Ma and Pa Kettle at Home

Ma and Pa Kettle at Home
March 10, 1954
Universal
Comedy
VHS
C+

In this entry, the previously never mentioned second (?) Kettle son, Elwin, has just finished high school and hopes to win a college scholarship that The National Magazine is sponsoring.  So he's written an essay lying about the family's rundown farm, but the magazine sends out two judges to investigate the farm and that of his local rival/girlfriend Sally Mattocks.  Why a New-York-based magazine would do this is beyond me, but it's just one of the oddities of a script that includes Pa convincing his Indian friends and their tribe to pretend to go on the warpath so Pa can look like a hero.  There's also Ma sort of matchmaking the local spinster librarian (Mary Wickes) with the older judge, the obviously symbolic courtship of the Mattocks's cow by the Kettles' bull (who wears a bowler), and what's meant to be a heartwarming Christmas that just comes across as awkward.

Apparently Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki was filmed before this, and it's possible this was meant to be the last entry.  In any case, all the Kettle kids have been replaced by the following:

• Patrick Miller, then 33 (!), as Teddy
• Brett Halsey, then 20, as Elwin
• Carol Nugent, then 16, as Nancy
• Tony Epper, then 15, as Donny
• Judy Nugent (Carol's sister?), then 13, as the otherwise unheard of Betty
• Whitey Haupt, then 13, as Henry
• Gary Pagett, then 13, as George
• Patricia Morrow, then 10, as Susie, although she'd be two non-Kettles in the last two entries in the series
• Richard Eyer, then 8, as Billy (the one who likes frogs and wears a propeller beanie)
• Nancy Zane, then 7, as Sarah
• Coral Hammond, age unknown, as Eve
• Donald MacDonald, age unknown, as Benjamin
• Donna Cregan Moots, age unknown, as Ruthie

There's no mention of Tom, but Rosie is working in Seattle over Christmas.  This again gives us a total of fifteen kids.

James Flavin played a policeman in Abbott and Costello Go to Mars as well.  Helen Gibson was in MaPK at the Fair.  Ken Terrell and Hank Worden were in MaPK on Vacation, but I think they were playing French rather than Indian then.  Alice Kelley, who's Sally here, was a stewardess in that movie.  Marjorie Bennett, who portrays the corset saleslady, would appear in Mary Poppins.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
August 1953
Fox
Comedy, Musical, Romance
DVD
A-

A sometimes giddy, always fun, musical that has little to do with the book it's based on (it's probably more like the intervening stageplay), and improves on it in every respect.  (My review of Loos's novel is here http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2012/04/gentlemen-prefer-blondes.html)  The movie is chockful of people who'd done other movies (see below), but basically I watch it for the two leads, smart-when-she-wants-to-be Lorelei played by Marilyn Monroe and cynical-but-romantic Dorothy played by Jane Russell.  They both look gorgeous in Technicolor, but they're also screamingly hilarious.  And it's hard for me to think of another musical with such a great soundtrack.  My favorite number is "Ain't There Anyone Here for Love?", where Russell sings of her sexual frustration to a bunch of Code-teasing possibly gay athletes.  She also becomes one of the first Marilyn impersonators when she does a burlesque (in a double sense) of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend."  Marilyn's own version is fabulous, although the set there does contain a very BDSM chandelier.  (It's the most twisted thing I've seen done to chorus girls since Flying Down to Rio.) 

Charles Coburn comes across as more harmless-seeming but more actually more dangerous (in the sense of getting the girls in trouble with the law) than his dirty old man character in Monkey Business, while seven-year-old George Winslow has much better lines as Henry Spofford III than he did as one of the kids in MB.  Tommy Noonan (he fitting what Marilyn's Sugar would say about men with glasses in Some Like It Hot) and Elliott Reid are OK as the romantic interests, but it's really a girl-buddy movie (a sismance?), with Russell and Monroe loyal, if bickering, friends throughout.

Rolfe Sedan was in The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle.  George Dee, Arthur Dulac, and Leo Mostovoy appeared in Casablanca.  Steven Geray was in All About Eve.  Harry Carey, Jr., Henri Letondal, Ray Montgomery, Roger Moore (still not that Roger Moore), and Robert Nichols were in Hawks's Monkey Business.  Ed Fury played a muscleman in Abbott and Costello Go to Mars as well.  Jack Chefe and Alphonse Martell were in Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation.  Jean De Briac was in both Casablanca and MaPK on Vacation.  A. Cameron Grant was in Singin' in the Rain.  Herman Boden, Joan Collenette, Jack Dodds, Colin Kenny, Matt Mattox, Frank Radcliffe, Jack Regas, Roberta Stevenson, and Marc Wilder were all in The Band Wagon.  Judy Landon and Shirley Lopez were in both.

Aladdin (no, not that Aladdin), George Chakiris, Stanley Hall, Alvy Moore, and Charles Tannen would be in There's No Business Like Show Business with Marilyn.

The Band Wagon

The Band Wagon
August 7, 1953
MGM
Musical, Comedy, Romance
DVD
C-

This is the last of the movies on the four-pack I bought only for Singin' in the Rain.  (Hereafter, abbreviated as SitR.)  I found The Band Wagon alternately irritating and boring, if not so bad as Minelli's Meet Me in St. Louis.  Cyd and Fred have no chemistry, except maybe as friends.  (The 22-year age difference is alluded to in the movie, but it doesn't help that Fred always looks older than he is.  The 20-year age difference between Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds in SitR is much less obvious.)  The supporting cast doesn't really contribute anything.  The play-within-the-movie (also called The Band Wagon, for unclear reasons in both cases) fails to be so-bad-it's-fun, in the way that The Dueling Cavalier is in SitR.  (Or much later, Elephant! in The Tall Guy.)  The revamped play isn't any better, although I sort of like the "Triplets" song, the only memorable tune besides "That's Entertainment."  (Not only is the latter a classic, but I thought it was noteworthy that Nanette Fabray could sing the word "sex.")  The romance aside, the plot makes no sense, including why they want the dramatic (in every sense) director to take charge of a musical.  The use of color is mostly good, even if one of the rooms is so red it would be a bit much in a brothel.  The eleven-minute "Girl Hunt Ballet" is much better than the "Broadway Melody Ballet" in SitR, but then there's no momentum for it to break up.

While this is far from the worst imaginable movie Astaire could've made, it is a letdown.  Luckily, his reputation doesn't rest on this (or Easter Parade).  Maybe in the '50s the Astairish character he's playing was a has-been and his movie costumes were being sold off for pennies, but time would be kind to Astaire's reputation.  He's certainly more of a legend than Ava Gardner, who has a cameo as herself.  (And by the '80s, movie props and costumes were doing much better at auctions.)

Helen McAllister also danced in Flying Down to Rio, twenty years earlier.  Judy Matson also sang in The Big Store.  Al Hill was in The Bank Dick.  Frank McClure was in His Girl Friday and Citizen Kane.  Jack Gargan and Harlan Hoagland were also in Citizen Kane.  Herschel Graham was in It's a Wonderful Life.  James Conaty was in All About Eve.  Fred Aldrich was in Sunset Blvd.  Manuel Paris was in Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation.  Brick Sullivan was in a few of my earlier movies, most recently Abbott and Costello Go to Mars.  Donald Kerr also appeared in Go to Mars.

Dee Turnell was in Copacabana and SitR.  Bobby Watson was the diction coach in SitR (and often portrayed Hitler in movies).  Madge Blake played Dora Bailey (and is probably best known for her TV role as Aunt Harriet on Batman).  Jimmy Thompson was the singer of "Beautiful Girl" in SitR, while Fred Datig, Jr., played an usher, as he does here.  Lyle Clark, Marion Gray, Peggy Murray, Charles Regan, and Joette Robinson were also in SitR.  

