Dan Dailey Movies
The son of a hotelier, Dan Dailey began taking dancing lessons at the age of 14. He worked in minstrel shows, vaudeville and burlesque, taking many "joe jobs" during fallow periods. Graduating to Broadway, Dailey was featured in Babes in Arms, Stars in Your Eyes and I Married an Angel. He came to Hollywood in 1940 when he was signed as an MGM contract player. After serving as an officer in World War II, Dailey rose to film stardom in such 20th Century-Fox productions as Mother Wore Tights (1947), A Ticket to Tomahawk (1950) and When My Baby Smiles at Me (1948), for which he won an Oscar nomination. Other top-rank Dan Dailey musical performances can be seen in Universal's Meet Me at the Fair (1952) and MGM's It's Always Fair Weather (1953). The actor's athletic physique and remarkable dexterity won him leading roles in two baseball films, Pride of St Louis (1953) (in which he played Dizzy Dean) and The Kid From Left Field (1953). On television, Dailey starred in three series: Four Just Men (1959), The Governor and JJ (1970), and Farraday and Company (1974). In 1977, Dan Dailey broke his hip while appearing in a touring production of The Odd Couple; he died of acute anemia one year later. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1940
This touching romance is based on a play by Rachel Crothers. An aging sea captain squanders his fortune on a bad business deal. Now he faces having to put his beloved wife in a poor house. He himself also has no place to live. Desperate for cash, he sells interest in a ship he has nothing to do with. This money gets her in a decent home for old ladies. To be with her, he dresses as an old woman and goes to live in the home with her. Eventually the administrators allow him to stay and the other residents begin calling him "Old Lady 31." The fortunes of the couple changes after the brave old salt saves a shipwrecked schooner. The salvage rights restore his fortune and all is well. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Coburn, Beulah Bondi, (more)
- 1940
It is perhaps unnecessary to point out that the MGM programmer Hullabaloo bears no relation to the 1960s rock-and-roll series of the same name. Frank Morgan plays Frank Merriweather, an old-time actor who tries to revive his fading career on radio (just as John Barrymore was then doing in real life). His first attempt at radio success culminates in a Welles-like "Invasion of Mars" scare, which loses him his job. Merriweather manages to redeem himself in the last scenes by trotting his talented youngsters (Virginia Grey, Virginia O'Brien and Leni Lynn) before the microphones. The film's funniest scene finds Merriweather offering a re-enactment of the recent MGM feature Boom Town, delivering astonishingly accurate imitations of Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Spencer Tracy and Hedy Lamarr-a bit of cinematic ledgerdemain accomplished by dubbing the Boom Town soundtrack over Frank Morgan's lip movements. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Morgan, Virginia Grey, (more)
- 1940
The 1922 George S. Kaufman-Marc Connelly play Dulcy was based on a delightful character created by columnist Franklin P. Adams: Archetypal "dumb wife" Dulcinea, who continually spouted cliches like "There's never a policeman around when you need one" and "Don't take any wooden nickels." Lynn Fontanne created the role of Dulcy on stage, followed in 1923 by Constance Talmadge in the first screen version, then by Marion Davies in 1929's Not So Dumb, the first talkie version of the Kaufman-Connelly comedy. This 1940 remake stars Ann Sothern as dizzy Dulcy, who hopes to improve her aviator boyfriend Gordon Daly's (Ian Hunter) business prospects by holding a fancy dinner party. The result is a disaster, but the introduction into the plotline of a Chinese war orphan (intended as a timely touch) solves everyone's problems. Like the original play, the film is stolen by Dulcy's ex-con butler, here played by "Big Boy" Williams. A very young Hans Conried has a cute running gag as a saturnine author, whose ongoing efforts to find solitude in a canoe are continually (and literally) scuttled by the zany Dulcy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Sothern, Ian Hunter, (more)
- 1940
- NR
The Nazi Party's rise to power has disastrous consequences for a German family in this drama. Victor Roth (Frank Morgan) is a college professor teaching in Germany in 1933 who leads a peaceful and contented life with his wife Emelie (Irene Rich), son Rudi (Gene Reynolds), daughter Freya (Margaret Sullavan), and stepsons Otto (Robert Stack) and Erich (William T. Orr). However, Adolph Hitler's emergence as Germany's ruler has an unexpected impact on their lives. Fritz (Robert Young) and Martin (James Stewart) both vie for Freya's hand in marriage, but anti-Nazi activist Martin is forced to flee to Austria, while Freya is disturbed by Fritz's membership in a pro-fascist group. Victor repudiates Hitler's theories about Aryan superiority in class, and he not only loses his teaching position, but he is sentenced to a concentration camp. And while Emelie and Rudi join Freya as she tries to escape to Martin's new home in Austria, they find themselves hunted by Otto and Erich, now members of the Hitler Youth. The Mortal Storm was perhaps the most explicitly anti-Nazi film made in Hollywood prior to America's entry into WWII, and it resulted in all of MGM's product being banned in Germany. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, (more)
- 1940
Rachel Crothers' thoughtful stage play Susan and God was tastefully adapted for the screen by Anita Loos. Joan Crawford stars as Susan, whose unquestioning devotion to various religious organizations causes a great deal of strain between herself and her family. When Susan embraces a "New Thought" theological movement, she decides to apply the tenets of this new philosophy to patch up the unhappy marriages within her own social circles. She succeeds only in making things worse, and in further harming her own relationship with husband Barrie (Fredric March) and daughter Blossom (Rita Quigley). But it is the unadorned, unpretentious religious faith of little Blossom that ultimately brings Susan and Barrie together again. When Susan and God was first released in 1940, Joan Crawford's performance was occasionally compared unfavorably to that of Gertrude Lawrence, who created the role of Susan on Broadway; it was suggested by some that Crawford patterned her portrayal exactly on Lawrence's, right down to the line delivery. Modern audiences, denied the opportunity to see Lawrence's interpretation, are less inclined to downgrade Crawford's work, which rates among her best. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Crawford, Fredric March, (more)
