Alexis Dubin Movies

Harvey Fierstein's Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway hit was adapted for the screen by Fierstein himself. The playwright also repeats his stage role of female impersonator Arnold Beckoff, aka nightclub entertainer "Virginia Hamm." The three-part plotline, whittled down to accommodate the film's 117-minute running time, concerns Arnold's seriocomic efforts to find a lasting relationship. We first meet Arnold in 1971, when his heart is broken by his bisexual lover, Ed (Brian Kerwin). Next we find Arnold in 1973, enjoying short-lived happiness with his true love, Alan (Matthew Broderick). The final act takes place in 1980: Arnold, still grieving over Alan's sudden death and struggling to raise the young boy that the couple had adopted, has a long-anticipated showdown with his uncompromising mother, superbly played by Anne Bancroft. A witty film that is by turns touching and outrageous, Torch Song Trilogy works well despite its somewhat soft-pedaled approach to the material. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Woody Allen's gentle and nostalgic tribute to the glory days of radio and coming-of-age during World War II plays like Fellini's Amarcord filtered through Neil Simon. The nominal star is Seth Green as Joe, a teenage Jewish boy, growing up with a house full of relatives in Brooklyn. Allen cuts between Joe's working class neighborhood of Rockaway Beach, Queens, and the glittery and glamorous world of radio in Manhattan. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

John Milius's first directorial effort in its own small way set the stage in the 1970s for a subgenre of action films that depict a nostalgia for historical figures tinged with a hard-edged skepticism. Warren Oates stars as John Dillinger, whose short-lived career as Public Enemy No.1 was, at least according to Milius, promoted by Dillinger with a self-absorbed boosterism, comforting his victims by telling them, "Someday you'll tell your grandchildren about this." The film captures the highlights of Dillinger's criminal career, as seen through the eyes of Melvin Purvis (Ben Johnson), the FBI agent whose obsession with capturing Dillinger led to Dillinger's death in the back alley of Chicago's Biograph Theater. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Ronald Reagan plays a George Petty-type magazine illustrator who creates a "perfect girl" from a composite of the features of several models. While relaxing at the beach, Reagan meets a lovely young schoolteacher (Virginia Mayo) who is the living image of his imaginary girl. Sensing a terrific promotional angle, Reagan ingratiates himself with the girl and attempts to secure her services for a series of cheesecake poses. The film leads to a courtroom conclusion wherein Mayo must strut around in a bathing suit to win her case. Girl from Jones Beach is worth the admission price alone just to hear Ronald Reagan pose as a Czechoslovakian immigrant--complete with accent. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Garden of the Moon is a fancy New York nightclub owned by Pat O'Brien. Margaret Lindsay (replacing a recalcitrant Bette Davis) is the girl who comes between O'Brien and his bandleader, John Payne. The duplicitous O'Brien spends most of his screen time figuring out various underhanded means to keep Payne from breaking his contract--and to keep Ms. Lindsay for himself. Though directed by Busby Berkeley, Garden of the Moon is surprisingly shy of dance numbers. Its musical highlight is that Looney Tunes standard "The Girlfriend of the Whirling Dervish," with vocal solos by John Payne, Johnnie "Scat" Davis, and Jerry Colonna. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Bette Davis' famous walk-out from her home studio of Warner Bros. may have hurt her financially, but in the long run it paid off with bigger parts in better films. Like many Warners films of the period, Marked Woman was "torn from today's headlines." Specifically, it was inspired by the recent downfall of gangster Lucky Luciano, who at one time controlled all prostitution activities in New York. The ladies herein are euphemistically characterized as "night club hostesses," but when Luciano look-alike Johnny Vanning (Eduardo Cianelli) shows up at a fancy clip-joint to give the girls their marching orders, the audience can tell exactly what's going on. Been-there-done-that hostess Mary (Davis) is no better than she ought to be, though she has a definite code of honor; she stands up to the dictatorial Vanning at every opportunity, fending of his amorous attentions and seeing to it that her "over the hill"colleague Estelle (Mayo Methot) is retained on the gangster's payroll. At the same time, Mary tries to shield her seedy profession from her virginal sister Betty (Jane Bryan), but the girl discovers the truth and becomes a "B"-girl herself, a rash move that results in her death. Previously frightened into silence by periodic beatings from Vanning's goons, Mary and four of her girlfriends become state's witnesses, providing testimony to crusading District Attorney David Graham (Humphrey Bogart, playing a character clearly patterned after Thomas E. Dewey). A last-ditch effort to permanently stifle Mary and her friends fails, and the ladies show up in court to put the noose around Vanning's neck. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

It was from this military musical that the US Marine Corps got it's signature anthem, "The Song of the Marines." The story chronicles the exploits of a young recruit who wins a radio contest and becomes an overnight singing sensation. Unfortunately, the sudden fame has caused a bad case of ego edema in the man and his Corps buddies begin to avoid him. Even his girl friend grows tired of his swaggering. Busby Berkeley staged the musical numbers. The songs include: "I Know Now," "'Cause My Baby Says It's So," "Night Over Shanghai," "The Lady Who Couldn't Be Kissed," "You Can't Run Away from Love Tonight." ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this musical comedy, a pacifistic song-and-dance man is compelled to don a military uniform for one of his acts. Before he can blink, he finds himself fighting in Germany. Later he is tossed into jail after being accused of being an enemy spy. He escapes and somehow manages to capture a strategic hill; he is then awarded the prestigious Croix de Guerre for his heroism. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

