Tag Archives: 1940s musicals

Musical Monday: Keep ‘Em Flying (1941)

Posted on by

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:
Keep ‘Em Flying (1941) – Musical No. 706

keep em flying

Studio:
Universal Pictures

Director:
Arthur Lubin

Starring:
Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Martha Raye, Carol Bruce, Dick Foran, William Gargan, Charles Lang,

Plot:
Jinx Roberts (Foran) is a trick flier who joins the U.S. Army Air Corps. His two assistants Heathcliff (Costello) and Blackie (Abbott) follow him and to the base. The two enlist and fall for twin sisters Gloria (Raye) and Barbara (also Raye). Jinx finds trouble when he’s viewed by a hot shot, especially by Craig Morrison (Gargan) and USO hostess Linda Joyce (Bruce), who Jinx falls for.

Continue reading →

Musical Monday: You Were Never Lovelier (1942)

Posted on by

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.

you were never lovelir5This week’s musical:
You Were Never Lovelier (1942) – Musical #66

Studio:
Columbia Studios

Director:
William A. Seiter

Starring:
Fred Astaire, Rita Hayworth, Adolphe Menjou, Isobel Elsom, Leslie Brooks, Adele Mara, Gus Schilling, Barbara Brown, Douglas Leavitt
Himself: Xavier Cugat, Lina Romay,

Plot:
Eduardo Acuña (Menjou) wants his daughters to be married in order of age. While his two youngest daughters are eager to be wed, his second eldest Maria (Hayworth) is indifferent. To instill some romance in her life, Eduardo arranges a ruse of a secret admirer, who she mistakes to be New York dancer Robert Davis (Astaire).

Continue reading →

Musical Monday: Top o’ the Morning (1949)

Posted on by

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:
Top O’ the Morning (1949) – Musical #450

top o the morning

Studio:
Paramount Pictures

Director:
David Miller

Starring:
Bing Crosby, Ann Blyth, Barry Fitzgerald, Hume Cronyn, Eileen Crowe, John McIntire, Tudor Owen, Jimmy Hunt, Morgan Farley,

Plot:
When the Blarney Stone is stolen from an Irish village, an American insurance investigator Joe Mulqueen (Crosby) travels to Ireland to investigate. In Ireland, the local police Sergeant Briany McNaughton (Fitzgerald) is trying to investigate the case. Joe falls for McNaughton’s daughter Conn (Blyth).

Continue reading →

Musical Monday: Reet, Petite, and Gone (1947)

Posted on by

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:
Reet, Petite, and Gone (1947) – Musical #702

Reet Petite

Studio:
Astor Pictures

Director:
William Forest Crouch

Starring:
Louis Jordan & The Tympany Five, June Richmond, Milton Woods, Bea Griffith, Lorenzo Tucker, Pat Rainey, Vanita Smythe, David Bethea

Plot:
Sklyer Jarvis (Jordan) is on his death bed and remembering his lost love. He wants his son, bandleader Louis Jarvis (also Jordan), to marry Honey Carter (Griffith), the daughter of Skyler’s former girlfriend. The marriage is the only way Louis will inherit his father’s fortune. Unfortunately, Skyler’s unscrupulous lawyer (Tucker) tries to change Skyler’s will and keep the couple apart.

Continue reading →

Musical Monday: Road to Utopia (1946)

Posted on by

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.

road to utopiaThis week’s musical:
Road to Utopia (1946) – Musical #148

Studio:
Paramount Pictures

Director:
Hal Walker

Starring:
Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Hillary Brooke, Douglass Dumbrille, Jack LaRue, Robert Barrat
Himself: Robert Benchley

Plot:
Vaudeville performers Duke (Crosby) and Chester (Hope) escape the law by traveling to the Klondike during the gold rush. They are mistaken for two cut-throat murderers with a valuable map, which singer Sal (Lamour) and Kate (Brooke) try to get from the men.

