Tag Archives: Franchot Tone

Musical Monday: Nice Girl? (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.

This week’s musical:
Nice Girl? (1941) – Musical #808

Studio:
Universal Pictures

Director:
William A. Seiter

Starring:
Deanna Durbin, Franchot Tone, Robert Stack, Robert Benchley, Walter Brennan, Helen Broderick, Ann Gillis, Anne Gwynne, Elisabeth Risdon, Nana Bryant, Georgia Billings, Tommy Kelly, Marcia Mae Jones, Frank Sully (uncredited)

Plot:
Prof. Oliver Dana (Benchley) is a professor living with his three daughters: actress Sylvia (Gwynne), boy crazy Nancy (Gillis) and practical Jane (Durbin), who helps her father with his experiments. Everyone considered Jane as a reliable nice girl, including her unromantic boyfriend, Don (Stack), who cares more about cars than love. When famed traveler and researches Richard Calvert (Tone) comes to town to meet with Professor Dana, the three sisters are all smitten with the young professor. When it’s time for Richard to leave, Jane fixes it so that he will miss his train and that she’ll have to drive him back to New York City, so that Don and everyone will no longer dismiss her as just a nice girl.

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Watching 1939: Fast and Furious (1939)

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In 2011, I announced I was trying to see every film released in 1939. This new series chronicles films released in 1939 as I watch them. As we start out this blog feature, this section may become more concrete as I search for a common thread that runs throughout each film of the year. Right now, that’s difficult. 

1939 film: 
Fast and Furious (1939)

Release date: 
Oct. 6, 1939

Cast: 
Franchot Tone, Ann Sothern, Ruth Hussey, Lee Bowman, Allyn Joslyn, John Miljan, Bernard Nedell, Gladys Blake, Mary Beth Hughes, Margaret Roach, James Burke, Frank Orth, Phillip Terry (uncredited), Claire James (uncredited)

Studio: 
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Director: 
Busby Berkeley

Plot:
Garda Sloane (Sothern) convinces her husband Joel (Tone) to take a vacation. However, rather than a relaxing trip, they find themselves in Seaside City in the same hotel as a beauty contest with Joel signed up to be a judge to the contest, which he was convinced to invest in by Mike Stevens (Bowman). Garda isn’t pleased with Joel’s task, and Joel realizes something is amiss with the contest, especially when the pageant’s promoter Eric Bartell (Miljan) is murdered.

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