Tag Archives: 1940s musicals

Musical Monday: Boarding House Blues (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.

boarding house bluesThis week’s musical:
Boarding House Blues (1948) – Musical #767

Studio:
All-American Pictures

Director:
Josh Binney

Starring:
Mom Mabley (billed as Jackie Mabley), Dusty Fletcher, Marcellus Wilson, Marie Cooke, Augustus Smith, Johnny Lee, Emory Richardson, Harold Cromer, Sidney Easton, Freddie Robinson, John “Spider Bruce” Mason, John Riano
Specialty Acts: Lucky Millinder and His Band, Una Mae Carlisle, Bull Moose Jackson, Berry Brothers, Lewis and White, Anistine Allen, Paul Breckenridge, Stump and Stumpy (James Cross and Eddie Hartman), Lee Norman Trio, Henry “Crip” Heard

Plot:
Mom (Mabley) runs a boarding house of entertainers in Harlem, and shares with her tenants that they are broke and the land lord is going to kick them. To help raise money for rent, the boarders put on a show.

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

calendar girlThis week’s musical:
Calendar Girl (1947) – Musical #578

Studio:
Republic Pictures

Director:
Allan Dwan

Starring:
Jane Frazee, William Marshall, James Ellison, Gail Patrick, Irene Rich, Kenny Baker, Victor McLaglen, Janet Martin, Gus Schilling, Franklin Pangborn

Plot:
Set in 1900, pals Johnny Bennett (Marshall) and Steve Adams (Ellison) leave their comfortable lives in Boston to try to make it in Greenwich Village as artists. Johnny wants to write songs and Steve is an artist. They land at a performer boarding house run by Lulu Varden (Rich). Both Johnny and Steve fall for dancer and singer Patricia O’Neill (Frazee) lives in the boarding house with her firefighter father (McLaglen), who doesn’t approve of her performing aspirations. Patricia prefers for Steve, who happens to have a girl (Patrick) back in Boston. Patricia also poses for Steve for a sensual painting that is used on the 1901 calendar.

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Musical Monday: Junction 88 (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.

junction 88This week’s musical:
Junction 88 (1948) – Musical #766

Studio:
Century Theatrical Productions

Director:
George R. Quigley

Starring:
As themselves: Bob Howard, Pigmeat Markham, Noble Sissel
Also starring: Wyatt Clark, Marie Cooke, Gus Smith, Abbey Mitchell, Artie Belle McGinty, George Wiltshire, Herbert Junior, Alonzo Basan, Maude Simmons, Al Young, Augustus Smith, Augustus Smith Jr.
Billed as the choir: Eugene Thompson, Rumena Matson, Mable Berger, Delphine Roach, Henry Nelson

Plot:
Buster (Clark) is a songwriter, but doesn’t want anyone to know that he wrote this song. Buster loves Lolly (Cooke), but her father prefers hardworking men, and he fears that he wouldn’t look kindly at a songwriting career. Music agents (Howard, Markham) get ahold of Buster’s songs that are published under the pen name of Hewlett Green. The agents travel to the small town of Junction 88 to find Green, but no one in town knows who the mysterious Hewlett Green is.

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Musical Monday: Johnny Doughboy (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.

johnny doughboyThis week’s musical:
Johnny Doughboy (1942) – Musical #757

Studio:
Republic Pictures

Director:
John H. Auer

Starring:
Jane Withers, William Demarest, Henry Wilcoxon, Ruth Donnelly, Etta McDaniel, Jack Boyle (billed as Patrick Brooks), Joline Westbrook
Themselves as 20 Minus Club Members: Bobby Breen, Cora Sue Collins, Baby Sandy, Robert Coogan, Carl ‘Alfalfa’ Switzer, George ‘Spanky’ McFarland, Kenneth Brown, Billy Lenhart, Grace Costello

Plot:
Sixteen-year-old actress Ann Winter (Withers) is sick of playing kid parts in films. Just as Ann leaves angrily for a two week vacation, the prize winner of the Ann Winters look-a-like contest, Penelope Ryan (also Withers) arrives to stay the weekend. Ann’s agent Harry (Demarest) asks Penelope to stand in for Ann while she’s gone.

While Penelope pretends to be Ann, former child stars of the 20 Minus Club want “Ann” to participate in a Junior Victory Caravan show for the war effort. Penelope wants to help but has to say no.

Meanwhile, through a series of events Ann finds herself at the cabin of playwright Oliver Lawrence (Wilcoxon), and she sets her hope high that she will get to be in an upcoming play of his.

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Musical Monday: A Wave, a WAC and a Marine (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:
A Wave, a WAC and a Marine (1944) – Musical #756

Studio:
Monogram Pictures

Director:
Phil Karlson

Starring:
Elyse Knox, Ann Gillis, Sally Eilers, Richard Lane, Marjorie Woodworth, Ramsay Ames, Henny Youngman, Alan Dinehart, Cy Kendall, Aileen Pringle, Jack Mulhall, Mabel Todd, Mel Blanc (uncredited)
Themselves: Charles “Red” Marshall, Billy Mack, Milt Bronson, Elvia Allman, Sid Tomack, Rose Murphy, Freddie Rich, Connie Haines, The Music Maids

Plot:
Talent scout O. Henry Brown (Youngman) confuses two understudies, Marian and Judy (Knox and Gillis), for the stars of the Broadway show “A WAVE, a WAC and a Marine,” Eileen and Betty (Woodworth and Ames). Brown takes Marian and Judy to Hollywood to be signed by Margaret Ames (Eilers) who realizes his mistake and turns the girls down. Marian and Judy have to figure out what to do now that they are stuck in Hollywood.

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Musical Monday: Murder at the Windmill (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:
Murder at the Windmill(1949) – Musical #753

windmill burlesque2

Studio:
Grand National Pictures

Director:
Val Guest

Starring:
Garry Marsh, Jack Livesey, Jon Pertwee, Eliot Makeham, Diana Decker, Donald Clive, Jill Antsey, Pamela Deeming, Johnnie Gale
Themselves: Jimmy Edwards, The Windmill Theater Trope, Robin Richmond

Plot:
When a man is found dead in the front row of the Windmill Theater, police inspectors (Pertwee, Marsh) ask for the cast to re-perform the whole show so they can evaluate how the man was shot and determine who killed him.

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Musical Monday: Mystery in Swing (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.

mystery in swingThis week’s musical:
Mystery in Swing (1940) – Musical #751

Studio:
Aetna Film Corp.

Director:
Arthur Dreifuss

Starring:
Monte Hawley, Marguerite Whitten, Tommie Moore, Edward Thompson, Buck Woods, Robert Webb, Sybil Lewis, Jess Lee Brooks, Josephine Edwards, Alfred Grant, Tom Southern
Themselves: The Four Toppers, CeePee Johnson and His Orchestra

Plot:
Trumpet player Prince Ellis (Webb) is leaving his job at the Penguin Club for Hollywood. On his last night of the club, his womanizing catches up with him:
• Teenage Mae Carroll (Moore) is ready to run away with Prince, though her father (brooks) shows up and tells Prince to leave his daughter alone.
• Nightclub singer Maxine Rae (Edwards) is in love with him and jealous of the other women in his life
• And the ex-Mrs. Ellis (Lewis) shows up asking about her alimony.
But that night, Prince is murdered and Maxine witnesses his death but doesn’t know who did it. The body is discovered by reporter Biff Boyd (Hawley) and his girlfriend Linda Carroll (Whitten), who also see Maxine leaving his apartment.

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Musical Monday: Murder in the Music Hall (1946)

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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.

murder in the music hallThis week’s musical:
Murder in the Music Hall (1946) – Musical #750

Studio:
Republic Pictures

Director:
John English

Starring:
Vera Ralston (billed as Vera Hruba Ralston), William Marshall, Ann Rutherford, William Gargan, Nancy Kelly, Helen Walker, Julie Bishop, Jerome Cowan, Edward Noris, Jack La Rue, Frank Orth, Fay McKenzie, Mary Field, Anne Nagel, Joe Yule (uncredited)

Specialty Stars on Ice: Condon and Bohland, Red McCarthy, Patti Phillippi, John Jolliffe, Henry Lie

Plot:
During an ice skating performance, star skater Lila Laughton (Ralston) spots a familiar face in the balcony: Carl Lang (Norris). Lang was the show’s former director and producer, just released from jail. He was jailed for criminal negligence when a man, Douglas, was found dead of poisoning that was an accident—though murder is suspected. When Carl is murdered, Lila, her boyfriend, and bandleader Don Jordan (Marshall) and fellow performers, Gracie (Rutherford) and Millicent (Walker), try to find the murderer. At the same time, police Inspector Wilson (Gargan) is investigating the case.

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Musical Monday: Sarge Goes to College (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.

sarge goes to college2This week’s musical:
Sarge Goes to College (1947) – Musical #749

Studio:
Monogram Pictures

Director:
Will Jason

Starring:
Freddie Stewart, June Preisser, Frankie Darro, Warren Mills, Noel Neill, Arthur Walsh, Alan Hale Jr., Frank Cady, Monte Collins, Selmer Jackson, Margaret Brayton
Themselves: Arthur Walsh, Russ Morgan and His Orchestra, Jack McVea and Orchestra, Dusty Fletcher, Candy Candido, Les Paul, Abe Lyman, Jess Stacy, Wingy Manone, Joe Venuti, Jerry Wald

Plot:
A Marine, Sarge (Hale Jr.), is due to have surgery, but doctors don’t think he is prepared for the procedure and needs to get away from the military atmosphere for a rest. He is transferred to San Juan College, were Freddie (Stewart) and his friends (Preisser, Darro, Neill, Mills) are planning to put on a show. As Dodie (Preisser) and Betty (Neill) help Sarge with his studies, romantic misunderstandings happen as the their boyfriends (Stewart, Darro) when Betty thinks Dodie is jilting Freddie for the Sarge.

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Musical Monday: Let’s Go Collegiate (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 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

let's go collegiateThis week’s musical:
Let’s Go Collegiate (1941) – Musical #748

Studio:
Monogram Pictures

Director:
Jean Yarbrough

Starring:
Frankie Darro, Marcia Mae Jones, Jackie Moran, Keye Luke, Gale Storm, Frank Sully, Mantan Moreland, Billy Griffith, Barton Yarborough, Frank Faylen, Marguerite Whitten, Paul Maxey, Tristram Coffin

Plot:
The Rawley University rowing team is eagerly awaiting a star stroke for the crew, Bob Terry. But when Terry is drafted into the Army, the team’s coxswain, Frankie (Darro) and his teammates Tad (Moran) and Buck (Luke), think fast for a replacement. Instead of coming clean to their classmates and girlfriends, Bess (Jones) and Midge (Storm), they decide to hire someone to play the role of Bob Terry. Frankie and Tad see Hercules Bevans (Sully) loading a truck and think he will be perfect for the job as Bob Terry. However, their plan does not run smoothly, as Hercules is rough around the edges, needs to be tutored in his classes and rowing, and their girlfriends fall for him.

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