A remake of 1928's Glorious Betsy (itself based on a stage play by Rida Johnson Young), Hearts Divided is based, believe it or not, on a true story. Marion Davies stars as 19th-century Baltimore belle Betsy Patterson, who falls in love with Jerome Bonaparte (Dick Powell) -- the younger brother of Napoleon Bonaparte (Claude Rains) himself. Though in real life Betsy and Jerome were married, for the purposes of the film they are parted before the nuptials, as part of Napoleon's long-range plans to place a Bonaparte at the head of every European nation. The Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart musical score emphasizes the artificiality of the whole endeavor, which despite its basis in fact is never believable for a single moment. The film's brevity (70 minutes) is its principal redeeming factor. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A tuneful taxi driver secretly works to achieve his dream of becoming a radio singer in this musical comedy. One day he gives a radio station secretary a lift. She prattles on about a sponsor's new contest. The sponsor, a prominent cheese company, is looking for a singing gondolier to participate in their newest campaign. Later the secretary and the head cheese go to Venice to look for the real McCoy, unaware that the determined cabbie is already there waiting for them. Sure enough, they are fooled and he is hired. Things go really well until he feels compelled to tell the truth during a major broadcast. Songs include: "Lulu's Back in Town", "The Rose in Her Hair", "Lonely Gondolier", and ""You Can Be Kissed"". ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Based on Al Jolson's 1931 Broadway hit, Wonder Bar transposes the "Grand Hotel" formula to a lavish nightclub in Paris' Montmartre district. Presiding over the evening's entertainment is manager-emcee Al Wonder (Jolson), who after greeting his guests in a multitude of languages (a la Joel Grey in Cabaret) introduces a steady stream of top variety acts. The star attraction of the Wonder Bar floor show is the Latin dance team of Inez (Dolores Del Rio) and Harry (Ricardo Cortez). Al worships Inez from afar, but she is hopelessly in love with Harry, a no-good louse who is carrying on with Liane (Kay Francis), the wife of prominent banker Renaud (Henry Kolker). Meanwhile, German military officer Captain Von Ferring (Robert H. Barrat), who has lost his fortune to bad investments, enjoys one last fling at the Wonder Bar before committing suicide. The two main subplots converge when Inez stabs Harry out of pique, whereupon the ever-loyal Al deposits Harry's body in Von Ferring's car, knowing full well that Von Ferring intends to drive himself off a steep hill to his death. Never letting Inez find out that she killed Harry, Al stands stoically aside as she finds true happiness with composer Tommy (Dick Powell). Lest this all sound heavily somberly serious, it should be noted that Wonder Bar is chock full of laughs, from both Jolson (who runs through quite a repertoire of tried-and-true routines) and the drunken antics of "tired business men" Hugh Herbert and Hobart Cavanaugh. The musical numbers staged by Busby Berkeley range from sedate to incredible, with the bizarrely racist 10-minute "Goin' to Heaven on a Mule" (truly a jaw-dropping experience) falling into the latter category. The film's most outrageous moment, however, is an uninhibited chunk of homosexual humor on the dance floor ("Boys will be boys!", crows Jolson) which just barely squeaked past the Hollywood censors! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Easily the best of Eddie Cantor's gargantuan musical comedies for producer Sam Goldwyn, Roman Scandals begins in the middle-America community of West Rome, where our hero Eddie (Cantor) is employed as a delivery boy. A self-styled authority of Ancient Roman history, Cantor bemoans the fact that the local shanty community is about to be wiped out by scheming politicians, certain that such an outrage could never have happened during Rome's Golden Days. After a blow on the head, Cantor wakes up in Imperial Rome, where he is sold on the slave auction block to good-natured tribune Josephus (David Manners). Cantor soon discovers that the evil emperor Valerius (Edward Arnold) is every bit a crook and grafter as the politicians in West Rome, and he intends to do something about it. He gets a job as food taster for Valerius -- a none-too-secure position, inasmuch as the emperor's wife Agrippa (Veree Teasdale) is constantly trying to poison her husband -- and does his best to smooth the path of romance for Josephus and recently captured princess Sylvia (Gloria Stuart). Cantor's well-intentioned interference earns him a session in the torture chamber, but he escapes and commandeers a chariot, setting the stage for a spectacular slapstick climax. On the verge of recapture, Cantor wakes to find himself in West Rome U.S.A. again, where he quickly foils the modern-day despots and brings about a happy ending for all his friends.

Co-written by George S. Kaufman, Robert E. Sherwood, George Oppenheimer and Arthur Sheekman (the soon-to-be husband of leading lady Gloria Stuart), Roman Scandals manages to get off a few clever satirical licks, but essentially it's a "lappy" lowbrow vehicle for Eddie Cantor, and in this it succeeds immensely. The Busby Berkeley-staged musical numbers, written by Harry Warren, Al Dubin and L. Wolfe Gilbert, must be seen to be believed: In "No More Love", Ruth Etting, playing the Emperor's cast-off mistress Olga, sings a plaintive torch song as dozens of enslaved Goldwyn Girls (including Lucille Ball and Barbara Pepper), wearing nothing but long, blonde wigs, are chained to a rotating pedestal; and in "Keep Young and Beautiful", these same maidens gleefully cavort around a Roman bathhouse in the near-altogether while Cantor, in blackface, hops about, rolls his eyes and claps his hands -- just before a jet of steam "shrinks" him, at which point he metamorphoses into midget Billy Barty! The quintessence of Depression-era escapism, Roman Scandals is must-see entertainment. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi