HOLLYWOOD
“B” MOVIES
A Treasury of Spills, Chills & Thrills
John Howard Reid
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Howard Reid at Smashwords
Copyright (c) 2011 by John Howard Reid
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2011 by John Howard Reid. All rights reserved.
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HOLLYWOOD CLASSICS 10
Published May 2011.
Other Books in the Hollywood Classics series:
1. New Light on Movie Bests
2. “B” Movies, Bad Movies, Good Movies
3. Award-Winning Films of the 1930s
4. Movie Westerns: Hollywood Films the Wild, Wild West
5. Memorable Films of the Forties
6. Popular Pictures of the Hollywood 1940s
7. Your Colossal Main Feature Plus Full Supporting Program
8. Hollywood’s Miracles of Movie Entertainment
9. Hollywood Gold: Films of the Forties and Fifties
10. Hollywood “B” Movies
11. Movies Magnificent: 150 Must-See Cinema Classics
12. These Great Movies Won No Hollywood Awards
13. Movie Mystery & Suspense
14. Movies International: America’s Best, Britain’s Finest
15. Films Famous, Fanciful, Frolicsome and Fantastic
16. Hollywood Movie Musicals
17. Hollywood Classics Index Books 1-16
18. More Movie Musicals
19. Success in the Cinema
20. Best Western Movies
21. Great Cinema Detectives
22. Great Hollywood Westerns
23. Science-Fiction & Fantasy Cinema
24. Hollywood’s Classic Comedies
25. Hollywood Classics Title Index to All Movies Reviewed in Books 1-24
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Other Movie Books By John Howard Reid
CinemaScope
One: Stupendous in Scope
CinemaScope Two: 20th
Century-Fox
CinemaScope 3: Hollywood Takes the Plunge
Mystery Suspense, Film Noir and Detective Movies on DVD
British Movie Entertainments on VHS and DVD
Silent Films and Early Talkies on DVD
WESTERNS: A Guide to the Best (and Worst) Western Movies on DVD
Musicals on DVD
Table of Contents
Army Mystery (see Criminals Within)
Arrest at Sundown (see Trails of the Wild)
B
Babes in Toyland (see March of the Wooden Soldiers)
Blondie Goes to College (1942)
Blondie Hits the Jackpot (1949)
Blondie’s Blessed Event (1942)
Blondie Takes a Vacation (1939)
Bold Cavalier (see Bold Caballero)
Bombsight Stolen (see Cottage To Let)
Big Deal (see Blondie’s Big Deal)
Boss Said No (see Blondie Goes to College)
Bundle of Trouble (see Blondie’s Blessed Event)
C
Cash and Carry (see Ringside Maisie)
Caught by Television (see Trapped by Television)
Charlie Chan in Shanghai (1935)
D
Daniella by Night (see Zart Haute in Schwarzer Seide)
E
Every Man’s Woman (see Prizefighter and the Lady)
F
Feudin’, Fussin’ and A-Fightin’ (1948)
G
Girl in Overalls (see Swing Shift Maisie)
God’s Country and the Woman (1936)
Godzilla, King of the Monsters (1956)
H
Henpecked (see Blondie in Society)
Hitting the Jackpot (see Blondie Hits the Jackpot)
I
Interference (see Easy Living)
It Couldn’t Have Happened (1936)
It’s Never Too Late To Mend (see Never Too Late)
J
K
Kelly of the Secret Service (1936)
L
Ladies Crave Excitement (1935)
Lady Reporter (see Bulldog Edition)
M
Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm (1951)
Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Paris (see Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation)
Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation (1953)
March of the Wooden Soldiers (1934)
Men on Her Mind (see Girl from 10th Avenue)
Murder at the Baskervilles (1937)
Murder by an Aristocrat (1936)
N
Nazi Spy Ring (see Dawn Express)
O
On the Stroke of Nine (see Murder on the Campus)
Outcast (see Man in the Saddle)
P
Panama Menace (see South of Panama)
Prizefighter and the Lady (1933)
R
Ranch Dynamite (See Texas Tornado)
Randy Strikes Oil (see Fighting Texans)
Revenge Is Sweet (see March of the Wooden Soldiers)
Roaring Rider (see Wyoming Whirlwind)
Robot Pilot (see Emergency Landing)
S
Sea Wall (see West of Dodge City)
See Here, Private Hargrove (1944)
She Got Her Man (see Maisie Gets Her man)
Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Code (see Dressed to Kill)
Silver Blaze (see Murder at the Baskervilles)
T
Texas Express (see Fort Worth)
Treasure of Pancho Villa (1955)
Triumph of Sherlock Holmes (1935)
Troubles Through Billets (see Blondie for Victory)
U
U.S.S. Teakettle (see You’re in the Navy Now)
V
W
Wanderer of the Wasteland (1945)
What Next, Corporal Hargrove? (1945)
Wistful Widow {of Wagon Gap} (1947)
Woman Accused (see Without Honor)
Y
You Can’t Do That To Me (see Maisie Goes to Reno)
Z
Zart Haute in Schwarzer Seide (1961)
Zorro: The Bold Caballero (see Bold Caballero)
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Randolph Scott (Marshall Dan Mitchell), Ann Dvorak (Rita), Edgar Buchanan (Sheriff Bravo Trimble), Rhonda Fleming (Cherie Balder), Lloyd Bridges (Henry Dreiser), Helen Boyce (Big Annie), Howard Freeman (Ed Balder), Richard Hale (Charlie Fair), Jack Lambert (Chet Younger), Dick Curtis (Ryker), Eddie Waller (Hannaberry), Hank Patterson (Doug Neil), Earl Schenck (Hazelhurst), Buddy Roosevelt (cowhand), Paul Brinegar (gambler), Dick Elliott (man who reports jailbreak), Stanley Andrews, Morgan Flowers, Chubby Johnson (homesteaders), Guy Wilkerson (fan-tan player with Bravo), Walter Baldwin (train conductor), Irving Bacon (trainman), Victor Cox (barfly), Calvin Spencer (stunt double for Lloyd Bridges).
Director: EDWIN L. MARIN. Screenplay: Harold Shumate. Based on the novel Trail Town by Ernest Haycox. Photography: Archie Stout. Supervising film editor: Otho Lovering. Film editor: Richard Heermance. Art director: Duncan Cramer. Music director: Nat W. Finston. Songs (all Dvorak): “Every Time I Give My Heart”, “All You Gotta Do”, “I Love It Out Here In the West” by Fred Spielman, Kermit Goell, Max Terr, Gerard Carbonara, Albert Glasser, Charles Koff, James Mayfield. Vocal arrangements: Jack Elliott. Choreography: Sammy Lee. Costumes for Rhonda Fleming and Ann Dvork designed by Peter Tuesday. Make-up: James Barker. Character drawings: Joe De Young. Assistant director: Maurie Suess. Production manager: Joseph H. Nadel. Unit manager: Ben Berk. Sound recording: Ben Winkler. Producer: Jules Levy. Associate producer: Herbert J. Biberman.
Copyright 11 January 1946 by Guild Productions, Inc. Released through United Artists. New York opening at the Globe: 2 March 1946. U.S. release: 11 January 1946. U.K. release: 2 September 1946. Australian release: 20 June 1946. 8,299 feet. 92 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Cattlemen versus homesteaders in Abilene, Kansas, in the 1870s.
COMMENT: A minor western classic, beautifully photographed by Archie Stout. In fact, Ann Dvorak has never looked more attractive. She also sings a couple of saucy songs with admirable vitality. The rest of the players, led by the redoubtable Randy Scott, are likewise in excellent form. Marin’s direction rates a distinct notch above his usual standard, although the pace tends to drag a bit in the middle and the action scenes (with one or two notable exceptions like the Chet Younger sequence) are a little disappointing.
OTHER VIEWS: The Randolph Scott/Edwin L. Marin movies are less interesting than those the star made with Andre De Toth or Budd Boetticher, but they do embody all the traditional western effects, thanks to details like pouring the coffee pot over the fire, or Randy removing his spurs before creeping up on the bad guys. The writing occasionally has a nice ring to it: “If I’d backed down, in 24 hours the trail hands would sweep across Texas Street and shoot into your parlor windows, just to hear your women scream!” The final images of the purging destruction are poor man’s Ince or Hathaway, but nonetheless “This is the way a tough town dies: Not with a roar, but with a whine!”
— Barrie Pattison.
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Lionel Atwill (G.A. Axton), Irene Hervey (Laura Tait), Ann Loring (Zelda), Raymond Walburn (Governor Pruden), Stuart Erwin (Chubby Rudd), Louis Hayward (Bengard), Wallace Ford (Jack), Bernadene Hayes (Judy), Harvey Stevens (Barney Tait), Robert Gleckler (Cowdray, Pruden’s minder), J. Carroll Naish (Pedro), Edwin Maxwell (Baxter), Charles Trowbridge (doctor), Matt Moore (pilot), Robert Livingston (co-pilot), William Newell (pilot with bottle), Lee Phelps, Monte Vandergrift (mechanics), Alexander Cross (Rudd’s editor), Gwen Lee (Western Union operator), James Bush (airport radio operator), Harry Geise (police radio operator), Phil Tead (Dallas Airport radio operator), Jessie Rosenquist (radio announcer), Kitty McHugh (Axton’s secretary).
Director: GEORGE B. SEITZ. Screenplay: Harry Clork. Story: George F. Worts. Film editor: Conrad A. Nervig. Photography: Lester White. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons and James Havens. Set decorator: Edwin B. Willis. Costumes designed by Dolly Tree. Music score: Franz Waxman. Dialogue director: Edwin Maxwell. Assistant director: Robert E. Barnes. Continuity “girl”: Carl Roup. Sound supervisor: Douglas Shearer. Western Electric Sound Recording. Producer: John W. Considine, junior.
Copyright 14 April 1936 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corporation. New York opening at the Rialto: 1 May 1936. U.S. release: 1 May 1936. Australian release: 25 November 1936. 7 reels. 70 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: After suffering a heart attack in his office, a wealthy tycoon is ordered to take a rest at his remote ranch-house in “absolute quiet”.
COMMENT: A favorite plot device for stories and novels (and “B” movies) gathers an interesting group of characters together at a remote farm-house or haunted old mansion, miles away from police and emergency services. It’s a mighty effective device, so it’s no surprise that Absolute Quiet turns out as a solidly entertaining entry in this fascinating genre. Harry Clork’s cleverly ingenious screenplay not only brings a wonderfully diverse array of people together (without straining co-incidence or credibility too far), but sets them up in situations of mutual conflict, and then provides an added bonus in smart, sharply acerbic dialogue. In fact, the script hands just about all the actors meaty roles—and all have a field day. Without running through the entire cast list, it’s virtually impossible to single out a few players for special praise. Nonetheless, in his enthusiastic review in The New York Times, B.R. Crisler did have a go, particularly lauding Bernadene Hayes. A fully justified commendation I feel. A more refined and less tiny Iris Adrian, Miss Hayes was predicted to have “a strong future.” (This didn’t come about, alas. Miss Hayes spent most of her career in unrewarding support roles in the “B” hive). Also not to be sneezed at, is her partner, Wallace Ford, who is here given a rare opportunity to demonstrate his ability at impersonations. His “butler” is a real scream. I’d like to add mentions of the lovely, endearing Irene Hervey (whose captivating grace will charm the most unresponsive viewer), personable Louis Hayward (who handles the fallen star with remarkable conviction), cowardly, light-of-brain yet masterfully pompous Raymond Walburn, and the toadying, slyly manipulative Robert Gleckler (who has one of his finest hours as Walburn’s minder). And last but not least, Lionel Atwill. It says much for Atwill’s charismatic power, as well as his histrionic talent, that the movie’s original conclusion had to be changed in order to accommodate audience expectations. (As shot, the picture ended with Atwill succumbing to a fatal heart attack. This ending so enraged preview patrons, it was completely scissored. The movie now fades out abruptly on a line that was obviously not designed as a curtain tag).
Although production values are firmly “B”, the picture has been realized in a typically polished Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer style. Strong direction (from George B. Andy Hardy Seitz of all people), attractive photography, gorgeous costumes and some exciting special effects work lift Absolute Quiet well above the Poverty Row league.
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Kay Kyser, Mischa Auer, Joan Davis, Marcy McGuire, Georgia Carroll, Harry Babbitt, Sully Mason, Julie Conway, Diane Pendleton, Jack and Max, Al Norman, Lucienne and Ashour, Little Fred's Football Dogs, Jadine Wong, Li Sun, Joan Barclay, Marjorie Stewart, Barbara Hale, Rosemary La Planche, Barbara Coleman, Shirley O'Hara, Kay Kyser's Band (themselves), Wally Brown (double-talking pilot), Alan Carney (Joe Gimpus), Merwyn Vogue (Ish Kabibble), Robert Armstrong (general), Sherry Hall (clipper steward), Joan Valerie (Countess Olga), Frank Puglia (native dealer), Peter Chong (Wong), Duncan Renaldo (dragoman), Chester Conklin (waiter), Selmer Jackson (American consul), Louise Currie (WAC), James Westerfield (bashful marine), Philip Ahn (Foo), Fred Essler (seller), Hans Schumm (Nazi).
Director: ALLAN DWAN. Screenplay: Ralph Spence. Special material: Carl Herzinger. Photography: Russell Metty. Film editor: Theron Warth. Art directors: Albert D’Agostino, Hal Herman. Set decorations: Darrell Silvera, Claude Carpenter. Costumes: Renie. Special photographic effects: Vernon L. Walker. Songs: Candlelight and Wine, They Chopped Down the Old Apple Tree, Don’t Believe Everything You Dream, He’s Got a Secret Weapon, Great News in the Making, A Moke from Shamokin, Roodle-De-Doo by, Jimmy McHugh (music) and Harold Adamson (Iyrics). Music director: Constantin Bakaleinikoff. Musical and vocal arrangements: George Dunning. Musical numbers created and staged by Nick Castle. Assistant director: Harry Scott. Montage: Douglas Travers. Sound technician: Jean L. Speak. Sound re-recording: James G. Stewart. RCA Sound System. Producer: Allan Dwan.
Copyright 24 November 1943 by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Globe: 24 November 1943. U.S. release: 24 November 1943. Australian release: 15 June 1944. 7,314 feet. 81 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Kay Kyser and his band entertain the troops in Australia, India, Chungking and North Africa.
