Bill Goodwin Movies
It is misleading to label film-actor Bill Goodwin as a "former radio announcer," since he never truly left announcing. Signed on the basis of his radio credentials to a Paramount movie contract in 1942, Goodwin seldom rose above "hero's best friend" roles, though he was allowed to play the nominal hero in the Universal scarefest House of Horrors (1946). The biggest movie success with which Goodwin was associated was The Jolson Story (1946), in which he played Al Jolson's (fictional) agent Tom Baron; he repeated the characterization in the 1949 sequel, Jolson Sings Again. Even while pursuing his film career, Goodwin remained a familiar radio presence. For many years, he was the announcer on The Burns and Allen Show, his fictional persona being that of a skirt-chasing bachelor. He remained with Burns and Allen during their first season on television, leaving the series in 1951 to host his own local New York TV program. Later, Goodwin emceed the 1955 summer-replacement quiz show Penny to a Million, and in 1956 he was the announcer for the first prime-time network cartoon series, Gerald McBoing Boing. Bill Goodwin died of a heart attack in 1958 at the age of 47. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1944
If you've never seen a '40s singing, swimming musical this may be the one to catch. Featuring a mammoth cast, including such notables as Xavier Cugat, Basil Rathbone, Red Skelton, and Esther Williams, this is a swimming spectacular. The plot's quite thin: Skelton plays a lovesick songwriter who enrolls in a girls' school to stay near his new wife who ditched him shortly after the wedding bells rang and was hired on as the college's swim teacher. Of course Esther Williams is the beautiful swimming instructor who spends most of her time in the pool performing in a score of choreographed pieces. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Red Skelton, Esther Williams, (more)
- 1943
No relation to the 1950 Frank Capra film of the same name, the 1943 Technicolor musical Riding High is a by-the-numbers vehicle for Dorothy Lamour and Dick Powell. Lamour stars as Ann Castle, a former burlesque queen who heads westward to claim her father's silver mine. Powell plays mining engineer Steve Baird, who like Ann has a vested interest in the worked-out mine. With the help of genial counterfeiter Mortimer J. Slocum (Victor Moore), Steve and Ann are able to peddle mining stock, thus saving her from bankruptcy. The stockholders are in a lynching mood when it appears that they've been flim-flammed, but a last minute "miracle" saves the day. Featured in the cast are Paramount stalwarts Cass Daley and Gil Lamb, the former doing her quasi-Martha Raye act and the latter swallowing his harmonica for the millionth time. Production values are excellent and the songs are exuberantly performed; it's only in its hackneyed plot that Riding High slows to a clip-clop. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Lamour, Dick Powell, (more)
- 1943
Mitchell Leisen utilizes his stylistic pizzazz to enliven this romantic comedy that proves the old adage "opposites attract" -- but only after three or four reels. Claudette Colbert is Katherine Grant, an upper-crust fashion photographer who has a gang of admirers snapping at her heels. When her vindictive editor tries to teach her a lesson for her snobbishness by giving her an assignment photographing lower-class workers digging a tunnel, she falls for Jim Ryan (Fred MacMurray). Ryan is also attracted to her, so when she leaves her camera tripod in the tunnel, Ryan obligingly returns it to her. When Ryan returns to the job site, he is ribbed by his co-workers. Ryan loses his head and gets into a fight and is subsequently suspended from his job. Katherine, feeling guilty about Ryan being suspended from his job (and also looking for an excuse to have him around), hires him as her assistant. But in his new job, Ryan starts to put the make on one of Katherine's flirtatious models, Darlene (June Havoc). Katherine must now find a way to overcome her superior attitude and make her true feelings known to Ryan. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claudette Colbert, Fred MacMurray, (more)
Paramount's So Proudly We Hail, like MGM's Cry Havoc, is a tribute to the Red Cross nurses trapped behind enemy lines in the early days of the Pacific war. Claudette Colbert is the self-sacrificing head nurse, struggling to minister to the wounded and to keep her staff (including Paulette Goddard, Veronica Lake and Barbara Britton, all of them giving better than usual performances) from buckling under the pressure. Taking into consideration the regular fans of the film's female cast, the producers thoughtfully include several scenes in which the ladies pursue their romantic lives. The story culminates with the fall of Bataan, ending on a resigned but optimistic note; this finale was designed to lift the spirits of the audience, which in 1943 wasn't so certain as Hollywood of final victory. So Proudly We Hail was not only effective propaganda (though not as effective as Cry Havoc), but it also enabled Paramount to introduce its new crop of male hunks--including the estimable Sonny Tufts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard, (more)