Judy Landon and Shirley Lopez were in SitR and would be in Gentlemen Prefer.  Herman Boden, Joan Collenete, Jack Dodds, Colin Kenny, Matt Mattox, Frank Radcliffe, Jack Regas, Roberta Stevenson, and Marc Wilder would all be in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.  Helen Dickson was in It's a Wonderful and would be in Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki.  Ann McCrea was in SitR and would be in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?  Bert Stevens was in Citizen Kane and would go on to Mary Poppins.

Herb Vigran, one of the men Astaire eavesdrops on on the train, would go on to a bunch of TV guest shots, as well as the voice of Lurvy in Charlotte's Web (1973).  The other man is Emory Parnell, who's Billy Reed in many of the Ma and Pa movies.  Loulie Jean Norman would be part of the chorus for Heidi's Song.  Sue Casey would be in A Very Brady Sequel.  (She'd have a larger role in Catalina Caper, as Anne Duval, but I'm saving that movie for when I do MST3K on my eventual television blog.)

We swear, it's entertainment!

The Moon Is Blue

The Moon Is Blue
July 8, 1953
United Artists
Comedy, Romance
VHS
B-

This movie was controversial six decades ago, for what we would now call "adult themes and language," although my guess is it'd get a PG if released today.  At the time, Otto Preminger couldn't get it approved by the Code and released it anyway, which was the very beginning of the end for the Code.  (The movie did fine at the box office.)  Watching it now, it's mildly amusing but not particularly shocking.  I was more offended by the lines that joke about violence towards women, but I think we're meant to be offended.  The view of television-- "We're years away from color!"-- is about as dated as the view of sex.  David Niven plays the middle-aged scoundrel, William Holden the young scroundel.  Gregory Ratoff (Max Fabian in All About Eve) has a small role as a taxi driver.

Abbott and Costello Go to Mars

Abbott and Costello Go to Mars
April 6, 1953
Universal
Comedy, Sci-Fi
VHS
C+

First of all, they never go to Mars.  They go to New York (twice), New Orleans during Mardi Gras, and Venus, which is-- you're not going to believe this-- populated only by women!  Pretty cutting edge, eh? The Venusians include a lot of beauty queens and Anita Ekberg.  The script is nonsensical, and Ma and Pa Kettle director Charles Lamont does his best with it, but it never gets silly enough, or achieves dream-logic.  (You may scoff that the scientists back home watch the flight of the spaceship on their monitor, but even that gets old.)  Mainly worth watching for the almost funny antics of Bud and Lou, the now lame special effects, and the blink-and-you'll-miss-it debut of nine-year-old Harry Shearer.  (He's the brunet boy in the opening scene.)  Martha Hyer, as she does in the more enjoyably bad Bikini Beach, provides the voice of reason when possible.

Brick Sullivan was in It's a Wonderful Life and Singin' in the Rain.  Mari Blanchard (Queen Allura) was a Copa girl in Copacabana.  Juanita Close, Lester Dorr, Frank Marlowe, Syd Saylor, and Harold DeGarro were in Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair. (DeGarro was the scarecrow on stilts, while here he's a policeman on stilts.)  Jack Kruschen, Russ Conway and Gloria Pall were in MaPK on Vacation.  Rex Lease, who plays the police sergeant, is the sheriff in the MaPK series.  James Flavin would be in MaPK at Home, Harold Goodwin and Sally Yarnell in MaPK at Waikiki.  Jack Tesler would appear in The Band Wagon, Ed Fury in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and Carl Sklover in Some Like It Hot.

Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation

Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation
April 20, 1953
Universal
Comedy
VHS
C+

The vacation is to Paris, France, with Kim's parents, who appeared in the couple series entries I'm missing.  Sixty-something Pa almost went to France during the first World War, but they "didn't scrape the bottom of the barrel."  He and Ma are of course fish out of water, but not much humor results from this.  (I did like Ma protesting "wife-beating" by interrupting Apache-dancing.)  As if aware that this wasn't enough to work with, the script throws in an espionage plot, with the Kettles facing the Marxes' old nemesis Sig Ruman.  Citizen Kane's nemesis Gettys, on the other hand, played by Ray Collins, is friendly in-law Jonathan here.  The movie never quite clicks, although there are moments, as when an irate Frenchman speaks ill of the Marshall Plan, and when Pa (whose real name is Franklin) thinks the bobbysoxers are chasing him rather than the Sinatra lookalike.  I was most interested in, one, the view of air travel (from Idlewild Airport); and two, the way that Pa luring the French police to the rescue somewhat foreshadows Paul's grandfather's maneuvers in A Hard Day's Night (although it's much funnier there).

We don't get much of the Kettle "childrun," since they're just in the scenes at home.  The eleven returning Kettle kids:

• Donna Leary, then 16, as Sally
• Ronnie Rondell, Jr., then 16, as Dannie
• Elana Schreiner, then 16, as Nancy
• George Arlen, then 12, as Willie
• Beverly Mook, then 12, as Eve
• Sherry Jackson, then 11, as Susie
• Gary Lee Jackson, age unknown, as Billy
• Jackie Jackson, age unknown, as Henry
• Margaret Brown, age unknown, as Ruthie
• Billy Clark, age unknown, as George
• Jenny Linder, age unknown, as Sara (and no, I don't know why a family has siblings named Sally and Sara, or Willie and Billy for that matter)

And two newbie Kettle kids:

• Mark Roberts, 31 (!), takes over from Eugene Persson as Teddy.
• Jon Gardner (age unknown), who was in Singin' in the Rain, replaces Teddy Infuhr as Benjamin.

Tom doesn't appear, but "Kim and the baby" are visiting him "in camp," presumably a military camp.  Rosie isn't mentioned but probably is away at college.  That gives a total of fifteen kids for Ma and Pa, after the oddity of sixteen in the previous movie.

Oliver Blake and Teddy Hart return as Indians Geoduck and Crowbar.  We learn that they can't read and they're hoping Pa will bring them back spicy French postcards.

Sam Harris was in Citizen Kane.  Suzanne Ridgeway was in Citizen Kane and It's a Wonderful Life.  Franklin Farnum was in Sunset Blvd.  Eugene Borden also played a Frenchman in All About Eve.  Rita Moreno plays a soubrette, the one singing the can-can song.

Stewardess Alice Kelley would show up in a different role for Ma and Pa Kettle at Home.  Gloria Pall, the French Girl Walking Poodle, was actually Brooklyn-born, so it's more appropriate that she would shortly play Tall Girl in New York in Abbott and Costello Go to Mars, which would also feature Russ Conway, Harold Goodwin, and Jack Kruschen.  Manuel Paris would soon be in The Band Wagon.  Alphonse Martell, a restaurant manager here, would be a headwaiter in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.  Jack Chefe and Jean de Briac would also be in Gentlemen Prefer.

Monkey Business (1952)

Monkey Business
November 7, 1952
Fox
Comedy, Sci-Fi
DVD
C-

At the time I reviewed the Marx Brothers' 1931 movie, I didn't yet own this one.  A friend gave it to me recently, and I just now watched it for the first time in about thirty years.  I consider the film a disappointment, and I won't be keeping it.  How did so many great talents produce such mediocre results?  I mostly blame the inane script by I.A.L. Diamond (Some Like It Hot), Charles Lederer (His Girl Friday, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes), and Ben Hecht (Front Page, which inspired His Girl Friday), as it would've embarrassed Sherwood Schwartz.  At least Schwartz knew how to make crap fun, while Howard Hawks (the director and also opening narrator) just seems to have told everyone, especially leads Grant and Rogers, to act big and frantically, after the sedate beginning.  Poor Marilyn is stuck playing a simple (in every sense) curvy blonde, without the nuances she'd have in Gentlemen Prefer and Some Like, and none of the dizzy charm of her small plum of a role in All About Eve.  (As for Hugh Marlowe, he's no great shakes as an actor anyway, but at least in Eve he had more appealing things to do than get "scalped" by Grant and a gang of children.)  I'd recommend the Merlin Jones movies over this misfire, because even the monkey is pathetic here.  Still, I won't give it a lower grade, since it's not terrible, just meh.

Kathleen Freeman and Forbes Murray were in Singin' in the Rain.  Melinda Plowman was Susie Kettle in Ma and Pa Kettle.  George Eldredge was in MaPK at the Fair.  Esther Dale, here playing Ginger's mother, is Birdie Hicks in the MaPK series.  Faire Binney would be in MaPK at Waikiki.  Roger Moore (no, not that Roger Moore) would be in Gentlemen Prefer, as would Charles Coburn, Henri Letondal, and gravel-voiced little George Winslow.

The Importance of Being Earnest

The Importance of Being Earnest
October 15, 1952
Pinewood
Comedy, Historical
Download
B+

I could've sworn I owned this movie, but it turns out it was on a tape I loaned to a friend and he lost, years ago.  Had I known that I no longer had the movie, I would've bought the DVD, and I will as soon as possible.  Rather than omit the film from the project, I cheated a little and rented it from Amazon.  This seems appropriate for a movie about dishonesty.

Also, every time I watch the movie (and I have seen it a couple times in recent years), I'm always a little surprised that it's in color.  Perhaps because I associate it with Kind Hearts and Coronets, I remember it as black & white.  Furthermore, it's a movie that deliberately looks like a stageplay (including framing scenes in a theatre at the beginning and end), and it's much more memorable for Wilde's wit than for any visual element.  (My review of the play is here:  http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2012/03/importance-of-being-earnest.html.)  That said, I like how there's a subtle use of color and theme, particularly in the costumes, as when Gwendolyn and her mother both wear butterfly hats, in a town scene where Algy has butterflies on his china; or when pink, blue, and flowers are used in sets and costumes for the scenes set in the country.

The movie is perfectly cast, more so in retrospect compared to the 2002 Colin Firth et al. mess.  Joan Greenwood is as slinky as she was in Kind Hearts and Coronets (although classier of course).  Michael Denison is utterly charming as Algy.  (Amusingly, he played John Worthing in the 1958 TV adaptation.)  Dame Edith Evans, as Lady Bracknell, makes the most of her lines, sometimes elongating syllables for extra effect (as with "found" and "handbag").  Margaret Rutherford and Miles Malleson make a cute elderly courting couple.  (He was the hangman in KHaC.)  The rest (it's a very small cast) are good, too, if less memorable.  (Richard Wattis, who plays the servant Seton, was the defence counsel in KHaC.)    It's not a perfect film-- for one thing, some of the best lines in the play didn't make it into the screenplay-- but it is worth a listen, and to a lesser degree a look.

Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair

Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair
July 11, 1952
Universal
Comedy
VHS
B-

As I mentioned earlier, I'm missing MaPK Go to Town (1950) and MaPK Back on the Farm ('51).  So I can't say exactly when the shift came away from the character comedy of the first and zeroeth entries to the cornier humor of this fourth movie in the series.  Whether it's a long-legged scarecrow fleeing for his life, or Geoduck and Crowbar making jokes about Cleveland Indians and Washington Redskins, I have no trouble believing that director Charles Barton mostly found his niche in TV sitcoms.  (Amos 'n Andy, McHale's Navy, Petticoat Junction, Family Affair, etc.)  But I did chuckle a few times, and if you can get past the Native American stereotypes, it's pleasant, innocuous comedy.  In this entry, oldest daughter Rosie (who's dating James Best, later of Dukes of Hazzard) wants to go to college, so her parents hope to win some prize money.  The script manages to rip off both A Day at the Races and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, but you probably aren't expecting much originality anyway.

Other than Rosie, the Kettle kids don't do much in this entry, but here's a round-up (and no, I don't know if all the Jackson kids are related):

1. Tom (not mentioned, but by this point in the series I think he was not only a husband but a father)
2. Rosie is now played by blonde Lori Nelson (then 18), rather than brunette Gloria Moore.
3. Eugene Persson, then 18, who was an unnamed Kettle child in The Egg and I and Ted Kettle in Ma and Pa Kettle (then for some reason Willie Kettle in MaPK Go to Town), is Teddy here, his last appearance in the series.  
4. Donna Leary, then 16, returns as Sally.
5. Elana Schreiner, then 15, returns as Nancy.
6. Teddy Infuhr, then 15, returns as Benjamin.
7. Ronnie Rondell, Jr., also 15, becomes Dannie.  
8. Billy Gray, then 14, is a nameless Kettle child, but would play the only son on Father Knows Best.
9. Beverly Mook, then 11, is back as Eve.
10. George Arglen, then 11, skipped the previous two in the series but is back as Willie.
11. Sherry Jackson, then 10, became Susie in MaPK Go to Town
12. Jackie Jackson (age unknown) became Henry in the same movie, taking over the role from George McDonald.
13. Margaret Brown (age unknown) is back as Ruthie.
14. Gary Lee Jackson (age unknown) takes over the role of Billy from two earlier actors.
15. Billy Clark (age unknown) takes over as George from his predecessor.
16. Jenny Linder (age unknown) first appears as Sara here.

Yes, that comes to sixteen kids, rather than the fifteen in earlier entries, but even Ma and Pa are never sure of the exact number, or names, of their brood.  At one point in the movie, they say they've been married 24 years, but later it's 30.  And Ma is supposed to be 52, meaning she must've had at least one change-of-life baby.  (Main was 62, but as energetic as ever.)                                                                                                                                      Nolan Leary was in Ma and Pa Kettle.  Esther Dale returns as frenemy Birdie Hicks, although she has a different mother this time.  Emory Parnell is back as Billy Reed.  Oliver Blake claims the role of Indian Geoduck (played by two other actors previously), which he'll keep almost to the end.  Brick Sullivan was in It's a Wonderful Life and Singin' in the Rain.  Kenner G. Kemp was also in Singin' in the Rain.  James Conaty was in All About Eve.                                                                                                                     This time, Frank O'Connor is a jam judge.  Rex Lease returns as the sheriff and would be in Abbott & Costello Go to Mars, which would also feature Juanita Close, Harold DeGarro, Frank Marlowe, and Syd Saylor.  Helen Gibson would appear in MaPK at Home, Bob Donnelly in MaPK at Waikiki.

Singin' in the Rain

Singin' in the Rain
April 11, 1952
MGM
Musical, Comedy, Historical
DVD
B

A sometimes joyous musical, as well as a funny look at the transition from silents to talkies.  You could quibble that the rich Technicolor (my first color movie without Judy Garland, although of course it's MGM) is wasted in the scenes that are purporting to be moments in black & white movies.  (After all, if in real life Harpo Marx had to change his red wig to a blond-looking one, why would someone bother to dye a fur pink?)  I have a more serious problem with the "Broadway Melody Ballet" sequence (hereafter referred to as BMB), which, although only thirteen minutes long, brings things to a crashing halt, being not only a bore but stylistically an anomaly.  (It's "modern," i.e. supposed to be 1920s American rather than pre-revolutionary French, but it looks like the sort of bloated 1950s Hollywood/Broadway number that has not aged well.)  The rest of the numbers are much better, with my favorite being the playful, zippy "Good Morning."  In that number as well as many others, such as "Fit as a Fiddle," I like how two or three people (Gene Kelly with Donald O'Connor and/or Debbie Reynolds) are doing the same or similar steps, but with individual touches.

Without BMB, I still probably would give the movie only a B+, because it doesn't cross over into the lovability of such different movies as The Wizard of Oz and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek.  It's very entertaining, and I can see why Reynolds became a big star, but I don't feel I want to stay in this world after the movie ends.

