George Jessel Movies
His father was a playwright and stage producer. At age nine he began singing professionally; two years later he teamed up with Eddie Cantor in vaudeville. Over the next decade or so he established himself as a major entertainer and songwriter in nightclubs and on Broadway. Jessel appeared sporadically onscreen; his only moderately busy period as a film actor was 1926-30. In 1945 he began producing musical films for Fox. He was known for his charity work, traveling widely and giving lectures and performances to raise funds for various causes; for such activities, in 1969 he was awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, a special Oscar. Jessel often entertained U.S. troops overseas. For a time he was married to actress Norma Talmadge. He authored two volumes of memoirs, So Help Me (1943) and This Way, Miss (1955). ~ All Movie Guide
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)
The Dolly Sisters is the heavily Hollywoodized biopic of Jennie and Rosie Dolly, Hungarian-born entertainers who took Broadway by storm in the early 1900s. Betty Grable plays Jennie and June Haver plays Rosie; their uncle is the inevitable "funny foreigner" S.Z. Sakall, who manages their career from childhood. Passing an important audition for Oscar Hammerstein, the Dolly girls become international stage headliners, but in so doing they find that their private life is strained. Jennie in particular is perplexed by the dilemma of devoting herself to a career while still finding time to romance handsome composer John Payne. The Dolly girls are separated permanently when Rosie is fatally injured in an auto accident, but Jennie finds lasting happiness with her composer. Despite the pre-World War I ambience of the film, both Grable and Haver show off a lot more skin than would have been permissible in earlier times. But Dolly Sisters producer George Jessel knew what he was doing, and the Technicolor film was a major hit in 1945. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Betty Grable, John Payne, (more)
- 1952
Mitzi Gaynor plays legendary vaudeville headliner Eva Tanguay, whose signature tune was the bouncy "I Don't Care". The film's actual producer George Jessel costars as "himself;" the gimmick is that Jessel wants to produce a biopic based on Tanguay, but can't get a handle on the story until he interviews all those who remember the lady. This throughline allows Gaynor to impersonate Tanguay without the added encumbrance of a plot. Well, there is a love story involving Tanguay and her vaudeville partner (David Wayne), and some welcome comic relief from "professional neurotic" Oscar Levant, but otherwise The I Don't Care Girl is more a revue than a movie. At the end, inveterate scene-stealer George Jessel shows up backstage during one of the flashback sequences, "Just to see how the story will turn out." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mitzi Gaynor, David Wayne, (more)
- 1937
In this musical comedy, an irresponsible young heir is betrothed to the singing daughter of a wealthy matron. Unfortunately, the willful young is not even slightly interested in her "fiance," preferring the attentions of another instead. Unfortunately, the other man has a big problem. Though he really loves the girl, he will lose his $3 million inheritance if he marries her before the age of 30. Complicating matters is the private detective assigned to keep him from getting to involved with women such as the heroine. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe Penner, Gene Raymond, (more)
- 1919
Fred Hartley (Ned Hay) is a hard-working family man; Mrs. Hartley (Ellen Cassidy) prefers to waste her time flitting around in society. She meets J. Douglas Kerr (Stuart Holmes), a very slick character, and he weasels his way into her affections. The U.S. enters World War I and Hartley feels it is his patriotic duty to enlist. While he is fighting in France, Kerr works on convincing Mrs. Hartley that he won't return and that she should marry him. To force matters, he sends a fake telegram informing her that Mr. Hartley has been killed. She buys into all this, but in the nick of time her husband returns. Kerr's plan is foiled, but he manages to escape retribution. Mrs. Hartley, meanwhile, revels in her husband's forgiveness. George Jessel and Evelyn Brent had small roles in this mediocre programmer. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1970
- PG
