Tag Archives: 1950s musicals

Musical Monday: French Cancan (1955)

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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:
French Cancan (1955) – Musical #818

Studio:
Francoeur Studios

Director:
Jean Renoir

Starring:
Jean Gabin, Françoise Arnoul, María Félix, Anna Amendola, Jean-Roger Caussimon, Dora Doll, Giani Esposito, Franco Pastorino, Gaston Gabaroche, Jacques Jouanneau, Jean Parédès, Valentine Tessier, Pierre Olaf, Phillipe Clay
Specialty performers: Édith Piaf, Patachou

Plot:
Night club owner Henri Danglard (Gabin) is always looking for new talent, from dancers to a whistling Pierrot (Olaf). While “slumming” at the White Queen with his star Lola (Félix), Danglard discovers a young laundress, Nini (Arnoul), who is doing the old dance, the cancan. Lola is infuriated and jealous of Nini as Danglard decides to build an act and brand new nightclub, the Moulin Rouge, around the cancan dance. As Nini’s life changes, suitors come in and out of her life, leaving her confused about who and what she wants. She thinks she’s in love with Danglard, but his main love is art.

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Musical Monday: Texas Carnival (1951)

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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:
Texas Carnival (1951) – Musical #68

Studio:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Director:
Charles Walters

Starring:
Esther Williams, Red Skelton, Howard Keel, Ann Miller, Paula Raymond, Keenan Wynn, Tom Tully, Glenn Strange, Dick Wessel, Donald MacBride, Marjorie Wood, Hans Conried, Thurston Hall, Duke Johnson, Wilson Wood, Gene Coogan (uncredited), Bess Flowers (uncredited), Beatrice Hagen (uncredited), Alex Romero (uncredited)
Themselves: Foy Willing and His Orchestra, Red Norvo Trio,

Plot:
Cornie (Skelton) and Debbie Telford (Williams) work together in a dunk tank sideshow. They aren’t doing well financially, and Debbie wants a well-balanced meal. While in Texas, Cornie is mistaken for a cattle barron, Dan Sabinas (Wynn), when Cornie drives his car back to the hotel. They think Debbie is Marilla Sabinas (Raymond). Unable to untangle the misunderstanding, Cornie and Debbie wait for the real Dan Sabinas to return to the hotel. The mistaken identity leads to high gambling debts and romances. The sheriff’s daughter (Miller), Sunshine, falls for Cornie, while Sabinas’s ranch hand Slim Shelby (Howard), knows they are phonies, but plays along.

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Musical Monday: Road to Bali (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 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Road to Bali (1952) – Musical #157

Studio:
Paramount Pictures

Director:
Hal Walker

Starring:
Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Murvyn Vye, Peter Coe, Ralph Moody, Leon Askin, Patricia Dane (uncredited), Michael Jeffers (uncredited), Carolyn Jones (uncredited), Bhogwan Singh (uncredited), Chanan Singh Sohi (uncredited), 
Cameo: Humphrey Bogart (from archival footage), Bob Crosby, Jane Russell, Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin

Plot:
Two vaudeville performers, George Cochran (Crosby) and Harold Gridley (Hope), are in Australia. They (yet again) have to duck out of town when the fathers of two women are looking for the performers after they proposed marriage to their daughters. To get out of town, they accept jobs from Ken Arok (Vye) to dive for treasure in Bali, Indonesia. Little do they know that their boss doesn’t plan on staying alive to accept their pay. Ken Arok is related to Princess Lala (Lamour), who knows of his nefarious ways and tries to keep Harold and George alive. Though she succeeds, the trio has to flee to stay out of reach of Ken Arok.

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Musical Monday: Lucky Me (1954)

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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:
Lucky Me (1954) – Musical #184

Studio:
Warner Bros.

Director:
Jack Donohue

Starring:
Doris Day, Robert Cummings, Phil Silvers, Martha Hyer, Eddie Foy Jr., Nancy Walker, Bill Goodwin, Marcel Dalio, Hayden Rorke, James Burke, John Alvin (uncredited), Angie Dickinson (uncredited), Dabbs Greer (uncredited)

Plot:
Candy Williams (Day) is incredibly superstitious. She’s also part of an unsuccessful acting troupe, led by Hap Schneider (Silvers). When they wrap up a stint in a movie house, the group doesn’t know where to go next since they are out of money. When the group enjoys an expensive dinner in a Miami hotel with no way to pay for it, they all get jobs at the hotel to pay for their debt. While there, they meet successful songwriter Dick Carson (Cummings), who tries to work them into his show. The only problem is that the show is financed by the father of Lorraine Thayer (Hyer), who carries the torch for Dick.