COMMENT: The tone for this poor man's musical melange is set right from the beginning when Kyser and his merry band of musical misfits entertain a crowd of admirers in Australia with their rendition of “Waltzing Matilda”. Never mind that Kyser was box-office poison anywhere outside the U.S.A. Of course for the film Kyser and company never left Hollywood. This is patently obvious. Also obvious, a lot of corny jokes, radio jests and assorted bits of Keystone Cops slapstick (including Auer's duel with an electricity-wired sword) plus some purple sentiment from Marcy McGuire plus some over-the-top patriotic plugs from old K.K. himself.
I suppose the movie does have a bit of nostalgia appeal for those who heard Kyser's weekly radio broadcasts. But I am not a great fan of his music. Even the lively “Roodle-Ee-Doo” leaves me cold. The only number I really liked was “Don't Believe Everything You Dream”, nicely sung and rather inventively staged and photographed. It almost made the whole film worth seeing. Almost.
OTHER VIEWS: Auteurists who have elected director Allan Dwan to the pantheon would be hard pressed to find much to admire in this lame and rather lackluster effort. How dull can you get? Kay Kyser and his Band make music with no impact, the comedy is so tired not even a team of fine comedians can lift it from rock bottom, and the direction is boringly routine. The wonder is that so much talent could produce a film so depressingly banal.
—E.V.D.
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Monty Woolley (John Hodges). Thelma Ritter (Della Hodges), Jean Peters (Alice Hodges), David Wayne (Joe Elliott), Constance Bennett (Lucille McKinley), Albert Dekker (Louis McKinley), Marilyn Monroe (Harriet), Clinton Sundberg (Erickson), Allyn Joslyn (George Hodges), Minor Watson (Cleveland), Wally Brown (Gallagher), Russ Tamblyn (Willie McKinley), Paul E. Burns (handpress operator), James Griffith (pay Clerk), Don Beddoe (head of sales), Harry Cheshire (chairman, chmaber of commerce), Murray Alper (Cleveland’s chauffeur), Ludwig Stossel (conductor), Renie Riano (harpist), Roger Moore (Saltonstall), Ann Tyrrell (Cleveland’s secretary), Frank Wilcox (Cleveland’s lawyer), Emerson Treacy (head of public relations), Houseley Stevenson, Robert Dudley (old men in park), Gerald Oliver Smith (McKinley’s butler), Harry Shannon, Charles Cane (detectives), Carol Savage (librarian), Harry McKim (page boy), Billy Lechner (mailboy), William Frambes (bellboy), Raymond Greenleaf (vice president), Charles J. Conrad (information clerk), Dick Cogan (Benson), Helen Brown (Clancy).
Director: HARMON JONES. Screenplay: Lamar Trotti. Screen story: Paddy Chayefsky. Photography: Joe MacDonald. Film editor: Robert Simpson. Art directors: Lyle Wheeler, Maurice Ransford. Set decorators: Thomas Little and Bruce Macdonald. Music composed by Cyril Mockridge, orchestrated by Maurice de Packh, directed by Lionel Newman. Song: “You Make Me Feel So Young” (chorus) by Josef Myrow and Mack Gordon. Make-up: Ben Nye. Wardrobe director: Charles Le Maire. Costumes designed by Renie. Special effects: Fred Sersen. Assistant director: Arthur Lueker. Sound recording: W.D. Flick, Roger Heman. Western Electric Sound Recording. Producer: Lamar Trotti.
Copyright 14 June 1951 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation. New York opening at the Palace: 2 August 1951. U.S. release: June 1951. U.K. release: 24 September 1951. Australian release: 22 November 1951. 6,906 feet. 76 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Forcibly retired worker tries to get his job back.
COMMENT: What’s a “B” picture? A neighborhood theater manager once answered that question very succinctly for me: “Any movie that runs less than 80 minutes.” In the days of universal double bills, patrons kept keen eyes on the theater clock. The pre-Interval movie had to run less than 80 minutes because it was supported by at least one newsreel, one cartoon, and up to four trailers. On the other hand, the main feature had to engage the audience for more than 80 minutes, otherwise it was not viewed as value for money. So, in addition to a quota of full-fledged “B” features, studios also released better-quality “program pictures” which could share almost equal billing with the main attraction on value-for-money double bills. As Young As You Feel is such a picture. Popular stars and top production credits are financed by a fair swag of money. Where many of these fall down, however, lies in the script department. Even though Young is bolstered by a top writer/producer, there are glaring faults in the screenplay which will make audiences restless. There is far too much talk. In fact the whole of the Third Act (if we can call it that) is too stagey in construction, with all the characters coming and going in the one set. This rounding up of the main characters and protracted resolution of the plot not only seems a little too contrived, but, alas, offers no opportunities for Marilyn Monroe to re-appear. And her role as Dekker’s secretary forms the main reason why 2005 movie fans will want to watch the picture anyway. After making a big impression in the first part of the action, she simply disappears. We keep waiting for her to come back, but we’re all out of luck. Marilyn gives a wonderful performance too. Not only does she deliver a most amusing characterization, but she looks great and is costumed to perfection. Fortunately, Jean Peters’ fans will not feel cheated. Nor Monty Woolley’s, Thelma Ritter’s and David Wayne’s. Some of our favorite character actors like Constance Bennett, Clinton Sundberg, Wally Brown and Allyn Joslyn are also each handled at least two or three opportunities to shine. Production values are more than adequate. Joe MacDonald’s lustrous black-and-white cinematography comes across most appealingly.
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Ginger Rogers (Polly Parrish), David Niven (David Merlin), Charles Coburn (J.B. Merlin), Frank Albertson (Freddie Miller), E.E. Clive (butler), Elbert Coplen, jr (baby), Ernest Truex (foundling home investigator), Ferike Boros (Mrs Weiss, the landlady), Irving Bacon (exchange clerk), Leonard Penn (Jerome Weiss), Paul Stanton (Hargraves, the floorwalker), Reed Hadley (Polly’s first dance partner), Edna Holland (Mrs Wilkins), Frank M. Thomas (doctor), Dennie Moore (Mary), June Wilkins (Louise King), Murray Alper, Horace McMahon, Elliott Sullivan, Charlie Hall (bouncers), Dorothy Adams (secretary), Alec Craig, Joseph E. Bernard (store watchmen), Jack Chefe, Bert Moorhouse (dance extras), Chester Clute (polite little man), Florence Lake (little man’s wife), Gerald Oliver Smith (Hennessy), Hugh Prosser (chauffeur), Renie Riano (Amy Mellish), Leona Roberts (old lady), Barbara Pepper (dance hall hostess), Nestor Paiva (security man), Harold Miller (nightclub extra), Perc Launders (policeman in park), Jean De Briac (waiter), Dan Clark, Frank Corcasi, Dick Crockett, Edythe Elliott, R. Feldman, Fred Fuller, Ethel Haworth, Roger Hunt, Dean Kaye, John Laing, Dorothy Panter, Ed Rochelle, Jean Stevens, Estelle Taylor, Monte Vandergrift, Jane Woodworth (bits), and Clarence Nash (voice of Donald Duck).
Director: GARSON KANIN. Screenplay: Norman Krasna. Story: Felix Jackson. Film editors: Henry Berman, Robert Wise. Photography: Robert de Grasse. Art directors: Van Nest Polglase and Carroll Clark. Set decorator: Darrell Silvera. Miss Rogers’ costumes designed by Irene. Make-up: Mel Berns. Music: Roy Webb. Music orchestrated by George Parrish. Choreographer: Hermes Pan. Stills: John Miehle. Special effects: Vernon L. Walker. Publicity: Nan Blake. Assistant director: Edward Killy. Sound recording: Richard Van Hessen. RCA Sound System. Producer: Buddy G. DeSylva. A Pandro S. Berman Production.