Kay Deslys was in The Big Store.  Julius Tannen, who's in the sound demo short, was Mr. Rafferty in The Miracle of Morgan's Creek.  Brick Sullivan was in It's a Wonderful Life.  Mike Lally was in Citizen Kane and Wonderful Life.  Angi O. Poulos was a peddler in Easter Parade, too.  Jimmy Bates, Patricia Jackson, and Joi Lansing were also in Easter Parade.  Gloria Moore was Rosie Kettle in the earliest Ma and Pa movies.

Rita Moreno, then about 20, is almost unrecognizable as red-haired Zelda.  She would appear in Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation the next year.  Cyd Charisse, who's the seductress in BMB, would have a much larger role in The Band Wagon.  Paul Maxey and Joseph Mell would go on to Monkey Business.  Dee Turnell, who was in Copacabana and Easter Parade, would go on to The Band Wagon.  Lyle Clark, Fred Datig, Jr., Peggy Murray, Charles Regan, Joette Robinson, and Jimmy Thompson would all also be in The Band Wagon.  Shirley Wilson would do Gentlemen Prefer Blondes as well as The Band Wagon.  A. Cameron Grant and Judy Landon would be in Gentlemen Prefer, too.  Margaret Bert and Kenner G. Kemp would be in Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair, while Jon Gardner and Timmy Hawkins would be Benjamin and Teddy Kettle in Ma and Pa Kettle in Waikiki.  Tommy Walker would go on to There's No Business Like Show Business, Ann McCrea to Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, and John Logan to Some Like It Hot.  Robert Fortier, who plays a gangster in BMB, would turn up almost three decades later as the town drunk in Popeye.  Sue Allen would be a voice in the chorus of Heidi's Song.

All About Eve

All About Eve
January 15, 1951
Fox
Drama, Comedy
DVD
B+

This is a very grown-up movie, and not just because of the smoking and drinking.  The dialogue, especially that of Addison DeWitt (Oscar-winning George Sanders), is sharp and witty, sometimes very literary, or at least theatrical.  Although there's no overt sex, it's clear that these are sexual people.  (Bette Davis and Gary Merrill, as Margo and Bill, fell in love during filming, and that new-relationship energy really comes through in their onscreen performances.)  And there's just an overall sophistication that most movies lack.  The tagline was "It's all about women-- and their men!", probably a spin on The Women's "It's all about men."  However, Addison aside, it's the women you'll remember most from this movie-- Margo, Eve (Anne Baxter), Karen (Celeste Holm), Miss Casswell (comparative newcomer Marilyn Monroe), and of course Birdie (the fabulously down-to-earth Thelma Ritter).

If I can't rate the movie higher, I think it's that it's a bit too long (about two hours and 15 minutes) to spend with such talky and self-absorbed yet gossipy people.  I'll note that this viewing, I found the New York vs. LA aspect to be the least dated, and the amazingly casual plane-boarding the most.  (I've gone through more to take a cross-town bus, and no one could've paid my fare for me the way Eve gets Bill's tickets.)

Franklyn Farnum was in Sunset Blvd.  Snub Pollard would be in Singin' in the Rain, Steven Geray in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

Sunset Blvd.

Sunset Blvd.
August 25, 1950
Paramount
Drama
VHS
B-

This movie is entertaining for the most part, even if it doesn't live up to its reputation.  (And I know Billy Wilder can do much better.)  The main characters, even the "nice girl," are unscrupulous.  (She's cheating on a surprisingly un-deadpan Jack Webb.)  But unlike in Kind Hearts and Coronets, their immorality isn't particularly enjoyable.  Still, it's interesting to see the story unfold, told in flashback by a dead man.  The look of the film, especially the creepy old mansion, works well in black & white, although some scenes are too poorly lit to see details.  And I like that many people play themselves (like Cecil B. DeMille), and in fact Paramount Studios plays itself.  Gloria Swanson is playing a nightmare version of herself in a way, as Norma Desmond, while William Holden would portray other cynical young men as the decade went on.  And, yes, I laugh at the idea of Norma being old at 50 in the way I laugh at Mary being a spinster librarian in It's a Wonderful Life.  Oh, and this is probably my first movie to have a car-phone in it.

This time Frank O'Connor plays a courtier.  Robert Emmett O'Connor (I assume no relation), who plays the older guard at the gate, was Henderson in A Night at the Opera.  Tiny Jones was in You Can't Cheat an Honest Man and The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle.  H.B. Warner, who plays himself here, was Mr. Gower in It's a Wonderful Life.  Hedda Hopper also plays herself here, but eleven years earlier in The Women she was a fictional gossip columnist.

Although Buster Keaton contributed to some of the MGM Marx Brothers scripts, this is his first onscreen appearance in my film collection, but far from his last.  (Thank you, AIP.  I think.)  Kenneth Gibson would be in Ma and Pa Kettle in Waikiki.  Fred Clark, who's Sheldrake, would be Mr. Babcock in Auntie Mame.

Kind Hearts and Coronets

Kind Hearts and Coronets
June 14, 1950
Ealing
Comedy, Historical
VHS
B

This first of my British movies wouldn't have gotten past the Code had it been made in the US at the time, involving as it does adultery and serial killing.*  There's no explicit sex or violence though, and the movie is, to use phrasing the antihero (Dennis Price as Louis Mazzini) would approve, delicately indelicate.  It's a very dry, dark, subtle comedy, and it's not surprising to learn it's based on a book (Israel Rank).  Alec Guinness plays eight (or more, depending on what you count) members of the aristocratic family that Mazzini's mother has been disowned by, so Mazzini swears revenge on them.  Along the way, he marries his cousin's widow, but continues his affair with Sibella, played by the luscious Joan Greenwood, who'd be more scrupulous but just as sexy as Gwendolen in The Importance of Being Earnest.

Besides Greenwood, a couple of the faces might look familiar if you've seen Being Earnest: Miles Malleson (hangman, Chasuble) and Richard Wattis (defence counsel, Seton)


*Wikipedia says that on American release, the discovery of Louis's memoirs was added, and the N-word (in the "eeny meeny miney mo" rhyme, true to turn-of-the-century England) subtracted.  Also, "the dialogue between Louis and Sibella was altered to downplay their adultery; [and] derogatory lines about the Reverend were deleted."  Apparently US censors were fine with the murders, as long as Mazzini seemed to be punished in the end.

Ma and Pa Kettle

Ma and Pa Kettle
April 1, 1949
Universal
Comedy
VHS
B-

While I won't say this is a rollicking comedy, it has a certain charm, partly from its focus on the Kettles (who stole The Egg and I), partly from oldest boy Tom's romance, and partly from the culture clash of the family with post-war prosperity.  Of course, Pa is lazy, but he does happen to win a contest, with first prize a pre-fab house chockful of modern gadgets.  (He just wanted the free tobacco pouch for entering.)  So, he, Ma, and the fifteen kids, including Tom (just home from college), move from the farm to the new place.  Ma cooks a roast pig in the new oven, which is only supposed to take two or three minutes!  Pa has to deal with remote-controlled radio and TV, as well as sun-lamps in the bathroom.  Meanwhile, Tom has met a pretty but opinionated reporter named Kim.  They have chemistry together, and I like that she has a career.  (I think she gives it up in the sequels though.)

I used to have all the Kettle movies, but it looks like I'm missing the next two and the last two.  (Kilbride would drop out due to poor health, and the last two have "Kettles" in the titles rather than "Ma and Pa Kettle.")  This first entry establishes the formula of course, so that the theme tune (taken from The Egg and I), the opening credits, and some other elements would stay the same through much of the series.  Charles Lamont would direct about half of the sequels.

We actually get a role call of the kids, so thanks to IMDB, here's a list:

1. Tom
2. oldest girl Rosie (played by Gloria Moore, who'd appear in Singin' in the Rain as a chorus girl)
3. Ted (15-year-old Eugene Persson)
4. Danny (14-year-old Dale Belding, who'd be in a couple of the entries I'm missing)
5. Sara (13-year-old Diane Florentine, who was nameless in The Egg and I)
6. Benjamin (12-year-old Teddy Infuhr)
7. Nancy (12-year-old Elana Schreiner)
8. Sally (12-year-old Donna Leary)
9. Billy (played by a 9-year-old)
10. Eve (8-year-old Beverly Mook)
11. Susie (8-year-old Melinda Plowman, who'd go on to Cary Grant's Monkey Business)
12. Willie (8-year-old George Arlen)
13. Ruthie (Margaret Brown, age unknown but she did appear on the Dobie Gillis show in '61)
14. Henry (George McDonald, age unknown, who was in The Egg)
15. George (played by a child whose age in unknown but he would be MaPK Go to Town).

(Oddly enough, Ma and Pa have been together thirty years, but most of their kids seem to be under seventeen.  Maybe that includes the years of courtin'.)

Emory Parnell, who was Mr. Tuerck in Miracle of Morgan's Creek, is almost unrecognizable as Billy Reed.  Esther Dale and Isabel O'Madigan are back as Birdie Hicks and her mother, with Birdie still holding a grudge against Ma for winning the quilt contest in The Egg.  (Ma used the prize money to send Tom to college, so four years apparently have passed.)  Rex Lease would continue to play the sheriff in later entries.  Nolan Leary, who plays the minister here, gets demoted to church usher in Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair.  Harry Chesire would also be in Fair.

Easter Parade

Easter Parade
July 8, 1948
MGM
Musical, Historical
DVD
C+

This movie never quite comes together, but it's a nice attempt.  There's a romantic square, or at least rectangle, where Judy Garland's character Hannah loves Fred Astaire's Don, but he seems to be hung up on his ex played by Ann Miller, who's interested in Peter Lawford's Johnny, who falls in love with Hannah at first sight.  And none of the four couples make any sense!  In particular, we have no idea what's motivating Ann Miller's Nadine, except for maybe ambition and/or spite.  Another failure in the writing is that the musical number that Nadine's maid reports is an embarrassment for Hannah actually is embarrassing to watch.  (It's not just that Judy's in hobo drag, it's that she's so smirky about it.)  The other numbers, especially Fred's "Stepping Out," are much better.

This is only my third Technicolor movie (I'm not counting The Women), and it's just coincidence that they're all Judy Garland vehicles from MGM.  The color, especially on the 1912 costumes, looks fine, although we never actually see the title parade (more of a stroll by pedestrians).  In fact, it's hinted more than once that Nadine will have her "nose put out of joint" when she sees Hannah strolling by in her Easter finery, but one, it's hardly Judy's best outfit in the movie; and two, we never see Nadine's reaction!  On top of that, the "magazine cover" number only reminded me of better sequences in other musicals (including Marilyn's "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend").  Still, this isn't a painful movie like Meet Me in St. Louis.

Sam Harris was in Citizen Kane.  Sig Frohlich was a winged monkey in The Wizard of Oz.  George Noisom, who's the Western Union messenger, was in The Wizard of Oz, Citizen Kane, and It's a Wonderful Life, but this is his last credit.  Ruth Hall, who was Mary Helton in Monkey Business seventeen years earlier, plays a showgirl here.  Robert Emmett O'Connor, who's cast as a policeman, was Henderson in A Night at the Opera.  Ralph Sanford, the hotel detective here, was Liggett in Copacabana.  Dee Turnell was in Copacabana and would go on to Singin' in the Rain.  Angi O. Poulos plays a peddler in this and Singin'.  John Albright and Patricia Jackson would also be in that movie.  Nolan Leary would appear in Ma and Pa Kettle, Helene Heigh in The Kettles in the Ozarks.

Copacabana

Copacabana
May 30, 1947
United Artists
Comedy, Musical
VHS
B-

This is Groucho's most entertaining movie in a dozen years, although he's not the funniest person in it.  No, it's not Carmen Miranda, although she has her moments.  No, the one who made me laugh the hardest was "Andy Russell, the voice of romance."  Like many people in the movie, he's playing a version of himself, but he's so damn goofy that I don't see how he could ever have been taken seriously as a crooner.  Both Groucho and Carmen have dual roles, she as "Carmen" and the nonexistent "Mademoiselle Fifi."  (When he says there's no woman in the world like Fifi, I thought of Capt. Tuttle on M*A*S*H.)  Groucho mostly plays Lionel Q. Deveraux (the Q stands for his father's love of pool), but he also shows up in the old greasepaint and frock coat, as a rising young talent, to sing "Go West, Young Man," a Kalmar & Ruby ditty that I assume was written for Go West and left out for some reason.  The Medved brothers picked Groucho & Carmen as one of the worst screen couples ever, but I think they're sort of cute together, even if she smooches three or four other guys rather than him, and he spends a lot of time hitting on other women, all of whom sass him.  One of them, the cigarette girl, was played by Kay Gorcey, who was then married to Groucho.  (She was Leo Gorcey's ex.)

There's also a subplot that Groucho remarks is about either the boss in love with the secretary or the secretary in love with the boss.  It seems to be the latter, with Gloria Jean as the secretary, six years after she played W. C. Fields's niece "Gloria Jean" in Never Give a Sucker an Even Break.  She, on Andy's advice, tries to serenade her boss, but like George in It's a Wonderful Life when Mary tries to sing to him, he thinks she's not feeling well.  It turns out that he's crazy about "a little chick who likes Andy."  All the confusion, including the "murder of Fifi," is untangled in the end, and the Hollywood agent thinks it would make a great picture, so we end with a mini-film within a film.  Well, maybe not a great picture, but give it a chance.

William H. O'Brien was in A Night at the Opera.  Bert Stevens was in Citizen Kane.  Dick Elliott, who plays the hotel manager, was the man on the porch in It's a Wonderful Life, the one who says, "Youth is wasted on the wrong people."  Cy Schindell was a bouncer in Wonderful Life as well as this movie.  Kenner G. Kemp and Dee Turnell would go on to Singin' in the Rain, Mari Blanchard to Abbott and Costello Go to Mars.  Columnist Earl Wilson would also play himself in two of my '60s movies, Beach Blanket Bingo and Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?

The Egg and I

The Egg and I
May 1947
Universal
Comedy
VHS
C+

Late in the movie, heroine Betty's mother says, "In my opinion, both you and Bob have behaved very stupidly."  Indeed, it's difficult to say who in the couple has been more of an idiot.  At first, the prize would seem to go to Bob (Fred MacMurray), who waits till his wedding night to tell Betty (Claudette Colbert) that he's bought a chicken farm that they'll live on.  The farm turns out to be very rundown, but Bob doesn't understand any of Betty's reservations.  He also doesn't understand her jealousy of the Lauren-Bacall wannabe down the road.  On the other hand, Betty jumps to conclusions when Bob doesn't come for dinner one night (he's buying the wannabe's farm to surprise Betty), and she leaves without talking to him about it.  Not only that, she goes home to mother and rips up all of Bob's letters.  She already knows she's pregnant, but she doesn't tell him till they reconcile, and the baby is a few days old!

What saves the movie is that it's sort of the zeroeth entry in the decade-long Ma and Pa Kettle series.  The Kettles (played by Percy Kilbride and the incomparable Marjorie Main, she nominated for an Oscar for this film) are Northwest hillbillies, with a bunch of kids, roughly a dozen.  Pa is lazy, Ma isn't, and they're an odd couple in other ways, including body types.  (Pa is small and thin, Ma is big).  They're not at all a typical post-war couple, but they became a hit with audiences.  I haven't read the book The Egg and I, but I get the impression that they're very different in print.  The title I assume is a pun on The King and I.

This time Frank O'Connor is one of the "revelers at the country dance."  Vangie Beilby was in A Day at the Races and The Bank Dick.  Jesse Graves was in Citizen Kane.  Victor Potel, who was the newspaper editor in The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, plays the Indian Crowbar here, but he would be replaced by several actors as the series went on.  Joseph E. Bernard, Herbert Heywood, and Samuel S. Hinds (as Pa Bailey) were in It's a Wonderful Life.

