Ben Blue Movies
A lanky, rubber-limbed comedian with a sad face, Ben Blue achieved his effects as much with mime as with dialogue. From age 15 he was on the New York stage and in vaudeville, then beginning in 1926 he appeared in a series of silent short subjects for Warner Brothers, Hal Roach, and other studios. Often appearing in baggy pants, with an eccentric straw hat and cane, he went on during the sound era to work for Paramount, where he was the long-limbed, wistful-eyed funny man in dozens of pictures, tending to put in cameo appearances that stole the show from those with top billing. (One story has it that comedian Red Skelton, after being upstaged by Blue, had a clause put in his contract stating that he would never appear with him again). Blue went on to perform regularly in nightclubs and on TV but dropped out of films in 1948 and spent fifteen years managing the nightclubs he owned. He returned and continued making comedic cameos in films during the '60s (notably in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming). ~ All Movie Guide- 1968
This light romantic comedy is set during the November 9th power outage of 1965 that darkened New York and much of the East Coast. Margaret (Doris Day) is a theater actress who storms out on her architect husband, Peter (Patrick O'Neal), when a pretty female reporter spends too much time interviewing him for Margaret's liking. Later, Waldo Zane (Robert Morse), an embezzling business executive, has car trouble while fleeing his company. Margaret's house is nearby, so he sneaks in, and, after taking a drink of her elixir, he falls asleep beside her by mistake. Naturally, her husband soon appears, and comedy ensues in cases of mistaken identity and scheduling mix-ups. Columnist Earl Wilson makes a cameo appearance as does director Hy Averback. Steve Allen plays the radio announcer, Jim Backus a car dealer, and Pat Paulsen deadpans his usual facade in his role as a train conductor. Though this romantic comedy came out a couple years after the infamous New York City-wide blackout, it is based on French playwright Claude Magnier's production Monsieur Masure, which was written in the '50s. The actual power failure resulted in a population explosion exactly nine months later, and over double the average number of kids started school in 1971 as a direct result of the darkness. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Doris Day, Robert Morse, (more)
Ed Stander (Robert Morse), with the help of an all-star cast, teaches Paul Manning (Walter Matthau) the fine art of philandering in A Guide for the Married Man. Paul, happily married to sexy Ruth (Inger Stevens), has no burning desire to cheat, but Ed makes the prospect sound very attractive. Finally taking the "big step" with a glamorous brunette after months of careful preparation, Paul finds that he loves his wife way too much to betray her -- while the ever-careful Ed ends up in divorce court. Among the myriad of "advisors" peppered throughout Guide for the Married Man are Art Carney, Lucille Ball, Jack Benny, Jayne Mansfield, Terry-Thomas, and Carl Reiner. The best guest-star vignette features Joey Bishop as a man caught in bed with another woman by his wife -- whereupon he calmly puts on his clothes, straightens up the room, and quietly responds to his wife's outrage by saying "What bed? What girl?" Adapted by Frank Tarloff from his book of the same name, Guide for the Married Man was directed by Gene Kelly, who makes a cameo "appearance" of his own as a voice on a TV set. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Matthau, Robert Morse, (more)
A nosey housewife (Marguerite Viby) takes on extra responsibilities when her husband (Buster Larsen) hurts his back while reading the Sunday paper. When she finds a dead body in the upstairs office, she calls the police. The detective (Ole Monty) is summoned, and he discovers the woman is his old school dancing partner. When she turns around to renew the old acquaintance, the corpse is gone in this offbeat situation comedy. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sid Caesar, Robert Ryan, (more)
- 1966
