WE’RE RICH AGAIN. RKO Radio Pictures, 1934. Edna May Oliver, Billie Burke, Marian Nixon, Reginald Denny, Joan Marsh, Buster Crabbe. Director: William A. Seiter.
On the eve of her cousin’s wedding to a millionaire, a young girl from Texas shows up and completely disrupts the proceedings. She acts naive, but she easily has her own way – nor does she fail to see the process sever at her ‘rich’ relatives’ door.
Marian Nixon is billed third, but as the unsophisticated country cousin, she is easily the star of this Depression-era comedy. At the time it was released, it must have been a riot. Watching it now, over fifty years later, I still found plenty to smile at.
TOO MANY GIRLS. RKO Pictures, 1940. Lucille Ball, Richard Carlson, Ann Miller, Eddie Bracken, Frances Langford, Desi Arnaz. Director: George Abbott.
When four football players are hired as bodyguards for a wealthy man’s strong-willed daughter,they all go off to Pottawatomie College, where she meets a secret lover. As the semester goes on, however, she finds herself falling for someone else.
One of the bodyguards, that is, and it isn’t Desi. Lucille Ball was a delectable long-legged damsel in her early days, and even if she doesn’t do her own singing here. she is still quite an eyeful. She is also the only reason anyone should watch this sappy movie.
PIGSKIN PARADE. 20th Century Fox, 1936. Stuart Erwin, Patsy Kelly, Jack Haley, The Yacht Club Boys, Betty Grable, Judy Garland, Tony Martin, Elisha Cook Jr., Lynn Bari, Alan Ladd. Director: David Butler.
When Yale mistakenly challenges a small Texas college in a game of football, the outcome is a foregone conclusion. It is, that is, until the school with an enrollment of only 700 recruits a hillbilly with an arm like a rifle, straight from a melon patch.
Lots of singing and dancing, Although he doesn’t appear until the second half of the movie, Stu Erwin manages to get star billing as the team’s new quarterback. Judy Garland, who plays his sister, makes a smash movie debut – stealing the show as a 15-year-old.
MEET ME AFTER THE SHOW. 20th Century Fox, 1951. Betty Grable, Macdonald Carey, Rory Calhoun, Eddie Albert. Screenplay:Richard Sale & Mary Loos. Director: Richard Sale.
A rift develops between the star of a Broadway musical and her producer-director husband. When amnesia strikes, she heads straight for Miami, with seven years missing from her life – or so she says.
Pure corn. On the other hand, Betty Grable seems ten times the glamorous movie star in this creaky vehicle than she did seven years earlier, in Pin-Up Girl [reviewed here]. Her strength was in musical comedy, and she made the most of it.
LOOK WHO’S LAUGHING. RKO Radio Pictures, 1941. Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy, Fibber McGee & Molly, Lucille Ball, Harold Peary. Director: Allan Dwan.
Edgar and Charlie make an unscheduled landing in Wistful Vista, the home of Fibber McGee and Molly. Lucille Ball is Edgar’s secretary, and to make things complicated, she is secretly in love with him.
The rest of the story has to do with land for a proposed airplane factory in Wistful Vista, but the main attraction of the story is seeing so many famous radio characters in the flesh – including Fibber’s long-time nemesis, Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve.
PIN-UP GIRL. 20th Century Fox, 1944. Betty Grable, John Harvey, Martha Raye, Joe E. Brown, Eugene Pallette, Dave Willock. Director: Bruce Humberstone.
A secretary poses as Broadway star during wartime to win the love of a sailor. Dave Willock plays the sailor’s buddy, and as a team Martha Raye and Joe E. Brown display a bit of denture work.
Lots of large-scale production numbers add to the proceedings, but not much to the story, which is low-scale. Just in passing, I wonder if Betty Grable would be a glamour girl today. I’m not trying to be awkward. I just think standards have changed.
WALKING ON AIR. RKO Radio Pictures, 1936. Gene Raymond, Ann Sothern. Director: Joseph Santley.
A girl hires an obnoxious suitor to force her father to let her marry the man she loves. Nature naturally takes its own way in such matters, and here is no exception. You can very easily write the rest on your own.
Gene Raymond’s character is also an aspiring young radio singer, which allows for a fine opportunity for a few extra songs, resulting in a pleasant mixture of comedy and music. If Ann Southern could never be called beautiful, she was the next best thing to it.
WHEN WILLIE COMES MARCHING HOME. 20th Century Fox, 1950. Dan Dailey, Corinne Calvert, Colleen Townsend, William Demarest. Screenplay by Richard Sale & Mary Loos. Director: John Ford.