Richard Long would reprise his role as oldest son Tom Kettle in the first official entry in the series, Ma and Pa Kettle.  Some of the Kettle kids are unnamed in this film but pick up names in MaPK:  thirteen-year-old (in '47) Eugene Persson becoming Ted, eleven-year-old Diane Florentine as Sara, eleven-year-old Teddy Infuhr as Benjamin, Gloria Moore (age unknown but probably teens) as Rosie, and George McDonald (age also unknown) as Henry.  Esther Dale and Isabel O'Madigan would reprise their roles as Mrs. Birdie Hicks and her mother.  (In case you're wondering, there was only a fourteen-year age difference between the actresses, and it shows.)   Bob Perry would be in MaPK, too.

It's a Wonderful Life

It's a Wonderful Life
January 7, 1947
RKO
Drama, Comedy
VHS
B

This may be the darkest of all "holiday movies," involving as it does suicide, bankruptcy, and unpunished corruption.*  The hero, George, yells at his uncle, wife, and kids, as well as picks fights with strangers.  He wants to escape his little hometown, but he always does "the right thing."  If we smile and/or cry at the ending, it's partly with relief that, despite all George's problems, it's a good thing he was born.  Jimmy Stewart is just right as this complex yet ordinary man, with all his line readings (stuttered or not) natural and believable.  Lionel Barrymore puts enough sarcasm into his dialogue that he never becomes a simple cartoon villain.  The supporting cast, with a lot of familiar faces (some of them mentioned below), is good, especially glowing Donna Reed as George's loyal wife Mary.  (However, I always laugh out loud that we're supposed to be horrified that alternative-universe-Mary has become, gasp, a spinster librarian!)  This time, I was particularly impressed with the children, the younger versions of George, Mary, and Violet matching up with their adult counterparts, and the Bailey kids not only looking like each other, but acting believably for their ages, with no precocity or wisecracks.  (Compare, for instance, Andrew on Family Ties, with his unbelievable dialogue even as a kindergartner.)

As with Citizen Kane and Casablanca, this is a "great" movie that I still find good after many viewings.  I'd rather hang out with the gang in Morgan's Creek, since the visits to Bedford Falls are draining, but it is interesting to see one man's life in a couple hours.  (There are some glitches in chronology, mostly surrounding younger brother Harry's age.  In the alternative world, he dies at 9 in 1919, although born in 1911.  And he seems to be four years younger than George, who's 12 in 1919, but Harry graduates high school in 1928.)

This is yet another credit for Frank O'Connor, this time as a military officer.  Edward Keane and Art Howard were in A Night at the Opera.  Brooks Benedict was in Follow the Fleet.  Lillian Randolph (Annie the maid) was in At the Circus.  Tom Coleman, Mike Lally, and Suzanne Ridgeway were in Citizen Kane.  George Noisom was in The Wizard of Oz and Citizen Kane.  Jimmy the Crow has a larger role here than he did in The Wizard of Oz.  Adriana Caselotti, who sings at Martini's here, was "Juliet's" voice in The Wizard of Oz (as well as Snow White's in the Disney cartoon).  Al Bridge, who was the lawyer Johnson in The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, has a much smaller role here as the sheriff.

Joseph E. Bernard would shortly appear in The Egg and I.  Brick Sullivan would be in Singin' in the Rain, Hershell Graham in The Band Wagon, and Jack Gordon in Some Like It Hot.  Frank Faylen, who plays Ernie was in The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, and would go on to The Monkey's Uncle.  H.B. Warner, who plays Mr. Gower, was then in his 70s and had credits going back to before World War I; he would play himself in Sunset Boulevard.  Charles Lane, who describes himself as a "bright young man," was then 41 and still had decades ahead of him as an actor.


*Well, unpunished except on Saturday Night Live:  http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/81249131/

A Night in Casablanca

A Night in Casablanca
October 12, 1946
United Artists
Comedy, Musical
VHS
C

The Marx Brothers "retired" after The Big Store, and who could blame them?  This was their post-war comeback movie, but it's not any better than Store.  Then again, it's not any worse.  They're Dumont-less this time, although they do have Sig Ruman again, much more villainous than he was in A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races.  (As in Store, the serious plot involves a string of murders.)  The movie isn't really a parody on Casablanca, although the Nazis are causing trouble here, too.  The Marxes, especially Harpo (playing "Rusty," as he did in Go West), look old and tired.  (They were then in their mid to late 50s.)  The jokes are mostly old and tired, too, although there are moments I smiled a little, as when Harpo indeed is "holding up a wall."  This wasn't quite the end for the comedy team, but I haven't seen Love Happy in about thirty years, so I can't tell you if it's any worse.  I have Groucho coming up in 1947's Copacabana and 1968's Skidoo.

Mary Dees was in The Women.  Philip Van Zandt was in Citizen Kane.  And Dan Seymour was in Casablanca.  Kalmar & Ruby's "Who's Sorry Now" (from 1923) is sung by the villainess, a whole night club, and then Groucho.

Meet Me in St. Louis

Meet Me in St. Louis
January 1945
MGM
Musical, Historical
DVD
D+

The only reason why I have this movie is because it was part of a four-pack that was the only form I could get Singin' in the Rain on DVD.  This is the second time I've seen MMiSL and I still dislike it.  I didn't care for anyone in the Smith family, particularly not the deeply annoying Tootie.  She'd already worn out her welcome in the first half hour, but wait till you get to the part where she claims that their neighbor (who Garland's character Esther has a crush on) tried to kill her, when he was actually protecting her!  And she doesn't get punished!  Even Esther was unlikable, as when she tells her grandfather that he was the first "human being" she danced with that night.  I was glad as always to see Marjorie Main (playing a cook, as she did in Turnabout), although there's not enough of her.  The house looks good in color.  And "The Trolley song" and "Have a Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" were nice, but hardly worth sitting through the rest of the movie, which is so far the worst in my collection.

The script is by Irving Brecher, who also wrote At the Circus and Go West.  Robert Emmett O'Connor was Henderson in A Night at the Opera.  Mary Astor, who's Mrs. Smith, was Marion Manning in Turnabout.  Sam Harris was in Citizen Kane.  That's Hugh Marlowe, the future Lloyd Richards of All About Eve, as Colonel Darly.  Leon Ames, who plays Mr. Smith, would be in The Misadventures of Merlin Jones.  Sid Newman, who's a boy on the trolley, over fifty years later would be in The Wedding Singer.

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek
January 1944
Paramount
Comedy
VHS
A-

Seventy years later, this remains an amazing comedy.  Funny yes, not only in its dialogue (I just caught "repairing the morals of a minor" this time) and slapstick (William Demarest does incredible pratfalls, especially for a man in his 50s).  But it's also wise and surprisingly sweet.  It has a fantastic central cast-- Betty Hutton as the girl in big trouble, Eddie Bracken as her devoted suitor, Diana Lynn as the best kid sister ever, and Demarest as the gruff yet well-meaning papa-- but every role is just right.  Preston Sturges got not just a line or two past the censors (the main family's name is Kockenlocker, although Sturges couldn't have known that seven decades later there'd be a suggestive homophone for Mr. Tuerck), but the main idea and much else.  An exchange like "What's the matter with gas?" [for suicide]/ "What's the matter with bigamy?" is unimaginable in any other Code-era movie.  The film also offers a cynical, although not mean-spirited, view of small-town life, as well as of course of "boosting the troops' spirits."  Yet there is much kindness in the film, even from the very cynical lawyer.  The ending still packs a wallop, although less than it did when the Dionne quintuplets weren't even a decade old.

If I have any quibbles, they're that the stuttering, by Bracken and then Hutton, is a bit overdone (it does provide some humor though, as well as affect the plot); and the bank robbery towards the end feels unnecessary in terms of plot and pacing.  Still, I've watched this film twice in the last few months and would happily watch it every month if I had to.  I hope to get the DVD someday, and I know I really should see more Sturges movies, although I fear they could never live up to this.