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Just because The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming was vastly overrated by contemporary critics does not make it any less amusing. The story gets under way when a Soviet submarine accidently gets lodged in a sandbar on the coast of a New England town. In his feature film debut, Alan Arkin plays the sub's second-in-command, who is ordered by commander Theodore Bikel to free up the sub and skeedaddle before an international incident erupts. Hoping to secure a power boat to tug the sub out to sea, Arkin and his men call upon vacationing TV writer Carl Reiner, passing themselves off as Norwegians. When this ruse fails, Arkin is reluctantly compelled to force Reiner at gunpoint to fetch his motorboat, while gentle-natured Russian sailor John Philip Law is left behind to guard Reiner's wife Eva Marie Saint and pretty neighbor girl Andrea Dromm (yes, love blooms). The plot thickens when the locals, notably bullnecked sheriff Brian Keith and superpatriot Paul Ford, spread the word that the Russians have "invaded" their little community. Several slapstick complications later, the Russians and the locals face each other down in the center of the village, weapons at the ready. Fortunately, World War 3 is averted when the Russians and the villagers band together to rescue young Johnny Whittaker from falling to his doom. Enormously popular upon its first release, The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming still works on a slick sitcom level. The film was based on a novel by Nathaniel Benchley, the son of humorist Robert Benchley and the father of Jaws author Peter Benchley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carl Reiner, Eva Marie Saint, (more)
- 1963
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With this all-star Cinerama epic, producer/director Stanley Kramer vowed to make "the comedy that would end all comedies." The story begins during a massive traffic jam, caused by reckless driver Smiler Grogan (Jimmy Durante), who, before (literally) kicking the bucket, cryptically tells the assembled drivers that he's buried a fortune in stolen loot, "under the Big W." The various motorists setting out on a mad scramble include a dentist (Sid Caesar) and his wife (Edie Adams); a henpecked husband (Milton Berle) accompanied by his mother-in-law (Ethel Merman) and his beatnik brother-in-law (Dick Shawn); a pair of comedy writers (Buddy Hackett and Mickey Rooney); and a variety of assorted nuts including a slow-wit (Jonathan Winters), a wheeler-dealer (Phil Silvers), and a pair of covetous cabdrivers (Peter Falk and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson). Monitoring every move that the fortune hunters make is a scrupulously honest police detective (Spencer Tracy). Virtually every lead, supporting, and bit part in the picture is filled by a well-known comic actor: the laughspinning lineup also includes Carl Reiner, Terry-Thomas, Arnold Stang, Buster Keaton, Jack Benny, Jerry Lewis, and The Three Stooges, who get one of the picture's biggest laughs by standing stock still and uttering not a word. Two prominent comedians are conspicuous by their absence: Groucho Marx refused to appear when Kramer couldn't meet his price, while Stan Laurel declined because he felt he was too old-looking to be funny. Available for years in its 154-minute general release version, the film was restored to its roadshow length of 175 minutes on home video; the search goes on for a missing Buster Keaton routine, reportedly excised on the eve of the picture's premiere. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, (more)
- 1951
This holiday special features Old Blue Eyes and Ben Blue singing familiar songs. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1949
This video features a collection of slapstick comedy, including episodes from the "Ben Blue Show" and "School House." ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1948
This third film version of James Hagan's stage play One Sunday Afternoon was directed by Raoul Walsh, who helmed the second adaptation (1941's Strawberry Blonde). This time around, songs have been added to accommodate the talents of Dennis Morgan and Janis Paige. Morgan stars as turn-of-the-century dentist Biff Grimes, who has spent the last ten years regretting that he hadn't married Amy Lind (Dorothy Malone), the girl of his dreams. Biff also harbors a grudge against Amy's husband Hugo Barnstead (Don DeFore), who was instrumental in getting Biff sent to prison on a fraud charge. Unbeknownst to his ever-loving wife Virginia (Janis Paige), who has stood by him through thick and thin, Biff schemes to exact an awful revenge on the two-faced Barnstead-only to discover in the nick of time that he's been better off all along because he didn't wed the avaricious Amy. Though consistently pretty to look at, One Sunday Afternoon pales in comparision to the earlier movie adaptations of the Hagan play, especially Strawberry Blonde, which had the added benefit of Jimmy Cagney in the lead. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dennis Morgan, Janis Paige, (more)
- 1947
