WHAT MUSICALS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[Uncle Stevie]

Wonderful video of Esther. Thanks Doug. I am not a fan of Diana Williams and do not appreciate her "acting school" voice expressions. She does it on the news too and tries to invoke sympathy for everything. I do not like that.

[feaito]

Thanks for posting that interview Fossy, I liked it very much.

[Fossy]

Alexander`s Ragtime Band. (1938)

A lively musical with plenty of singing, dancing and music. A typical story line. Boy meets girl, they hate one another, then they love one another. Girl becomes a successful singer. In a fit of jealousy boy dumps girl and joins the army. She is a big success. With the war over he returns to patch up their differences. Too late, she has married boy`s best friend. Best friend, realizing that girl still loves boy divorces her.
Her fame fades, while boy becomes a big success. Eventually they reunite and all ends well.

The Players.

A very youthful looking Tyrone Power as Alexander. (He was only 24). Only twenty years later at age 44 he collapsed during a duel with George Sanders on the set of Solomon and Sheba, and died before reaching hospital.

Alice Faye, as beautiful as ever, and what a great singer.

Don Ameche at 30 years and looking much younger. I think this is the only time I have seen him without a moustache. He grew it during the filming. Unlike most Hollywood stars, he was married once. The marriage lasted almost 54 years and produced 6 children.

Ethel Merman had one of the most powerful voices I have ever heard .

[Uncle Stevie]

I am with you 100% on Alexander Ragtime Band , Doug. I liked the movie very much.

[Uncle Stevie]

I have been watcing Esther Williams all this week. Lat night I saw Milion Dollar Mermaid. I also saw Texas Carnival, Duchas Of Idaho, Bathing Beautiful, Easy To Wed, and Easy To Love. I liked them all. I really like Esther Williams. She appears on the screen as warm and friendly in all of her movies. She certainly is beautiful. She is also taller than most women and stands out in a crowd with those beautiful broad shoulders. In "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" I think she was taller than all the male leads, Sinatra and Kelly.

[Rita Hayworth]

Same here Uncle Stevie, I like her too. I even ordered her DVD collection through TCM.

[Uncle Stevie]

Watched "Mad About Music" )1938) last night. It starred a 16 year old Deanna Durbin and co starred Herbert Marshall. It was a grand musical and one of the propellents to Deanna's career. I love her movies. She easily demonstrated a great operatic voice and acting ability at this young age. This was a delighful entry to that era. It was nominated for four Oscars.

[feaito]

Uncle Stevie, it's one of her best! Still, I think that my fave of hers up to now is "It Started with Eve" (1941).

[movieman1957]

Romance On The High Seas is a pleasant enough piece of fluff with Doris Day, Janis Paige, Jack Carson and Don DeFore. (Were they brothers separated at birth?) Married couple (Paige and DeFore) don't trust each other and set out to spy on each other to see that they are being faithful. In come Carson and Day to do their work on behalf of each spouse to trip up or catch them doing something wrong. Oscar Levant plays Oscar Levant (they did give him a different last name) and excels at his smart aleck remarks throughout.

One thing was confirmed for me on a personal level and that is I don't enjoy straight singing musicals as much as I do dancing/singing musicals. The songs didn't do much for me but I'm likely in the minority there.

It is gorgeous it Technicolor. Busby Berkeley is listed in the credits but there is nothing like what you would expect with him being involved.

Could have made a fine screwball type comedy.

[Fossy]

In Old Chicago (1937)

What a great show. The beautiful voice of Alice Faye, the Youthful Tyrone Power, ably backed up by Don Ameche, Alice Brady and Andy Devine.

One may compare this show with San Francisco (1936) for spectacle. The story is about the O`Leary family and the lead up to the Chicago fire. It even shows Mrs O`Leary`s cow kicking over the lantern to start the fire. ( The reporter who first published the story of Mrs O`Leary`s cow later admitted that he made it up.

My opinion is that this was a much better movie than San Francisco.


Alice Faye introduced almost twice as many 'Hit Parade' songs in her movies (23) as each of her closest competitors: Judy Garland (13), Betty Grable (12) and Doris Day (12).

[on Tyrone Power] Alice said “He was the best looking thing I've ever seen in my life. Kissing him was like dying and going to heaven”.

[Uncle Stevie]

I was reluctant to watch "Say One For Me" (1959) with Bing Crosby, Debbie Reynolds, & Robert Wagner because I though it might be a tedious "Church" movie. But I was pleasantly surprised. It was a snappy musical riddled with deep insight and demon like characters for Father Bing Crosby to tame and train for this wholesome message. I was indeed entertained and enjoyed the movie with all of it's faults and messages. Singing and dancing throughout was the surprise. Debbie was the innocent girl pulled into show business by sleazy Robert Wagner because she needed money while Priest Father Bing Crosby kept watch over the blooming love affair.

[Fossy]

I was reluctant to watch "Say One For Me" (1959) with Bing Crosby, Debbie Reynolds, & Robert Wagner because I though it might be a tedious "Church" movie.

I have often thought this about Bing Crosby. I wonder if he used films to push his religion. Spencer Tracy, Barry Fitzgerald, and Ann Blyth ( what a lovely lady she is) are other devout Catholics who appeared more than once in "Church" movies.

[Uncle Stevie]

I watched "In Old Chicago" last night and have these comments:

I enjoyed the movie very much but I must disagree with Fossy about the production. I thought "San Francisco" was a better and more critical production. The destruction of San Francisco was more realistic than that of Chicago. The script was better and less trite. Jeanette MacDonald was a better actress than Alice Faye. The plots were very similar except for the cause of terror. I enjoyed both but had more empathy for the Frisco one.

Sorry Doug but that is my opinion.

[Fossy]

Metropolitan (1935)

Thomas Renwick (Lawrence Tibbett) is an aspiring baritone who sings in the chorus at the Metropolitan Opera. Ghita (Alice Brady) is a temperamental soprano who walks out in a huff and decides to start her own opera company.

Thomas joins Ghita`s opera company. Ghita tries to seduce Thomas on a few occasions, but Thomas is in love with soprano Anne Merrill. Eventually Ghita walks out leaving the company in dire straits. Anne comes to the rescue and reveals that she is actually the daughter of a multi millionaire.

A feast of arias from both Lawrence and Virginia. I know that in at least one of Virginia`s films her voice was dubbed, but I believe that in this movie she actually sang.

Lawrence Tibbett died at age 63 after tripping on a loose carpet at his home and striking his head on the corner of a TV set. An operation to remove bone fragments from his brain was unsuccessful. He was lead baritone at the Metropolitan Opera for 27 years.

[Gary J.]

I have often thought this about Bing Crosby. I wonder if he used films to push his religion.

It's quite the opposite. McCarey had to talk Crosby into doing GOING MY WAY because Bing was afraid the public wouldn't accept a singer playing a priest. That movie was such a monster hit that it opened the flood gates for other instances of 'suspect casting' in that role. Sinatra made a priest movie of his own in 1948. By 1959 Crosby playing a priest once again was more along the lines of revisiting a past success to a flagging film career.