Nora Cecil, who plays the head nurse, was in The Old Fashioned Way.  Porter Hall, who was Murphy in His Girl Friday, is the Justice of the Peace here.  Jack Norton was in The Bank Dick.  Robert Dudley was in Citizen Kane.  Bill Cartledge was in Playmates.  Max Wagner would go on to It's a Wonderful Life.  Brian Donlevy, who's reprising his title role from The Great McGinty, would play an advertising executive (Mickey Rooney's boss) in How to Stuff a Wild Bikini.

Road to Morocco

Road to Morocco
April 8, 1943
Paramount
Comedy, Musical
DVD
B-

While this isn't as funny as I remember, it still has its moments.  Yes, it's probably as politically incorrect as Road to Zanzibar, but it has a much lighter touch, and at least there's no cannibalism.  David Butler also directed Playmates, and he's good at blending silly music with a silly plot, as well as lots of then-topical references, e.g. Here Comes Mr. Jordan.  The title song is one of my favorites ever, and even as a kid I delighted in these lyrics:  "Like a complete set of Shakespeare that you buy in the corner drugstore for a dollar ninety-eight/ We're Morocco bound/ Or/ Like a volume of Omar Khayyam that you buy in the department store at Christmas time for your cousin Julia/ We're Morocco bound."

There's more fourth-wall-breaking than in Zanzibar, with that title song referencing Dorothy Lamour and Paramount.   Bing's solos are very good, too, and I like the reprise of "Moonlight Becomes You" done by the trio, with shifting voices!  We've got the usual romantic triangle, but this time Bob gets a great alternate girl: cute, affectionate, and brave Dona Drake.  There's also Anthony Quinn as Lamour's rejected fiance.  And Bob & Bing have a bromance that involves accidental kissing.  There are moments that I'm surprised got past the censors, like Bob saying the word "reefers," and Dorothy's kisses uncurling the toes of Bob's shoes.  (Bing suggests she try kissing his nose and straightening that.)  I really like the sets and costumes.  So why not a higher grade?  Well, there is that political incorrectness, not just about Arabs (much more than in Casablanca) but about "village idiots."  Some of the other jokes bomb, too.  Still, the movie is worth seeing.

Harry Woods, who was gangster Alky Briggs in Monkey Business, is unconfirmed as being in this movie.  Leo Belasco, Monte Blue, Dick Botiller, and Jamiel Hasson were all in Casablanca, which is fitting since Casablanca is in Morocco.  Vivian Dandridge sang in A Day at the Races, and she plays a servant here.  (She's also the voice of "So White" in 1943's infamous cartoon Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs, talk about politically incorrect!)  James Dime was in Go West.  Suzanne Ridgeway was in Citizen Kane and would go on to It's a Wonderful Life.

Casablanca

Casablanca
January 23, 1943
Warner Brothers
Drama
VHS
B

Like Citizen Kane, this is a good movie burdened with the reputation of "great."  It is intelligent, surprisingly witty, and romantic (although not a romance).  However, (as with Kane) I can't say that I cared all that much about the characters, except for maybe Sam, whose dilemmas seemed the most relatable.  It's not the fault of the actors and actresses, or even the writers or director.  I think we're meant to be kept at a distance, so that the morality of this environment is presented as what it is, no more, no less.  For me to love a movie, there has to be something warmer, as in Wizard of Oz.  Also, I'll admit, witty or not, this is unquestionably a drama, and I probably can't love a drama.  All that said, it is interesting to see how the twists and turns play out, even if this is one of the most spoiled, and quoted, movies ever made.  Additionally, I like the use of light and shadow, in a different way than in Kane.  (This is one of those movies that it was madness to colorize.)  Although not a musical, the film uses music well, and not just "As Time Goes By."

Leonid Kinskey, the agitator in Duck Soup, is Sascha here.  Mike Tellegen was in Roberta, Enrique Acosta and Adolph Faylauer in A Night at the Opera.  Georges Renavent was in Turnabout and Road to Zanzibar.  Paul Porcasi was also in Zanzibar.  Carl Deloro and Hercules Mendez were in Citizen Kane.

Dan Seymour would also appear in A Night in Casablanca.  Leon Belasco, Monte Blue, Dick Botiller, Jamiel Hasson, and Michael Mark would all be in Road to Morocco.  William Edmunds and Arthur Stuart Hull would go on to It's a Wonderful Life, Edmunds as Mr. Martini.  Eugene Borden would be in All About Eve.  Norma Varden, who plays the wife of the pickpocketed Englishman, would have a larger role in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, as Lady Beekman.  Jean de Briac, George Dee, and Arthur Dulac would have small roles in Gentlemen.  I've seen a few other Bogart movies but I don't own them.  He and Peter Lorre always play off each other well, although I might not have any other Lorre movies besides Muscle Beach Party.

Playmates

Playmates
December 26, 1941
RKO
Comedy, Musical
VHS
B

I won't argue that this is a good movie, but I do find it a very entertaining one, especially the music.  Kay Kyser and his band sort of play themselves, as does John Barrymore in his last film.  Throw in Patsy Kelly as one of the fast-talking agents (the other is Peter Lind Hayes, who I only I know of because he apparently was on the first TV sitcom to feature a baby), mix in Lupe Velez (best known for the Mexican Spitfire series),and give M.A. Bogue, AKA Ish Kabibble, lots to do, so even the non-musical scenes are fun.  (Check out, to take just one example, Patsy as Lulu saying that the A Vitamins "taste like 'ell to me," a great sneak past the censor.)

But, oh, that music!  The "best" (well, funniest) numbers are first and last.  "Thank Your Lucky Stars and Stripes" (in this movie released shortly after Pearl Harbor) has to be one of the most ridiculous "patriotic" songs ever.  Lines like, "If you can sing and believe in anything," "If you have shoes and can say the things you choose," and "If you can joke and enjoy an artichoke," along with stuff about traffic cops and sweater girls and ham & eggs, belted out in enthusiastic big-band style, convince me.  "Romeo Smith and Juliet Jones" with its happy ending and slang like "hepcat" and "thirty grand" is of course a big hit with the posh Long Island audience onscreen.  Even the lesser songs, like "Humpty Dumpty Heart" and "Que Chica," couldn't possibly be taken seriously, at least not nowadays.

Surprisingly, in the midst of the in(s)anity, Barrymore, who's been chewing whatever of the scenery he can wrestle away from everyone else, gives a fine, understated rendition of Hamlet's soliloquy.  It doesn't blot out the later image of Kyser having a dream where he fights a bull with Barrymore's face (only to wake up kissing Hayes, thinking it's Velez), but it is a touching moment.  The movie's title by the way (which decades later would suggest Playboy bunnies) is a pun on "play" in the theatrical sense.

Marshall Ruth was in Turnabout.  Fred Trowbridge was in Citizen Kane.  Jack Gargan was in The Bank Dick and Citizen Kane.  Barry Norton would go on to Casablanca, Bill Cartledge to The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (as the short soldier).  Leon Belasco, who plays Prince Maharoohu, would appear in Road to Morocco (and a 1972 TV-movie called Playmates).

Never Give a Sucker an Even Break

Never Give a Sucker an Even Break
October 10, 1941
Universal
Comedy
DVD
B-

This movie grew on me as it went on.  For the first twenty or twenty-five minutes, I was bored by the not-quite-real-life behind-the-scenes view of Esoteric Studio.  And then Fields shares his script with "Franklin Pangborn" (this time not only married but a film producer).  And things start getting surreal.  Almost every criticism you can think of for the script is voiced by an indignant Pangborn.  Even when we're back in the "real" world, everything is exaggerated, like the frantic drive to a maternity hospital all over a not-yet-overdeveloped Los Angeles, or the soda shop scene that Fields tells us the censor wouldn't let him make into a saloon.  In whichever world Fields is in, he this time has a loyal niece (not daughter), Gloria Jean, sort of as herself.  She was then 15, and would go on to Copacabana (1947).  (She sings in both.)  Margaret Dumont does not play any version of herself, but instead a rich woman who's raising her lovely young daughter on a Russian mountain-top, far away from men, till Fields literally drops into their lives, from the passenger deck of an airplane.  A Russian mountain-top with monkeys.  An airplane with sleeping compartments.  He falls because he's chasing a bottle of booze.  And you thought International House was surreal!