The Warner Bros. musical My Wild Irish Rose purports to tell the life story of popular 19th century balladeer Chauncey Olcott-or at least, the version set down by Olcott's daughter Rita. Starting his career in minstrel shows, Olcott (Dennis Morgan) is given his first break by stage luminary Lillian Russell (Andrea King), who casts him as her Broadway leading man. Though their relationship is platonic so far as Russell is concerned, the newspapers have a field day concocting an imaginary romance, driving a wedge between Olcott and his hometown sweetheart Rose Donovan (Arlene Dahl). No matter what his personal problems, Olcott rises to heretofore unimagined show-biz heights with his sentimental Irish ballads, including "A Little Bit of Heaven", "Mother Macree" and, of course, the title tune. I Love Lucy fans will be amused by the casting of a generously toupeed William Frawley as famed Irish tenor William Scanlan, who after his voice fails him generously passes the torch of celebrity to Olcott. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sara Allgood, Ben Blue, (more)
- 1946
By 1946, MGM's musical output was in the hands of two men: the incisive, progressive Arthur Freed, and the sentimental, old-fashioned Joe Pasternak. It was Pasternak who held the reins on Two Sisters from Boston, a period piece set in New York. June Allyson and Kathryn Grayson arrive fresh from prim 'n' proper Boston, only to secure work as entertainers in a rowdy Bowery saloon. Since the saloon owner is lovable old Jimmy Durante, the girls have nothing to fear so far as physical outrages are concerned, though they just barely withstand the assault to their eardrums when Schnozzola sings "G'wan Home, Your Mother's Calling." The cultural portion of the program is handled by Metropolitan Opera star Lauritz Melchior, who though in excellent voice isn't as much fun to watch as Durante. The efficacy of Joe Paternak's candy-box approach was proven by the excellent boxoffice response to Two Sisters From Boston. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kathryn Grayson, June Allyson, (more)
- 1946
This Technicolor musical remake of the 1936 comedy classic Libeled Lady isn't quite up to the standards of the original, but on its own terms is quite entertaining. Van Johnson, Esther Williams, Lucille Ball and Keenan Wynn expertly assume the roles originally played by William Powell, Myrna Loy, Jean Harlow and Spencer Tracy. Faced with a libel suit from socialite Connie Allenbury (Williams), newspaper editor Warren Haggerty (Wynn) cooks up a plan to beat Connie at her own game. To do this, he must rely upon the romantic chicanery of ex-employee Bill Stevens Chandler (Johnson), with Haggerty's fiancee Gladys Benton (Ball) caught in the middle. The comedy high point of the original Libeled Lady, in which William Powell is forced to demonstrate his (non-existent) prowess as a fisherman, is ably repeated in Easy to Wed when Van Johnson must prove his skills at duck-hunting. The songs aren't anything special, but Lucille Ball's superb comic performance is worth the admission price in itself. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Van Johnson, Esther Williams, (more)
- 1944
Two Girls and a Sailor is another of those all-star, no-plot wartime musicals turned out by the bushel basket in the 1940s. Its lack of nuance does not lessen its entertainment value in the least. Gloria DeHaven and June Allyson play a couple of well-meaning sisters who stage their own USO shows in their apartment for the benefit of visiting servicemen. They'd like to expand their show, so GI Van Johnson, who happens to be a millionaire, buys an empty factory and has it converted into a canteen. A trivial love triangle develops, but who cares? Bring on the stars! In the case of Two Girls and a Sailor, the celebrity lineup includes Jimmy Durante, Lena Horne, Jose Iturbi, Xavier Cugat, Grace Allen (performing her immortal "Concerto for Index Finger"), Harry James, Helen Forrest, and, in an amusing uncredited cameo, Buster Keaton (Also: keep a sharp eye out for Ava Gardner) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Van Johnson, June Allyson, (more)
- 1944
The plot of the overinflated MGM musical Broadway Rhythm can be summed up briefly: Musical comedy producer Jonnie Demming (George Murphy) dismisses his vaudevillian dad Sam Demming (Charles Winninger) as old-fashioned. Jonnie signs Hollywood star Helen Hoyt (Ginny Simms) to a Broadway show, but she turns it down. Sam saves the day by dredging up an old script he'd done in summer stock-which, of course, Helen agrees to play. All of this can be forgotten, and in fact will be forgotten, once the film's parade of "guest stars" gets under way. Such stage and screen luminaries as Lena Horne, Ben Blue, Nancy Walker, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Hazel Scott and Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra make up for the narrative banalities with such musical numbers as Gershwin's "Somebody Loves Me" and Jerome Kern's "All the Things You Are." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Murphy, Ginny Simms, (more)
