Doris Day Movies

Bob Hope's first starring vehicle for producer Sam Goldwyn borrows the title of Bob's 1942 autobiography They Got Me Covered and very little else. Co-scripted by Leonard Q. Ross (aka Leo Rosten), Leonard Spigelgass and Harry Kurnitz (among many others!), the film casts Hope as Robert Kittredge, the Moscow correspondent for a major American news service, who is fired when he neglects to file a report about Hitler's invasion of Russia. Hoping to get back in the good graces of his boss Norman Mason (Donald MacBride), Kittredge steals another reporter's story about a Nazi spy ring operating in New York. Though officially a comedy, the film is curiously unfunny at times, with Hope playing an unsympathetic, unappealing character who'll step on anyone -- including his long-suffering sweetheart (Dorothy Lamour) and a hysterical kidnap victim (Phyllis Povah) -- to get ahead. Otto Preminger is funnier (perhaps intentionally) as the head Nazi. A few good gags notwithstanding, They Got Me Covered is nowhere near as satisfying as Hope's second Goldwyn effort, The Princess and the Pirate. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

By PRC Studios standards, Mr. Celebrity is decidedly an "all-star" picture. The title character is a prize race horse, jointly owned by veterinarian Jim Kane (James Seay) and his orphaned nephew Danny Mason (Buzzy Henry). When not tending to ailing nags, Kane struggles to prevent Danny's snobbish grandparents (William Halligan and Laura Treadwell) from gaining custody of a boy. Naturally, Kane will be able to afford to officially adopt Danny himself, if only Mr. Celebrity wins that all-important Big Race. The film's highlight is the custody-hearing sequence, in which several human celebrities of yesteryear show up as witnesses: Silent film stars Clara Kimball Young and Francis X. Bushman, both of whom reminisce about their career highlights, and former boxing champion Jim Jeffries, who recalls his glory days of the 1890s. Incidentally, leading lady Doris Day is not the 1950s box-office champ of the same name. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A remake of the Swedish film of the same name (see entry 55092), MGM's A Woman's Face was reshaped into one of Joan Crawford's best vehicles. Told in flashback from the vantage point of a murder trial, the story concerns a female criminal whose face is disfigured by a hideous scar. The plastic-surgery removal of this disfigurement has profound repercussions, both positive and tragically negative. The film's multitude of subplots converge when Conrad Veidt, Joan's lover and onetime partner in crime, is murdered. Melvyn Douglas costars as the beneficent cosmetic surgeon who becomes Joan's lover, while Osa Massen appears as Douglas' vituperative wife. Making his American screen debut in the role of Veidt's father is Albert Basserman, who spoke no English and had to learn his lines phonetically. Both A Woman's Face and its Swedish predecessor were based on Il Etait Une Fois, a play by Francis de Croiset. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this musical romance, a plucky young woman decides to save her town from financial ruin by marrying a wealthy captain of industry who vows to bring badly needed jobs to her ailing community. Her selfless action, for she does not love the industrialist, devastates the unemployed engineer who loves her. Working together with his neighbors, he creates a special radio show. The night before her nuptials, the show is subsidized by a major commercial sponsor. The woman learns of it and jilts her fiancé in favor of her beloved engineer. Songs include: "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" "When I Yoo Hoo in the Valley" (Scotty Wiseman, John Lair), "Howdy Neighbor" (Eddie Cherkose), "Hail to Lyndale" (Cherkose, Raoul Kraushaar), and "When the Circus Comes to Town." ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Roy Rogers is forced to chase down his own kid brother in this exemplary Republic Pictures oater produced and directed by Joseph Kane. Roy Rogers Sr. (Lane Chandler) is brutally murdered by nasty Ed Tasker (Frank M. Thomas), who takes off with the only witness to the killing, Rogers' youngest son, Tim (Buz Buckley). Years later, Roy Rogers Jr. returns to the family's Circle R ranch under the name of Roy Reynolds and quickly resumes a lost romance with the neighbor's now-grown granddaughter, Ann Meredith (Doris Day). Tasker is still around as well, alas, nastier than ever and extracting protection fees from the local farmers and ranchers. Although seemingly willing to pay his way out of trouble, Roy secretly organizes a vigilante committee to "protect the valley from protection" and ends up hunting down not only Tasker but his own brother, a now grown-up Tim (Don "Red" Barry). The Saga of Death Valley was filmed at Lone Pine, CA, rather than the arid location indicated by the title. Leading lady Doris Day is not the later singer-star but a brunette Republic starlet under contract to the studio from September 9, 1939 to January 28, 1940. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi