Tag Archives: Musical Monday

Musical Monday: Alice Through the Looking Glass (1966)

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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:
Alice Through the Looking Glass (1966) – Musical #829

Studio:
NBC

Director:
Alan Handley

Starring:
Ricardo Montalban, Agnes Moorehead, Jack Palance, Jimmy Durante, Nanette Fabray, Robert Coote, Tom Smothers, Dick Smothers, Judi Rolin, Richard Denning, Roy Castle, Iris Adrian, Chanin Hale, Jackie Joseph, Donna Walsh

Plot:
Based on the Lewis Carroll story, while her father (Denning) is hosting a dinner party, Alice (Rolin) is bored. Her father tells her to go set up the chess board for them to play together later. Suddenly, Alice is invited through the mirror in the room to a backwards room, where the chess pieces come to life, including The Red King (Coote), The Red Queen (Moorehead), The White King (Montalban), and The White Queen (Fabray). Alice also meets other strange characters, like the villainous Jabberwock (Palance) and Humpty Dumpty (Durante).

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Musical Monday: Cinderella (1957)

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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:
Cinderella (1957) – Musical #143

Studio:
CBS

Director:
Ralph Nelson

Starring:
Julie Andrews, Ilka Chase, Edie Adams, Jon Cypher, Howard Lindsay, Dorothy Stickney, Alice Ghostley, Kaye Ballard

Plot:
Set to music by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, the story focuses on Cinderella (Andrews), a lonely young woman whose father has died and she lives only with her stepmother (Chase) and stepsisters (Ballard, Ghostley). Her stepmother and stepsisters have made Cinderella their servant, while Cinderella dreams of a better life. The Prince (Cypher) is in search of a wife, and the King and Queen (Lindsay, Stickney) hold a ball so he can find a wife. Cinderella’s fairy godmother (Adams) helps her get to the ball, but she must leave by midnight.

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Musical Monday: Jack and the Beanstalk (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:
Jack and the Beanstalk (1952) – Musical #809

Studio:
Produced by Executive Productions, Distributed by Warner Bros.

Director:
Jean Yarbrough

Starring:
Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Buddy Baer, Dorothy Ford, Shaye Cogan, James Alexander, Barbara Brown, David Stollery, Arthur Shields

Plot:
Two unlikely babysitters, Jack (Costello) and Mr. Dinkle (Abbott) are hired to watch Donald Larkin (Stollery). While they are reading “Jack & the Beanstalk” to him, both babysitters fall asleep. Told in a dream sequence, the pair are transported into the story. In the story, Jack (Costello again) and his mother (Ford) live in a village that has hit hard times and the Giant (Baer) has kidnapped the Princess Eloise (Cogan), a goose that lays golden eggs, and Prince Arthur (Alexander), who is pretending to be a to be a troubadour. When Jack is asked to sell the family cow, he squanders the money by buying magic beans. The bean grows into a giant stalk that goes into the sky. Jack climbs the stalk to rescue everyone that the Giant has kidnapped, and is followed by the town butcher Mr. Dinklepuss (Abbott again), who’s interested in the golden goose.

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Musical Monday: Riding High (1943)

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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:
Riding High (1943) – Musical #830

Studio:
Paramount Pictures

Director:
George Marshall

Starring:
Dorothy Lamour, Dick Powell, Victor Moore, Gil Lamb, Cass Dailey, Bill Goodwin, Rod Cameron, Glenn Langan
Themselves: Milt Britton’s Band

Plot:
Ann Castle (Lamour) returns to her hometown and her father’s silver mine, Grenada Silver Mine. Steve Baird (Powell) is her father’s new business partner is trying to raise funds for the mine, while someone is also passing around counterfeit money. Ann is hired as an entertainer for a dude ranch and she and Steve fall in love.

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Musical Monday: Norwood (1970)

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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:
Norwood (1970) – Musical #829

Studio:
Paramount Pictures

Director:
Jack Haley, Jr.

Starring:
Glen Campbell, Kim Darby, Joe Namath, Carol Lynley, Pat Hingle, Tisha Sterling, Dom DeLuise, Leigh French, Meredith MacRae, Jack Haley, Jimmy Boyd,

Plot:
After returning home from serving in Vietnam, Norwood (Campbell) lives an aimless existence as he determines what he will do now. Norwood decides to try to perform on a TV talent show. As he travels to perform on the show, he meets and befriends a girl, Rita Lee Chapman (Darby), who’s on her way to marry her military boyfriend. He also picks up Joann a talented chicken (herself), and meets up with military buddy Joe William Reese (Namath) and his girlfriend (MacRae).

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Musical Monday: Priorities on Parade (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.