- 1943
Storywise, Thousands Cheer is thin stuff indeed. Insouciant PFC Eddy Marsh (Gene Kelly) wants to put on a Big Show for his fellow serviceman. Along the way, Eddy falls in love with Kathryn Jones (Kathryn Grayson), the daughter of Colonel William Jones (John Boles). End of story. The principal selling angle of Thousands Cheer is the presence in the cast of virtually every musical talent on the MGM payroll: Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Red Skelton, Eleanor Powell, Jose Iturbi, the Kay Kyser Orchestra, Bob Crosby and his Bobcats, the Benny Carter band, Ann Sothern, Lucille Ball, June Allyson, Gloria DeHaven?..the list goes on and on and on. Since Thousands Cheer was designed as a patriotic wartime morale-booster, it is indeed ironic that the film was written by Paul Jarrico and Richard Collins, both of whom would be blacklisted during the Red-baiting 1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mickey Rooney, Kathryn Grayson, (more)
For Me and My Gal, a leisurely period musical, represents the first on-screen dancing of MGM's new star Gene Kelly. Judy Garland plays a member of a vaudeville troupe consisting of herself, George Murphy, Ben Blue and Lucille Norman. She leaves the act to join up with Kelly, who promises to propel her to the big time. Two unsuccessful years later, Garland and Kelly are still struggling in the small time, while Murphy and his bunch are headliners. Kelly nearly throws Garland over for singer Marta Eggerth, but Judy remains loyal--at least until Kelly deliberately breaks his hand to avoid serving in World War I. Having lost her brother Richard Quine to the war, Garland denounces Kelly as a coward and walks out. Kelly redeems himself by joining an overseas entertainment troupe, saving several lives when he finds himself under attack on the front. Judy and Gene are at last reunited in Paris. A major break for both Gene Kelly and Judy Garland (who proved once and for all in this film that she was no longer just a "juvenile"), For Me and My Gal was based on a story by Howard Emmett Rogers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Judy Garland, George Murphy, (more)
- 1942
Cole Porter's musical hit Panama Hattie originally starred Ethel Merman on Broadway. But Merman was not a proven movie commodity, thus it was Ann Sothern who appeared in the film version as Hattie, brassy but golden-hearted proprietress of a Canal Zone hotel. Accustomed to dealing with such raucous cohorts as she-sick sailors Red (Red Skelton), Rags (Rags Ragland) and Rowdy (Ben Blue), Hattie isn't quite certain how to handle herself when she falls in love with wealthy and cultured Dick Bulliett (Dan Dailey Jr.) Socialite Leila Tree (Marsha Hunt), who'd previously set her cap for Dick, does her best to break up the romance, but Hattie is championed by Dick's kid sister Geraldine (Jackie Horner) and family butler Jenkins (Alan Mowbray). The play's original storyline, which shifted into gear when Hattie began picking up Nazi shortwave radio broadcast in the fillings of her teeth, is virtually nonexistent here, as is Porter's score, save for "I've Still Got My Health" and "Let's be Buddies" (Lena Horne does, however, show up to sing "Just One of Those Things", a carryover from an earlier Porter musical). A notoriously troubled production, Panama Hattie was completely refilmed after a disastrous preview, delaying its scheduled release by nearly a year. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Red Skelton, Ann Sothern, (more)
- 1938
Directed by Frank Tuttle, Paris Honeymoon stars Bing Crosby as Lucky Lawton, a wealthy Texan whose plans for a Parisian honeymoon with the noblewoman he has been romancing are interupted when he visits the city itself. Though he had intended only to make the proper arrangements, he falls in love with a beautiful-but-poor woman named Manya (Franciska Gaal). As he discovers that wealth does not define the worth of a human being, his former wedding plans are put indefinitely on the shelf. Songs include: "I Have Eyes", "Sweet Little Headache","Funny Old Hills", "Joobalai", "The Maiden by the Brook", "Work While You May" (Ralph Rainger, Leo Robin), and "I Ain't Got Nobody" (Roger Graham, Dave Peyton, Spencer Williams). Paris Honeymoon also features Akim Tamiroff, Shirley Ross, Edward Everett Horton, and Ben Blue.