Dan Dailey stars as the first young man in his hometown to sign up for World War II, but the fanfare becomes frustration as he soon discovers he’s permanently stationed only five miles from home.
Finally given the chance to redeem himself in the eyes of his family and friends, his mission to France ends so quickly, no one believes he was gone. As a young actor, Dailey proves to have been a lanky, likable sort of chap, and I liked his performance here.
HIGHER AND HIGHER. RKO Radio Pictures, 1943. Michele Morgan, Jack Haley, Frank Sinatra, Leon Errol, Marcy McGuire, Victor Borge, Mary Wickes, Elisabeth Risdon, Barbara Hale, Mel Torme. Director: Tim Whelan.
A former millionaire tries to pass a maid off as his daughter and the season’s number one debutante, hoping to recoup some recent business losses. Naturally humorous romantic complications arise.
Notable as one of the first movie appearances for Frank Sinatra, who does a fine job playing himself. The plot makes very little sense, and the songs, while more than acceptable, do not entirely seem to match the story.
WHITE TIE AND TAILS. Universal Pictures, 1946. Dan Duryea, Ella Raines, William Bendix, Donald Curtis, Seymour S. Hinds. Screenplay by Bertram Millhauser. Story by Rufus King and Charles Beahan. Directed by Charles Barton. Currently streaming on YouTube (see below).
Charles Dumont (Dan Duryea) is the perfect butler, a man who can mix the perfect martini, keep up with his mistress’s spectacles, advise his master on art purchases, and solve their children’s teenage problems all in the course of readying the family to leave on their vacation. The Latimers just can’t function without him.
He even reminds them to give the staff paid holidays while they are gone.
But Charles Dumont has an ulterior motive. You see Charles is planning a staycation, where he will enjoy the lifestyle of his employer and indulge in the life of a playboy with a little help from the chauffeur George (Frank Jenks).
What could possibly go wrong?
Well… for instance on his first night on the town, Charles could meet beautiful wealthy Louise Bradford (Ella Raines) and her father (Samuel S. Hinds), and while endeavoring to impress the beautiful Louise as something of a charming mystery man, he could discover her sister is involved with Nick Romano (Donald Curtis) who works for casino owner Ludie (William Bendix) and owes Ludie $100,000 dollars, and naturally Charles offers to write a check to cover the amount because Mr. Bradford will repay him the next morning and Ludie, a charming fellow impressed by Charles clothes and manner, will happily call Romano off and cut off the sister’s future credit.
Again, what could possibly go wrong?
Save Mr. Bradford is going to need time to sell some bonds and raise that $100 K in cash and Mr. Ludie is going to come calling at the Latimer mansion to check on Charles legitimacy and seeing the Latimer’s art collection, which Charles can’t help but show off as his own, Ludie is going to take a few paintings as collateral until he cashes Charles check.
And from there on it gets complicated, as Charles, who gave up a promising art career because it was easier to be a butler and now is falling for Louise, and his house of cards is getting more and more precarious.
This charming romantic comedy is a surprise for Duryea who is perfectly suited to the lead and romances the lovely well-cast Raines, ably abetted by Bendix as an urbane figure (almost as much of a stretch for Bendix as Duryea) who would like a little tutoring in clothes and art and style from Charles if not for the little matter of that $100 K.
Jenks even gets a nice scene as he tries to win back the $100K at Ludie’s casino at the crap table.
In the manner of romantic comedy, the complications pile on until it seems as if there is no way a happy ending can be eked out of the mess, and then, being romantic comedy it somehow is and charmingly so.
It is also refreshing that Raines and Duryea hit it right off, and she is level-headed and smart and not the least the flighty screwball heiress.
This is not a mystery or crime film, though several times it seems as if it might be. Maybe it’s just Duryea’s presence though, and the fact that half of the writing team for the original story is mystery writer Rufus King, creator of Philo Vance-like Reginald De Puyster, Lt. Valcour, Colin Starr, and Chief Bill Dugan.
What it is, though, is an involving attractive and intelligent romantic comedy. As far as I know it is Duryea’s only lead in a romantic comedy (he is in several comedies including Howard Hawks’ Ball of Fire, but usually playing comic versions of Dan Duryea roles). It is quite possibly unique in this aspect, though I think you will agree after watching it that it should not have been.
I wouldn’t have wanted to miss out of Duryea’s great villain and character parts, but it would have been nice if he got a few more chances like this to show other aspects of his talent.
