HOLLYWOOD’S
CLASSIC COMEDIES
200 Fun-Filled Films Rated &
Reviewed
John Howard Reid
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John Howard Reid at Smashwords
Copyright (c) 2011 by John
Howard Reid
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Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour in “My Favorite Brunette”
Lauren Bacall: “Designing Woman”
Dolores Del Rio: “Flying Down To Rio”
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HOLLYWOOD CLASSICS 24
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 Movie Miracles of Entertainment
9. Hollywood Gold: Famous Films of the Forties and Fifties
10. Hollywood “B” Movies: A Treasury of Spills, Chills & Thrills
11. Movies Magnificent: 150 Must-See Cinema Classics
12. These Great Movies Won No Hollywood Awards
13. Movie Mystery & Suspense
14. 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 Books 1-24
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Other Movie Books by John Howard Reid:
Mystery, Suspense, Film Noir & Detective Movies on DVD
Silent Films & Early Talkies on DVD
British Film Entertainments on DVD
WESTERNS: A Guide to the Best (and Worst) Western Movies on DVD
Musicals on DVD
CinemaScope
One: Stupendous in ’Scope
CinemaScope Two: 20th
Century Fox
CinemaScope 3: Hollywood Takes the Plunge
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Table of Contents
Abbott & Costello Lost in Alaska 1952
Abbott & Costello Meet Captain Kidd 1952
Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy 1955
Alias Bulldog Drummond (see Bulldog Jack)
B
Blondie Has Servant Trouble 1940
C
Charlie Chaplin’s Burlesque of Carmen (see Carmen 1916)
Conga Swing (see Blondie Goes Latin)
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court 1949
Cops and Robbers (see Guardie e Ladri)
D
Dad and Dave Come To Town 1938
E
F
Farmer Goes To Town (see Dad and Dave Go To Town)
Funny Face (see Bright Lights 1935)
G
Goldilocks and Three Bears 1939
H
I
It’s Magic (see Romance on the High Seas)
J
K
L
M
Mad Hatter (see Breakfast in Hollywood)
Misbehaving Husbands (see Dummy Trouble)
N
Natural Born Salesman (see Earthworm Tractors)
Night and Day (see Jack’s the Boy)
O
P
Rendezvous (see Darling How Could You)
Rudd Family Goes To Town (see Dad and Dave Go To Town)
S
Said {Sez} O’Reilly To McNab 1937
She’s Working Her Way Through College 1952
Slippery Pearls (see Stolen Jools)
So You Want To Be a Detective 1948
So You Want To Be In Pictures 1947
T
That’s Right, You’re Wrong 1939
Treasure of Fear (see Scared Stiff)
W
Where There’s a Will (see Good Morning Boys)
Y
Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (see Connecticut Yankee…)
You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man 1939
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Abbott and Costello Lost in Alaska
Bud Abbott (Tom Watson), Lou Costello (George Bell), Tom Ewell (Nugget Joe), Mitzi Green (Rosette), Bruce Cabot (Jake Stillman), Emory Parnell (Sherman), Jack Ingram, Joseph Kirk (henchmen), Minerva Urecal (Mrs McGillicuddy), Rex Lease (old-timer), Howard Negley (Hoggins), Maudie Prickett (woman in window), Billy Wayne (croupier), Paul Newlan (Captain Chisholm), Michael Ross (Willie), Julia Montoya (Eskimo woman), Iron Eyes Cody (Nanook), Fred Aldrich (bearded prospector), Donald Kerr (Multolah), Bobby Barber (ship’s cook), George Barton (bit), Vic Parks (stunt double), Harry Tyler (man in bank queue), William Gould, Sherry Moreland.
Director: JEAN YARBOUGH. Screenplay: Martin Ragaway, Leonard Stern. Story: Elwood Ullman. Photography: George Robinson. Film editor: Leonard Weiner. Art directors: Bernard Herzbrun, Robert Boyle. Set decorators: Russell A. Gausman, Ray Jeffers. Costumes designed by Kara. Hair styles: Joan St Oegger. Make-up: Bud Westmore. Music composed by Henry Mancini, Milton Rosen. Music director: Joseph Gershenson. Musical numbers staged by Harold Belfer. Sound recording: Leslie I. Carey and Harold Lewis. Producer: Howard Christie.
Copyright 24 June 1952 by Universal Pictures Co., Inc. A Universal-International Picture. U.S. release: August 1952. No New York opening. U.K. release through General Film Distributors: 6 October 1952. Australian release: 28 November 1952. 8 reels. 76 minutes. Alternate title: LOST IN ALASKA.
SYNOPSIS: Two firemen become involved with a group of killers when they follow a wealthy prospector to Alaska in 1898.
NOTES: Child star Mitzi Green’s first adult role, and her second last film appearance [Bloodhounds of Broadway (1952) was her last].
COMMENT: In view of its bad reputation, this entry came across as a surprisingly amusing A&C comedy. The team’s usual writer, John Grant, may not be credited on this one, but he is certainly present in spirit, for the boys go through some mighty familiar routines, including a reprise of the squirting oyster from The Naughty Nineties (1945) [also directed by Jean Yarbrough]. Admittedly, our boys are below their best, and director Yarbrough seems equally uninspired. But I liked the film mainly because some curious people are in it, including Tom Ewell as the love-sick schnook (much the same type of role in fact he was later to play with such acclaim in The Seven Year Itch); Mitzi Green, the former child star of Skippy and Huckleberry Finn, making a comeback after a screen absence of eighteen years [although she’s handed a couple of songs, she makes little impression, alas!]; Bruce Cabot, always one of our favorite character players, can particularly be trusted for a colorful study in villainy; and adding to the histrionic fun are a fine array of cameo players including Jack Ingram, Emory Parnell, Minerva Urecal and Billy Wayne.
The film is well produced, with the Klondike settings quite elaborately realized.
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Abbott & Costello Meet Captain Kidd
Bud Abbott (Rocky Stonebridge), Lou Costello (Oliver Johnson), Charles Laughton (Captain Kidd), Fran Warren (Lady Jane), Hillary Brooke (Captain Bonney), Bill Shirley (Bruce Martingale), Leif Erickson (Captain Morgan), Syd Saylor, Frank Yaconelli, Lester Dorr (waiters), Joe Kirk, Harry Wilson (pirates), Rex Lease (waiter with black eye), Bobby Barber, Millicent Patrick (bits), Leonard Mudie (Captain Bonney’s first mate), Paul Newlan (publican), Suzanne Ridgeway, Milicent Patrick (pub patrons), Vic Parks (stunt double).
Director: CHARLES LAMONT. Screenplay: Howard Dimsdale, John Grant. Photographed in SuperCinecolor by Stanley Cortez. Film editor: Edward Mann. Art director: Daniel Hall. Set decorator: Al Orenbach. Costumes: Albert Deano, Maria P. Donovan. Make-up: Abe Haberman. Music: Raoul Kraushaar. Songs by Bob Russell and Lester Lee; Sir William Schwenk Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan. Musical numbers staged by Val Raset. Choral arrangements: Norman Luboff. Still photographs: Glen Adams. Special effects: Lee Zavitz. Dialogue director: Milt Bronson. Comedy coach for Mr Laughton: Lou Costello. Color consultant: Wilton R. Holm. Stunts: Sailor Vincent. Production assistant: Robert H. Justman. Set continuity: Don McDougall. Assistant director: Robert Aldrich. Sound recording: Mac Dalgleish, Ben Winkler. Producer: Alex Gottlieb. Executive producer: Bud Abbott. Woodley Productions.