This week’s musical:
Priorities on Parade (1942) – Musical #828

Studio:
Paramount Pictures

Director:
Albert S. Rogell

Starring:
Ann Miller, Johnny Johnston, Jerry Colonna, Betty Jane Rhodes, Barbara Jo Allen (billed as Vera Vague), Harry Barris, Eddie Quillan, Dave Willock, Nick Cockrane, Rod Cameron, Arthur Loft, William Forrest, Warren Ashe, Charles Halton, Lee Shumway, Karin Booth (uncredited), Matt McHugh (uncredited), Cyril Ring (uncredited)
Specialty Performers: The Debonnaires

Plot:
Johnny Draper (Johnston) and his band want to perform in an aircraft defense plant; saying it would help with morale and production. While the plant’s leaders think it’s a good idea, they say they also can’t pay them only to play music and recommend that they work as defense workers at the plant. While the band agrees to work at the plant, the band’s glamorous singer, Donna D’Arcy (Miller), declines and finds a job singing in a nightclub. Johnny meets a lady welder, Lee Davis (Rhodes) who first seems tough as nails but then they fall in love. Problems arise when Donna comes to work at the plant.

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Musical Monday: Meet the Navy (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.

This week’s musical:
Meet the Navy (1946) – Musical #827

Studio:
British National Films

Director:
Alfred Travers

Starring:
Lionel Murton, Margaret Hurst, John Pratt, Robert Goodier, Phyllis Hudson, Percy Haynes, Bill Oliver, Jeanette De Hueck, Oscar Natzke

Plot:
The story toggles between a Canadian Navy ship and the stage where performers are staging a show to entertain the troops. In addition to the rehearsals, the story shows the signaling of the end of the war, and antics of sailors trying to sing their song on film. The film ends with a Royal Command Performance.

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Musical Monday: Scared Stiff (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.

scared stiff

This week’s musical:
Scared Stiff (1953) – Musical #797

Studio:
Paramount Pictures

Director:
George Marshall

Starring:
Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Lizabeth Scott, Carmen Miranda, George Dolenz, Dorothy Malone, William Ching, Paul Marion, Jack Lambert, Tony Barr, Leonard Strong, Henry Brandon, Earl Holliman (uncredited)
Cameo appearances: Bob Hope, Bing Crosby

Plot:
Mary Carroll (Scott) has inherited an estate in Cuba, but throughout her travels, she receives death threats and notes of warning. Before sailing to Cuba, Mary meets performers Larry Todd (Martin) and Myron Mertz (Lewis). Larry believes that he killed someone in New York at Mary’s hotel, so Larry and Myron stowaway on the ship for Cuba. Once they arrive at the home, that’s believed to be haunted, the trio tries to figure out who is behind the warnings.

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Musical Monday: Those Redheads from Seattle (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.

This week’s musical:
Those Redheads from Seattle (1953) – Musical #826

Studio:
Paramount Pictures

Director:
Lewis R. Foster

Starring:
Rhonda Fleming, Agnes Moorehead, Teresa Brewer, The Bell Sisters, Gene Barry, Guy Mitchell, Jean Parker, Roscoe Ates, John Kellogg, Frank Wilcox, Walter Reed

Plot:
Vance Edmonds (Wilcox) is a newspaper man in Yukon Territory, trying to clean up a crooked town with his newspaper articles. Not knowing his life is being threatened, his family in Seattle, decides that it’s time to go be with their father including his wife, Mrs. Edmonds (Moorehead) and four daughters, Kathie (Fleming), Pat (Brewer), and Connie and Neill (the Bell Sisters). When they arrive in the Yukon, the Edmond family finds that things are not what they expected and have to find ways to support themselves amongst encounters with saloon owners (Barry) and saloon women.

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Musical Monday: Sing Boy Sing (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:
Sing Boy Sing (1958) – Musical #825

Studio:
20th Century Fox

Director:
Henry Ephron

Starring:
Tommy Sands, Edmond O’Brien, Jerry Paris, Josephine Hutchinson, John McIntire, Lili Gentle, Regis Toomey, Diane Jergens, Tami Conner
Disc Jockeys as themselves: Art Ford, Bill Randle, Biff Collie

Plot:
Virgil Walker (Sands) is a teen heartthrob singer, whose life is controlled by his manager, Joseph Sharkey (O’Brien). Sharkey also keeps Virgil isolated from his family, with the help of press agent, Arnold Fisher (Paris). Virgil was raised in a small town by his pastor grandfather (McIntire). When Virgil’s grandfather becomes ill, Sharkey tries to keep Virgil from knowing and away from his family, fearing his grandfather will turn Virgil against his “sinful” singing career.

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