Fields's girlfriend Carlotta Monti again plays a secretary, as she did in The Man on the Flying Trapeze, although not his this time.  Charles McMurphy was in My Little Chickadee.  Bill Wolfe was in both My Little Chickadee and The Bank Dick.  June Preston was in You Can't Cheat an Honest Man.  Kay Deslys was in The Big Store.  Victor Potel would go on to The Miracle of Morgan's Creek.  Brick Sullivan would be in both It's a Wonderful Life and Singin' in the Rain.

Citizen Kane

Citizen Kane
September 5, 1941
RKO
Historical, Drama, Comedy
DVD
B

While I don't believe this is The Best Movie Ever, or even close, I won't deny that it's a good movie, and in its lighter moments a fun movie.  The movie darkens (literally and figuratively) as it goes on, but the opening newsreel is a delightful little parody in itself.  The story is told over and over, in many forms, from many perspectives, some of them not necessarily the ones we're supposed to be in.  (How would Susan know what audience members were doing during her opera debut?  And then there's the problem of whether anyone actually overheard Kane's famous last words.)  The film looks and to some degree sounds like nothing before it.  (The overlapping dialogue in some scenes may owe something to His Girl Friday, which gave a different but not entirely unlike view of the newspaper business.)  Although we sense Welles's stage roots in some scenes, there are shots that have incredible depth, and sometimes height.  The acting is generally solid.  I didn't find the old-age make-up always believable, and I think the movie is about half an hour too long, but overall I was drawn in and entertained.

Cyril Ring, who has a very small role here, was the villain Yates in The Cocoanuts.  Field Norton was in A Night at the Opera, Ray Flynn in A Day at the Races, Cliff Herd in Room Service, Buck Mack in At the Circus, and Lew Harvey in Go West.  Thomas Pogue was in Andy Hardy Meets Debutante, Arthur Yeoman in You Can't Cheat an Honest Man, Joan Blair in The Women, and Jack Egan in Turnabout.  William Alston, Eddie Coke, Monty Ford, Jack Gargan, and Sam Rice were in The Bank Dick.  Frank O'Connor, who's in so many of my earlier movies, appears in the Madison Garden scene.  Buddy Messinger branches out from his usual elevator boy roles to play "Man at Boat Dock," one of many.

George Noisom was in The Wizard of Oz and would go on to It's a Wonderful Life, which also features Tom Coleman, Charles Meakin, and Larry Wheat.  Frank McClure was in His Girl Friday and would appear in Auntie Mame.  Carl Deloro and Hercules Mendez would go on to Casablanca, Suzanne Ridgeway to Road to Morocco, Robert Dudley to Miracle of Morgan's Creek, and Shimen Ruskin to Love and Death.  And, yes, that's Agnes "Endora" Moorehead as Kane's mother, although the only other movie I know I have her in is Charlotte's Web.

The Big Store

The Big Store
June 20, 1941
MGM
Comedy, Musical
VHS
C

While this is much livelier than Room Service, I'm going to have to put it on the same level, because, unlike At the Circus and Go West, which offer "Lydia the Tattooed Lady" and the big train scene respectively, there's not really anything that the Marxes do here that stands out.  In fact, the only amusing moments I recall are deadpan Virginia O'Brien, as Kitty, inventing rock & roll (OK, technically still swing, but she is singing about rocking, a baby), and Charles Lane showing up at the end and being very Charles-Laney as the Finance Company Man.  (He always played the same stern type, including in It's a Wonderful Life.)  Yes, it's nice to see Groucho romancing Dumont again and insulting the villain.  (Douglas Dumbrille, who was the horse-scaring-voiced Morgan in A Day at the Races, is the even more sinister Mr. Grover here.)  But there's just too much boring music, which sadly includes Harpo in a "mirror scene" that is nothing like the one in Duck Soup.  Also, there's a perfect example of what I call gratuitous racism, where for no reason at all, four black cotton-pickers show up in the middle of the "Sing While You Sell" production.  (OK, other than O'Brien's weird lullaby, I did like Groucho's remark about Technicolor being too expensive for the fashion show, which I suspect is a dig at The Women.)  Don't get me started on the various ethnic families shopping for beds!

Jan Duggan, who did a few Fields movies, plays the wife Groucho insults in the bed department.  Perennial elevator operator Buddy Messinger actually has a few lines this time.  Russell Hicks was in Follow the Fleet.  Al Hill and Pierre Watkin were in The Bank Dick.  Lennie Bluett sang in A Day at the Races as well as this movie.  And, yes, that's Auntie Em, Clara Blandick, as the nice old lady that the male romantic lead makes a record for.

Lew Harvey and Milton Kibbee would go on to Citizen Kane, Kay Deslys to Never Give a Sucker an Even Break.  Victor Potel, who plays the father of the Swedish kids, would be a newspaper editor in The Miracle of Morgan's Creek.



(The last picture is stolen from this very funny piece:  http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/big-screen/2012/jul/31/dig-a-hole-tony-martin-and-his-emtenement-symphony/)

Road to Zanzibar

Road to Zanzibar
April 11, 1941
Paramount
Comedy, Musical
VHS
C

I used to watch the Road to... movies on TV a lot as a kid, but I never owned any until a few months ago, when I saw this tape for less than $1.  This is the first I've watched the movie as an adult and, well, it hasn't aged well.  It starts out all right, with Bob & Bing bantering.  But I didn't like that everyone in the movie is immoral, with Bing manipulating best friend Bob, and Dorothy Lamour (as Donna Latour) tricking both of them, while planning to marry for money, and lots of other scheming going on throughout, including Donna's pal Julia tricking "the boys" when Donna seems to be sold in the slave market.  If this was meant to be a dark comedy, I mean a black comedy-- Oh dear.  The other big problem is this is set in Africa (they never actually get to Zanzibar), and the "natives" are stereotyped, especially the cannibal tribe that Bob & Bing meet.  Yes, it's possible this is all a parody, but it's not a funny one.  The wall-breaking jokes are better, as when the pattycake routine is anticipated and Bob says, "They must've seen the picture," i.e. Road to Singapore, the first in the series.  This one isn't terrible, but I can recommend it just to Hope and/or Crosby completists.  (Lamour fans will like the scene where she's wearing only leaves.)  That said, when I got this tape, I decided to spring for the Road to Morocco DVD.  It was my favorite of the series when I was a kid, and when I saw it as an adult a few years ago, I still enjoyed it.  (Not that it's not without its own problems, but we'll get to that.)

Eric Blore was headwaiter in Flying Down to Rio, and often played servants, so it's odd to see him as a rich man here.  Paul Porcasi was also in Flying Down, and would soon appear in Casablanca, as would Norma Varden. Joan Marsh, who plays Dimples, the Human Cannonball act assistant, was Pauline Bisbee in You're Telling Me.  Another of Fields's onscreen daughters, Una Merkel from the recent The Bank Dick, has a much larger role, as Julia.  Buck Woods, who portrays jungle guide Thonga, was a singer in A Day at the Races, which also featured Robert Middlemass.  Charles Gemora was often a gorilla, as in At the Circus.  Georges Renavent was Mr. Ram in Turnabout.  Ed Bridge would go on to The Miracle of Morgan's Creek.  Iris Adrian was recently in Go West and would much later appear in Freaky Friday.