Tag Archives: Musical Monday

Musical Monday: Merry Andrew (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:
Merry Andrew (1958) – Musical #241

Studio:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Director:
Michael Kidd

Starring:
Danny Kaye, Pier Angeli, Salvatore Baccaloni, Noel Purcell, Robert Coote, Patricia Cutts, Rex Evans, Walter Kingsford, Peter Mamakos, Rhys Williams, Tommy Rall, Richard Anderson (uncredited), Frank Jenks (uncredited), John Dodsworth (uncredited)

Plot:
School teacher Andrew Larabee (Kaye) wants to be taken seriously by his father, the headmaster (Purcell) and asks if he can go on an archaeological excursion to find the missing statue of Greek mythology figure, Pan. When Andrew travels to where he believes the statue is located, a circus is performing on the spot where he would like to dig. Andrew friends the circus family, and falls in love with performer, Selena (Angeli). The problem is Andrew is engaged to be married to someone else.

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Musical Monday: Sweethearts on Parade (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:
Sweethearts on Parade (1953) – Musical #844

Studio:
Republic Pictures

Director:
Allan Dwan

Starring:
Ray Middleton, Lucille Norman, Eileen Christy, Bill Shirley, Estelita Rodriguez (billed as Estelita),
Clinton Sundberg, Harry Carey Jr., Irving Bacon, Leon Tyler, Marjorie Wood, Mara Corday, Elinor Donahue (uncredited), Mimi Gibson (uncredited)

Plot:
Kathleen Townsend (Norman) and her daughter, Sylvia (Christy), live a quiet and peaceful life in Kokomo, Indiana in the late 1800s. Sylvia misses having a father, Cam Ellerby (Middleton), who Kathleen left when Sylvia was a baby due his philandering ways. Years later, Cam and his traveling medicine show comes to Kokomo, the three are reunited.

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Musical Monday: I’ll Get By (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:
I’ll Get By (1950) – Musical #843

Studio:
20th Century Fox

Director:
Richard Sale

Starring:
June Haver, William Lundigan, Gloria DeHaven, Dennis Day, Thelma Ritter, Steve Allen, Danny Davenport, Harry Antrim
Himself: Harry James
Cameos: Jeanne Crain, Dan Dailey, Reginald Gardiner, Victor Mature

Plot:
William Spencer (Lundigan) is a song plugger with aspirations of getting into the publishing business. When he runs across songwriters Freddy Lee (Day) and Chester Dooley (Davenport), they buy into his business. They realize they need to promote their music with singers. They meet singing duo, Liza Martin (Haver) and Terry Martin (DeHaven), who agree to sing thor songs. As Spencer and Lee rise to fame a song publishers, Liza and Terry feel they are more career driven than caring about anything else.

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Musical Monday: Rhythm in the Clouds (1937)

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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:
Rhythm in the Clouds (1937) – Musical #842

Studio:
Republic Pictures

Director:
John H. Auer

Starring:
Patricia Ellis, Warren Hull, William Newell, Richard Carle, Zeffie Tilbury, Charles Judels, Robert Paige, Joyce Compton, Suzanne Kaaren, Esther Howard, Eddie Parker (billed as Ed Parker), James C. Morton

Plot:
Judy Walker (Ellis) is an aspiring composer and is down-on-her luck. When she’s evicted, she concocts a scheme to stay in the posh apartment of composer Phil Hale (Paige). While staying in the apartment, Judy and her wall neighbor, lyricist Bob McKay (Hull) have a feud about both being too loud – though neither has seen each other. Walker and McKay begin to work together on the radio without knowing that they are their hated neighbors.

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Musical Monday: San Francisco (1936)

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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:
San Francisco (1936) – Musical #220

Studio
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Director
W.S. Van Dyke

Starring
Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald, Spencer Tracy, Jack Holt, Jessie Ralph, Ted Healy, Shirley Ross, Harold Huber, Irving Bacon (uncredited), Dennis O’Keefe (uncredited), Jason Robards Sr. (uncredited)

Plot:
After her tenement building is destroyed in a fire, Mary (MacDonald) needs work. She finds a job as a singer for Barbary Coast saloon owner, Blackie (Gable). When Mary is offered a chance to sing grand opera, which is her dream, Blackie is reluctant to let her leave.

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Musical Monday: Up in Central Park (1948)

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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:
Up in Central Park (1948) – Musical #840

Studio:
Universal Studio

Director:
William A. Seiter

Starring:
Deanna Durbin, Dick Haymes, Vincent Price, Albert Sharpe, Tom Powers, Hobart Cavanaugh, Thurston Hall, Howard Freeman, Mary Field, Tom Pedi, Moroni Olsen

Plot:
Boss Tweed (Price) is a corrupt politician, who runs New York City politics from Tammany Hall with his political machine. Rosie Moore (Durbin) and her father, Timothy Moore (Sharpe), are Irish immigrants who arrive in New York City seeking a better life and quickly get entangled with Boss Tweed. As Timothy begins working for Boss Tweed, reporter John Matthews (Haymes) befriends the Moore family to expose Tweed’s corruption.

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Musical Monday: The Powers Girl (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:
The Powers Girl (1943) – Musical #839

Studio:
United Artists

Director:
Norman Z. McLeod

Starring:
George Murphy, Anne Shirley, Carole Landis, Alan Mowbray, Jean Ames, Mary Treen, Rafael Alcayde, Helen MacKellar, Harry Shannon
Themselves: Benny Goodman and His Orchestra, Peggy Lee, Dennis Day
Billed as Powers America Beauty Pageant Model: Jayne Hazard, Lillian Eggers, Linda Stirling, Evelyn Frey, Eloise Hardt, Patsy Mace, Barbara Slater, Rosemary Coleman, Edna Johnson, Rebel Randall, Teala Loring

Plot:
Photographer Jerry Hendricks (Murphy) takes a photo of school teacher Ella Evans (Shirley) in a compromising position, which ends up on the cover of a magazine. The photo causes Ella to lose her job, so she travels to New York City to live with her model sister, Kay (Landis). Kay realizes her sister never signed a release for the photo, and sets her sights on get-rich-quick plan by suing the magazine. Jerry intercepts Kay and makes promises that she could become a Powers model.

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Musical Monday: They Met in Argentina (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:
They Met in Argentina (1941) – Musical #837

Studio:
RKO Pictures

Director:
Leslie Goodwins, Jack Hively

Starring:
Maureen O’Hara, James Ellison, Buddy Ebsen, Alberto Vila, Robert Barrat, Joseph Buloff, Diosa Costello, Luis Alberni (uncredited), Fortunio Bonanova (uncredited), Chester Clute (uncredited), Victoria Córdova (uncredited), Betty Jane Rhodes (uncredited)

Plot:
Americans Tim Kelly (Ellison) and his colleague Duke Ferrell (Ebsen) are in Argentina on business to bid on land for oil. While he’s unsuccessful in his oil business, he tries to bid on a race horse, which is owned by Don Enrique de los Santos O’Shea (Barrat). Tim falls for his daughter, Lolita O’Shea (O’Hara). Don Enrique objects, because he doesn’t want his daughter to go to the United States.

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Musical Monday: Let’s Make Music (1940)

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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 Make Music (1940) – Musical #268

Studio:
RKO Radio Pictures

Director:
Leslie Goodwins

Starring:
Jean Rogers, Elisabeth Risdon, Joseph Buloff, Joyce Compton, Benny Bartlett, Louis Jean Heydt, Bill Goodwin, Frank Orth, Grant Withers, Benny Rubin, Gale Sherwood (billed as Jacqueline Nash), Donna Jean Dolfer, Walter Tetley
As themselves: Bob Crosby, The Bob Crosby Orchestra, Bob Haggart, Ray Bauduc

Plot:
Small town high school teacher, Malvina Adams (Risdon), teaches a classical music class that most of the students find boring. In an effort to excite the students about music, she writes a school spirit song. The students don’t like it, but she sends it to a music publisher. Bandleader Bob Crosby (as himself) finds it and thinks the song is great, inviting Malvina to New York City to perform it. Her niece, Abby (Rogers), objects to her aunt going to the city and joins, but Malvina decides she’s going to have fun with her new success.

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Musical Monday: Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962)

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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:
Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962) – Musical #824

Studio:
Paramount Pictures

Director:
Norman Taurog

Starring:
Elvis Presley, Stella Stevens, Jeremy Slate, Laurel Goodwin, Benson Fong, Robert Strauss, Guy Lee, Frank Puglia, Lili Valenty, Beulah Quo, Ginny Tiu, Elizabeth Tiu, Alexander Tiu, Mary Treen (uncredited), Gavin Gordon (uncredited)

Plot:
Ross Carpenter (Presley) has dreams of buying his own boat, but in the meantime, he’s having too earn his money by working as a fishing guide in Hawaii. However, when his employer, Papa Stavros (Puglia), becomes ill, Ross is going to have to find other means of employment. He goes to share his sorrow with his sexy girlfriend, Robin (Stevens), where he meets wealthy but sweet Laurel (Goodwin), which causes issues with Robin. When wealthy Wesley Johnson (Slate) buys Stavros’s boat, Ross battles him for access to the sailboat and also the affections of Laurel.

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