Tag Archives: 1940s musicals

Musical Monday: Riding High (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:
Riding High (1943) – Musical #830

Studio:
Paramount Pictures

Director:
George Marshall

Starring:
Dorothy Lamour, Dick Powell, Victor Moore, Gil Lamb, Cass Dailey, Bill Goodwin, Rod Cameron, Glenn Langan
Themselves: Milt Britton’s Band

Plot:
Ann Castle (Lamour) returns to her hometown and her father’s silver mine, Grenada Silver Mine. Steve Baird (Powell) is her father’s new business partner is trying to raise funds for the mine, while someone is also passing around counterfeit money. Ann is hired as an entertainer for a dude ranch and she and Steve fall in love.

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Musical Monday: Priorities on Parade (1942)

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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:
Priorities on Parade (1942) – Musical #828

Studio:
Paramount Pictures

Director:
Albert S. Rogell

Starring:
Ann Miller, Johnny Johnston, Jerry Colonna, Betty Jane Rhodes, Barbara Jo Allen (billed as Vera Vague), Harry Barris, Eddie Quillan, Dave Willock, Nick Cockrane, Rod Cameron, Arthur Loft, William Forrest, Warren Ashe, Charles Halton, Lee Shumway, Karin Booth (uncredited), Matt McHugh (uncredited), Cyril Ring (uncredited)
Specialty Performers: The Debonnaires

Plot:
Johnny Draper (Johnston) and his band want to perform in an aircraft defense plant; saying it would help with morale and production. While the plant’s leaders think it’s a good idea, they say they also can’t pay them only to play music and recommend that they work as defense workers at the plant. While the band agrees to work at the plant, the band’s glamorous singer, Donna D’Arcy (Miller), declines and finds a job singing in a nightclub. Johnny meets a lady welder, Lee Davis (Rhodes) who first seems tough as nails but then they fall in love. Problems arise when Donna comes to work at the plant.

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Musical Monday: And the Angels Sing (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:
And the Angels Sing (1944) – Musical #823

Studio:
Paramount Pictures

Director:
George Marshall

Starring:
Dorothy Lamour, Fred MacMurray, Betty Hutton, Diana Lynn, Mimi Chandler, Raymond Walburn, Eddie Foy Jr., Frank Albertson, Mikhail Rasumny, Frank Faylen, Tom Kennedy, Matt McHugh (uncredited)

Plot:
The Angel family is made up of four daughters – Nancy (Lamour), Bobby (Hutton), Josie (Lynn) and Patti (Chandler) – who live with their father (Walburn). The girls have a dynamite singing act, but none of them want to work as singers, because they have other career ambitions. However, they also want to help earn money so their father can start a soybean farm. After one performance, Bobby gambles and doubles how much the girls earned. Unscrupulous bandleader, Happy Morgan (MacMurray), romances and uses Bobby to get her funds so his band can go to New York. When the sisters find out, they travel to New York City to confront Happy and get their money back.

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Musical Monday: Youth on Parade (1942)

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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:
Youth on Parade (1942) – Musical #820

Studio:
Republic Pictures

Director:
Albert S. Rogell

Starring:
John Hubbard, Ruth Terry, Martha O’Driscoll, Tom Brown, Charles Smith, Lynn Merrick, Nana Bryant, Ivan F. Simpson, Chick Chandler, Richard Beavers (billed as Bruce Langley), Marlyn Schild, Betty Atkinson (uncredited), Ruth Day (uncredited), Yvonne De Carlo (uncredited), Paul Fix (uncredited)
Specialty Dancers: Bud Mercer, Jim Mercer

Plot:
Students at Cotchatootamee College have been under an experiment by Professor Payne (Hubbard). They aren’t allowed to go on dates or go to parties to see if it positively impacts their grades. They are all also assigned numbers to eliminate bias and favoritism. In retaliation, the students create a fictional genius, Patty Flynn, who passing every class with flying colors. When the dean (Simpson) wants to meet the star student, student Bingo Brown (Brown) searches for someone to as Patty. He finds singer Betty Reilly (Terry), who fits the bill, especially as she needs to hide out due to a racing debt she owes.

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Musical Monday: Pardon My Rhythm (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:
Pardon My Rhythm (1944) – Musical #819

Studio:
Universal Pictures

Director:
Felix E. Feist

Starring:
Gloria Jean, Patric Knowles, Evelyn Ankers, Marjorie Weaver, Walter Catlett, Mel Tormé,
Patsy O’Connor, Ethel Griffies, Jack Slattery, Linda Reed,
Himself: Bob Crosby, The Mel-Tones

Plot:
Teenage Jinx Page (Jean) is smitten with drummer Ricky O’Bannon (Tormé), who also is the bandleader for a teenage big band. Jinx supports and funds the band from buying them uniforms to allowing them to practice at her house. Ricky wows bandleader Bob Crosby (himself) and Crosby tasks his lead singer, Dixie Moore (Weaver), to woo Ricky so that he will join Crosby’s band. Jinx is jealous of Dixie, so she tries to find someone else to romance Dixie. Jinx enlists her father, playwright Tony Page (Knowles), which complicates his own engagement to Julia (Ankers).

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Musical Monday: Shooting High (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.