Have you ever longed for the day when James Brown, Martha Raye, and Col. Harland Sanders would appear in a movie together? Well, that's barely the tip of the improbable casting iceberg in this bizarre cold-war spoof. The leaders of the American intelligence organization the S.S.A. ("Super Secret Agency") are becoming increasingly alarmed by the disappearance of a number of B-list celebrities, who are being spirited off to Communist Albania. Eager to bring the fading stars back to the Land of the Free, the S.S.A. come up with a simple plan: They'll find four typical guys in their mid-twenties, have them form a rock group, make them into international stars, and wait until they get invited to play a gig in Albania, which will allow them to find out what's become of Rudy Vallee, Butterfly McQueen, and Huntz Hall, among others. Unemployed philosopher Michael A. Miller, Native-American honor student Ray Chippeway, phys-ed major Dennis Larden, and male model Lonny Stevens are drafted by the S.S.A., and after some intensive training by experts (Trini Lopez shows them a few guitar chords, and Richard Pryor gives them a crash course in soul), they become an overnight sensation as The Phynx (yes, it's pronounced "Finks"). Their album sells 17 million copies on the strength of songs like "What Is Your Sign?," and their groupies have to be cleared away by forklift. But fun and games have to go to the back burner when Albanian ruler Markevitch (George Tobias) and his wife, Ruby (Joan Blondell), invite the Phynx to perform at the behest of their son. Pat O'Brien, Xavier Cugat, Patty Andrews, and Dick Clark are just a few of the other notables who make cameo appearances in The Phynx, which had a very brief theatrical release before being sold to television in the early '70s. Legendary songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller penned the songs performed by The Phynx (and Stoller composed the background score), though for some reason they're not covered nearly as often as "Jailhouse Rock," "Hound Dog," or "Yakkety Yak." ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Miller, Ray Chippeway, (more)
- 1953
Tonight we Sing is the life story of legendary impresario Sol Hurok, impersonated herein by David Wayne. A lover of the arts, young immigrant Hurok despairs when he realizes he has no musical or artistic talents. Thus it is that, despite great personal and financial sacrifice, Hurok devotes his life to discovering and nurturing other performers and bringing them to Broadway. Among his more celebrated protégés are Russian opera-singer Feodor Chaliapin (Ezio Pinza) and violinist Eugene Ysaye (Isaac Stern). Other notables making guest appearances are singer Jan Peerce and Roberta Peters and ballerina Tamara Toumanova. Anne Bancroft co-stars as Hurok's gentle, patient wife Emma. Based on the autobiography by Sol Horuk (co-written with Ruth Goode), Tonight We Sing was produced for 20th Century-Fox by George Jessel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Wayne, Ezio Pinza, (more)
- 1947
Quick-draw legend Bat Masterson is summoned to Kansas to end a small-town feud between local farmers and criminal ranch owners in this western starring Randolph Scott. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Randolph Scott, Robert Ryan, (more)
A cinematic take on a 1960s best-seller, Valley of the Dolls traces the ups and downs of three young women as fame, booze, pills, and men consume their lives. Well-bred, small-town Anne Welles (Peyton Place star Barbara Parkins) arrives in New York eager for fame but settles for a job assisting theatrical attorney Henry Bellamy (Robert H. Harris). The job leads her to cross paths with Helen Lawson (Hollywood veteran Susan Hayward), the grand dame of Broadway musicals, and Neely O'Hara (sitcom star Patty Duke), an up-and-coming performer whom Lawson unceremoniously boots from her latest show. Neely lands on her feet thanks to a series of nightclub gigs, and soon she and Anne befriend Jennifer North (Sharon Tate), a buxom starlet. As Neely becomes a huge star of stage and screen and Jennifer appears topless in a string of European "art" films, Anne becomes a wealthy cosmetics spokeswoman and suffers though a passionate but failed affair with aspiring writer Lyon Burke (Paul Burke). As the pressures of fame and failed romance take their toll on all three women, they take refuge in food, sex, liquor, and pills -- especially