Musical Monday: Oklahoma! (1955)

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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.

oklahomaThis week’s musical:
Oklahoma (1955) – Musical #67

Studio:
RKO Radio Pictures

Director:
Fred Zinnemann

Starring:
Gordon MacRae, Shirley Jones, Gloria Grahame, Gene Nelson, Charlotte Greenwood, Eddie Albert, James Whitmore, Rod Steiger, Barbara Lawrence, Jay C. Flippen, Roy Barcroft, James Mitchell, Bambi Linn, Marc Platt, Russell Simpson (uncredited)

Plot:
The story is set in the early 1900s before Oklahoma became a state. Curly (MacRae) is a happy-go-lucky rancher who is in love with Laurey (Jones), who returns the feelings but refuses to show it. Jud (Steiger) is the farmhand on Laurey and her Aunt Eller’s (Greenwood) farm, and he also lusts after Laurey. To make Curly jealous, Laurey agrees to attend a party at the Skidmore Ranch with Judy, but quickly realizes it’s a dangerous mistake. In a secondary romantic plot, Will Parker (Nelson) returns to town from a rodeo, prepared to marry his girlfriend Ado Annie (Graham). However, Ado Annie has recently filled out and is enjoying the attentions of various men, including a peddler, Ali Hackim (Albert). In addition to all of this, there is tension between farmers — who want land for farming — and ranchers — who take issue with fences closing off the land.

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Musical Monday: Moonlight and Cactus (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:
Moonlight and Cactus (1944) – Musical #778

Studio:
Universal Pictures

Director:
Edward F. Cline

Starring:
Themselves: Patty Andrews, Maxene Andrews, Laverne Andrews
The cast: Leo Carrillo, Elyse Knox, Tom Seidel, Shemp Howard, Eddie Quillan, Murray Alper, Tom Kennedy, Frank Lackteen, Minerva Urecal, Jacqueline deWitt, Mary O’Brien, Mady Correll
Performers: Chitita Tovar, Lollita Tovar, Mitchell Ayres Orchestra

Plot:
When the Merchant Marines go on leave, Tom Garrison (Seidel) invites everyone to his ranch in San Diego. While the group is willing to go, they are disappointed knowing there won’t be any women on the ranch. Much to everyone’s surprise — including Tom — his ranch is filled with women who are working the farm while the men are fighting overseas. The workers are female students from the local agricultural students, and while Tom automatically assumes they are ruining his business, he finds that they have doubled his business, led by the foreman, Louise Ferguson (Knox). The only problem is that someone has been stealing their cattle, and Louise hires Pasqualito Luigi (Carrillo).

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Musical Monday: Sing, Cowboy, Sing (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.

sing cowboyThis week’s musical:
Sing, Cowboy, Sing (1937) – Musical #779

Studio:
Grand National Pictures

Director:
Robert N. Bradbury

Starring:
Tex Ritter, White Flash, Louise Stanley, Al St. John, Charles King, Karl Hackett, Robert McKenzie, Horace Murphy, Snub Pollard, Hank Worden, Chick Hannan, Milburn Morante, Oscar Gahan, Jack C. Smith (uncredited)
Performers: the Texas Tornadoes

Plot:
George Summers (Smith) and his daughter Madge (Stanley) are ambushed by a gang as they hauling freight wagons. Summers is killed, and the whole event is witness by Tex Archer (Ritter) and his pal Duke Evans (St. John) who are passing by. The mob who killed Summers were hired by a competing freight company, run by Kalmus (Hackett). When Kalmus and his gang realize that Tex likely witnessed the murder, they work to frame Tex and Duke for the killing.

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Musical Monday: Song of Nevada (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:
Song of Nevada (1944) – Musical #777

song of nevada2

Studio:
Republic Pictures

Director:
Joseph Kane

Starring:
Roy Rogers, Trigger, Dale Evans, Thurston Hall, John Eldridge, Mary Lee, Lloyd Corrigan, Forrest Taylor, George Meeker, Emmett Vogan, LeRoy Mason, Bob Nolan, Si Jenks (uncredited), Ruth Roman (uncredited)
Themselves: Sons of the Pioneers

Plot:
Wealthy John Barrabee (Hall) is discouraged that his daughter Jennie (Evans) has “left the prairie for Park Avenue,” especially now that she’s engaged to snooty Rollo Bingham (Eldridge). Barrabee leaves New York City to head back out west to Nevada. During the flight, the plane makes an emergency landing and Barrabee wanders off, meeting Roy Rogers (himself) and his friends. He’s having such a good time with Roy, that Barrabee misses his flight which crashes; leading the newspapers and Jennie to believe that he’s dead. As soon as his death is announced Rollo begins liquidating Barrabee’s estate. Barrabee and Roy hatch a plan to keep Jennie out west where she belongs.

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Musical Monday: Rawhide (1938)

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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.

rawhide2This week’s musical:
Rawhide (1938) – Musical #776

Studio:
Distributed by 20th Century Fox

Director:
Ray Taylor

Starring:
Smith Ballew, Lou Gehrig (as himself), Evalyn Knapp, Arthur Loft, Cy Kendall, Dick Curtis, Si Jenks

Plot:
Lou Gehrig (as himself) decides to retire from baseball and moves out west to work a ranch with his sister, Peggy (Knapp). When Gehrig arrives, he finds that all the local businesses in town and the ranchers are being strong armed into joining an organization where all the goods are run through one businessman. Gehrig refuses and lawyer Larry Kimball (Ballew) to smash the syndicate.