Copyright 6 July 1939 by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 29 June 1939 (ran two weeks). U.S. release: 4 August 1939. U.K. release: 31 August 1939. Australian release: 19 October 1939. 82 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: On the day before Christmas, a department store salesgirl innocently picks up a baby on the steps of a foundling home.
NOTES: Hollywood obviously thought there was something especially catchy about the word bachelor, for it used in the title of a whole heap of movies including Bachelor Father, Father Is a Bachelor, Bachelor Daddy, The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, Bachelor Apartment, Bachelor Bait, Bachelor in Paradise, The Bachelor Girl, Bachelor Party, The Bachelor’s Affairs, The Bachelor’s Daughters, Bachelor’s Folly, Bachelor Flat, etc. There’s even another movie called Bachelor Mother. Produced and released in 1932 by Hollywood Pictures, it starred Evelyn Knapp, James Murray, Maragret Seddon, Paul Page, and Astrid Allwyn. The screenplay by Paul Gangelin, Jack Natteford, Luther Reed and Jack Townley was based on a story by Al Boasberg. The movie was directed by Charles Hutchison.
Felix Jackson, who penned the story for this one, was nominated for the year’s top writing award, but lost out to Lewis R. Foster’s Mr Smith Goes to Washington.
COMMENT: Although disguised by a typical exploitation picture title, Bachelor Mother actually turns out to be a very classy “A” romantic comedy with a top cast and high production values. Mind you, there are no comedic belly laughs but plenty of chuckles and lots of charm. The story no doubt deserved its award nomination, but Krasna’s ingenious screenplay adds many piquant details to take the fun much further and even manages to weave Donald Duck into playing a key role in the proceedings. Indeed the whole business with Mr Duck is quite funny, including a clever montage and a brilliantly satiric scene in which Niven attempts to get a faulty Donald exchanged. We love the reprimand: “You’re a disgrace to the Toy Department!” All the players are faultlessly cast, from stars down to the smallest bits. Krasna even provides some nice bits of business for favorite character actors like Chester Clute (as the little man at the water bubbler in the park), Horace McMahon (as a tuxedo-suited bouncer), Barbara Pepper (as Niven’s willing/unwilling dance partner), Alec Craig (as a mink-coat-gathering night watchman), and above all, June Wilkins, the snooty society girl who stands Niven up and is then neatly put into her place by a delightfully acerbic Ginger Rogers.
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Steve Allen (Benny Goodman), Donna Reed (Alice Hammond), Berta Gersten (Mom Goodman), Herbert Anderson (John Hammond), Robert F. Simon (Pop Goodman), Sammy Davis Sr (Fletcher Henderson), Dick Winslow (Gil Rodin), Barry Truex (Benny Goodman at 16), David Kasday (Benny Goodman at 10), Fred Essler (Prof. Franz Schoepp), John McGovern (student with Selmer clarinet), Harry James, Martha Tilton, Gene Krupa, Ziggy Elman, Wilton Graff, Lionel Hampton, Ben Pollack, Teddy Wilson, Edward “Kid” Ory (themselves). Hal K. Dawson (irate manager), Hy Averback (William Alexander), Wilton Graff (Hammond), Shep Menken (Harry Goodman).
Director: VALENTINE DAVIES. Screenplay: Valentine Davies. Photographed in Technicolor by William Daniels. Art directors: Alexander Golitzen, Robert Clatworthy. Additional music: Henry Mancini. Music supervision: Joseph Gershenson. Film editor: Russell Schoengarth. Set decorators: Russell A. Gausman, Julia Heron. Make-up: Bud Westmore. Hair styles: Joan St Oegger. Costumes: Bill Thomas. Technicolor color consultant: William Fritzsche. Assistant director: Phil Bowles. Sound recording: Leslie I. Carey, Robert Pritchard. Producer: Aaron Rosenberg. Steve Allen’s clarinet playing dubbed by Goodman. Musical numbers: Let’s Dance Fanny Baldridge, Gregory Stone, Joseph Bonine; Down South Camp Meeting Irving Mills, Fletcher Henderson; It’s Been So Long Walter Donaldson, Harold Adamson; Bugle-Call Rag Elmer Schoebel, Billy Meyers, Jack Pettis; Goody, Goody Johnny Mercer, Matt Malneck; Don't Be That Way Goodman, Mitchell Parish, Edgar Sampson; Shine (Harry James) Cecil Mack, Lew Brown, Ford Dabney; Sing, Sing, Sing (James, Krupa), Louis Prima; Stompin' At The Savoy Goodman, Sampson, Chick Webb, Andy Razaf; One O’Clock Jump Count Basie; Memories Of You (trio) Eubie Blake, Andy Razaf; And The Angels Sing (Tilton) Johnny Mercer, Ziggy Elman; China Boy Dick Winfree, Phil Boutelje; Moonglow Will Hudson, Eddie DeLange, Irving Mills; Avalon Al Jolson, Vincent Rose; Sensation Rag E.B. Edwards; Original Dixieland One Step (Allen, Ory) Nick La Rocca; On The Sunny Side Of The Street (Teddy Wilson) Jimmy McHugh, Dorothy Fields; King Porter Stomp Jelly Roll Morton; Roll ’Em Mary Lou Williams; Clarinet Concerto Mozart.
Copyright 1956 by Universal-International. New York opening at the Capitol: 21 February 1956. U.S. release: February 1956. U.K. release: 20 February 1956. Australian release: 23 February 1956. Sydney opening at the Lyric. 10,458 feet. 116 minutes.
NOTES: Despite its long running time, Universal sold this film as a “B” in many overseas locations, including Australia and New Zealand. The reason: Aside from Donna Reed, absolutely no star power.
COMMENT: The script is mediocre and distorts the truth in a dull way, The musical numbers are tied together with a feeble romance that wastes the only interesting player in the cast, Donna Reed. Still, if you like swing — and whose feet don't start tapping to such numbers as “Stompin' at the Savoy” and “One O'Clock Jump”? — this film is a must-see, despite its tired plot by Valentine Davies and its equally tired direction by the same gentleman. Mr Davies wrote the screenplay for The Glenn Miller Story, but he obviously had more dramatic material to work with there. Furthermore, Miller was not in a position to sue the film's producers if the story they came up with was not to his liking; whereas Benny Goodman is still very much alive. This could account for his life story emerging as a very bland and inoffensive vehicle, especially as Goodman himself recorded this film's soundtrack. The film is a joy to hear but a bore to watch.
OTHER VIEWS: The bland story is the usual tale of the slum kid who makes good. At least it's inoffensive, though the script is remarkably coy as to why Mrs Goodman doesn't want her Benny to marry a non-Jewish girl. Still, Miss Reed wears a new gown in every scene and looks absolutely stunning. I suppose that's reason enough. Aside from the jazzy start, Davies the director is wearisomely over-indulgent to Davies the scriptwriter, the pace sluggish, the delivery slow so that not a word of silver dialogue be lost. Luckily, it's the sound track that matters and it’s in good hands!