Copyright 17 December 1952 by Woodley [Bud Abbott] Productions, Inc. Released through Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: 27 December 1952. U.K. release: 20 June 1953. Australian release: 17 December 1953 (sic). Sydney opening at the Palace. 70 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Captain Kidd’s treasure map is accidentally switched for a love letter entrusted to a couple of dumb waiters.
NOTES: Abbott and Costello’s second and final film in color (SuperCinecolor to be precise). The first was their immediately preceding movie—produced by Lou Costello’s Exclusive Productions—Jack and the Beanstalk (1952).
COMMENT: Critics were so aghast at the eminent Charles Laughton’s allowing himself to become the butt of an A&C slapstick comedy, they tended to discount the end result, namely that Laughton’s presence in Captain Kidd makes for jolly good entertainment. Laughton in fact is so delightfully hammy that he even inspires Bud and Lou to attempt a few comic heights themselves. And all three are aided immeasurably by the expertise of lovely Hillary Brooke who quite outshines the film’s nominal female lead, Fran Warren. Singer Bill Shirley, who did such a marvelous job dubbing for Mark Stevens in both Oh, You Beautiful Doll (1949) and I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now (1947), makes a disappointingly dull hero.
Filmed on an extremely lavish budget under the expert supervision of producer Alex Gottlieb, Kidd also boasts attractive SuperCinecolor cinematography and a couple of exceptionally rousing musical interludes.
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Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy
Bud Abbott (Peter), Lou Costello (Freddie), Marie Windsor (Madame Rontru), Michael Ansara (Charlie), Dan Seymour (Josef), Kurt Katch (Dr Gustav Zoomer), Richard Karlan (Hetsut), Richard Deacon (Semu), Mel Welles (Iben), George Khoury (Habid), Edwin Parker (Klaris, the mummy), Jan Arvan (waiter), Michael Vallon (Dr Azzui), Kem Dibbs, Mitchell Kowal, Ken Alton (policemen), Lee Sharon (blonde girl), Hank Mann (waiter with kabob), Donald Kerr (newspaperman), Peggy King (vocalist), Carole Costello (flower girl), Ted Hecht (Anzi), Veola Vonn (café showgirl), Vic Parks (stunt double), and Morris Ankrum, Robin Morse, Paul Marion; plus the Mazzone-Abbott Dancers, Chandra-Kaly and His Dancers (themselves).
Director: CHARLES LAMONT. Screenplay: John Grant. Story: Lee Loeb. Photography: George Robinson. Film editor: Russell Schoengarth. Art directors: Bill Newberry, Alexander Golitzen. Set decorators: Russell A. Gausman, James M. Walters. Costumes: Rosemary Odell. Make-up: Bud Westmore. Hair styles: Joan St Oegger. Special photographic effects: Clifford Stine. Music: Henry Mancini, Hans J. Salter, Irving Gertz, Lou Maury. Music supervisor: Joseph Gershenson. Song, “You Came a Long Way from St Louis” (King) by John Benson Brooks. Assistant director: Phil Bowles. Sound recording: Leslie I. Carey, Robert Pritchard. Western Electric Sound System. Producer: Howard Christie.
Copyright 1955 by Universal-International. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: June 1955. U.K. release: July 1955. Australian release: 17 November 1955. Sydney opening at the Lyceum as the lower half of a double bill with Foxfire. 79 minutes. Cut to 63 minutes in Australia.
Alternative title: Meet the Mummy.
SYNOPSIS: Abbott and Costello play two Americans who are stranded in Egypt. They hope to return home with an archaeologist. But he is murdered by members of a secret society.
NOTES: The last of the twenty-nine pictures Abbott and Costello made for Universal. A studio press release notes that for their first movie, One Night in the Tropics (1940), the comedians were each paid $8,750. This had now increased to $100,000 each, plus a 25% each share of the profits. The studio felt that Abbott and Costello’s popularity was now on the wane and that a 50% share of dwindling profits was no longer worth the trouble of keeping the comics on the payroll. Accordingly, their contract was dissolved—a move the studio was later to bitterly regret. Although MCA will not disclose actual figures, it is estimated that the corporation has grossed more than $60 million over the years for licensing A&C movies to domestic television alone. In other words, more than $2 million per film.
COMMENT: Entertaining A&C comedy, not one of their best (Charles Lamont’s direction hovers around the routine mark, John Grant’s screenplay often amounts to self-plagiarism and producer Howard Christies’s budget is not as lavish as usual), but the boys are still happily in good form and they receive adequate support (though Richard Deacon is sadly miscast as the High Priest). Attractive photography by ace cameraman George Robinson proves another big asset.
OTHER VIEWS: Abbott and Costello signed off from Universal in reasonable style with some typical verbal and slapstick routines in a fairly well produced, atmospherically photographed and competently directed vehicle that cleverly combined laughs with screams in line with many of their earlier successes. A great support cast helped too.
Needless to say, Messrs A&C come across as delightfully incompetent boobs. However, Bud Abbott, the perennial straight guy, looks as if the wealth he’s accumulated over his past thirty-plus pictures, has all gone to his stomach. He’ll have to watch out or he’ll soon be mistaken for his chubby partner.
In the supporting cast, villainess Marie Windsor proves quite effective; but singer Peggy King seems to lack vocal power.
Summing up: Satisfyingly shuddersome.
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Spencer Tracy (Adam Bonner), Katharine Hepburn (Amanda Bonner), Judy Holliday (Doris Attinger), Tom Ewell (Warren Attinger), David Wayne (Kip Lurie), Jean Hagen (Beryl Caighn), Hope Emerson (Olympia La Pere), Eve March (Grace), Clarence Kolb (Judge Reiser), Emerson Treacy (Jules Frikke), Polly Moran (Mrs McGrath), Will Wright (Judge Marcasson), Elizabeth Flournoy (Dr Margaret Brodeigh), Janna da Loos (Mary, the maid), James Nolan (Dave), David Clarice (Roy), Marvin Kaplan (court stenographer), Gracille LaVinder (police matron), William Self (Benjamin Klausner), Paula Raymond (Emerald), Ray Walker (photographer), Tommy Noonan (reporter), De Forrest Lawrence, John Fell (Adam’s assistants), Sid Dubin (Amanda’s assistant), Joe Bernard (Bonner), Madge Blake (Mrs Bonner), Marjorie Wood (Mrs Marcasson), Lester Luther (Judge Poynter), Anna Q. Nilsson (Mrs Poynter), Roger David (Hurlock), Louis Mason (elderly lift driver), Rex Evans (fat man), Charles Bastin (young district attorney), John Maxwell Sholes (court clerk), E. Bradley Coleman (subway rider), Glenn Gallagher, Gil Patric, Harry Cody (criminal attorneys), George Magrill, Bert Davidson (subway guards).
Director: GEORGE CUKOR. Original screenplay: Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin. Photography: George Folsey. Film editor: George Boemler. Music: Miklos Rosza. Song “Farewell Amanda” (Wayne) by Cole Porter. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons, William Ferrari. Set decoration: Edwin B. Willis. Associate set decorator: Henry W. Grace. Special effects: A. Arnold Gillespie. Miss Hepburn’s costumes: Walter Plunkett. Hair styles: Sydney Guilaroff. Make-up: Jack Dawn. Sound recording: Douglas Shearer. David Wayne’s piano solos played by Cole Porter himself. Producer: Lawrence Weingarten.
