Tag Archives: Rudy Vallee

Musical Monday: Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (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:
Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955) – Musical #51

brunettes

Studio:
United Artists

Director:
Richard Sale

Starring:
Jane Russell, Jeanne Crain, Scott Brady, Alan Young, Guy Middleton,
Himself: Rudy Vallee

Plot:
Sisters Bonnie (Russell) and Connie (Crain) are performers with a problem: Bonnie can never say no to a marriage proposal. When the sisters receive an offer to perform in Paris, they head to Europe where they learn that their mothers, Mitzi and Mimi, were performers who took Paris by storm in the 1920s. Rudy Vallee tries to build the girls up to match the fame of their mothers.

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Musical Monday: Time Out for Rhythm (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:
Time Out for Rhythm (1941) – Musical #420

Studio:
Columbia Pictures

Director:
Sidney Salkow

Starring:
Rudy Vallee, Ann Miller, Rosemary Lane, Allen Jenkins, Richard Lane, Stanley Andrews, Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curley Howard, Blanche Stewart, Elvia Allman, Alan Hale Jr. (uncredited), Alex Romero (uncredited), Bess Flowers (uncredited)
Themselves: Joan Merrill, Glen Gray and His Casa Loma Orchestra, Eddie Durant’s Rhumba Orchestra, Six Hits and a Miss

Plot:
Danny Collins (Vallee) and Mike Armstrong (Lane) meet at random in a nightclub. Danny is a Harvard grad and Mike the agent of singer Frances Lewis (Lane), and Danny critiques Frances’s voice as she performs in the nightclub. Danny and Mike form a successful New York talent agency in an effort to make Frances a star, but she gets married and briefly leaves show business. Danny and Mike start rehearsing a groundbreaking television hour with Joan Merrill and jazz bands performing. But when Frances gets divorced, Mike wants the whole show reworked to star her, causing a rift between Danny and Mike.

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Musical Monday: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967)

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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:
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967) – Musical #591

Studio:
United Artists

Director:
David Swift

Starring:
Robert Morse, Michele Lee, Rudy Vallee, Anthony ‘Scooter’ Teague, Maureen Arthur, Carol Worthington, Kathryn Reynolds, Sammy Smith, Ruth Kobart, Anne Seymour (uncredited), Virginia Sale (uncredited), Tucker Smith (uncredited)

Plot:
J. Pierrepont Finch (Morse) is a window washer who buys a book called “How to Succeed in Business,” which tells you how to climb the ladder of success. Finch follows the book by pretending he is hard at work and outsmarting other corporate leaders to work his way to the top.

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Musical Monday: The Vagabond Lover (1929)

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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 Vagabond Lover” (1929)– Musical #356

vagabond2

 

Studio:
RKO Radio Pictures

Director:
Marshall Neilan

Starring:
Rudy Vallee, Sally Blane, Marie Dressler, Nella Walker, Malcolm Waite, Charles Sellon, Alan Roscoe, The Connecticut Yankees band

Plot:
Saxophone player Rudy Bronson (Vallee) forms a jazz band. To get off the ground, he and his band go to the home of famous bandleader Ted Grant (Waite) for an audition. Grant isn’t interested and kicks them out of his home and then heads out of town. Grant’s neighbors Jean Whitehall (Blane) and her aunt Ethel Bertha Whitehall (Dressler) mistaken Rudy and his band for Ted Grant. Rudy and his band play along but find themselves in hot water when they’re presented at a society fundraiser as Ted Grant and his band.

Rudy Vallee and Sally Blane in "Vagabond Lover"

Rudy Vallee and Sally Blane in “Vagabond Lover”

Trivia:
-Rudy Vallee’s first feature film
-“Vagabond Lover” was briefly Vallee’s publicity nickname

Notable Songs:
-“Nobody’s Sweetheart” performed by Rudy Vallee and the Connecticut Yankees
-“If You Were the Only Girl in the World” performed by Rudy Vallee
-“A Little Kiss Each Morning (A Little Kiss Each Night)” performed by Rudy Vallee
-“I Love You, Believe Me, I Love You” performed by Rudy Vallee

My review:
“The Vagabond Lover” is both an early film with sound and also Rudy Vallee’s film. It’s interesting to see this early film to see how both musicals and Rudy Vallee acting improved.

It’s very obvious that studios are still trying to figure out hot to best use sound. While the story line is less muddled than films like “Broadway Melody of 1929,” the sound volumes are often muddy. Sometimes the music is louder than the singing or talking, and other times I feel like the actors are shouting to be picked up by the microphone.

Sally Blane and Marie Dressler in Vagabond Lover

Sally Blane and Marie Dressler in Vagabond Lover

In his first film, Rudy Vallee isn’t a very good actor. But he apparently improved his acting craft over the years because Vallee was a skilled comedic actor in the 1940s and 1950s.

“Vagabond Lover” is just over an hour-long. It’s not terrible, but rather lackluster. Marie Dressler is wasted in the film and doesn’t exercise her comedic talents. Sally Blane is lovely, but is merely window dressing in the movie.

Overall, it’s watchable but not one I would be pressed to revisit.

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