John Grey Movies
- 1945
I Love a Bandleader is an easy-to-take vehicle for personable orchestra leader Phil Harris. "Old Curly" is cast as housepainter Phil Burton, who while suffering from amnesia imagines that he's the leader of a popular swing band. While suffering this delusion, Burton falls in love with perky Ann Carter (Leslie Brooks). When his memory returns, Burton returns to his meek, untalented self-but not for long, if Ann has anything to say about it! Costarring with Harris is his fellow Jack Benny Show cohort, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, who does his usual flawless comic job-and even gets to sing! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Phil Harris, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, (more)
- 1944
In this comic western, a Broadway star leaves his musical revue to go West and help out his troubled friend. While there, the performer finds himself forced into becoming the town sheriff. Mayhem ensues, but somehow, the crooner manages to round up a band of killers. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bob Crosby, Fay McKenzie, (more)
- 1939
For some reason, Hollywood movie musicals "discovered" Hawaii in the late 1930s. One of the lesser but still entertaining efforts in this realm was Universal's Hawaiian Nights, starring the personable Johnny Downs. The story centers on Ted Hartley (Downs), son of a wealthy hotelier. Rather than stick to the family business, Ted prefers to lead a band made up of hotel personnel. When his father (Thurston Hall) transfers Ted to his near-bankrupt Honolulu hotel, our hero takes the band along with them, and in so doing turns a losing operation into a winner. He also gets to romance heroine Lonnie Lane (Constance Moore), while band vocalist Millie (Mary Carlisle) settles for comedy-relief press agent Ray Peters (Eddie Quillan). Hawaiian Nights represents Universal's second successful teaming of Johnny Downs and Eddie Quillan, the first being Swing, Sister, Swing. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Johnny Downs, Mary Carlisle, (more)
- 1932
Movie Crazy was Harold Lloyd's best-received sound film. It is the semi-autobiographical tale of an idealistic aspiring movie star who exchanges the quiet life in his sleepy Kansas hometown for the glamour and excitement of Tinseltown where he mistakenly believes he has been selected for a screentest. Unfortunately, the test is a series of slapstick bungles. The studio heads busily review the strange audition and while waiting for their verdict, Lloyd falls in love with a pretty actress who unfortunately is totally in costume when they meet. He doesn't recognize her in her street clothes, but still cant help falling in love with her. The actress knows he doesn't recognize her and has some fun with that. Lloyd's success is further assured when the studio moguls sign him up as their newest comedian. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Harold Lloyd, Constance Cummings, (more)
- 1930
Harold Lloyd's second talkie finds The Bespectacled One playing a shoe clerk in Honolulu. Harboring dreams of becoming an executive, Lloyd passes himself off as a millionaire to heiress Barbara Kent. As the plot merrily rolls along, Harold stows away on a ship bound for the mainland, and ends up at the top of a dizzying skyscraper. In a reversal of his dilemma in 1923's Safety Last, Lloyd must find the safest way to climb down the building--with the dubious assistance of bumbling black janitor Willie Best (here derogatorily billed as "Sleep 'N' Eat"). Attempting to extend his silent-film technique into the talkie era, Harold Lloyd is successful about half the time. The climactic building-climbing sequence, though amusing, pales in comparison to Lloyd's earlier excursions into "high and dizzy" humor. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Harold Lloyd, Robert McWade, (more)
- 1926
Harold Lloyd plays a wealthy young spendthrift who is upset that his name is being used to bring parishioners into a storefront mission in the poorer part of town. He heads to the mission to have it out with the minister, only to fall in love with minister's daughter Jobyna Ralston. Realizing that the use of his name as an endorsement was an honest error on Ralston's part, Harold decides to help the girl's father attract worshippers and hymn-shouters. He goads a bunch of thugs and pluguglies into the mission, then makes certain that they stay--and secures their undying loyalty--by saving them from being arrested. Harold and Jobyna decide to get married, whereupon Harold's wealthy chums, dismayed that he is marrying beneath his station, kidnap the poor fellow to prevent him from making a "mistake". Harold is rescued by his tough-guy slum pals, but not before they've gotten themselves drunk and commandeered a double-decker bus. The climactic chase is as hilarious and exciting a piece of celluloid as has ever been produced, but it is merely the capper to an uninterrupted stream of brilliant sight gags. Long underrated, For Heaven's Sake is one of the cleverest and most consistently entertaining of all of Harold Lloyd's silent vehicles. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Harold Lloyd, Jobyna Ralston, (more)
- 1925
One of Harold Lloyd's best feature-length comedies, The Freshman, features the bespectacled regular guy as Harold Lamb, a naïve young man who heads off to college believing campus life will be just as it is in the movies; he even learns a little dance he saw one of his favorite actors do in a film. However, Harold soon discovers that real life isn't all that much like the pictures, and he quickly becomes the laughing stock of the university. Determined to prove himself, Harold tries out for the football team, but he serves as water boy and rides the pine until he finally gets a chance to redeem himself at the big game. Along the way, Harold also tries to woo a lovely co-ed, Peggy (Jobyna Ralston). 22 years later, writer/director Preston Sturges used the climactic football game as the opening for his collaboration with Harold Lloyd, The Sin of Harold Diddlebock. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Harold Lloyd, Jobyna Ralston, (more)
Rating Systems
Blockbuster
BLOCKBUSTER name, design and related marks are trademarks of Blockbuster L.L.C.
2013 Blockbuster L.L.C. All rights reserved.
Portions of Content Provided by Rovi Corporation. 2013 Rovi Corporation.