Copyright 1 November 1949 by Loew’s Inc. An MGM picture. New York opening at the Capitol: 25 December 1949. U.S. release: 18 November 1949. U.K. release: 17 April 1950. Australian release: 29 June 1950. 9,104 feet. 101 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: A husband and wife are both attorneys. So, (you guessed it!), one is signed for the defense and the other for the other party. And so, (you guessed it!), the courtroom squabbles spill over into their domestic life.
NOTES: Sixth teaming of Tracy and Hepburn. Since Woman of the Year (an original script by Ring Lardner, Jr and Michael Kanin — Garson’s brother), they had starred in Keeper of the Flame (directed by Cukor from I.A.R. Wylie’s novel), Without Love (Harold S. Bucquet directing Philip Barry’s play), The Sea of Grass (Elia Kazan directed from Conrad Richter’s novel), and State of the Union (Frank Capra from the stage play by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse). Future films were Pat and Mike (another original screenplay by the husband and wife team, Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin), Desk Set (1957) and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? (1967).
The Kanins were nominated for the annual award given by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Best Story & Screenplay, losing to Sunset Boulevard.
COMMENT: An intellectually exciting and stimulating re-working of several basic myths, splendidly acted. The script is so strong and the performers so capable, the director is often content to take an inconspicuous back seat by shooting in some of the longest, static takes on record — though he can be stylish when the occasion demands it.
This philosophic pill is admirably sugar-coated with lashings of wit and humor and fascinating verbal by-play. The screen personalities of Tracy and Hepburn are set against one another with a clash that sends some delightful sparks flying and the support cast peoples the background with a wonderful parade of “characters”.
Foremost in the supporting pack is David Wayne, playing a delightfully obnoxious Amanda-admirer, forever smirking, smiling and singing up the action.
Judy Holliday* (movie stardom was just around the corner) is also not to be missed, while Tom Ewell and Jean Hagen complete the amusingly nutty triangle.
The Kanins start their satiric thrust at the sexes with a marvelous opening in which Holliday brilliantly parodies one of the dime romance’s most staple situations: jealous wife shoots husband in femme fatale’s apartment.
Tracy and Hepburn are then introduced as husband-and-wife lawyers who are engaged by opposite sides at the subsequent trial.
Upon this promising premise the comedy builds to a splendid climax.
Mind you, it would not be half as funny without the skilled matching and point-scoring that only Hepburn and Tracy at their most charismatically abrasive could achieve.
Yes, despite all Hepburn’s strident femininity and Tracy’s latent, sneaky masculinity, the Bonners are likeable, attractive, sympathetic — and wholly believable.
These realities are also assisted by some remarkably attuned production credits.
The photography, for instance, is not only unobtrusively slick, but it can allow itself to become amusingly amateurish in the home movie episode (filmed incidentally at the Kanins’ own country house in Connecticut).
Cole Porter’s song, catchy and glib, is mockingly utilized by Miklos Rosza, here showing an unexpected flair for comic effects. Sets and costumes are both attractive and appropriate. (MGM’s extra-special care even extended to the trailer, which — hilariously narrated by Pete Smith — is itself a little comedy gem.)
To sum up: — absolutely first-class! Witty, scintillating sophisticated entertainment.
* Judy left her long-running Broadway hit Born Yesterday “only after much persuasion by director George Cukor”, according to an MGM press release.
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Bud Abbott (Buzz Johnson), Lou Costello (Stanley Livingston), Hillary Brooke (Diana Emerson), Max Baer (Boots), Buddy Baer (Grappler), Shemp Howard (Gunner), Joe Besser (Harry), Clyde Beatty (himself), Frank Buck (himself), Bobby Barber (bit).
Director: CHARLES BARTON. Original screenplay: Earl Baldwin. Photography: Charles van Enger. Film editor: Frank Gross. Art director: Lewis Creber. Set decorator: Ray Robinson. Music: Walter Schumann. Special effects: Carl Lee. Executive production manager: Joseph C. Gilpin. Assistant director: Joseph Kenny. Wardrobe manager: Albert Deano. Sound recording: Robert Pritchard. RCA Sound System. Associate producer: David S. Garber. Producer: Edward Nassour. Executive in charge: William Nassour. Executive producer: Huntington Hartford.
Copyright 27 May 1949 by Nasbro Pictures, Inc. A Huntington Hartford production presented by Nassour Studios, Inc. Released through United Artists. New York release at the Criterion: 4 May 1949. U.S. release: 2 May 1949. U.K. release: 17 April 1950. Australian release: 29 September 1949. U.S. length: 7,147 feet. 79½ minutes. Australian length: 7,287 feet. 81 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Two bungling book salesmen unwittingly parlay a trip to Africa with a ruthless diamond huntress.
NOTES: An independent production, filmed at Abbott & Costello’s home studio — Universal.
COMMENT: Until DVDs arrived on the scene, this was one of the rarest of all Abbott & Costello movies — and with good reason: It’s not very funny. True, the team are in good voice and have a couple of able assistants in Joe Besser (as a pamby manservant) and Shemp Howard (a near-sighted gunman). In fact, Besser and Howard are given more amusing material than the stars.
Lacking their usual writer, John Grant, Abbott and Costello have been fashioned into rather unusual characters. At first glance, Abbott is his normal hectoring, looking-out-solidly-for-number-one self, but then we find him volunteering to don a lion-skin so that his fraidy-cat buddy can impress the blonde vamp — something the old Abbott would never do.
Costello’s character has undergone an even more startling metamorphosis: No longer a lovable dimwit, he is a lying, cowardly braggart of uncommon stupidity yet self-preserving disloyalty! It’s obvious that writer Earl Baldwin gave no great thought to sympathy or consistency of characterization but simply threw every old wheeze and routine he could think of into an already overburdened script. Unfortunately a lot of this material wasn’t even meant to be funny in the first place. With the exception of such extended ennui-inducing episodes as Lou taming a lion in the process screen, the straight material is even more tedious than the unfunny funny. By and large, Baldwin lost a contract-sent opportunity to send up the whole jungle genre. Contenting himself with a few mild japes (Lou propelling his canoe with an eggbeater; the Baer Brothers trading insults), he allows Hillary Brooke (attractive though she is) to strut around in dead seriousness like the queen of a Congo serial. This mood is abetted by Frank Buck and particularly Clyde Beatty who take themselves very earnestly indeed. So eager were the producers to get their money’s worth out of Beatty, they even provide him a chair, a whip and a cage of lions. A daring act certainly, but as presented in Africa Screams, boringly long-winded.
Charles Barton could have perked things up with pacier or less flat-footed direction, but has resisted the temptation to give the film any style. Although the budget was obviously fairly liberal, the film looks cheap.*
A pity, Africa Screams might have been great fun. Even as is — with a lot of judicious trimming — it could be rendered quite agreeable.
* Director Barton and photographer Van Enger did such stylish and attractive work on Abbott & Costello’s previous feature Meet the Killer, philanthropist Huntington Hartford doubtless expected the same level of atmospheric competence here.
