Bert Gordon Movies
- 1964
Rob (Dick Van Dyke) plans to devote an episode of "The Alan Brady Show" to a showcase of famous old radio comedians. The staff has no trouble lining up such venerable talent as Bert Gordon (the "Mad Russian" of The Eddie Cantor Show fame) and Arlene Harris (whose "Chatterbox" routines were a highlight of Al Pierce and His Gang). But when Rob approaches Edwin Carp (Richard Haydn), the tweedy "Fish Man" of many a classic radio variety series, Carp refuses to emerge from retirement -- and for a very strange reason. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Haydn, Arlene Harris, (more)
- 1946
How Dooo You Do? offers two refugees from radio's Eddie Cantor Show, Bert Gordon and Harry Von Zell, as an erstwhile comedy team. The film's title is a catchphrase of Gordon's, who gained famed in the 1940s as "The Mad Russian". Seeking refuge from their fans, Gordon and Von Zell head to Desert Springs and register at a resort hotel. No sooner have they arrived than a much-despised radio agent is murdered, casting suspicion on our heroes-not to mention fellow guests Cheryl Walker, Ella Mae Morse, Clare Windsor, and Keye Luke. For reasons that aren't explained until the end of the film, practically all the cast members (including bit players Thomas Jackson, James Burke, and Fred Kelsey) appear under their own names. In fact, the Pirandellian ending is the most entertaining aspect of this patchy comedy-mystery. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bert Gordon, Harry Von Zell, (more)
- 1944
After a year's absence, entertainer Eddie Cantor returned to the screen in the self-produced Show Business. The plot is loosely based on Cantor's own rise to fame, from vaudeville to Broadway. Covering the years 1914 to 1929, the film reflects the changing tastes in entertainment, though Cantor (as in real life) steadfastly remains the same. Co-stars George Murphy and Joan Davis likewise borrow from their own showbiz experience in playing their characters, while Constance Moore, who was still in her playpen when Cantor was at the height of his Ziegfeld Follies fame, provides the standard love interest. Highlights include such Cantor standards as "Curse of an Aching Heart," "Whoopee," and "Dinah," the latter performed in blackface. The best ensemble number is a devastating satire of Grand Opera, with Joan Davis particularly amusing as a Wagnerian soprano. A few excerpts from Show Business were reused as "flashbacks" in the subsequent Cantor-Davis starrer If You Knew Susie (1948). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Cantor, George Murphy, (more)
- 1943
A musical star leaves the show and convinces the financial backer to leave also when she finds out that her leading man is married. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1943
Jinx Falkenburg supplies the music and beauty and Bert Gordon provides the chuckles in Columbia's Laugh Your Blues Away. In his standard "Mad Russian" characterization ("How do you doooooo!"), Gordon plays an unemployed actor who poses as one Count Boris Rascalnikoff at the home of Texas cattleman Conklin (Dick Elliot). Also along for the ride is the actor's pretty sister Pam (Ms. Falkenburg), who impersonates the Countess Olga. It's all part of a scheme engineered by the social-climbing mother (Isobel Elsom) of Jimmy Westerly (Douglass Drake) to marry off her son to Conklin's daughter Priscilla (Phyllis Kennedy). But when Jimmy falls in love with Olga-er, Pam-the borscht hits the fan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jinx Falkenburg, Bert Gordon, (more)
- 1943
Practically everybody on the Warner Bros. lot shows up in the wartime morale-boosting musical extravaganza Thank Your Lucky Stars. Believe it or not, this one has a wisp of a plot. A pair of enterprising producers, played by S.Z. Sakall and Edward Everett Horton, want to hire singer Dinah Shore for their upcoming Cavalcade of Stars. Unfortunately, this means they must deal with Shore's boss, radio comedian Eddie Cantor. The egotistical Cantor insists upon joining the show himself, driving everyone crazy with his take-charge attitude. Meanwhile, singer Dennis Morgan, hoodwinked by a crooked agent into thinking he's signed a contract with Cantor, shows up backstage at Sakall and Horton's rehearsal, only to be given the boot. While all this is going on, aspiring actress Joan Leslie has befriended a bus driver named Joe Simpson--who happens to be a dead ringer for Eddie Cantor (and why not? Ol' "Banjo Eyes" plays both parts). Turns out that Joe is another showbiz wannabe, but he has been denied a break because he looks too much