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

melody ranch2This week’s musical:
Melody Ranch (1940) – Musical #775

Studio:
Republic Pictures Corp.

Director:
Joseph Santley

Starring:
Gene Autry, Jimmy Durante, Ann Miller, Barton MacLane, Barbara Jo Allen, Gabby Hayes, Jerome Cowan, Mary Lee, Joe Sawyer, Horace McMahon, Clarence Wilson, William “Billy” Benedict, Billy Bletcher (uncredited), Veda Ann Borg (uncredited), Dick Elliott (uncredited)
Performers: The Kidoodlers

Plot:
Radio star Gene Autry (as himself) is asked to return home to his hometown of torpedo for their Frontier Day celebration. Convinced it will make good publicity, the announcer of his radio show, Cornelius Courtney (Durante) and his radio co-star Julie Shelton (Miller), travel with him. During the celebration, Autry is made honorary sheriff, a role he takes seriously when he learns his childhood enemies, the Wildhack brothers (MacLane, Sawyer and McMahon) are running the town. Autry doesn’t feel he can return to the city and leave the town in this state. When everyone believes he’s turned soft in the city, Pop Laramie (Hayes) helps toughen up Autry to run for the real role of sheriff.

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Musical Monday: Pop Gear (1965)

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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:
Pop Gear (1965) – Musical #493

Studio:
Associated British-Pathé, Ltd.

Director:
Frederic Goode

Starring:
Host: Jimmy Savile
Performers: The Animals, The Beatles (archive footage), Matt Munro, Susan Maughan, The Honeycombs, Herman’s Hermits, The Nashville Teens, The Four Pennies, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, The Fourmost, Sounds Incorporated, Peter and Gordon, Tommy Quickly & The Remo Four, Billie Davis, The Spencer Davis Group

Plot:
With narration by Jimmy Savile (himself), British Invasion bands perform the hits of 1964 and 1965.

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Musical Monday: Gangway (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.

gangway5This week’s musical:
Gangway (1937) – Musical #774

Studio:
Gaumont British

Director:
Sonnie Hale

Starring:
Jessie Matthews, Barry MacKay, Nat Pendleton, Alastair Sim, Olive Blakeney, Noel Madison, Patrick Ludlow, Liane Ordeyne, Graham Moffatt, Danny Green, Edmon Ryan, Lawrence Anderson (uncredited), Peter Gawthorne (uncredited), Warren Jenkins (uncredited), Michael Rennie (uncredited)

Plot:
Pat Wayne (Matthews) works for a newspaper as a film critic. She dreams of being a reporter who uncovers news and gets to go on dangerous adventures, like she sees female reporters do in American films. Pat soon gets her chance when she is put on a story to work undercover to get dirt on a visiting American actress, Nedda Beumont (Blakeney). At the same time, detective Bob Deering (MacKay) is trying to uncover jewel thefts at Nedda’s hotel, and suspects Pat as being a jewel thief. When she gets mixed up in a publicity stunt for Nedda, Pat ends up on a boat sailing for American. On the sea voyage, she gets further entrenched in the jewel theft schemes when an American gangster, Smiles Hogan (Pendleton), mistakes Pat for the real jewel thief.

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Watching 1939: Marshal of Mesa City (1939)

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In 2011, I announced I was trying to see every film released in 1939. This new series chronicles films released in 1939 as I watch them. As we start out this blog feature, this section may become more concrete as I search for a common thread that runs throughout each film of the year. Right now, that’s difficult.

1939 film:
marshall of mesa cityMarshal of Mesa City (1939)

Release date:
Nov. 3, 1939

Cast:
George O’Brien, Virginia Vale, Leon Ames, Henry Brandon, Harry Cording, Lloyd Ingraham, Slim Whitaker, Joe McGuin, Mary Gordon, Frank Ellis

Studio:
RKO Radio Pictures

Director:
David Howard

Plot:
Mesa City is filled with crime and the local sheriff, Jud Cronin (Ames) is corrupt. The criminal activity has gotten so bad, that school teacher Virginia King (Vale) is ready to leave town. However, when former lawman Cliff Mason (O’Brien) comes to town, the mayor hires him as marshal. To help him out, Mason hires gunman Duke Allison (Brandon) to help get the town in order.

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Musical Monday: The Pirate (1948)

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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 Pirate (1948) – Musical #17

pirate5

Studio:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Director:
Vincente Minnelli

Starring:
Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Walter Slezak, Gladys Cooper, Reginald Owen, George Zucco,
Lester Allen, Lola Albright, Ellen Ross, Mary Jo Ellis, Jean Dean, Mario Murray, Ben Lessy, Jerry Bergen, Val Setz, Anne Francis (uncredited), Alex Romero (uncredited), Dee Turnell (uncredited), Marie Windsor (uncredited)
Specialty Acts: Fayard Nicholas, Harold Nicholas, The Gaudsmith Brothers

Plot:
Manuela (Garland) lives with her aunt (Cooper) in the Caribbean. She’s never been anywhere or done anything and wants to travel and experience excitement, inspired by the adventures of Macoco the Pirate. However, her aunt feels it’s high time for Manuela to be married and arrange a marriage with the town’s mayor, Don Pedro (Slezak). To have excitement before she’s wed, she asks if they can go to the sea to pick up her wedding trousseau. While there, a traveling acting troupe lead by Serafin (Kelly). Serafin is immediately taken with Manuela and invites her to their performance, where he hypnotizes her. Under hypnosis, Manuela reveals her love for Macoco the Pirate. When Manuela and her aunt return home, Serafin and his troupe turn up in her town for a performance.

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