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Nigel Patrick (Clive Morton), Kathleen Harrison (Nannie Cartwright), David Tomlinson (Humpy Miller), Jill Day (Mary), David Hurst (M. Victor), Leo McKern (Gaston Nikopopoulos), Nicholas Phipps (general) Joan Young (Mrs. Hackenfleuger), Lionel Jeffries (maitre d’hotel) Paul Hardtmuth (porter), Fabia Drake (opulent lady), Tommy Farr (bruiser) Charles Lloyd Pack (doctor), Robin Brown (American boy), Dorothy Gordon (W.R.A.C. orderly), Neil Hallett (Alphonse).
Directed by WENDY TOYE from a screenplay by Peter Blackmore and Paul Soskin, based on the stage play by Harold Brocke and Kay Bannerman. Additional dialogue: Alan Melvllle and Nicholas Phipps. Photographed in Eastman Colour by Reginald Wyer.
Film editor: Frederick Wilson. Music composed and conducted by Robert Farnon. Title song by Robert Farnon (music) and Norman Newell (lyrics), sung by The Stargazers. Song, “Far Away From Everybody” by Milton Delugg (music) and Bob Hilliard (lyrics). Art director: Maurice Carter. Costumes: Joan Ellacott. Make-up: Geoff Rodway. Camera operator: Jim Bawden. Set continuity: Yvonne Axworthy. Production manager: T.S. Lyndon-Haynes. Production controller for Pinewood Studios, London, England: Arthur Alcott. Assistant director: Adrian Pryse-Jones. Still photographs: George Ward. Sound editor: Archie Ludski. Sound recording: John Dennis, Gordon K. McCallum. Producer: Paul Soskin. A Paul Soskin Production.
Copyright 1956 by General Film Distributors, Ltd. Presented by J. Arthur Rank for Rank Film Productions. Released in the U.K. through Rank Film Distributors: 6 February 1956. No record of any U.S. theatrical release, but available to TV through United Artists. Australian release through British Empire Films: 30 May 1957. 7,150 feet. 79 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Two British holidaymakers catch chicken pox at a Swiss chalet.
COMMENT: Mildly amusing charade with Kathleen Harrison in her element as an overbearing nanny who bosses and cajoles two grown men as if they were little boys. David Tomlinson is also well cast as the milder of the “boys”. The producer has gone to some expense with color photography, real locations and all, but the film does tend to out-stay its welcome, despite a short enough running time.
OTHER VIEWS: Mild little comedy which occasionally slips into the infantile. Slender enough as a stage farce, it becomes labored and often silly when transferred to the screen. For this type of thing the performances need plenty of vitality and this is supplied by the three principals. Miss Day is suitably attractive in the title part — she was a popular singer at the time and this was her second film (her first was Always a Bride) — but her acting leaves a lot to be desired.
—E.V.D.
An indifferent transmission of a long-running West End farce, with some remarkably tedious additional dialogue, All For Mary is at best mildly amiable, but mostly, despite pretty color photography, it runs close to rather dull. The cast registers agreeably enough, but Wendy Toye’s direction seems uninventive and uninspired.
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Ole Olsen, Chic Johnson (themselves), Mary Howard (Joan Eldridge), Harry Stockwell (Don Fletcher), Franklin Pangborn (costumes man), James Finlayson (McDougal), Eddie Kane (Bailey), Stanley Fields (Slug), Lew Kelly (Martin), D’Arcy Corrigan (Davenport), Earle Hodgins (Barker), Gertrude Astor (Mamie), Blanche Payson (Mrs Wilson, the landlady), Otto Hoffman (Phillips), Fred Kelsey (Inspector Murphy), John Sheehan (McKee), Louis Natheaux (Slug’s henchman), Syd Saylor (equipment tester), Sherry Hall (costumes assistant), Alan Ladd (young man), Ethan Laidlaw (street cop), Charles McAvoy (radio broadcast cop), Jack Cheatham (theatre cop), Jack Egan, June Wilkins, Charles Becker (bits).
Director: JAMES W. HORNE. Screenplay: Jack Townley, Jerome Chodorov. Comedy construction: James Parrott, Ole Olsen, Chic Johnson. Story: Richard English. Photography: Ernest Miller. Supervising film editor: Murray Seldeen. Film editor: Howard O’Neill. Music: Basil Adlam. Songs: Ole Olsen, Chic Johnson. Music director: Alberto Colombo. Costumes: Eloise. Sound recording: Terry Kellum. RCA Sound System. Associate producer: Leonard Fields. Executive producer: Herbert J. Yates.
Copyright 8 September 1937 by Republic Pictures Corporation. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: 8 September 1937. Australian release through British Empire Films: December 1937. 6 reels. 61 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Two zanies back a Broadway song-and-dance show.
COMMENT: A few critics have complained that some of the gags misfire in this glorious hodge-podge of crazy vaudeville routines. Well, maybe they do, but frankly I was laughing so much, I didn’t notice any dull patches at all. In fact, I spent so much time rolling out of my chair, I still didn’t pick out Alan Ladd even though I was determined to catch him this time around.
True, unlike Hellzapoppin, this early try-out does have a well-defined plot—but even that proceeds in a wriggling line that allows our comedians to share the laughs amongst the cast. It’s a fact that one or two players do make rather heavy weather of their gags, but it really doesn’t matter when you have wonderful clowns like Stanley Fields and Lew Kelly on hand. In fact, it’s Kelly who literally runs away with the movie’s acting honors, though admittedly he’s given some utterly fantastic business and knockout lines (“Well, I put up a good fight…”)!
I will agree that the heroine has very little to do, so if you’re a Mary Howard fan, better give the film a miss. Come to think of it, Harry Stockwell is given an even more detailed introduction, and he virtually disappears with every greater rapidity. Well, at least he seems to. Maybe he’s there all the time, but you just don’t notice him in the midst of all the James Finlayson-Franklin Pangborn-Fred Kelsey-Eddie Kane mayhem. A pity! Harry made only five or six movies and he’s just great as the Prince in Snow White (“One song! I have but one song…”)
To sum up: An absolute must for Olsen and Johnson (and Lew Kelly) addicts!
AVAILABLE on DVD through Alpha. Quality rating: Eight out of ten.
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Rosemary Lane (Alice Bond), George Reeves (Michael Stevens), John Eldredge (Marshall Winkler), Virginia Brissac (Lucy Bond), Francis Pierlot (Pete Bond), Oscar O’Shea (Dan Jarvis), Ferris Taylor (Mayor Loomis), Joseph King (Franklyn), Phyllis Ruth (Mary Ann Coleridge), Lucia Carroll (receptionist), Jack Mower (Martin), Tom Wilson (Charlie), Creighton Hale, Al Lloyd (reporters), Sol Gorss, William Hopper (men carrying Michael), Paul Panzer, Cliff Saum, Leo White, Stuart Holmes, Eddie Graham (party guests), Frank Mayo (Joe), Reid Kilpatrick (voice of radio announcer), George Campeau (club man), Peggy Diggins (Mabel).
Director: NOEL M. SMITH. Screenplay: Robert E. Kent. Based on the 1925 stage play “Applesauce” by Barry Conners. Photography: Charles Schoenbaum. Film editor: Frank Magee. Art director: Ted Smith. Gowns: Milo Anderson. Make-up: Perc Westmore. Dialogue director: Hugh McMullan. Music: Rex Dunn. Assistant director: Lester D. Guthrie. Sound recording: Stanley Jones. RCA Sound System. Associate producer: William Jacobs. Producer: Bryan Foy.