like Cantor. You see what's comin' now, right, folks? Morgan and Leslie will get their big breaks when Joe Simpson impersonates Eddie Cantor, who's been kidnapped by Indians (bet you didn't see that one coming!) All of this expository nonsense is merely an excuse to show off Warners' talent roster in a series of engaging specialty numbers: John Garfield talk-sings Blues in the Night, Jack Carson and Alan Hale do a buck-and-wing, a jitterbug number is performed by Ida Lupino, Olivia de Havilland and George Tobias, Hattie McDaniel and Willie Best strut their stuff in Ice Cold Katie, and so on. Highlights include Errol Flynn's That's What You Jolly Well Get, an English music hall-style sendup of Flynn's movie heroics, and Bette Davis' peerless (and endearingly off-key) rendition of They're Either too Young or Too Old. As a bonus, Humphrey Bogart shows up long enough to be browbeaten and intimidated by S.Z. Sakall ("Gee, I hope none of my movie fans see this!" moans Bogart as the soundtrack plays a mocking rendition of Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?) Subtle and sophisticated it isn't, but Thank Your Lucky Stars is so entertaining that you'll forget all about its multitude of flaws. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Cantor, Dinah Shore, (more)
- 1941
Next to Ann Miller, few Columbia contractees made more B musicals than Jinx Falkenberg. In Sing for Your Supper, Falkenberg is cast as Evelyn Palmer, the gorgeous proprietor of a dime-a-dance emporium. Bandleader Larry Hays (Charles "Buddy" Rogers) is the official owner of the joint, but when he finds himself in financial hot water, Evelyn, a wealthy socialite, secretly buys up the lease and takes a job as one of the dancers to keep tabs on her money-and the handsome Mr. Hays. Much of the film's running time is given over to comedian Bert Gordon, better known as radio's "Mad Russian" ("How do you doooooo?") Eve Arden is rather wasted as a wisecracking taxi dancer, but better things were to come her way within a few short years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jinx Falkenburg, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, (more)
- 1938
Musical comedy star Phil Regan headlines this modest Republic tunefest. He plays an American bandleader who inherits an Irish castle. With his band members and his singer (Penny Singleton) in tow, Regan takes charge of the castle, hoping turn it into a nightclub. Naturally, these plans arouses the ire of the local landed gentry, but pretty soon they're keeping in step with Regan's entourage. Like many Republic films of the 1930s, Outside of Paradise is generally available only in the 54-minute version prepared for television. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Phil Regan, Penny Singleton, (more)
- 1937
New Faces of 1937 was supposed to be the vanguard of a series of annual musical comedies -- RKO Radio's latest attempt to revive its long-dormant "Radio City Revels" concept. The plot is based on an old show-business legend, later immortalized in Mel Brooks' The Producers: Crooked Broadway producer Robert Hunt (Jerome Cowan) deliberately produces flops so that he can pocket the backers' money himself. His next sure-fire disaster is a show built around talented unknowns (there actually was such a "New Faces" series on Broadway, yielding such stars-to-be as Imogene Coca and Henry Fonda, but it was produced on the up-and-up). When the show threatens to become a hit, the producer desperately seeks a method to sabotage the production. The various subplots involve such vaudeville and radio comedians as Milton Berle (who performs a side-splitting "stockbroker" sketch with Richard Lane), Joe Penner, Bert "Mad Russian" Gordon and Parkyakarkus (aka Harry Einstein, the father of present-day comedians Bob Einstein and Albert Brooks). Among the New Faces displayed herein are 14-year-old dancer Ann Miller, The Brian Sisters, The Three Choclateers and the Four Playboys. Perhaps the fictional Robert Hunt would have been pleased to find out that New Faces of 1937 was a box-office bomb, precluding any follow-ups. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe Penner, Milton Berle, (more)
- 1935
In this comedy, a waitress at a local lunch counter inadvertently foils a bank robbery and finds herself turned into a national heroine by an eager-beaver reporter. Unfortunately, her sudden notoriety causes gangsters to abduct her. The plucky waitress not only manages to talk them into returning her, she also convinces them to go straight. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- ZaSu Pitts, Hugh O'Connell, (more)
