Musical Monday: Luxury Liner (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 500. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Luxury Liner (1948) – Musical #60

Studio:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Director:
Richard Whorf

Starring:
George Brent, Jane Powell, Lauritz Melchior, Frances Gifford, Marina Koshetz, Thomas E. Breen, Richard Derr, John Ridgely, Connie Gilchrist, Juanita Quigley (uncredited)
Themselves: Xavier Cugat, The Pied Pipers

Plot:
Polly Bradford (Powell) goes to boarding school while her cruise ship captain father Captain Jeremy Bradford (Brent) is at sea. After unsuccessfully begging to go along, Polly runs away from school and stows away from school to be with her dad and also to meet opera singer Olaf Eriksen (Melchior).

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Watching 1939: Wings of the Navy

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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: Wings of the Navy

Release date:  Feb. 3, 1939

Cast:  George Brent, Olivia de Havilland, John Payne, Frank McHugh, John Litel, Victor Jory, Henry O’Neill, John Ridgely, Regis Toomey, Donald Briggs, John Gallaudet, Edgar Edwards, Alberto Morin

Studio:  Warner Brothers

Director:  Lloyd Bacon

Plot:
Brothers Cass (Brent) and Jerry Harrington (Payne) come from a military background. Cass is a star aviator, like their father was, and Jerry leaves the submarine service to become a flight cadet to be like his father and brother. The brothers start to share more than the same profession when Jerry falls in love with Cass’s girl, Irene (de Havilland).

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Musical Monday: Smilin’ Through (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:
Smilin’ Through (1941) – Musical #321

Studio:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Director:
Frank Borzage

Starring:
Jeanette MacDonald, Brian Aherne, Gene Raymond, Ian Hunter, Frances Robinson, Patrick O’Moore, Jackie Horner (uncredited)

Plot:
John Carteret (Aherne) has lived alone, sad and bitter after the murder of his bride Moonyean (MacDonald) at their wedding years before. The young niece of Moonyean, Kathleen (Horner), comes to live with John after her parents die. Kathleen grows up to favor Moonyean and falls in love with Kenneth Wayne (Raymond), the son of the man who killed Moonyean.

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Musical Monday: Footlight Parade (1933)

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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.

Poster for Footlight Parade. I’m not sure why the girls aren’t wearing clothes.

This week’s musical:
Footlight Parade (1933)– Musical #230

Studio:
Warner Brothers

Director:
Lloyd Bacon

Starring:
James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Frank McHugh, Guy Kibbee, Ruth Donnelly, Hugh Herbert, Claire Dodd, Gordon Westcott, Arthur Hohl, Billy Barty (uncredited)

Plot:
Chester Kent’s (Cagney) Broadway musicals are failing, because of talking films, so he reinvents himself and begins producing the musical numbers shown before the movie begins. His secretary Nan (Blondell) is in love with him and helps him with ideas, but they learn that some of his ideas are leaking out to other similar agencies. To get a movie theater contract, Chester makes a dormitory out of the theater so that no one can leak the ideas.

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Watching 1939: Dark Victory

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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:  Dark Victory (1939)

Release date:  April 20, 1939

Cast:  Bette Davis, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Ronald Reagan, Henry Travers, Cora Witherspoon

Studio:  Warner Brothers

Director:  Edmund Goulding

Plot:
Socialite Judith Traherne (Davis) has been behaving erratically. Many people believe she’s drinking and partying, but her friend Ann King (Fitzgerald) tries to get her to see a doctor. Judith finally sees Dr. Frederick Steele (Brent), who diagnoses Judith with a brain tumor. Dr. Steele does surgery, but will Judith live?

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Gidget to Beach Parties: The second wave

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In 1963, the Beach Boys’ “Surfin’ USA” peaked on the charts at No. 3, and “Beach Party” became American International Picture’s highest grossing film and created the “beach party” film genre.

The 1960s is called “The Golden Age of Surfing” as Malibu brimmed with people, and the now-popular sport was working its way into music, fashion, cars and films.

From 1963 to 1968, stars like Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon caught waves up on the silver screen.

Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon in their first beach film, “Beach Party.”

These films weren’t academy award winners. Movies like “Beach Blanket Bingo” or “Muscle Beach Party” mainly focused on silly gags, a non-threatening antagonist, and romantic mishaps and fights (everyone ends up together in the end).