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Ken Maynard (Ken Lanning), Wallace MacDonald (Wally Thompson), Ruth Hall (Judy Winters), Josephine Dunn (Goldie), Walter Law (“Win” Thompson), Albert J. Smith (Butch Martin), James Bradbury, junior (Higgie), John Pratt (Sheriff Gorman), Jack Curtis (Jack, owner of the Last Chance saloon), Buck Connors (Dad Winters), Billy Franey (town drunk), Ralph Bucko, Roy Bucko, Jack Perrin, Bud McClure, Blackjack Ward (henchmen), Charles Brinley, Rube Dalroy (barflies), Bob Burns (man at church), Bob Card, Pascale Perry (townsmen), Robert Walker, Tex Palmer, Artie Ortego (sheepmen), Jack Rockwell (deputy), William McCall (waiter), Tracy Layne (cattleman), Bob Kortman, Jack Kirk, Jack Jones, Charles King, Jim Corey (cowhands), Edmund Cobb (rancher), Al Haskell (bartender), Alfred P. James (storekeeper), Cliff Lyons (stunt double), and “Tarzan”.
Director: FORREST SHELDON. Screenplay: Forrest Sheldon, Betty Burbridge. Film editor: Dave Berg. Photography: Ted McCord. Set decorator: Ralph DeLacy. Stunts: Jack Jones. Producers: Samuel Bischoff, Burt Kelly, William Saal.
Copyright 16 October 1932 by World Wide Pictures, Inc. A K.B.S. Production, presented by E.W. Hammons. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: 16 October 1932. 62 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: A pretty shepherdess comes between two pals.
COMMENT: This top-notch Ken Maynard vehicle boasts an interesting screenplay that successfully combines elements of slapstick comedy, suspenseful western action and true romance. Ken delivers his usual ingratiatingly virile performance and receives solid support all the way down the line, particularly from Ruth Hall’s attractive heroine, Josephine Dunn’s pugnacious flapper, Walter Law’s importunate cattle baron and Albert J. Smith’s too opportunistic villain. Even that perennial western foil, the stuttering ranch-hand, is given agreeable life here by James Bradbury, jr. And for once the saloon owner, nicely played by Jack Curtis, is not the bad guy but a goodie two-shoes! Forrest Sheldon’s direction is never less than highly competent and the picture is beautifully photographed by Ted McCord.
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Edward G. Robinson (John B. “Hans” Lobert), Vera-Ellen (Christy), Jeff Richards (Adam Polachuk), Richard Jaeckel (Bobby Bronson), William Campbell (Julie Davis), Carl Hubbell (himself), Paul Langton (Brian McLennan), Lalo Rios (Chuy Aguilar), Bill Crandall (Tippy Mitchell), Frank Ferguson (Wally Mitchell), Mario Siletti (Polachuk), John McKee (Dale Alexander), Robert Caldwell (Pomfret), Donald “Chippie” Hastings (Little Joe Polachuk), Al Campanis, Bob Trocolor, Tony Ravish (themselves), Bing Russell.
Narrated by Paul Langton.
Director: ROBERT ALDRICH. Screenplay: Herbert Baker. Story: John McNulty, Louis Morheim. Photography: William C. Mellor. Film editor: Ben Lewis. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons and Eddie Imazu. Set decorator: Edwin B. Willis. Make-up: Jack Dawn. Hair styles: Sydney Guilaroff. Music director: Alberto Colombo. Technical advisor: John B. “Hans” Lobert. Assistant director: Sid Sidman. Sound supervisor: Douglas Shearer. Producer: Matthew Rapf. Executive producer: Charles Schnee. Location scenes photographed at the New York Giants training farm in Melbourne, Florida.
Copyright 13 July 1953 by Loew’s Inc. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Picture. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: 21 August 1953. U.K. release (in a 53-minute version): January 1956. Australian release: 4 November 1953. 70 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Two weeks with young recruits in a big-league baseball training camp.
COMMENT: Although not highly regarded by connoisseurs, director Aldrich’s first cinema feature has a lot to recommend it, not least the excellent performance of Edward G. Robinson as real-life baseball pro, “Hans” Lobert. In fact, with the exception of glumly stolid Jeff Richards, all the players (including of course the lovely Vera-Ellen and the talented Richard Jaeckel) are lively and likeable. Although constrained by a conventional plot, Aldrich’s direction is never less than highly competent, occasionally even inventive. Most of the film (if not all of it) has been attractively lensed on actual training camp locations by William C. Mellor, and the screenplay manages to arouse a fair amount of interest in both the characters and their background even for those of us who don’t take Big League seriously.
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Reb Russell (Bob Grady), Marion Shilling (Betty Lou Ricard), Lafe McKee (John Ricard), Joseph W. Girard (Sheriff Crabtree), Frank McCarroll (Duke Craven), Charles Slim Whitaker (Deputy Carter), Hank Bell (Sam, a vigilante), Silver Tip Baker, Fred Burns, Bill Patton (vigilantes), Bart Carre, Herman Hack, Tracy Layne, Bud McClure, Chuck Morrison (henchmen), and “Rebel”.
Director: RAY HEINZ. Screenplay: Forbes Parkhill, based on his short story. Film editor: S. Roy Luby. Photography: James Diamond. Assistant director: William O’Connor. Production manager: Bart Carre. Producer: Willis Kent.
Not copyrighted by Willis Kent Productions. U.S. release through Marcy Pictures Corporation in 1935. No recorded New York opening. 55 minutes (more or less).
SYNOPSIS: After an outlaw changes clothes with a wandering cowpoke, the latter has a hard time proving his innocence.
COMMENT: One of Reb Russell’s best films. Admittedly, that’s not saying a great deal. Nonetheless, by the extremely humble standards of this series (and all producer Willis Kent’s efforts generally), this is an outstanding entry. Thanks are not due primarily to Mr Russell, who is much his usual baby-faced self, but to the fact that the script seems to have been written with his particular talents (or lack of them) in mind. No only has the dialogue a certain uncharacteristic astringency, but the suspenseful plot is reasonably involving and has some nice twists. Furthermore, the support cast here is unusually strong and features a great performance by Frank McCarroll, who is really convincing in what is an extremely difficult role. McCarroll brings it off perfectly, managing the almost incredible feat of fooling the audience as well as Mr Russell. Our heroine is attractively played by Marion Shilling (far more appealingly photographed here than in I’ll Name the Murderer), and it’s good to see Slim Whitaker on the side of the law for once. (In fact, I was at a loss for a few minutes, as I just naturally assumed he was one of the bad guys). Aside from weak fight scenes, Ray Heinz has directed with a sure hand, utilizing his locations to advantage. And the stuntwork in the burning building is a stand-out. Is that Mr Russell himself daring the flames? It certainly looks like him!
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Penny Singleton (Blondie), Arthur Lake (Dagwood), Larry Simms (Baby Dumpling), Gene Lockhart (C.P. Hazlip), Ann Doran (Elsie Hazlip), Jonathan Hale (J.C. Dithers), Gordon Oliver (Chester Franey), Stanley Andrews (Hicks), Danny Mummert (Alvin Fuddle), Kathleen Lockhart (Mrs Miller), Dorothy Moore (Dorothy), Fay Helm (Mrs Fuddle), Richard Fiske (Nelson), Irving Bacon (mailman), Ian Wolfe (judge), James Flavin (cop), Emory Parnell (desk sergeant), Charles Lane (“Gus”), and “Daisy”.