Neely, who becomes downright monstrous (the titular "dolls" are the uppers and downers to which she becomes hopelessly addicted). Although the film's characters are fictitious composites, Neely most closely resembles Judy Garland; Garland herself was originally cast as Lawson, but she was replaced after only a few days by Hayward. Although the film's trailer played up the story's titillating subject matter, the script for Valley of the Dolls actually toned down Jacqueline Susann's novel. And despite the fact that Dionne Warwick can be heard singing "(Theme From) The Valley of the Dolls" twice during the film, contractual snags kept her from releasing the soundtrack version; a different arrangement later became a number two pop hit in 1968. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Parkins, Patty Duke, (more)
- 1952
The upbeat title belies the film's often melancholy subject matter. Based on a novel by Ferdinand Reyher, Nellie stars David Wayne as a small town barber in the early 20th century. Wayne's bored wife (Jean Peters) leaves him for a city slicker (Hugh Marlowe), whereupon both are killed in a train accident. Wayne does his best to raise his two children alone, but the oldest son (Tommy Morton) becomes a criminal and is shot down in a Chicago gang war (a startlingly graphic sequence for a 1952 film). Wayne's life seems to be one disaster after another, but he perseveres, and upon his town's 50th anniversary he is honored as a pillar of his community. Somehow all of the previous tragedies are compensated for by the presence of Wayne's doting granddaughter Nellie (Helene Stanley). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Wayne, Jean Peters, (more)
- 1948
Betty Grable and Dan Dailey play a couple of small-time vaudevillians, at least until Dailey gets a big Broadway break. Success swells his head to cataclysmic dimensions; he becomes an alcoholic, loses his stardom and winds up in the drunk ward. Grable divorces Dailey to marry rancher Richard Arlen, but Dailey's old pal Jack Oakie tries to rehabilitate the fallen star. Oakie's mission seems hopeless until Grable rejoins the act, and everything is patched up...at least professionally. If the plot of When My Baby Smiles at Me seems familiar, perhaps you've seen the previous two versions of the George Manker Watters/Arthur Hopkins play Burlesque: The Dance of Life (1929) and Swing High, Swing Low. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Betty Grable, Dan Dailey, (more)
- 1976
- PG
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This spoof makes fun of a certain famous German shepherd movie star from the 1920s. The mayhem begins when the head honcho of a financially struggling studio turns a lost dog into a legend. The story features a number of old stars making cameo appearances. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Dern, Madeline Kahn, (more)
- 1954
Yesterday and Today is a rare 1954 documentary history of the movies, from their beginnings to the technological advance of Cinemascope in the 1950s. It features numerous sequences excerpted from decades of motion pictures and commentary from various stars. The program is hosted by George Jessel, a vaudeville entertainer who went on to produce musicals for 20th Century Fox in the late '40s and '50s. ~ Steve Blackburn, All Movie Guide
- 1949
Set in the 1920s and 1930s, 20th Century-Fox's You're My Everything borrows elements from several true-life showbiz stories, include the rise to fame of Fox's own Shirley Temple. Vaudeville hoofer Timothy O'Connor (Dan Dailey) sweeps proper New England gal Hannah Adams (Anne Baxter) off her feet. Hannah joins O'Connor's act, eventually soaring to popularity as a silent-film star. When talkies come in, Hannah is finished, but her precocious daughter Jane (played by Shirley Temple sound-alike Shari Robinson) becomes America's sweetheart. Musical highlights include the title song, "The Good Ship Lollipop" (featuring Dan Dailey in politically incorrect blackface), and one new number, "I Want to be Teacher's Pet." Featured in the supporting cast are Alan Mowbray as a bombastic director and Buster Keaton in an unbilled guest shot. In his autobiography, Keaton recalled that he came onto the set, dropped a tray full of dishes, performed a pratfall, and collected $1000, without ever knowing what the film was about! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dan Dailey, Anne Baxter, (more)