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Musical Monday: Career Girl (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:
“Career Girl” (1944)– Musical #590

Studio:
Producers Releasing Corporation

Director:
Wallace Fox

Starring:
Frances Langford, Edward Norris, Iris Adrian, Craig Woods, Linda Brent, Alec Craig, Ariel Heath, Lorraine Krueger, Gladys Blake, Charles Judels, Marcy McGuire, Bess Flowers (uncredited)

Plot:
Joan Terry (Langford) traveled from Kansas City to New York City with hopes to hit it big on Broadway. While she unsuccessfully looks for work, she moves from her hotel to a women’s acting boarding house. There are lots of different personalities in the house: stuck up and catty burlesque queen Thelma (Brent), naïve Sue (Heath) who wants to be in show business, and sassy Glenda (Adrian), who becomes Joan’s good friend. Joan has a fiance in Kansas City who is put out with her career and wants her to come home to marry him, however, Steve (Norris) who is in New York also is wooing Joan.

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The Romanovs: 100 years of legends and rumors

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One-hundred years ago, on July 17, 1918, the last royal family of Russia—Tsar Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra, their five children and a few aides —were taken into a cellar and assassinated.

Romanov family portrait in 1913

And while this was the end of the Romanovs and the Russian monarchy, it was just the beginning of 100 years of legends, rumors and myths that surrounded the royal family. From a 1928 American film based on Romanov imposter Anna Anderson to a 2016 Broadway musical, the world has been fascinated by the Romanovs. The curiosity doesn’t just revolve around if any of them survived (DNA and science now tell us that they didn’t), but also the relationship with Rasputin, the “mad monk,” the royal lifestyle and the seemingly charmed lives that the grand duchesses lived.

Below are films released from 1928 to 1997 about the last Tsar of Russia and his family:

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Musical Monday: The Merry Widow (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 500. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
The Merry Widow (1952) – Musical #237

Studio:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Director:
Curtis Bernhardt

Starring:
Lana Turner, Fernando Lamas, Una Merkel, Richard Haydn, Thomas Gomez, John Abbott, King Donovan, Robert Coote, Lisa Ferraday, Sujata Rubener, Joi Lansing (uncredited), Gwen Verdon (uncredited)

Plot:
Crystal Radek (Turner) is a rich widow of a man from the kingdom of Marshovia, who left $80 million to his widow. Now living in America, she is invited to Marshovia under false pretenses. The kingdom is in financial distress and has invited her there with hopes that playboy Count Danilo (Lamas) will woo and marry Crystal for her money so the country won’t be annexed to Austria. However, Crystal switches place with her secretary Kitty (Merkel) to see if people will love her for herself.

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Watching 1939: The Secret of Dr. Kildare (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: “The Secret of Dr. Kildare”

Release date: Nov. 24, 1939

Cast: Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Laraine Day, Lionel Atwill, Helen Gilbert, Sara Haden, Nat Pendleton, Samuel S. Hinds, Emma Dunn, Walter Kingsford, Marie Blake, Alma Kruger, Robert Kent, Grant Mitchell, Martha O’Driscoll, Nell Craig, Frank Orth, George Reed, Walter Baldwin (uncredited)

Studio:  Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Director:  Harold S. Bucquet

Plot:
Dr. James “Jimmy” Kildare (Ayres) is helping Dr. Gillespie (Barrymore) with research pneumonia causes and cures. At the same moment, Blair General Hospital’s medical head Dr. Carew (Kingsford) wants the doctors to help cure an heiress, Nancy Messenger (Gilbet), when her wealthy father Paul Messenger (Atwill) comes to Dr. Carew for help. Nancy has odd mood swings that are injuring her social and love life. Dr. Gillespie is ill with cancer and is very tired, but wants to continue driving on with the research. To let Dr. Gillespie rest, Dr. Kildare takes Nancy’s case, not letting her know he’s a doctor. Dr. Gillespie is angry about his decision and so is Dr. Kildare’s girlfriend, Nurse Mary Lamont (Day).

1939 Notes:
• This is the fourth Dr. Kildare film out of the 9-film series. This is one of two Dr. Kildare films released in 1939.
• Lionel Barrymore was in four films released in 1939.
• Marie Blake was in eight films released in 1939.
• 1939 helped get Laraine Day her start because she was signed to MGM this year where she found more success. This was her second “Dr. Kildare” film released that year.

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