Director: FRANK R. STRAYER. Screenplay: Richard Flournoy. Based on the comic strip created by “Chic” Young. Photography: Henry Freulich. Film editor: Gene Havlick. Art director: Lionel Banks. Set decorator: Babs Johnstone. Costumes: Kalloch. Music director: Morris W. Stoloff. Associate producer: Robert Sparks.
Copyright 7 November 1938 by Columbia Pictures Corp. of California. New York opening at the Criterion: 21 December 1938. U.S. release: 30 November 1938. Australian release: 6 April 1939. Original running time: 68 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Dagwood loses his job on the eve of his fifth wedding anniversary.
NOTES: First of the 28-picture series. The others, all starring Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake: Blondie Meets the Boss (1939), Blondie Takes a Vacation (1939), Blondie Brings Up Baby (1939), Blondie on a Budget (1940), Blondie Has Servant Trouble (1940), Blondie Plays Cupid (1940), Blondie Goes Latin (1941), Blondie in Society (1941), Blondie Goes to College (1942), Blondie's Blessed Event (1942), Blondie for Victory (1942), It's a Great Life (1943), Footlight Glamour (1943), Leave it to Blondie (1945), Blondie Knows Best (1946), Life with Blondie (1946), Blondie's Lucky Day (1946), Blondie's Big Moment (1947), Blondie's Holiday (1947), Blondie in the Dough (1947), Blondie's Anniversary (1947), Blondie's Reward (1948), Blondie's Secret (1949), Blondie's Big Deal (1949), Blondie Hits the Jackpot (1949), Blondie's Hero (1950), Beware of Blondie (1950). All the above movies were issued on VHS, while ten of them are also available on excellent Platinum Disc DVDs, namely Blondie, Blondie Meets the Boss, Blondie Takes a Vacation, Blondie Brings Up Baby, Blondie on a Budget, Blondie Has Servant Trouble, Blondie Plays Cupid, Blondie Goes Latin, Blondie in Society, and Blondie Goes Latin. These are all original theatrical versions, not the extended and colorized segments King Features presented on television. Using out-takes, King Features managed to present every film in a standard length of 75 minutes.
The “Blondie” series was a commercial success because of a deft balance between high humor and low slapstick, and when the latter began to predominate the series' popularity began to ebb.
The first movie to utilize the comic-strip “Blondie” character was titled Blondie and was released in November, 1938, i.e., in a day when a good few second-features on neighborhood double bills were an instalment in some sort of continuing series — comedy, adventure, Western or mystery. At Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the Hardy films had risen from “B” production values to those of major calibre, including “guest appearances” by stars and future stars from MGM's vast stable of contract players. Nonetheless, the films were still ground out by the “B” division on tight shooting schedules. At 20th Century-Fox, the Sol Wurtzel unit was cranking out the Jones Family episodes. Highly amusing as they were, they represented a comedown in the career of Mal St Clair, who had directed some of the screen's most sophisticated comedies.
The first and better series of “Blondie” pictures were directed by Frank Strayer, and it was he who did all the ones Robert Sparks produced.
The “Blondie” character had first appeared in 1930 in a comic strip written and drawn by Murat (“Chic”) Young, who also created the comic strip which gave the slang expression “Dumb Dora” to the previous decade. The hectic situations into which Young involved Blondie, a flapper, and her adoring swain, Dagwood, were only mildly successful until, in 1933, Young changed the conception of the narrative by actually getting Blondie and Dagwood to the altar. Almost overnight, this unheard-of innovation propeled “Blondie” into lasting fame as the most popular strip in the country.
It was almost inevitable that the first film in the projected series would be a hit. Clever scripting and inspired casting, as well as Strayer's direction, not only helped make this happen but ensured that audiences would now look forward to further instalments. Penny Singleton, a former dancer who had changed her name from Dorothy McNulty, dyed her naturally auburn hair in order to play the title role. She had an uncanny resemblance to the heroine as drawn by Young, while veteran performer Arthur Lake had not only specialized in dumb but somewhat aggressive youths, but looked sufficiently likeYoung's conception of Dagwood. Finally Larry Simms, as the Bumstead offspring, was the kind of child that doting picturegoers would find irresistible.
The “Blondie” series lasted until 1950, and the cast was virtually the same in all 28 films, aging in both reel and real life. Whenever one of the continuing characters was portrayed by a different actor, the different appearance was often (although not always) carefully provided for by an explanation in the script.
Strayer directed the first 14 in the series, while Robert Sparks — Miss Singleton's real-life husband — produced the first dozen. The scripts were usually the work of Richard Flournoy and/or Karen De Wolf, and the photography of the first 12 was the work of Henry Freulich. The team worked well together.
Columbia's contract players often appeared in the “Blondie” pictures and therefore today's viewers can see Rita Hayworth, at the peak of her glamour, playing a former girl friend of Dagwood's in Blondie on a Budget; Glenn Ford eloping with Luana Walters in Blondie Plays Cupid; Janet Blair getting camera seasoning in Blondie Goes to College; and occasionally throughout the series such veterans as Hugh Herbert and William Frawley.
Surprisingly, whenever Sparks or his scriptwriters put Blondie and the others in outré situations the results were the most entertaining. Blondie Has Servant Trouble centered upon a weekend in a spooky mansion with a villainous butler, played by Arthur Hohl; Blondie Goes Latin enabled Miss Singleton to sing and dance with the aid of Tito Guizar and Ruth Terry (the staging of these musical numbers was above average for a “B”); Blondie's Blessed Event had a then unknown Hans Conreid as a starving playwright and provided his first screen opportunity to exhibit his talent for farce.
When producer Sparks went off to WW2, Columbia suspended the “Blondie” series. When it resumed in 1945, Abby Berlin, a former assistant, was the new director, and did nine of them. At first the Strayer standard was maintained, but by the time Edward Bernds began directing them — he did the last five — the series was played out.
This definitely wasn't true of the performers. Singleton and Lake looked almost exactly the same as when the series started, although Larry Simms had grown from “Baby Dumpling” to “Alexander”. Even “Daisy,” if indeed it was the same dog, was still stealing every scene. But the scripts were tired, and Bernds was more at home with unsubtle 2-reelers exploiting The Three Stooges.
A few years after the “Blondie” film series came to a quiet end, a TV version of “Blondie” was attempted, with Lake as Dagwood and Pamela Britton as “Blondie.” But it was soon abandoned.
—Don Miller.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The above article was one of the last Don Miller sent to me prior to his death some years ago. An expert on the “B” movie, Don wrote that definitive book on the subject in the Curtis Film Series back in 1973 (edited by Leonard Maltin when he was still publishing his famous Film Fan Monthly).
COMMENT: The first of the series. Arthur Lake tries too hard and gives too strained a performance to come across well as Dagwood. Penny Singleton is better and she has good support from Lockhart and Wolfe. Hale cannot make anything of Julius Dithers and the Woodleys are not represented. And Hollywood censorship has committed one crime against Chic Young's famous comic strip by having Dagwood and Blondie sleep in twin beds! In all, Richard Flournoy's screenplay is but a poor reflection of the strip, with Baby Dumpling handling most of the gags (and handling them very badly) and worst of all, the wonderful characters of the strip considerably muted and toned down. Dagwood here is simply portrayed as a bungling fool, not as the inspired idiot he appears in the Sunday Comic Supplements. And as for the movie Dithers, he could be anybody's boss. Gone are the outrageous tantrums, the rib-tickling Panic Stations Alerts of the real Dithers Construction Company! In fact Hollywood has consistently reduced and watered down the whole zanily inventive strip to the most humdrum level of mediocre ordinariness, to achieve a domestic comedy of typically Hollywooden blandness.