Copyright 2 November 1940 by Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc. U.K. release: 29 September 1941. Never theatrically released in Australia. (Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc were on strike in protest against a government decision that prevented them building their own cinemas in Sydney and Melbourne). 7 reels. 5,317 feet. 59 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: A small town ne’er-do-well hopes to win the girl of his choice by running for office as town mayor.
NOTES: The stage play opened on Broadway at the Ambassador on 28 September 1925 and ran a very satisfactory 90 performances. Alan Dinehart both starred as the small-town backslapper and directed. Walter Connolly and Gladys Lloyd were also in the cast. Richard Herndon produced. Warner Brothers purchased the film rights and made the first version in 1936 under the title, Brides Are Like That. Ross Alexander, Anita Louise and Gene Lockhart starred.
COMMENT: The story of this film has hardly any affinity with its title. The plot mainly centers on the hero (George Reeves) winning the mayoral race against the firmly entrenched incumbent (Ferris Taylor). The fact that he will also win the girl (the lovely Rosemary Lane) seems almost incidental, as he is also keen to put down the town blowhard (John Eldredge), especially as that particular loudmouth has marriage designs on Miss Lane.
The plot holds promise but unfortunately it is not realized, despite valiant efforts by Miss Lane and Mr Reeves. Oddly, it’s the support cast that lets the side down, due both to miscasting (Francis Pierlot is right outside his range as the heroine’s dad) and to Noel Smith’s dull, listless, uninvolved direction. Another problem lies with a far too talkative screenplay that often gives the impression of a filmed stage play. Thank you, prolific Poverty Row writer Robert E. Kent (who churned out so much stuff he sometimes used the pseudonym, James B. Gordon).
Sad to say, photography and other credits are equally uninspired. Production values rate no more than average for a “B” feature. Perhaps slightly less.
P.S. In case some readers have been wondering where I obtain the multitudinous credits for these listings, they come from my extensive collection of press books and press sheets. In fact I have the official Exhibitor’s Press Sheet for Always a Bride in front of me right now. It’s amazing. Here we have what is plainly a little “B” movie, designed for supporting slots in none-too-discriminating neighborhood cinemas. The movie runs less than an hour. No way in the world could it figure as a main attraction any place, anyhow! Yet the Press Sheet describes it as “one of the season’s funniest films, the sprightliest of comedies with never a dull moment, a film that is sure to entertain every member of the family. The story is amusing and hilarious, the dialogue sparkling and rib-tickling. The management of the XYZ Theater is keeping its policy of booking the latest laugh hits intact by screening this most recent filmful of fun.”
Can’t you just picture the marquee if the XYZ Theater right now: ROSEMARY LANE & GEORGE REEVES IN ALWAYS A BRIDE! Plus Goodbye Mr Chips.
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Robert Hutton (Don Masters, a would-be writer), Joyce Reynolds (Jane Barker, a $37.50- a-week typiste), Cecil Kellaway (Jonathan Turner, a grasping millionaire), Ernest Truex (Bull, a lawyer), Ransom Sherman (a judge who likes to run his own court), Douglas Kennedy (argumentative lawyer), Paul Wilcox (lawyer representing Masters), Grady Sutton (a soda jerk), Don McGuire (McIntyre, a reporter), Tom Dugan (Herman Gimmick, the follow-that-cab cab-driver Jane engages), Joe Devlin (driver of the cab to be followed), Dewey Robinson (a grouchy street-cleaner), Chester Clute (a fur salesman), Creighton Hale (Eric, the Turner butler), Bunny Waters (Rocky Idaho, a fashion model), Lila Leeds (a blonde), Leo White (decorator), Paul Stanton (Dr Peters), Sam Harris (doctor), Jack Mower, Jack Wise (husbands), Joan Winfield (Alice), Paul Panzer (waiter), William Ruhl, Harry Lewis, Robert Lowell, Clifton Young, Ralph Brooks (reporters), Dona Caron, Gertrude Carr (wives), Wheaton Chambers (court clerk), Donald Kerr, Charles Jordan (cab-drivers), Philo McCullough (moving man), Hank Mann (by-stander), Barbara Bates (ticket-taker), Donald Olson (child), Edward Murphy (impudent office boy).
Guest stars: Jack Carson (star of the first film-within-a-film, Bill an impecunious go-getter), Janis Paige (Polly, the girl Bill loves), Dennis Morgan (star of the second film-within-a-film, a bridegroom), Alexis Smith (the bride), Humphrey Bogart (a male Stella Dallas).
Director: FREDERICK DE CORDOVA. Original screenplay: Phoebe & Henry Ephron and I.A.L. Diamond. Photography: Carl Guthrie. Film editor: Folmar Blangsted. Art director: Leo K. Kuter. Costumes designed by Travilla. Make-up: Perc Westmore. Music composed by Werner Heymann, orchestrated by Leonid Raab, directed by Leo F. Forbstein. Special effects directed by William McGann, photographed by Edwin DuPar. Montages: James Leicester. Set decorator: Jack McConaghy. Dialogue director: John Maxwell. Assistant director: James McMahon. Sound recording: C.A. Riggs. Producer: Alex Gottlieb.
Copyright 13 January 1948 by Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc. A Warner Brothers-First National Picture. New York opening at the Strand: 10 December 1947. U.S. release: 10 January 1948. U.K. release: 17 January 1949 (sic). Australian release: 23 September 1948. 7,195 feet. 78 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: A $37.50-a-week secretary inherits a million dollars.
COMMENT: It’s hard to believe this stylishly directed movie was turned out by Frederick De Bonzo Cordova. True, it was produced by Alex Gottlieb, one of the most intelligent and capable men on the Warner Brothers’ lot. Even more importantly it was conceived by the Ephrons and cleverly revised by the witty Izzy Diamond (later a close associate of Billy Wilder). It wouldn’t surprise me if it was Izzy’s ingenious idea to make Jane a keen picturegoer, treating herself (and us) to such side-splitting gems as “Million Dollar Lady” and “Yesterday Is Gone”.
However, the situations are even more laugh-provoking “off screen”. The characters have been imaginatively conceived in a solidly realistic way. Their reactions always seem perfectly natural, but this only makes them even more delightfully amusing. As a result, many of the lines and “business” come across as very funny indeed.
Vivacious Joyce Reynolds and the normally glum (but brilliantly cast here) Robert Hutton make an excellent team, although impishly irascible Cecil Kellaway has all the best lines and easily manages to steal the film (with a close assist from Ernest Truex and a host of hilarious character players led by Ransom Sherman and Tom Dugan).
Production values are absolutely top-drawer with strikingly moody photography from Carl Guthrie, great (in both senses of that word) sets from Leo K. Kuter and a very pleasant music score from Werner Heymann.
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Robert Young (Vernon Walsh), Barbara Hale (Jacqueline Walsh), Robert Hutton (Herbert Fletcher), Janis Carter (Wanda York), Billie Burke (Mrs Fletcher), Nicholas Joy (Mr Fletcher), Lloyd Corrigan (Dr William Parnell), Howland Chamberlin (Otto Stacey), Melville Cooper (Gibson), Louise Currie (Miss Quigley), Katherine Warren (Miss Ellis), Wilton Graff (Root), Michael Cisney (Martin), Joe Sawyer and James Cardwell (police officers), Grandon Rhodes (Phelps Burbridge), Everett Glass (minister), Mary Treen (puzzled patient), Victor Sen Yung (shop-owner), Claire Meade (woman), Paul Marion (Phillips, the chauffeur), Mary Bear (clerk), Herbert Vigran (Woodley), Theresa Harris (maid), Barbara Woodell (Mrs Carter), Torben Meyer (waiter), John Hubbard (York), John Doucette, Virginia Chapman (married couple), Mary Benoit, Lulumae Bohrman.
