Johnny Downs Movies

The 1940s was a monumental decade for the United States. Amid World War II, economic recovery, and the start of the Cold War, American music provided a soundtrack to a generation. The Music Classics line from MPI Home Video attempts to offer the chance to relieve the era with a ten-volume series of restored film footage featuring performances by many of the 40's most revered artists. Among the musicians who appear in this seventh entry in the series are Monica Lewis, Count Basie, Johnny Downs, Carol Stevens, and Nat King Cole. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi

Ethel Merman reprised her role as a socialite turned diplomat in this screen adaptation of Irving Berlin's hit Broadway musical. Sally Adams (Merman) has made it her business to know everyone worth knowing in Washington D.C., and her penchant for parties pays off when she's appointed United States Ambassador to Lichtenburg. Once she is installed in her new position, she falls in love with suave Foreign Minister Cosmo Constantine (George Sanders), while Princess Maria (Vera-Ellen) has her head turned by Sally's press attaché, Kenneth (Donand O'Connor). Call Me Madam is a showcase for Merman's roof-raising musical comedy style, and here she gets to sing a handful of Berlin tunes, including "You're Just In Love," "Can You Use Any Money Today?" and "Hostess With The Mostes' on the Ball." Vera-Ellen's singing was dubbed by Carol Richards. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Originally intended as a 3D film, this standard-issue Bob Hope musical comedy was released "flat." The 50-year-old Hope plays over-aged chorus boy Stanley Snodgrass, whose attempts to get ahead in the early 20th-century theatre world always come acropper. His luck suddenly changes when he's promoted to the leading-man role in a show headlined by Irene Bailey (Arlene Dahl). What Stanley doesn't know is that he's been set up as a decoy to bring the murderous Jack the Slasher (Robert Strauss) out in the open. It seems that Jack is obsessed with Irene, and has a nasty habit of cutting all of her male co-stars into ribbons. Meanwhile, Stanley lays waste to the show by performing all of his big numbers incorrectly, but his faithful gal Daisy Crockett (Rosemary Clooney) loves him all the same. Tony Martin also appears as Irene's boyfriend, while Millard Mitchell makes his final film appearance as Stanley's stepfather (and never mind that he and Hope were the same age!) A brief clip from Here Come the Girls showed up in, of all places, the 1953 sci-fier Conquest of Space. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Because of its misleadingly sensual title and the participation of screenwriter/director F. Hugh Herbert (author of the once-notorious "The Moon is Blue"), Girls of Pleasure Island was ballyhooed in 1953 as the ultimate in sex and sin. In truth, the film is an innocent, inconsequential WW II comedy, designed to showcase Paramount's crop of "new faces." Leo Genn plays Roger Halyard, a stiff-upper-lip British gentleman who lives on a South Pacific Island with his three nubile, naïve daughters, Violet (Joan Elan), Hester (Audrey Dalton) and Gloria (Dorothy Bromiley). Hoping to shelter the girls from the lascivious advances of the opposite sex, Halyard is thwarted when 1500 Marines arrive to transform the island into an aircraft landing base. Despite the best efforts of Halyard, his housekeeper Thelma (Elsa Lanchester),and marine colonel Reade (Phil Ober), romance blossoms between the three girls and a trio of handsome leathernecks (one of whom is a young Gene Barry). Top billing in Girls of Pleasure of Island is bestowed upon Don Taylor as Lieutenant Gilmartin, whose warm relationship with Hester Halyard (Dalton) carries most of the plotline. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Lippert's Square Dance Jubilee was aimed squarely at the rural movie market. Don Barry and Wally Vernon play a pair of talent scouts, searching for authentic country-western performers to appear on Spade Cooley's TV show. Somehow, the duo finds time to rescue a lovely young rancher (Mary Beth Hughes) from cattle rustlers. The plot is serviceable but hardly necessary: the sole "raison d'etre" for Square Dance Jubilee was its parade of C&W talent. In addition to Spade Cooley, the musical roster includes Cowboy Copas, Ray Vaughan, Claude Casey, Johnny Downs, The Broome Brothers, Smiley and Kitty, the Elder Lovelies and the Tumbleweed Tumblers. Yee-hah! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

There's slightly more fancy than fact in this lavish film biography of legendary American composer George Gershwin, but oh! That music! Director Irving Rapper had wanted Tyrone Power to play Gershwin, but Power was still serving in the Marines, so Rapper had to settle for Robert Alda--who isn't bad at all, just a trifle over-enthusiastic. The film traces Gershwin's rise from a "song plugger" for a Manhattan music publishing company to the heights of international fame and fortune. Gershwin's first big hit is "Swanee," introduced on Broadway by Al Jolson (who plays himself, making his first film appearance in six years). In collaboration with his lyricist brother Ira (well played by Herbert Rudley), George pens hit after hit in show after show. Impresario Charles Coburn is happy with this, but George's kindly old music teacher Albert Basserman wants his prize pupil to aspire to something more artistic. Gershwin responds with "Rhapsody in Blue", which debuts at Aeolian Hall in 1924 under the baton of bandleader Paul Whiteman (also playing himself). As his fame and workload grows, George finds he has no time at all for romance; the two (fictional) ladies in his life, both of whom eventually realize that they'll always have to play second fiddle to Gershwin's muse, are musical comedy star Joan Leslie and socialite Alexis Smith. Gershwin continues to compose such masterpieces as "An American in Paris", "Cuban Overture", "Concerto in F" and the 1935 folk opera Porgy and Bess. He will not allow himself to rest on his laurels, ruthlessly pushing himself to top all his previous accomplishments. Finally, the strain proves too great: George Gershwin dies of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1937, at the age of 39. Featured in the cast as themselves (in addition to those already mentioned) are Gershwin's lifelong friend Oscar Levant, producer George White, and Broadway performers Tom Patricola and Hazel Scott. Morris Carnovsky and Rosemary DeCamp play George's parents, while Julie Bishop is cast as Ira's wife Lee, who is saddled with the film's silliest line: "Ira, promise me that you'll never become a genius." Alternately hokey and inspired, Rhapsody in Blue has weathered the years as one of Hollywood's most solid biopics. And, as a bonus, we are treated to a virtually complete performance (running a full reel) of the title composition. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this musical western, a cowboy band is offered the chance to appear in a Hollywood movie and begins the journey to the West Coast. Unfortunately, the band ends up stranded in Texas and must take a job running a ranch. Musical mayhem ensues: Songs include: "Let's Love Again," "Where the Prairie Meets the Sky," "Don't You Ever Be a Cowboy," "Texas Polka," "No Letter Today," "I Got Mellow in the Yellow of the Moon," "Sip Nip Song," "Salt-Water Cowboy," "The Blues," "Little Brown Jug" and "And Then." ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this romantic drama, an office clerk's quiet personal life is disrupted when a sick woman appears at his doorstep in desperate need of help. The kindly fellow takes her in and helps her to recover. He then discovers that she isn't sick at all; she was only trying to hide from the cops who pursue her. The fellow decides to let her stay anyway. Later, when the whole mess is straightened out, the two marry. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

As PRC pictures go, the modest Harvest Melody is practically a spectacular. Rosemary Lane plays former film star Gilda Parker, who hopes to regain her popularity with a carefully staged publicity stunt. Aiming for the "rural" trade, Gilda goes to work on a farm at harvest time. At the behest of Gilda's fast-talking agent Chuck (Sheldon Leonard), several other show-bizzers begin pitching hay alongside our heroine. A little more altruistic than Gilda is farmer's son Tommy (Johnny Downs), who turns down a chance at a movie contract to devote his energies to the establishment of a patriotic National Farm Labor Club. But he doesn't turn down Gilda, allowing the film to end happily. Outside of its better-than-average cast, the most impressive aspect of Harvest Melody is the glittering new PRC logo at the beginning of the film. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Bland former child actor Johnny Downs earns top billing in this low-budget horror film, but the real star is that most psychotic of all the mad doctors George Zucco. The British-born character actor plays Dr. Lorenzo Cameron, a discredited -- and quite mad -- medico who has discovered a way to turn his helper, Pietro (Glenn Strange), into a wolf man. The lycanthropic experiments succeed only too well and although Dr. Cameron spouts plans of turning his discovery into a weapon in defense of the civilized world ("men who are governed by one collective thought, the animal lust to kill without regard for personal safety! Such an army will sweep everything before it," Dr. Cameron promises), he instead unleashes his creation on those fellow scientists who had engineered his ouster from academia in the first place. Before long, however, the good doctor is unable to control the wolf man, who threatens to kill everything in his past, and only newspaper reporter Tom Gregory (Johnny Downs) and Lenora (Anne Nagel), Cameron's innocent daughter, may be able to stop the monster. A perennial cult favorite, The Mad Monster was released on the heels of The Wolf Man (1941), but cost a fraction of Universal's elaborate lycanthropic exercise. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

The bucolic, down-home novels and short stories of Gene Stratton-Porter had been fodder for Monogram's screenwriting staff ever since the early 1930s. This cinemazation of Stratton-Porter's Freckles Comes Home stars Johnny Downs as the title character, who returns from college to his sedentary home town. Freckles' efforts to bring the community kicking and screaming into the 20th century somehow require him to tackle a group of gangsters who've taken up residence for the purpose of knocking off the town's bank. Every so often, the story stops dead in its tracks to permit black comedian Mantan Moreland to indulge in one of his famous "interrupted conversation" routines; they're the highlight of the picture. Seen as Johnny Downs' hometown sweetheart is Gale Storm, who does some of her best acting to date as the bank president's daughter. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Another cookie-cutter Universal minimusical, Moonlight in Hawaii gathered together the usual suspects-Johnny Downs, Leon Errol, Jane Frazee, Mischa Auer, Sunny O'Dea et. al.--in their usual roles. Downs plays a young man named Pete, who shepherds a group of sightseers to Honolulu. Pete's greatest ambition is to star on radio with his pals the Merry Macs, and to this end he curries favor with potential sponsors Spencer (Leon Errol) and Lawton (Richard Carle), partners in a pineapple-juice factory. The complications begin piling up when Spencer and Lawton have a falling out over the affections of wealthy dowager Mrs. Floto (Marjorie Gateson), forcing Pete and his pals to play matchmaker. Superstar-to-be Maria Montez shows up in a bit role as a hula-hula dancer. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Ingrid Bergman stars in Adam Had Four Sons, her second American film appearance. Based on a novel by Charles Bonner, the story begins in the early twentieth century, when French governess Emilie Gallatin (Bergman) is hired to care for the four growing sons of wealthy Adam Stoddard (Warner Baxter). The sudden death of Stoddard's wife Molly (Fay Wray) and the loss of his fortune compels Emilie to reluctantly give up her position and head home. Ten years later, Stoddard, having recovered financially, again sends for Emilie, even though his sons have all grown and are about to march off to WW1. Secretly in love with Stoddard, Emilie nonetheless keeps her place, until the libertine behavior of Stoddard's scheming sister-in-law Hester (Susan Hayward) forces Emilie to take drastic action. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi