways (1962) – Musical #790

Studio:
Walt Disney Productions

Director:
Robert Stevenson

Starring:
Hayley Mills, Maurice Chevalier, George Sanders, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Michael Anderson Jr., Antonio Cifariello, Keith Hamshere, Wilfrid Brambell, Jack Gwillim, Ronald Fraser

Plot:
Set in 1858, Mary (Mills) and Robert Grant (Hamshere) believe their father, Capt. Grant, is alive though he has been reported dead in a shipwreck, because Jacques Paganel (Chevalier) found a letter in a bottle from Capt. Grant. The trio enlists the help of Lord Glenarvan (Hyde-White) and his son Jon (Anderson Jr.) to go on an expedition to search for their father.

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Musical Monday: The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (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 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

Mr. TThis week’s musical:
The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953) – Musical #783

Studio:
Columbia Pictures

Director:
Roy Rowland

Starring:
Tommy Rettig, Hans Conried, Peter Lind Hayes, Mary Healy, Jack Heasley, Robert Heasley, Noel Cravat, George Chakiris (uncredited)

Plot:
While 10-year-old Bart Collins (Rettig) hates piano lessons from his strict instructor Dr. Terwilliker (Conried), but his mother (Healy) loves the piano. While Bart is practicing his piano, he dozes off and has a terrible, surreal dream where Dr. Terwilliker is running a prison-like school where he wants 500 boys (hence: the 5,000 fingers) to play a giant piano at the same time. All the while, Bart’s mother is kept under a trance. In his dream, Bart enlists the help of kindly plumber August Zabladowski (Hayes) to help Bart, his mother and all the students to escape.

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Musical Monday: Sailor Beware (1952)

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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.

sailor beware4This week’s musical:
Sailor Beware (1952) – Musical #788

Studio:
Paramount Pictures

Director:
Hal Walker

Starring:
Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, Corinne Calvet, Marion Marshall, Robert Strauss, Leif Erickson, Don Wilson, Vince Edwards, Skip Homeier, Dan Barton, Mike Mahoney, Mary Treen, Donald MacBride (uncredited), Elaine Stewart (uncredited), James Dean (uncredited)
Herself: Corinne Calvet
Cameo: Betty Hutton

Plot:
Bumbling Melvin Jones (Lewis) and smooth operator Al Crowthers (Martin) both enlist in the U.S. Navy. Shenanigans ensue as Melvin’s shipmates bet that he can kiss actress Corinne Calvet (herself) once they arrive in Hawaii.

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Musical Monday: Swingtime Johnny (1943)

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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:
Swingtime Johnny (1943) – Musical #789

Studio:
Universal Pictures

Director:
Edward F. Cline

Starring:
Harriet Nelson (billed as Harriet Hilliard), Patty Andrews, Maxene Andrews, Laverne Andrews, Peter Cookson, Tim Ryan, Matt Willis, William “Bill” Phillips, Tom Dugan, Ray Walker
Themselves: Mitch Ayres and His Orchestra

Plot:
Jonathan Chadwick (Cookson) is the owner of a pipe organ plant. Due to wartime conditions, the plant is converted into a munitions plant. Nightclub singers, Linda (Hilliard-Nelson) and the Andrews Sisters (themselves) leave their jobs at the club to help the war effort and work at the factory. Linda becomes Jonathan’s secretary, and the two become friendly. When the plant is threatened to close, Linda realizes someone is taking advantage of Jonathan.

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Musical Monday: About Face (1952)

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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.

about face2This week’s musical:
About Face (1952) – Musical #382

Studio:
Warner Bros.

Director:
Roy Del Ruth

Starring:
Gordon MacRae, Eddie Bracken, Dick Wesson, Virginia Gibson, Phyllis Kirk, Aileen Stanley Jr., Joel Grey, Larry Keating, Cliff Ferre, John Baer, Mabel Albertson (uncredited)

Plot:
The senior cadets at Southern Military Institute are months away from graduation. Tony Williams (MacRae), Boff Roberts (Bracken) and Dave Crouse (Wesson) get in the usual trouble as they have a plebe cadet, Bender (Grey), runs their errands. The three pals also butt heads with Lt. Jones (Ferre), who tries to woo their girls. Boff and his girl, Alice (Kirk), are also secretly married and have a baby on the way.

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