Directed by HENRY LEVIN from an original screenplay by Lou Breslow and Joseph Hoffman. Photography: Burnett Guffey. Camera operator: Gurt Anderson. Art director: Robert Peterson. Set decorations: Louis Diage. Music composed by George Duning, directed by Morris Stoloff. Film editor: Viola Lawrence. Assistant director: Earl Bellamy. Script supervisor: Frances McDowell. Make-up: Clay Campbell. Costumes: Jean Louis. Grip: Walter Meins. Gaffer: Bill Johnson. Still photographer: Irving Lippman. Hair styles: Helen Hunt. Production manager: Jack Fier. Sound technician: Russell Malmgren. Associate producer: Henry S. Kesler. Producer: Robert Lord. Executive producer: Humphrey Bogart.
A Santana Picture, copyright 7 December 1949. Made at Columbia Studios and released world-wide by Columbia Pictures. Release dates: December 1949 (U.S.A.); July 1950 (U.K.); 9 February 1951 (Australia). New York opening at the Palace: 22 December 1949. 7,649 feet. 85 minutes.
COMMENT: A stylish drawing-room comedy, with Robert Young once again ideally cast as a harassed husband. He receives solid support all the way down the line from Janis Carter’s brassy blonde to the uncredited guest appearance of Mary Treen as a puzzled patient. The film’s best sequence is an hilarious 20 minutes dealing with a quest for pickled lychee nuts (and another uncredited guest appearance, this time by Victor Sen Yung as a shop-owner). Smooth direction combined with fine photography, classy sets and attractive costumes, give the film a highly polished veneer.
And for your utmost enjoyment, please disregard three facts: (1) bad notices from sourpuss contemporary critics; (2) Henry Levin’s reputation as a director of speed rather than style; (3) Humphrey Bogart’s invisible hand in the production — his company produced and financed the movie, but probably he had as little to do with it as John Ford with Mighty Joe Young.
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Robert Beatty (Gulliver Shiels), Moira Lister (Jennifer), Stanley Holloway (Alastair McNeil), Michael Medwin (Yellow), Sheila Manahan (Nora), Fred O’Donovan (Coghlan), Desmond Keane (Parkes), Maureen Delaney (Mrs Gleason), Dermot Kelly (Mrs Gleason’s nephew), Michael Golden (Broderick), Michael O’Mahoney (Fleming), W.A. Kelly (Old Roger), Wilfred Brambell (Moore), Michael Dolan (Twise), Muriel Aked (little old lady), Irene Worth, Billy Shine (Jennifer’s friends at restaurant), Harry Fine (bystander), Edie Martin (little old lady in park), and Madame Kirkwood Hackett, William Bickell, John Kelly.
Directed by CHARLES CRICHTON from a screenplay by Walter Meade, based on the novel by Kenneth Reddin. Photographed by Douglas Slocombe. Camera operator: Jeff Seaholme. Film editor: Bernard Gribble. Art director: Malcolm Baker-Smith. Production supervisor: Hal Mason. Unit production manager: Slim Hand. Assistant director: Norman Priggen. Music composed by Georges Auric and played by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Ernest Irving. Costumes designed by Anthony Mendleson. Make-up: Ernest Taylor. Hair styles: Barbara Barnard. Assistant art director: Bert Davey. Irish location advisor: F.E. MacSweeney. Special effects: Richard Dendy. Special photographic effects: Geoffrey Dickinson. Sound recording: Stephen Dalby. RCA Sound System. Associate producer: Ivor Montagu. Producer: Michael Balcon. Ealing Studios.
Released in the U.K. through Associated British-Pathé Ltd.; in Australia through B.E.F. on 14 November 1952; in the U.S.A. through International Releasing Organization. Presented by J. Arthur Rank. New York opening at the Little Carnegie: 11 February 1951. U.K. general release: 20 December 1948 (sic). 6,596 feet. 77 minutes. Cut to 65 minutes in Australia.
SYNOPSIS: Gulliver Shiels, a young Irishman, has inherited a small legacy, and retired from work. He spends most of his time lost in a day-dream of a South Sea island, which he is sure he will eventually visit. One day on the sea-shore he gets into conversation with Jennifer, a pretty girl, who determines to win him away from his dream world.
Hoping to rescue some wealthy person in an accident and later to benefit in the will, Gulliver loiters away his days on the steps of the Bank of Ireland. At last, the accident occurs. He helps Alastair McNeil out of a car that has been involved in a collision. Over subsequent drinks, Alastair promises to take the young man to the South Seas.
Jennifer has now to battle against facts instead of dreams. On Christmas Eve, Gulliver takes her in his arms, only to find that she is weeping.
But accidents continue to happen.
COMMENT: Rarely has a film benefited from such outstanding location photography. It opens with a lyrical montage of dawn over Dublin which leads quite naturally into a sequence of workers arriving at the Customs House (a magnificent high angle shot as they trudge across the marbled floor of an enormous vestibule) which cuts into a shot of a worker arriving at a rather poky little office to take the place of Gulliver Shiels. His desk hasn’t been touched for 18 months and as its roll-top lid is drawn back the camera tracks in to a flood of travel leaflets which come spilling out. This fades into a shot of Shiels taking it easy as he lies in bed reading a travel folder.
After this deft introduction of the principal character, the other main protagonists are introduced with almost equal facility. Moira Lister makes a charming study against the clouds, as the waves break against the shore of a pebbly beach and our hero clambers up the hill-side to catch a smoke-puffing train. Unfortunately, she doesn’t live up to this intriguing introduction and proves to be rather a drag in a spate of wearisome romantic clinches with the hero which would have been better left on the cutting-room floor. Fortunately, the main story is ingenious and novel and amusing and has some splendid characterizations — Stanley Holloway as a delightfully fruity but financially embarrassed tippler, and a host of lesser but equally bright cameos such as Michael Dolan’s grumpy, dog-hating attorney (those who saw him in A Hard Day’s Night will hardly recognize Wilfred Brambell as his dead-faced partner), Maureen Delaney as an evil-eyed newspaperwoman, Michael Golden as a fair-minded detective, and Desmond Keane as the black-visaged Parkes. Sheila Manahan is charming in a small part as a maid. Despite his prominence in the cast list, Michael Medwin has a small and relatively unimportant role. Beatty’s Irish accent is thoroughly convincing.
Charles Crichton sometimes comes across as a rather dull director, though often he displays considerable flair when present on actual locations as he does here (and in The Third Secret). How he achieved some of the remarkable high angle shots beggars the imagination and one admires his patience in waiting for just the right atmosphere in many of his street scenes. Another Shore is often brilliantly edited (e.g. the Carnival sequence, and that wonderfully amusing and inventive montage in which Beatty and Holloway prepare for their trip) and reveals the special skills that a director like Crichton who came up through film editing often acquires. It is obvious that Crichton knows exactly the right angles to shoot to get his effects. The action scenes in particular are staged with considerable expertise and the way they are edited is a major factor in their success.