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Musical Monday: Mardi Gras (1958)

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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:
Mardi Gras (1958) – Musical #806

Studio:
20th Century Fox

Director:
Edmund Goulding

Starring:
Pat Boone, Christine Carère, Tommy Sands, Sheree North, Gary Crosby, Fred Clark, Dick Sargent (billed as Richard Sargent), Barrie Chase, Jennifer West, Geraldine Wall, King Calder, Robert Burton,
Cameo: Robert Wagner

Plot:
The students at Virginia Military Institute (VMI) are notified that they will get attend the Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans and march in the parade. Three pals — Paul (Boone), Barry (Sands) and Tony (Crosby) — realize that French film star Michelle Marton (Carère) will also be in New Orleans for Mardi Gras. The three hatch a plan to hold a raffle with the VMI students where the winner will ask Michelle Marton as their date to VMI’s graduation. Once in New Orleans, while the guys try to meet Michelle, she goes undercover so she can have some fun.

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Musical Monday: Basin Street Revue (1956)

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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:
Basin Street Revue (1956) – Musical #802

Studio:
Studio Films

Director:
Joseph Kohn, Leonard Reed

Starring:
Host: Willie Bryant
As Themselves: Sarah Vaughn, Lionel Hampton and his Orchestra, Paul Williams and his Orchestra, Jimmy Brown, Amos Milburn, Faye Adams, Charles ‘Honi’ Coles, Colly Atkins, Herb Jeffries, Cab Calloway, Martha Davis, Mantan Moreland, Nipsey Russell, Marie Bryant

Plot:
A musical review of the top performers of the time.

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Musical Monday: Million Dollar Mermaid (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 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Million Dollar Mermaid (1952) – Musical #799

Studio:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Director:
Mervyn LeRoy

Starring:
Esther Williams, Victor Mature, Walter Pidgeon, David Brian, Donna Corcoran, Jesse White, Howard Freeman, Maria Tallchief, Charles Watts, Wilton Graff, Frank Ferguson, James Bell, James Flavin, Willis Bouchey, Paul Frees (uncredited), Dabbs Greer (uncredited), Creighton Hall (uncredited), Betty Lynn (uncredited)

Plot:
Biographical film about Australian swimmer Annette Kellerman (Corcoran as child, Williams as adult). As a child, Annette had polio and strengthened her legs with swimming. The daughter of a musician, Frederick Kellerman (Pidgeon), Annette had ambitions of becoming a ballerina and the Kellermans travel to England to find work in the arts. When Mr. Kellerman’s job falls through, Annette links up with promoter, James Sullivan (Mature). James builds Annette up through a series of publicity stunts, and she eventually finds fame performing at the Hippodrome Theater in New York City.

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Musical Monday: The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953)

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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.

Mr. TThis week’s musical:
The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953) – Musical #783

Studio:
Columbia Pictures

Director:
Roy Rowland

Starring:
Tommy Rettig, Hans Conried, Peter Lind Hayes, Mary Healy, Jack Heasley, Robert Heasley, Noel Cravat, George Chakiris (uncredited)

Plot:
While 10-year-old Bart Collins (Rettig) hates piano lessons from his strict instructor Dr. Terwilliker (Conried), but his mother (Healy) loves the piano. While Bart is practicing his piano, he dozes off and has a terrible, surreal dream where Dr. Terwilliker is running a prison-like school where he wants 500 boys (hence: the 5,000 fingers) to play a giant piano at the same time. All the while, Bart’s mother is kept under a trance. In his dream, Bart enlists the help of kindly plumber August Zabladowski (Hayes) to help Bart, his mother and all the students to escape.

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Musical Monday: Sailor Beware (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 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

sailor beware4This week’s musical:
Sailor Beware (1952) – Musical #788

Studio:
Paramount Pictures

Director:
Hal Walker

Starring:
Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, Corinne Calvet, Marion Marshall, Robert Strauss, Leif Erickson, Don Wilson, Vince Edwards, Skip Homeier, Dan Barton, Mike Mahoney, Mary Treen, Donald MacBride (uncredited), Elaine Stewart (uncredited), James Dean (uncredited)
Herself: Corinne Calvet
Cameo: Betty Hutton

Plot:
Bumbling Melvin Jones (Lewis) and smooth operator Al Crowthers (Martin) both enlist in the U.S. Navy. Shenanigans ensue as Melvin’s shipmates bet that he can kiss actress Corinne Calvet (herself) once they arrive in Hawaii.

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Musical Monday: About Face (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 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

about face2This week’s musical:
About Face (1952) – Musical #382

Studio:
Warner Bros.

Director:
Roy Del Ruth

Starring:
Gordon MacRae, Eddie Bracken, Dick Wesson, Virginia Gibson, Phyllis Kirk, Aileen Stanley Jr., Joel Grey, Larry Keating, Cliff Ferre, John Baer, Mabel Albertson (uncredited)

Plot:
The senior cadets at Southern Military Institute are months away from graduation. Tony Williams (MacRae), Boff Roberts (Bracken) and Dave Crouse (Wesson) get in the usual trouble as they have a plebe cadet, Bender (Grey), runs their errands. The three pals also butt heads with Lt. Jones (Ferre), who tries to woo their girls. Boff and his girl, Alice (Kirk), are also secretly married and have a baby on the way.

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