~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bing Crosby, Franziska Gaal, (more)
- 1938
It's hard to go wrong with such stars as Bob Hope, Burns & Allen, Martha Raye and Edward Everett Horton, and College Swing doesn't-go wrong, that is. The film begins in 1738, when a pact is drawn up between the Alden family and a highly respected Colonial college: If any female member of the family can pass her college exams within a 200-year period, ownership of the institution will be turned over to her. Comes 1938, and the last of the Alden girls, giddy Gracie Alden (Gracie Allen, of course) hires glib-tongued tutor Bud Brady (Bob Hope) to help her pass her exams. She also tries to win over no-nonsense professor Hubert Dash (Edward Everett Horton), who has no intention of handing his college over to a blithering idiot like Gracie. Once she has inherited the place, however, Gracie turns it into a jumpin'-jivin' joint, complete with jitterbugging students, swing bands and remote radio broadcasts. Though George Burns' role is nearly nonexistent, he does get to indulge in his patented cross-talk with Allen. Others contributing to the fun are Ben Blue, Jerry Colonna, Betty Grable, and Grable's then-husband Jackie Coogan. Highlights include Allen's spirited Irish jig and her endearing song duet with Edward Everett Horton. College Swing is the sort of high-powered, all-star entertainment that is virtually impossible to reproduce today. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Burns, Gracie Allen, (more)
- 1938
The legendary Cocoanut Grove nightclub is the setting for this all-star Paramount musical. Fred MacMurray heads the cast as Johnny Prentice, a small-time bandleader who heads to the Grove for an all-important audition. He is accompanied by his foster son Half-Pint (Billy Lee), a talented drummer in his own right. Joining the troupe is Linda Rodgers (Harriet Hilliard), ostensibly Half-Pint's tutor but actually an aspiring vocalist. The thinnish plot serves as an excuse for an unending stream of specialty numbers featuring Royal Hawaiian orchestra leader Harry Owens, comedian Ben Blue, the zany Yacht Club Boys (a WASP version of the Ritz Brothers), funny-noise specialist Rufe Davis and bandmaster Red Stanley. In the course of events, nine new original songs are performed, none of which graduated to hit-parade status. Curiously, the real Cocoanut Grove is never seen, though the Paramount mockup is reasonably convincing. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred MacMurray, Yacht Club Boys, (more)
- 1937
Paramount's final "Big Broadcast" musical had perhaps the least exciting musical lineup of the series (Tito Guizar, The Shep Fields Orchestra, and opera singer Kirsten Flagstad are hardly household names today), but a slightly stronger storyline than the others, as well as a top-notch comic cast. This time out, most of the action takes place as sea, as S.B. Bellows (W.C. Fields) shows off his new invention: an ocean liner that can turn radio signals into electricity and part the waves at 100 miles per hour. He challenges another ship to a race while a number of music and comedy acts appear in the ship's showroom. Along with Fields, who performs several classic pool and golf routines, Martha Raye, Dorothy Lamour, and Ben Blue add to the laughs; Bob Hope made his feature debut here, and he even sings his future theme song, "Thanks for the Memories". ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- W.C. Fields, Martha Raye, (more)
- 1937
"Camp Romance," a place for the romantically challenged, provides the setting of this musical. The story centers on a frumpy secretary's crush on her handsome boss, the camp manager. The manager has been working on a musical. Just as he is about to finish it, the secretary gives herself a makeover, turns into a drop- dead knockout, and romantic bliss ensues. Songs include: "Keeno, Screeno and You," "I'll Follow My Baby," "Thrill of a Lifetime," "Paris in Swing," "Sweetheart Time," "It's Been a Whole Year," "If We Could Run the Country for a Day." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yacht Club Boys, Judy Canova, (more)
- 1937
High, Wide and Handsome almost defies classification: Perhaps it's best referred to as a historical musical western comedy melodrama. Irene Dunne plays an itinerant circus performer who marries oilman Randolph Scott. The couple heads to Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1859, where Scott is among the lucky prospectors who strikes oil. With no train service to the refineries, the townsfolk are obliged to build a pipeline, which is accomplished to the accompaniment of several rousing musical numbers by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein. The villainous element is represented by Alan Hale, who does his best to block the project to serve his own evil ends. Dunne's old circus friends come to the rescue with a herd of trained elephants! High Wide and Handsome confused too many filmgoers to make money in 1937; today it's regarded in some circles as a classic. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Irene Dunne, Randolph Scott, (more)
- 1937
Department store owner Elliot Dinwiddy (Charlie Ruggles) never makes a decision without first consulting his astrologer Dr. Wakefield (Andrew Tombes). Problem is, Dinwiddy's dependence upon the stars to dictate his fate has a negative trickle-down effect on his impending marriage to his secretary Myrtle Tweep (Marjorie Gateson) -- and on the romance between store employees Terry Keith (Johnny Downs) and Caroline Wilson (Eleanor Whitley). Most of the plot is forgotten during the climactic floor-show celebrating the 25th anniversary of Dinwiddy's store, with specialties from pantomimist Ben Blue (cast as night watchman Luke) and Jack Benny Show regulars Kenny Baker and Phil Harris. The film's best moment finds store detective Dugan (Romo Vincent) cutting loose with a Charles Laughton impression. The film editor for Turn off the Moon was Edward Dmytryk, who later went on to a prestigious directorial career. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlie Ruggles, Eleanore Whitney, (more)