Auric has contributed a charming, lyrical music score which perfectly captures the mood and atmosphere of this delightful film, so aptly sub-titled “A Tragi-Comedy of Dublin Life”. The art direction is most attractive (though Miss Lister’s costumes are often rather dull) and production values are first class. If only it were shorn of just a little of its spurious love interest, Another Shore would be a minor masterpiece.
OTHER VIEWS: Superbly photographed on location in Dublin, this amusing and at times very charming romantic comedy has some excellent comic ideas, though occasionally it stretches them a trifle thin. Acting is constantly engrossing and direction consistently smooth. Definitely a movie for your “I-must-see-it-again” list!
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Curly Howard, Larry Fine, Moe Howard (themselves), Vernon Dent (governor), Bud Jamison (prosecutor), Harley Wood (Faith), Ethelreda Leopold (Hope), Theodore Lorch (Chief Rain in the Puss), Bert Young, Blackie Whiteford, Cy Schindell, Charles Dorety (Indians).
Director: JACK WHITE (alias “Preston Black”). Screenplay: Andrew Bennison. Story: Searle Kramer. Photography: George Meehan. Film editor: Charles Nelson. Producer: Jules White.
Copyright 26 April 1937 by Columbia Pictures of California, Ltd. U.S. release: 14 May 1937. 2 reels. 19 minutes.
COMMENT: Set in Colonial times, this very welcome period offering from the boys has a great start. Amusingly satirizing a similar scene in Captain Blood (1935), it presents the Stooges as three felons (love their musical chains!) who are sentenced to transportation. Arriving in America, the boys perform a diverting jig with three pioneer girls named Faith, Hope and Charity.
Unfortunately, the routine slapstick of the small-scale Indian ambush climax doesn’t live up to expectations. But nonetheless…
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Farley Granger (Bill Denny), Shelley Winters (Kate, his wife), Margalo Gillmore (his mother-in-law), “Archie” (his dog), William Demarest (Inspector O’Ryan), Francis L. Sullivan (Fat Freddie), Hans Conried (Gillie), Lon Chaney (Moose), Elisha Cook (Jonas), Glenn Anders (Pete the Pusher), Allen Jenkins (O’Ryan’s deputy), Marvin Kaplan (Max), Ralph Sanford (detective-sergeant), Don Beddoe (Sergeant O’Neil), Tom Dugan (cop at shooting), Harry Shannon (cop at door), Henry Corden (victim with Fat Freddie), Kathleen Freeman (wife of pet-store owner).
Written and directed by GEORGE BECK from a story by George Beck and Frank Tarloff. Photography: James Wong Howe. Music composed by Leigh Harline and directed by Constantin Bakaleinikoff. Film editor: Paul Weatherwax. Art director: Albert S. D’Agostino. Set decorations: Darrell Silvera, Harley Miller. Production designed by McMillan Johnson. Furniture supplied by Cannell & Chaffin, Inc. Song, “Behave Yourself!” by Lew Spence and Buddy Ebsen (published by Walt Disney Music Company). Advertising art: Vargas. “Archie” owned and trained by Henry East. Hair styles: Larry Germain. Make-up: Mel Berns. Costumes: Orry-Kelly. Mr Granger appears by arrangement with Samuel Goldwyn. Sound recording: Phil Brigandi, Clem Portman. RCA Sound System. Associate producer: Stanley Rubin. Producers: Jerry Wald, Norman Krasna.
Copyright 19 September 1951 by Wald-Krasna Productions, Inc. Released in the U.S.A. through RKO Radio Pictures on 22 September 1951. World premiere at the RKO Missouri Theatre, Kansas City: 29 August 1951. New York opening at the Paramount: 7 November 1951. U.K. release: 9 February 1953 (sic). Australian release: 10 April 1952. 81 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Gangster’s dog escapes from his trainer and follows Farley Granger home. Wife Shelley Winters thinks dog is an anniversary present, little knowing gangsters are in hot pursuit . . .
COMMENT: An amusingly off-beat farce that deftly combines comic cops and robbers with domestic squabbles. Beck’s stylishly fast-paced direction helps to overcome some over-talkative passages in his script. The cast is as fine a collection of character players as you could gather together, while Miss Winters and Mr Granger do well by the lead roles. Production values are A-l, with a special commendation to photographer James Wong Howe for his polished camerawork and J. McMillan Johnson for his excellent sets.
OTHER VIEWS: Joseph McMillan Johnson was a young architecture graduate when he worked as an assistant to William Cameron Menzies on Gone With The Wind. By 1951, he had become a leading architect. Beck deserves the credit of luring him back to films with the challenging assignment of creating a “Honeymoon House” for this amusing yet stylish film. Johnson subsequently worked on such movies as To Catch A Thief, The Facts of Life, Mutiny on the Bounty and The Greatest Story Ever Told.
James Wong Howe’s photography is also a major asset. Although he never mentioned the film in interviews (preferring He Ran All the Way and The Brave Bulls as more representative of his 1951 work) his skill shines through every frame.
Farley Granger is well cast as the dumb-cluck husband, while Shelley Winters fills the part of his young wife more than adequately. The gangsters are a joy (particularly Hans Conried and Francis L. Sullivan), opposing William Demarest in a made-to-order role as a fumbling, fulminating plainclothesman.
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Arthur Askey (Arthur Tucker, aeroplane mechanic), Anne Shelton (Rouana, principal advisor to the queen), Peter Graves (Captain Peter Lovell, pilot), Max Bacon (Max Adler, gunner), Ronald Shiner (Ronald Wild, navigator), Jean Kent (Jani, minister of propaganda), Antoinette Cellier (queen), Joy Shelton (Captain Almura of the palace guard), Beatrice Varley (Moagga, guardian of the hive).
Director: VAL GUEST. Original story and screenplay: Marriott Edgar and Val Guest. Photography: Phil Grindrod. Film editor: R.E. Dearing. Cutter: Alfred Roome. Art director: Maurice Carter. Songs by Manning Sherwin (music) and Val Guest (lyrics): “Put a Sunbeam in Your Pocket” (Anne Shelton and chorus, reprised Askey), “Women Are the Greatest Ones” (female quartet), “Hey, You!” (Shelton), “Hey, Ho!” (Askey and Shelton), “A, B or C” (Kent, Askey), “Are You Naturally Romantic?” (Shelton, chorus), “Never Leave Me” (Shelton, Graves, Kent, chorus), “Hither and Thither” (Askey, Shelton), “When You Grow Up, My Child” (Shelton), “A Wolf on My Mother’s Side” (Kent). Special orchestrations: Bob Busby. Music director: Louis Levy. Production manager: Fred Gunn. Sound supervisor: B.C. Sewell. British Acoustic Film Sound System. Producer: Edward Black. Executive producer: Maurice Ostrer.
Not copyrighted or theatrically released in the U.S.A. Released in the U.K. through General Film Distributors: 20 March 1944. A Gainsborough Picture. Australian release through Gaumont-British Dominions/20th Century-Fox: 28 June 1945. 75 minutes. Cut to 66 minutes in Australia.
SYNOPSIS: Four airmen crash land on Paradise Island, a kingdom ruled by women along the lines of a bee-hive.
NOTES: One of the top twenty-five box-office draws in Great Britain in 1944.
