Tag Archives: 1930s musicals

Musical Monday: The Singing Kid (1936)

Posted on by
Reply

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 Kid – Musical #613

Studio:
Warner Bros.

Director:
William Keighley

Starring:
Al Jolson, Sybil Jason, Beverly Roberts, Edward Everette Horton, Allen Jenkins, Lyle Talbot, Mary Treen (uncredited), Grady Sutton (uncredited), Milton Kibbee (uncredited), Hattie McDaniel (uncredited), Dennis O’Keefe (uncredited)
Himself: Cab Calloway, The Yacht Club Boys, Wini Shaw

Plot:
Singer and performer Al Jackson (Jolson) loses both his singing voice and all of his money, due to a tax mix-up. Al leaves the city and heads to the country for a rest. He meets Ruth Haines (Roberts) and her niece Sybil (Jason), who rent him their country home. Ruth is an aspiring playwright, who Al falls for while trying to help with her career. Sybil wins over Al’s friends (Horton, Jenkins).

Continue reading →

Advertisements

Musical Monday: Show Boat (1936)

Posted on by
Reply

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:
Show Boat (1936) – Musical #78

Studio: Universal Pictures

Director: James Whale

Starring:
Irene Dunne, Allan Jones, Charles Winninger, Helen Westley, Helen Morgan, Paul Robeson, Queenie Smith, Donald Cook, Sammy White, Hattie McDaniel, Marilyn Knowlden, Sunnie O’Dea, Arthur Hohl, J. Farrell MacDonald, Francis X. Mahoney, Clarence Muse, Eddie Rochester Anderson (uncredited), Dennis O’Keefe (uncredited), Barbara Pepper (uncredited), Bobs Watson (uncredited), Delmar Watson (uncredited),

Plot:
Set in the 1880s, the Cotton Palace Show Boat travels from town to town to perform. When the show’s leading lady Julie LaVerne (Morgan) is told to leave because of a case of miscegenation, or an interracial relationship, Capt. Andy (Winninger) and his wife (Westley) have to find a new leading man and leading lady. Their daughter Magnolia (Dunne) takes the part and a gambler Gaylord Ravenal (Jones) is hired. The two fall in love and are married, against Magnolia’s parent’s wishes. The couple moves to Chicago and lives off of Gaylord’s gambling success, which is short-lived.

Continue reading →

Musical Monday: Strike Me Pink (1936)

Posted on by
Reply

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:
Strike Me Pink – Musical #607

Studio: Samuel Goldwyn Company

Director: Norman Taurog

Starring:
Eddie Cantor, Ethel Merman, Sally Eilers, Harry Parke (billed as Parkyakarkus), William Frawley, Brian Donlevy, Jack LaeRue, Dona Drake (billed as Rita Rio), Helen Lowell, Gordon Jones, Sunnie O’Dea, Edward Brophy, Charles C. Wilson, Theresa Harris (uncredited), Dennis O’Keefe (uncredited), Mickey Daniels (uncredited)
Featuring: The Goldwyn Girls (including Jinx Falkenburg, Joan Barclay, Harriett De Busman, Dorothy Dugan, Gail Goodson, Mary Gwynne, Carol Hughes, Kay Hughes, Elaine Johnson, Charlotte Russell, Gail Sheridan, Marcia Sweet, Anya Taranda, Vicki Vann, Blanca Vischer)

Continue reading →

Musical Monday: Broadway Hostess (1935)

Posted on by
Reply

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:
Broadway Hostess (1935) – Musical #266

Studio: Warner Bros.

Director: Frank McDonald

Starring: Wini Shaw (billed as Winifred Shaw), Genevieve Tobin, Lyle Talbot, Allen Jenkins, Phil Regan, Marie Wilson, Joe King, Donald Ross, Frank Dawson, Spring Byington, Ward Bond (uncredited), Dennis O’Keefe (uncredited), Mary Treen (uncredited), Jane Wyman (uncredited)

Plot:
Winnie (Shaw) wins a popularity contest back home in Ohio and travels to New York to start a singing career. She makes it big in New York as a torch singer, but falls in love with her business manager Lucky (Talbot), who unfortunately is strictly business.

Continue reading →

Musical Monday: Bright Lights (1930)

Posted on by
1

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:
Bright Lights (1930)  – Musical #592

Studio:
Warner Brothers

Director:
Michael Curtiz

Starring:
Dorothy Mackaill, Frank Fay, Noah Beery, Daphne Pollard, Inez Courtney, Frank McHugh, Tom Dugan, James Murray, Edward J. Nugent, Philip Strange, Louise Beavers (uncredited), John Carradine (uncredited)

Plot:
Broadway star Louanne (Mackaill) is retiring from the stage to marry a society gentleman. However, he doesn’t know her colorful past, which she shares a watered down version to the press. Throughout her scandalous past of hula dancing at honky tonks in the Congo and dancing at a carnival show, Wally (Fay) was with her the whole time, who is in love with her. On the eve of her marriage, someone from her past shows up in the audience.

Continue reading →

Musical Monday: Footlight Parade (1933)

Posted on by
5

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.

Continue reading →

Musical Monday: Hollywood Party (1934)

Posted on by
Reply

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:
Hollywood Party (1934) – Musical #587

Studio:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Director:
Several directors worked on this film and were uncredited: Richard Boleslawski, Allan Dwan, Edmund Goulding, Russell Mack, Charles Reisner, Roy Rowland, George Stevens and Sam Wood

Starring:
Jimmy Durante, Lupe Velez, Jack Pearl, Polly Moran, Charles Butterworth, Eddie Quillan, June Clyde, George Givot, Richard Carle, Tom Kennedy, Irene Hervey (uncredited), Curly Howard (uncredited), Moe Howard (uncredited),
As themselves: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Mickey Mouse (animated and voiced by Walt Disney), Robert Young (uncredited)

Continue reading →