This week’s musical:
Shooting High(1940) – Musical #816

Studio:
20th Century Fox

Director:
Alfred E. Green

Starring:
Jane Withers, Gene Autry, Champion the Horse, Marjorie Weaver, Jack Carson, Frank M. Thomas, Robert Lowery, Kay Aldridge, Hobart Cavanaugh, Hamilton MacFadden, Charles Middleton, Ed Brady, Tom London, Eddie Acuff, Pat O’Malley, George Chandler

Plot:
In Carson Corners, there are two families who have been at odds for decades: The Carsons and the Pritchards. Will Carson (Autry) is the grandson of the town’s hero and namesake, Wild Bill Carson. But the Pritchards believe that Wild Bill was a no account. To complicate matters, Will and Marjorie Pritchard (Weaver) are sweethearts, and her scheming father, Mayor Pritchard (Thomas), is using the romance to his advantage. Mayor Pritchard is planning to build a highway through Carson’s private land. When Will finds out, he accuses Marjorie of conspiring with her father, which breaks up their romance.

Around this time, a Hollywood producer (Carson), arrives wanting to make a movie in Carson Corners about Wild Bill Carson. The Pritchards try to influence the script, and Will is jealous as Marjorie cozies up to the lead actor (Lowery). Marjorie’s little sister, Jane Pritchard (Withers) helps Will throughout the story to get the two together.

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Musical Monday: San Fernando Valley (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:
San Fernando Valley (1944) – Musical #815

Studio:
Republic Pictures

Director:
John English

Starring:
Roy Rogers, Trigger, Dale Evans, Jean Porter, Andrew Tombes, Charles Smith, Edward Gargan, Dot Farley, LeRoy Mason, Adele Mara (uncredited), Pat Starling (uncredited), Helen Talbot (uncredited), Doodles Weaver (uncredited)
Themselves: Bob Nolan & Sons of the Pioneers, Vernon and Draper, Morrell Trio, Bob Nolan

Plot:
Cyclone Kenyon (Tombes) runs a ranch with his two granddaughters, Dale (Evans) and Betty Lou (Porter). Cyclone and Dale are tired of their lazy ranch hands (Bob Nolan & the Sons of the Pioneers) spend more time singing with Betty Lou than working around the ranch. The hands are fired, and they search for new hands, who are a group of women riders, and then Roy (Rogers) and his friend, Keno (Gargan), are hired on as cooks. Betty Lou hatches a plan to get their old ranch hands rehired.

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Musical Monday: Swing in the Saddle (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:
Swing in the Saddle (1944) – Musical #814

Studio:
Columbia Pictures

Director:
Lew Landers

Starring:
Jane Frazee, Guinn ‘Big Boy’ Williams, Slim Summerville, Sally Bliss, Mary Treen, Red River Dave, Carole Matthews, Byron Foulger, Virginia Sale (uncredited)
Themselves: The Hoosier Hotshots, The King Cole Trio, Jimmy Wakely and his Oklahoma Cowboys, Cousin Emmy

Plot:
Two ranches, The Flying W, run by Tiny Baldwin (Guin “Big Boy Williams) and his cowhands (Jimmy Wakley and His Oklahoma Cowboys), and the Diamond Arrow Ranch, run by Steve Barrett (Red River Dave) and his ranch hands (The Hoosier Cowboys) are in search of a better cook. Meanwhile, two out-of-work actresses, Penny Marrow (Frazee) and Addie LaTour (Treen), are hitchhiking, as Addie searches for a romantic pen pal. The girls are mistaken for the new cooks for the ranches.

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Musical Monday: Road to Rio (1947)

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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:
Road to Rio (1947) – Musical #813

Studio:
Paramount Pictures

Director:
Norman Z. McLeod

Starring:
Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Gale Sondergaard, Frank Faylen, George Meeker,
Frank Puglia, Robert Barrat, Nestor Paiva, Stanley Andrews, Harry Woods
Themselves: The Andrews Sisters, The Wiere Brothers, Jerry Colonna

Plot:
Vaudeville performers Scat Sweeney (Crosby) and Hot Lips Barton (Hope) travel the United States, and are frequently chased out of states after Scat woos women in each area. In one area, the duo’s act burns down an entire carnival. Fleeing the scene of their crime, Scat and Hot Lips stowaway on a ship to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where they meet wealthy Lucia Maria de Andrade (Lamour). Lucia’s finances and future nuptials are being controlled by her nefarious guardian, Catherine Vail (Sondergaard).

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Musical Monday: Road to Morocco (1942)

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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:
Road to Morocco – Musical #147

Studio:
Paramount Pictures

Director:
David Butler

Starring:
Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Anthony Quinn, Dona Drake, Vladimir Sokoloff, Mikhail Rasumny, Yvonne De Carlo (uncredited), Vivian Dandridge (uncredited), Richard Loo (uncredited)

Plot:
Jeff Peters (Crosby) and Orville “Turkey” Jackson (Hope) are adrift on a raft after their boat blows up (thanks to Turkey). When they find land, they find themselves in a desert and ride a camel towards town. They find themselves in an “Arabian Nights”-like setting. In need of money, Jeff sells Turkey. When Turkey sends Jeff a note saying he’s being tortured but to flee, Jeff sets out to save him. The note is a ruse, as Turkey is in the lap of luxury and cuddled up to Princess Shalmar (Lamour), who believes the stars have dictated that they should be married. Problems arise when Princess Shalmar falls in love with Jeff, and also is betrothed to Mullay Kasim (Anthony Quinn).

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