COMMENT: A bright breezy, highly inventive, fluidly directed musical comedy, marred only by a somewhat abrupt and unresolved conclusion. The players are in fine form, particularly Arthur Askey and Anne Shelton. Askey has the lion’s share of the comedy — Ronald Shiner, after an elaborate introduction and strong support to Askey in earlier scenes, all but disappears from the middle and climactic action — whilst Miss Shelton vivaciously and vibrantly dominates the musical numbers.
This in fact is a musical comedy where both elements occupy equal time. The songs are especially tuneful (with the exception of the lachrymose “When You Grow Up, My Child” which seems to have been inserted mainly to give a singing opportunity to a chubby kid), and are presented in grand style, often with acres of super-attractive girls.
Although taking advantage of some marvelous sets and even costumes, the comedy tends to be more intimately focused with Askey pulling out all stops on screen — including slapstick tumbles, verbal repartee, topical allusions and even a female impersonation — whilst two off-camera narrators send up James A. Fitzpatrick. Of course Bacon does manage to insert some of his typical fractured English into the dialogue (“anecdotes” for “antidotes”, etc), whilst Graves provides the love interest for Miss Kent, but both roles are comparatively small.
Luckily for us males, it’s the girls who are the almost constant center of attention. Just about all are way-out-attractive. It’s good to see Jean Kent, looking so fresh and vibrant in a major role, so devoid of the dramatic mannerisms she was later to affect that many at our preview screening failed to recognize her until the movie was well under way.
OTHER VIEWS: Ideal war-time escapist entertainment, with bevies of beautiful girls in an amusing variation of the bee-hive plot. Sumptuous art direction and costumes carry through the bee motif. The jokes demand a quick ear and are masterly thrown away by three expert comedians. The songs, if unmemorable, are bouncing and lively. Guest’s direction rates as commendably brisk. One’s only complaint revolves around the odd fact that there is really no climax, the film ending somewhat abruptly.
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Alastair Sim (Miss Fritton/Clarence Fritton), Joyce Grenfell (Ruby Gates), George Cole (Flash Harry), Betty Ann Davies (Miss Waters), Hermione Baddeley (Miss Drownder), Lloyd Lamble (Superintendent Kemp Bird), Noel Hood (Bilston School mistress), Roger Delgado (legation official), Irene Handl (Miss Gale), Renée Houston (Miss Brimmer), Beryl Reid (Miss Wilson), Richard Wattis (Manton Bassett), Sidney James (Benny Holster), Michael Ripper (Albert Faning), Guy Middleton (Rowbottom-Smith), Arthur Howard (Woodley), Eric Pohlmann (Sultan of Makyad), Stuart Saunders (police sergeant), Mary Merrall (Miss Buckland), Joan Sims (Miss Dawn), Balbina (Miss De St Emelion), Jim Tyson (butcher), Bill O’Malley (railway guard), Arthur Sandifer (railway porter), Martin Walker (Hankinson), Henry Longhurst (doctor), Barry Steele (Fred Smith), Jerry Verno (Alf, bookmaker), Paul Connell (Sam), Tommy Duggan (Joe), Michael Kelly (Bill), Jane Henderson (Miss Holland), Michael Balfour (bus driver), Pat Hagan (policeman), Gilbert Harrison (young clerk), Raymond Glendenning (commentator), Jean Lanston (Rosie), Belinda Lee (Amanda), Vivienne Wood (Miss Anderson), Cara Stevens (Sultan’s secretary), Jack Doyle (assistant trainer), Windsor Cottage (Arab boy). Sixth Formers: Andrée Melly (Lucretia Balldock), Elizabeth Griffiths (Gladys Hunter), Vivienne Martin (Arabella), Barbara Denney, Marigold Russell, Jeanne Marsh, Shirley Burniston, Shirley Eaton, Gloria Turower, Lillimore Knudsen, Susan Kester, Ann Way, Dilys Lay, Damoris Hayman. Fifth Formers: Diana Day (Jackie), Pauline Drewett (Celia), Jill Braidwood (Florrie), Lorna Henderson (Princess Fatima), Annabel Covey (Maudie), Wendy Adams (Marylla), Gillian Gordon-Inglis (Daphne Potter), Gillian Town (Celeste West), Dominica More O’Ferrall, Sandra Alfred, Catherine Feller, Mildred Gordon, Stella Mandler, Sandra Scott Kerr, Cherry White, Madeleine Yates, Jennifer Beach, Alanna Boyce, Pauline Coe, Lynn Courtney, Amanda Coxill, Marcia Manolescue, Mavis Sage, Jacqueline Wall, Valerine Winer, Pam Ballard, Carole Boom, Heather Bradley, Eileen Dudley, Irene French, June O’Keefe, Gloria Richards, Barbara Sharman, Carole Hicks, Beryl Hyslop, Jean Langston, Joan O’Farrell, Peggy O’Farrell, Rita Petett, Carole Riches, Jill Stewart, Virginia Jameson, Patricia Jameson (fourth formers), Myrette Morven, Sally Lahee, Norman Maitland, Bob Gregory, Ronald Searle, Kaye Webb (parents).
Director: FRANK LAUNDER. Screenplay: Frank Launder, Sidney Gilliat, Val Valentine. Inspired by the cartoons of Ronald Searle in his Hurrah for St Trinian’s (1948) and Back to the Slaughterhouse (1951). Photographed in black-and-white by Stanley Pavey. Film editor: Thelma Connell. Art director: Joseph Bato. Costumes: Anna Duse. Wardrobe supervisor: Bridget Sellers. Make-up: Tony Sforzini, George Partleton, Trevor Crole-Rees. Hair styles: Gladys Atkinson. Stills cameraman: Ray Hearne. Camera operator: Arthur Ibbetson. Focus puller: Peter Broxup. Clapper: Alan Hall. Camera assistant: R. Pope. Grip: Ray Jones. Assembly cutter: Theodore Darvas. Assistant film editors: Anthony Lower (1st), John Beaton (2nd). Dubbing editor: Theodore Darvas. Assistant art director: John Hoesli. Draughtsmen: W.E. Hutchinson, J. Sawyer, P. Moll. Set continuity: Olga Brook. Wardrobe master: Charles Guerin. Wardrobe mistress: Elsie Altryde. Assistant to the producers: Cyril Coke. Music composed by Malcolm Arnold, directed by Muir Mathieson. Sound supervisor: John Cox. Sound recording: Bert Ross. Sound camera operator: W. Webb. Boom operator: Peter Dukelow. Boom assistant: Peter Myers. Sound maintenance: Norman Bolland. Dubbing crew: Red Law, Bob Jones, Barbara Hopkins, Norman Daines. Production manager: Sydney Streeter. Assistant directors: Adrian Pryce-Jones (1st), Peter Maxwell (2nd), Jack Green (3rd). Producers: Frank Launder, Sidney Gilliat. A Sidney Gilliat—Frank Launder Production, made at Shepperton Studios for London Films and British Lion Film Productions. An Individual Picture.
Copyright 1955 by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat Productions. U.S. release through Associated Artists: 5 January 1955. New York opening at the Plaza: 22 December 1954. U.K. release through British Lion: 15 November 1954. London trade show: 2 September 1954. London premiere at the Gaumont Haymarket: 1 October 1954. Australian release through London Films/Universal-International: 5 May 1955. 8,190 feet. 91 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Crooked bookies try to waylay a famous racehorse, but their plot is foiled by the alert gambling girls of St Trinian’s.
NOTES: One of the U.K. box-office’s top ten successes of 1954, the film did less well in Australia (not even placing in the top thirty for 1955).