Tag Archives: Betty Hutton

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: Incendiary Blonde (1945)

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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:
Incendiary Blonde (1945) – Musical #411

Studio:
Paramount Pictures

Director:
George Marshall

Starring:
Betty Hutton, Arturo de Córdova, Charles Ruggles, Bill Goodwin, Barry Fitzgerald, Albert Dekker, Mary Phillips, Eduardo Ciannelli, Frank Faylen (uncredited), Catherine Craig (uncredited), Johnny Johnston (uncredited), Catherine Craig (uncredited)
Themselves: Maurice Rocco, The Maxellos

Plot:
Biographical film on the life and career of performer and speakeasy owner, Texas Guinan (Hutton). Guinan was known as “queen of the nightclubs” in the 1920s. The film shows Guinan leaving home to work in a Wild West Show and then working her way up to fame through Broadway shows, films and then a leading nightclub entertainer. Along the way, Guinan pines for Bill Romero Kilgannon (de Cordova).

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Musical Monday: Duffey’s Tavern (1945)

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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.

duffys tavernThis week’s musical:
Duffey’s Tavern (1945) – Musical #787

Studio:
Paramount Pictures

Director:
Hal Walker

Starring:
Ed Gardner, Barry Fitzgerald, Victor Moore, Marjorie Reynolds, Barry Sullivan, Charles Cantor, Eddie Green, Ann Thomas, Howard Da Silva, Billy De Wolfe, Walter Abel, Frank Faylen (uncredited), Matt McHugh (uncredited), Noel Neill (uncredited),
Themselves: Bing Crosby, Betty Hutton, Paulette Goddard, Alan Ladd, Dorothy Lamour, Eddie Bracken, Brian Donlevy, Sonny Tufts, Veronica Lake, Arturo de Cordova, Cass Daley, Diana Lynn, Robert Bencley, William Demarest, Joan Caulfield, Gail Russell, Hlen Walker, Jean Heather, Maurice Rocco, Dennis Crosby, Gary Crosby, Lindsay Crosby, Phillip Crosby, Olga San Juan,

Plot:
During World War II, a record manufacturer closes down because a shortage of Shellac. While the factory is closed, the out of work employees eat for free and drown their sorrows at Duffy’s Tavern on credit, which is run by Archie (Gardner). The record company owner, Michael O’Malley (Moore), tries to find finances and a way to open the plant. Archie and O’Malley also learn that a bevvy of celebrities will be in town, they ask them to host a benefit for out of work soldiers returning from the war.

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Musical Monday: Let’s Dance (1950)

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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:
Let’s Dance (1950) – Musical #456

let's dance

Studio:
Paramount Pictures

Director:
Norman Z. McLeod

Starring:
Betty Hutton, Fred Astaire, Roland Young, Ruth Warrick, Lucille Watson, Gregory Moffett, Barton MacLane, Shepperd Strudwick, Melville Cooper, Harold Huber, George Zucco, Peggy Badley, Nana Bryant (uncredited), James Burke (uncredited), Bess Flowers (uncredited),

Plot:
During World War II, Kitty McNeil (Hutton) and Donald Elwood (Astaire) were a musical act that performed in USO shows. Donald was in love with Kitty, but she had already married a serviceman, so the two split up the act. The film fast-forwards to 1950 and we learn that Kitty’s husband was killed in the war, and she lives with his stuffy family in Boston. Kitty doesn’t like how his family wants her to raise her son, Richie (Moffett), and would like to leave. But her grandmother-in-law, Serena (Watson), won’t allow her to take her son with her and insists that they raise him. Kitty and her son run away to New York City so she can find work, and she reconnects with Donald. Donald and his nightclub coworkers help Kitty and Richie build a new life.

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Musical Monday: Somebody Loves Me (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:
Somebody Loves Me (1952) – Musical #457

somebody loves5

Studio:
Paramount Pictures

Director:
Irving Brecher

Starring:
Betty Hutton, Ralph Meeker, Robert Keith, Adele Jergens, Billie Bird, Sid Tomack, Henry Slate, Nick Adams (uncredited)
Themselves: Jack Benny

Plot:
Biographical film on entertainer Blossom Seeley (Hutton) and her rise to fame and her marriage to performer Benny Fields (Meeker). The film begins in 1906 the night of the San Francisco earthquake and goes through the 1920s.