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Penny Singleton (Blondie), Arthur Lake (Dagwood), Larry Simms (Baby Dumpling), Danny Mummert (Alvin Fuddle), Jonathan Hale (J. C. Dithers), Robert Middlemass (Abner Cartwright), Olin Howland (book agent), Fay Helm (Mrs Fuddle), Peggy Ann Garner (Melinda Mason), Roy Gordon (Mason), Grace Stafford (Miss White), Helen Jerome Eddy (school principal), Irving Bacon (mailman), Robert Sterling (salesman), Ian Wolfe (police judge), Bruce Bennett (Johnson, the chauffeur), Selmer Jackson (Tom), and “Daisy”.
Director: FRANK R. STRAYER. Screenplay: Gladys Lehman, Richard Flournoy. Story: Robert Chapin, Karen DeWolf, Richard Flournoy. Based on characters created by Chic Young. Photography: Henry Freulich. Film editor: Otto Meyer. Art director: Lionel Banks. Gowns designed by Kalloch. Music director: Morris W. Stoloff. Producer: Robert Sparks.
Copyright 9 November 1939 by Columbia Pictures Corp. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: 9 November 1939. Australian release: 22 February 1940. 7 reels. 6,212 feet. 69 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Baby Dumpling starts school.
NOTES: Number 4 of the 28-picture series. Available on an excellent Platinum Disc DVD.
COMMENT: The fourth of the series. The budget is as expansive as Blondie Takes a Vacation and once again there is a stronger plot than in the first two films. As a matter of fact, there are actually two plots which are rather neatly dovetailed at the conclusion by screenwriters Gladys Lehman and Richard Flournoy.
Jonathan Hale gives a much more vivid impersonation of Dithers than he did in the first two films. Strayer’s direction rates as consistently capable. The film’s tear-jerking conclusion, with music director M.W. Stoloff playing “Silent Night” over the action, actually works rather well.
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Joan Blondell (Blondie Johnson), Chester Morris (Danny), Allen Jenkins (Louis), Earle Foxe (Scannel), Claire Dodd (Gladys), Mae Busch (Mae), Joseph Cawthorn (Lord), Olin Howland (Eddie), Sterling Holloway (Red), Toshia Mori (Lulu), Arthur Vinton (Max Wagner), Donald Kirke (Joe), Tom Kennedy (Hype), Lloyd Ingraham (judge), Maurice Black (Tony), Sam Godfrey (Freddy), Betty Jane Graham (child), Eddie Kane (jewelry assistant), Charles Lane (cashier), Walter Long (Artie), Rolfe Sedan (tailor), Ben Hall (newsboy), Tom Wilson (Swede), Sam McDaniel (porter).
Director: RAY ENRIGHT. Uncredited direction: Lucien Hubbard. Original screenplay: Earl Baldwin. Photography: Tony Gaudio. Film editor: George Marks. Art director: Esdras Hartley. Gowns designed by Orry-Kelly. Music director: Leo F. Forbstein. Dialogue director: Stanley Logan. Associate producer: Lucien Hubbard.
Copyright 13 February 1933 by First National Pictures, Inc. Released through Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Strand: 26 February 1933. 67 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: A gangster tries to prevent a female go-getter from muscling in on his rackets.
COMMENT: In this typical Warner Brothers exposé of the depression-ridden early 1930s, the script blames the lack of compassion in society at large and the unwillingness of both church and government to do anything about remedying social conditions, for the rise of organized crime. The brief portrait of the mealy-mouthed priest is especially telling. No other Hollywood studio would dare paint a cleric in such an unflattering light. Having set the scene, the rest of the film is fast-paced action, interspersed with a bit of romance, right up to the illogical and somewhat startling cop-out conclusion (which seems to have been added as an afterthought). All the players impress with their realism, but I was particularly struck by Joan Blondell, Allen Jenkins (in a serious role), Joseph Cawthorn (using his real voice and not the funny accent), Claire Dodd (gorgeously gowned by Orry-Kelly), Arthur Vinton (the menacing overlord), and Mae Busch. Aside from the unexpectedly light conclusion, director Ray Enright doesn’t put a foot wrong. Definitely one of his better films!
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Penny Singleton (Blondie), Arthur Lake (Dagwood), Larry Simms (Baby Dumpling), Majelle White (Cookie), Stuart Erwin (Herschel Smith), Jonathan Hale (J. C. Dithers), Danny Mummert (Alvin Fuddle), Renie Riano (Miss Clabber), Harrison Greene (Mr Green), Charles Wagenheim (hoarder), Sylvia Field (Mrs Williams), Georgia Backus (Mrs Jones), Edward Gargan (sergeant), Almira Sessions (neighbor), Don Beddoe (Fuddle), Dewey Robinson (neighbor), Russell Hicks (colonel), Eddie Acuff (neighbor), Irving Bacon (Mr Crumb, ex-mailman), and “Daisy”.
Director: FRANK R. STRAYER. Screenplay: Karen DeWolf, Connie Lee. Story: Fay Kanin. Based on characters created by Chic Young. Photography: Henry Freulich. Film editor: Al Clark. Art director: Lionel Banks. Music composed by John Leipold, directed by Morris W. Stoloff. Music associate: Jerome Pycha Jr. Producer: Robert Sparks.
Copyright 1 August 1942 by Columbia Pictures Corp. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: 6 August 1942. Australian release: 10 June 1943. 8 reels. 6,540 feet. 72 minutes.
U.K. release title: TROUBLES THROUGH BILLETS.
SYNOPSIS: In her patriotic efforts on the home front, Blondie neglects house and husband.
NOTES: Number 12 of the 28-picture series.
COMMENT: The 12th film in the series — and one of the worst! The story is thin, the propaganda dated, the dialogue tedious, the acting strained, the direction lethargic, the film editing inept, the art direction uninspired, and production values below par. Even my favorite joke about dog-food fails to work in this unhappy picture.
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Penny Singleton (Blondie), Arthur Lake (Dagwood), Larry Simms (Baby Dumpling), Janet Blair (Laura Wadsworth), Jonathan Hale (J. C. Dithers), Danny Mummert (Alvin Fuddle), Larry Parks (Rusty Bryant), Adele Mara (Babs Connelly), Sidney Melton (Mouse Gifford), Andrew Tombes (J. J. Wadsworth), Esther Dale (Mrs Dill), Lloyd Bridges (Ben “Fishface” Dixon), Emmett Vogan (Coach Hartley), and “Daisy”.
Director: FRANK R. STRAYER. Screenplay: Lou Breslow. Story: Warren Wilson, Clyde Bruckman. Based on the comic strip Blondie by Chic Young. Photography: Henry Freulich. Film editor: Otto Meyer. Art director: Lionel Banks. Music director: Morris W. Stoloff. Music associate: Jerome Pycha Jr. Producer: Robert Sparks.
Copyright 15 January 1942 by Columbia Pictures Corp. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: 15 January 1942. Australian release: 23 July 1942. 8 reels. 6,764 feet. 75 minutes.
U.K. release title: The BOSS SAID NO.
SYNOPSIS: Actually both Blondie and Dagwood go to college, enrolling as singles, with predictable results.
NOTES: Number 10 in the 28-picture series. Available on an excellent Platinum Disc DVD.
COMMENT: The tenth film in the series — and the first in which Irving Bacon does not appear to carry on his famous running gag. Also, one notices a deterioration in the production values of this one. A great amount of space is devoted to newsreel footage, and the art direction is not nearly as lavish — though there is some fine photography by Henry Freulich. The screenplay by Lou Breslow is very thin. Although agreeably played, it’s rather slackly directed and edited.
“Daisy” has little to do in this one, but the supporting cast is certainly of interest. Top performances are contributed by Larry Parks and Janet Blair. Right up to the final moment it seems Miss Singleton is going to pass up an opportunity to sing. She does finally, in an extended tracking shot director Strayer doubtless hoped would provide a stimulating conclusion. The intention was there but it doesn’t quite come off, as Lake mugs so blatantly the mood is dissipated.
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Penny Singleton (Blondie Bumstead), Arthur Lake (Dagwood Bumstead), Larry Simms (Alexander Bumstead), Marjorie Kent (“Cookie” Bumstead), Jerome Cowan (M.R. Radcliffe), Lloyd Corrigan (J.B. Hutchins), Danny Mummert (Alvin Fuddle), James Flavin (Brophy), Dick Wessel (mailman), Ray Teal (Brophy’s accomplice), Alyn Lockwood (Mary), Ann Carter (Louise Hutchins), George Humbert (cafe proprietor), Maurice Cass (antique dealer), and “Daisy”.
Director: EDWARD BERNDS. Screenplay: Jack Henley. Based on characters created by Chic Young. Photography: Vincent Farrar. Film editor: Henry Batista. Art director: Perry Smith. Set decorator: George Montgomery. Music director: Mischa Bakaleinikoff. Producer: Ted Richmond.
Copyright 29 September 1949 by Columbia Pictures Corp. New York opening at the Palace: 8 September 1949. U.S. release: 6 October 1949. U.K. release: 28 November 1949. Australian release: 17 November 1949. 5,862 feet. 65 minutes.
U.K. release title: HITTING THE JACKPOT.
SYNOPSIS: Dagwood loses job, Dagwood finds job. Dagwood loses job, Dagwood gets his old job back.
NOTES: Number 26 of the 28-picture series. See Blondie in this volume for a complete rundown of the series.
COMMENT: Eddie Acuff is dropped from Blondie Hits the Jackpot (he is supposed to be on vacation) and Dick Wessel takes his place, allowing the development of a couple more amusing variations on the series’ most notable running gag.
Otherwise the thin plot of this one which originally ran 66 minutes on theatrical release suffers from being brought up to 75 minutes with the use of out-takes, particularly a scene which veers dangerously close to embarrassing sentiment, and an extended and tedious anti-climax which doesn’t amount to anything because the dog was not used in the sequel after all (which was doubtless why it was originally omitted from the theatrical release prints).
All the same, the direction by Edward Bernds’ scores as a trifle more stylish than usual (we like the truck running over the camera, and he even uses a few reverse angles). The script also allows for a few quick montages of comic strip type gags which are mildly amusing.
A bit of money has been spent on the production with an obviously real building site being used, plus glossy photography.
Unfortunately, the screenplay does not make room for the introduction of the customary host of support players, aside from James Flavin (registering some strong reaction shots) and Ray Teal. Cowan over-acts as usual, Kent has a negligible part as usual, but Master Simms acquits himself well in what is undoubtedly his biggest part in the entire series while Miss Carter is the very model of a spoiled brat. Lake and Singleton go through their customary stints.
The title as usual is not apt — Blondie Misses the Jackpot in fact.
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Penny Singleton (Blondie), Arthur Lake (Dagwood), Larry Simms (Baby Dumpling), Jonathan Hale (J. C. Dithers), Danny Mummert (Alvin Fuddle), William Frawley (Waldo Pincus), Chick Chandler (Cliff Peters), Irving Bacon (mailman), Garry Owen (Carpenter), Tommy Dixon (Saunders), Edgar Kennedy (Dr Glenn), Bill Goodwin (dog announcer), Grady Sutton (salesman), Almira Sessions (neighbor with broom), Cliff Barnett (Wade), Charles Lane (washing machine salesman), Robert Mitchell’s Boys Choir, “Daisy” and “Chin Up”.
Director: FRANK R. STRAYER. Screenplay: Karen DeWolf. Story: Eleanore Griffin. Based on the comic strip Blondie created by Chic Young. Photography: Henry Freulich. Film editor: Charles Nelson. Art director: Lionel Banks. Costumes: Monica. Music director: Morris W. Stoloff. Producer: Robert Sparks.
Copyright 17 July 1941 by Columbia Pictures Corp. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: 17 July 1941. Australian release: 9 October 1941. 8 reels. 6,887 feet. 76½ minutes.
U.K. release title: HENPECKED.
SYNOPSIS: See below.
NOTES: Originally, this was the longest in running time of the series.
According to one source, producer Robert Sparks plays Jasper, while Frank R. Strayer can be spotted as an investigator.
The ninth of the 28-picture series. See Blondie in this volume.
Available on an excellent Platinum Disc DVD.
COMMENT: The ninth film in the series. This one might be called “Blondie in the Dog-House”, as Karen DeWolf’s screenplay is solely concerned with show dogs and not society of any strata.
If we thought Richard Flournoy’s plots were thin, Miss DeWolf’s are even thinner, though she has evidently made a greater study of the actual comic strips and has better captured their flavor. But what was obviously a fairly amusing script in the reading is less so in the seeing. Director Frank R. Strayer’s control is loose. Film editing, partly the result of a longer running time than usual, can best be described as flabby.
Fortunately, all the players turn in capable performances and much joy can be had by spotting some of our favorite character actors. Miss Singleton renders two songs appealingly.
Production values are reasonably accomplished.
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Penny Singleton (Blondie), Arthur Lake (Dagwood), Larry Simms (Alexander), Marjorie Kent (Cookie), Jerome Cowan (George Radcliffe), Hugh Herbert (Llewellyn Simmons), Clarence Kolb (J. T. Thorpe), Danny Mummert (Alvin), Eddie Acuff (mailman), Norman Phillips (Ollie), Kernan Cripps (Baxter), Boyd Davis (1st board member), Mary Emery (Mrs Thorpe), John F. Hamilton (2nd board member), Hal K. Dawson (Taylor, the grocer), Fred F. Sears (Detective Quinn), and “Daisy”.
Director: ABBY BERLIN. Screenplay: Arthur Marx, Jack Henley. Story: Arthur Marx. Based on characters created by Chic Young. Photography: Vincent Farrar. Film editor: Henry Batista. Music director: Mischa Bakaleinikoff. Producer: Burt Kelly.
Copyright 29 September 1947 by Columbia Pictures Corp. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: 16 October 1947. U.K. release: 28 October 1947. Australian release: 27 November 1947. 6,347 feet. 70 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: When Dagwood is fired again, Blondie decides to help the family finances by baking and selling cookies. She meets a friendly adviser at the corner grocer, who is none other than the president of a big biscuit company. The future looks bright until Dagwood interferes.
NOTES: Number 21 of the 28-picture series. See Blondie in this volume.