Continue reading →

Musical Monday: Cowboy Canteen (1944)

Posted on by

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.

cowboy canteen2This week’s musical:
Cowboy Canteen (1944) – Musical #688

Studio:
Columbia Pictures

Director:
Lew Landers

Starring:
Charles Starrett, Jane Frazee, Barbara Jo Allen (as Vera Vague), Tex Ritter, Guinn ‘Big Boy’ Williams
Themselves: The Mills Brothers, Roy Acuff and His Smoky Mountain Boys and Girls, Jimmy Wakely and His Saddle Pals, The Tailor Maids

Plot:
Instead of going on a vacation, Connie (Frazee) and her singing group decide to take a job working on a ranch. When the girls arrive, Steve (Starrett), the owner of the ranch, is about to enlist in the military and he’s angry that the new ranch hands are women. The ranch is transformed into a canteen to entertain troops.

Continue reading →

Musical Monday: Sweater Girl (1942)

Posted on by

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.

sweater girl5This week’s musical:
Sweater Girl (1942) – Musical #684

Studio:
Paramount Pictures

Director:
William Clemens

Starring:
Eddie Bracken, Betty Jane Rhodes, June Pressier, Phillip Terry, Nils Asther, Frieda Inescort, Kenneth Howell, Johnny Johnston (as Johnnie Johnston), William Henry, Ella Neal, Minerva Urecal, Robert Cherry, Charles D. Brown

Plot:
Right before graduation, a group of college students are putting on a school musical starring Louise Menard (Rhodes) and Jack Mitchell (Bracken), who believes he has better ideas than Happy (Henry), the play’s director. During rehearsals, two of their classmates are murdered, and the students try to get to the bottom of it.

Continue reading →

Musical Monday: Miracle in Harlem (1948)

Posted on by

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:
Miracle in Harlem (1948) – Musical #662

Studio:
Herald Pictures

Director:
Jack Kemp

Starring:
Hilda Offley, Sheila Guyse, Kenneth Freeman, William Greaves, Sybil Lewis (billed as Sybyl Lewis), Creighton Thompson, Laurence Criner, Jack Carter, Stepin Fetchit,
Specialty performers: Juanita Hall, Norma Shepherd, Lynn Proctor Trio, Lavada Carter, Savannah Churchill

Plot:
Aunt Hattie (Offley) and her niece Julie (Guyse) run a small candy store. They have a small location and their only help is Julie’s boyfriend Bert (Greaves) and the handyman, Swifty (Fetchit). Julie and Bert want to expand, but Aunt Hattie resists. Wealthy Albert Marshall (Criner) of the big business Harlem Candy Manufacturers tries to put Julie and Aunt Hattie out of business. Marshall and his son Jim (Freeman) trick Julie out of the candy store, but when Marshall turns up dead, Julie is accused.

Continue reading →

Musical Monday: Rhapsody in Blue (1945)

Posted on by

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:
Rhapsody in Blue (1945) – Musical #211

Studio:
Warner Bros.

Director:
Irving Rapper

Starring:
Robert Alda, Joan Leslie, Alexis Smith, Charles Coburn, Julie Bishop, Albert Bassermann, Morris Carnovsky, Rosemary DeCamp, Herbert Rudley, Darryl Hickman, Mickey Roth, Andrew Tombes, Will Wright, Johnny Downs, Gower Champion (uncredited)
Themselves: Oscar Levant, Paul Whiteman, Hazel Scott, George White, Al Jolson, Elsa Maxwell, Anne Brown, Tom Patricola

Plot:
A biographical film on composer and musician George Gershwin (Alda). The film follows his rise to fame to his death in 1937.

Continue reading →

Musical Monday: In the Good Old Summertime (1949)

Posted on by

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:
“Meet Me After the Show” – Musical #25

Studio:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Director:
Robert Z. Leonard

Starring:
Judy Garland, Van Johnson, S.Z. “Cuddles” Sakall, Buster Keaton, Spring Byington, Clinton Sundberg, Marcia Van Dyke, Lillian Bronson, Liza Minnelli, Joi Lansing (uncredited), Chester Clute (uncredited), Anna Q. Nilsson (uncredited), Charles Smith (uncredited)

Plot:
A musical remake of the 1940 film “Shop Around the Corner,” “In the Good Ole Summertime” takes place in the early 1900s in Chicago. Veronica Fisher (Garland) is corresponding through letters with an unknown man.

Continue reading →