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Musical Monday: Here Come the WAVES (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:
Here Come the WAVES (1944) – Musical #640

Studio:
Paramount Studios

Director:
Mark Sandrich

Starring:
Bing Crosby, Betty Hutton, Sonny Tufts, Ann Doran, Noel Neill, Gwen Crawford, Catherine Craig, Anabel Shaw (billed as Marjorie Henshaw), Mona Freeman (uncredited)

Plot:
Susan (Hutton) and Rosemary (Hutton) are twin sister singers. Rosemary is more serious, and Susan is a bit more energetic and in love with famous singer Johnny Cabot (Crosby), a crooner who women go crazy for. Susan and Rosemary join the WAVES (the women’s reserve of United States Naval Reserve). Shortly after, Johnny is also drafted into the Navy. When Susan doesn’t want Johnny to be sent for active duty, she hatches a plan.

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Musical Monday: Red, Hot and Blue (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:
Red, Hot and Blue (1949) – Musical #362

Studio: Paramount Studios

Director: John Farrow

Starring:
Betty Hutton, Victor Mature, William Demarest, June Havoc, Jane Nigh, Frank Loesser, William Talman, Raymond Walburn, Onslow Stevens, Art Smith, Barry Kelley, Julie Adams (uncredited), Noel Neill (uncredited)

Plot:
Eleanor Collier (Hutton) lives in New York City and is desperate to become an actress. She will do anything to be discovered and for publicity from going to dinner with rich men to modeling to going by the name “Yum Yum.” Eleanor clashes with her boyfriend Danny (Mature), who disapproves of her career gaining methods because he wants to direct serious plays. While trying to get ahead, Eleanor goes on a date with gangster Bunny Harris (Talman), believing he is producing a show when he gets shot. Gangsters kidnap her believing she witness the shooting.

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Musical Monday: The Stork Club (1945)

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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.

This week’s musical:
The Stork Club (1945) – Musical #177

Studio:
Paramount

Director:
Hal Walker

Starring:
Betty Hutton, Barry Fitzgerald, Don DeFore, Robert Benchley, Bill Goodwin, Iris Adrian, Andy Russell, Mary Young

Plot:
Judy Peabody (Hutton) saves the life of Jerry Bates (Fitzgerald) who is drowning after he falls into the ocean. Judy thinks Jerry is poor and tries to get him a job, and doesn’t know that Jerry is really rich. To thank her, Jerry wants to provide for Judy financially without her knowing it’s from him. The problem is when her Marine boyfriend (DeFore), returns home from the war, he is suspicious of where she received the money and thinks the worst.

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

This week’s musical:
Star Spangled Rhythm (1942) – Musical #418

Studio:
Paramount

Director:
George Marshall, A. Edward Sutherland (uncredited)

Starring:
Betty Hutton, Eddie Bracken, Victor Moore, Walter Abel, Anne Revere (uncredited)

Themselves: Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Fred MacMurray, Franchot Tone, Ray Milland, Dorothy Lamour, Paulette Goddard, Vera Zorina, Mary Martin, Dick Powell, Veronica Lake, Alan Ladd, Eddie ‘Rochester’ Anderson, William Bendix, Jerry Colonna, Macdonald Carey, Susan Hayward, Marjorie Reynolds, Betty Jane Rhodes, Dona Drake, Lynne Overman, Gary Crosby, Johnny Johnston, Arthur Treacher, Walter Catlett, Sterling Holloway, Cecil B. DeMille, Preston Sturges, Ellen Drew, Eva Gabor, Frances Gifford, Susanna Foster, Diana Lynn, Jimmy Lydon, Robert Preston, Irving Bacon (uncredited), Karin Booth (uncredited), Woody Strode (uncredited)

Plot:
Sailor Johnny Webster (Bracken) is home on leave and believes his father William Webster (Moore), a former silent film star, is the head of Paramount Studios. In reality, his father is just a security guard at the studio. His father made a promise to put on a star-studded performance for the Naval base. The last 40 minutes of the film is the Naval skit.

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Musical Monday: The Perils of Pauline (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.

This week’s musical:
The Perils Of Pauline (1947) – Musical #127

Studio:
Paramount Pictures

Director:
George Marshall

Starring:
Betty Hutton, John Lund, Billy De Wolfe, William Demarest, Constance Collier, Frank Faylen

Plot:
Biographical film about actress Pearl White, who rose to fame during the silent film era in serial where she is constantly in danger.

Trivia:
-The height of the real Pearl White’s career was from 1910 to 1924. She died at age 49 in 1938 in France.
-Actors who performed in real Peril’s of Pauline films were featured in this movie such as; Paul Panzer who was in The Perils of Pauline (1914); Creighton Hale who was in The Exploits of Elaine (1914); William Farnum who played in Riders of the Purple Sage (1918).
-Edith Head designed the costumes for the films. Head copied costumes for Pearl White’s films for historical accuracy, according to Edith Head: The Fifty-Year Career of Hollywood’s Greatest Costume Designer by Jay Jorgensen
-Louis J. Gasnier, who directed The Perils of Pauline (1914), was a technical advisor on this film.

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