- 1942
One of the most fondly remembered of the "Blondie" series entries, Blondie Goes to College is predicated on the notion that Dagwood Bumstead (Arthur Lake) must receive a college diploma or lose his job with the Dithers Construction Company. Not wishing to be separated from her husband, Blondie (Penny Singleton) enrolls in college as well-but the rules stipulate "no married couples", forcing our hero and heroine to pretend that they're not married. This causes quite a dilemma when coed Laura Wadsworth (Janet Blair) begins flirting with Dagwood and B.M.O.C. Rusty Bryant (Larry Parks) does same with Blondie. Making things worse-Blondie is expecting another child (who will make her first appearance in the next installment, Blondie's Blessed Event), but she daren't tell anyone lest both she and Dag be expelled. The student body at this particular seat of learning is comprised of quite a few familiar faces (most well past college age), including Lloyd Bridges, Sid Melton, and Adele Mara. The biggest laughs in Blondie Goes to College are garnered by famed double-talk expert Al Kelly, playing an uncredited cameo as a tangle-tongued professor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, (more)
- 1942
Adenoidal teenager Henry Aldrich (James Lydon) "gets glamour" when he wins first prize in a movie-magazine contest. Before he quite knows what's happening, Henry is whisked to Hollywood for a date with glamorous "sarong girl" Hilary Dane (Frances Gifford). All of this coincides with a local scandal, innocently fomented by our hero, which threatens the election of Henry's father Sam (John Litel) to the office of public welfare commissioner. The plot is resolved at the end when Hilary Dane, for reasons of her own, shows up as Henry's date at a country club dance, an act which somehow vindicates Sam Aldrich (the plot makes much more sense on screen than on print!) In addition to the lissome Frances Gifford, Henry Aldrich Gets Glamour showcases such promising starlets as Diana Lynn and Gail Russell. An unbilled Johnny Arthur earns some of the film's biggest laughs as a prissy publicity agent. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jimmy Lydon, Charles Smith, (more)
The winner of four Oscar nominations, Wake Island was one of the first major Hollywood films to deal with America's forced participation in World War II. The first two reels takes place in the weeks prior to Pearl Harbor, as Wake Island military commander Brian Donlevy carries on a friendly rivalry with Seabee supervisor Albert Dekker. Once the US is in the shooting war, all previous differences are forgotten and the Wake Island personnel begin pulling together. Despite being heavily outnumbered during the subsequent Japanese attack on Wake, the Americans put up a valiant fight, at great cost to the Imperial Forces. In a scene calculated to evoke long, loud cheers from the audience, Donlevy, weary and battle-stained, relays to the American mainland the legendary (if offensive) challenge "Send us more Japs!" As in the like-vintage Bataan, the military defeat of the Americans is treated-and justifiably so--as a moral victory. Utilizing some of the top male talents in Paramount's contract pool-Donlevy, Dekker Robert Preston, MacDonald Carey, William Bendix--Wake Island remains an excellent example of propaganda-as-entertainment ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brian Donlevy, Robert Preston, (more)
- 1941
Blondie in Society is another delightful excursion into comic insanity for Blondie (Penny Singleton), Dagwood (Arthur Lake) and Baby Dumpling (Larry Simms). The trouble begins when Dagwood brings home a huge Great Dane as a favor to an old friend. It turns out that the gigantic hound is a pedigree, and that Waldo Pincus (William Frawley), an important client of Dag's boss Mr. Bumstead (Jonathan Hale) would like to buy the dog. Alas, Blondie has already entered her new pet in a dog show, ultimately winning a $500 prize and beating out the previous champion-which, of course, belongs to Mr. Pincus. On the verge of losing his job, Dagwood is rescued one more by the resourceful Blondie, with the help of irascible veterinarian Edgar Kennedy. Like the previous Blondie Goes Latin, Blondie In Society affords Penny Singleton the opportunity to display her musical skills, as she sings two songs with the Mitchell Boys' Choir. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, (more)
- 1940
Though he lacked the casual charisma of his brother Bing, bandleader Bob Crosby starred in a series of reasonably successful films of his own. In Let's Make Music, Crosby and his "Bobcats" turn a dreadful football-victory song penned by elderly schoolmistress Malvina Adams (Elisabeth Risdon) into a hit by treating it as a novelty tune. When Malvina is brought to New York to capitalize on her unexpected success, she is accompanied by her pretty niece Abby (Jean Rogers), who is determined that her aunt won't be exploited or humilated. Sure enough, Abby and Crosby fall in love during Malvina's fifteen minutes of fame. Comedy relief is supplied by Yiddish Art Theater veteran Joseph Buloff, soon to gain Broadway immortality as Ali Hakim in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma. The songs in Let's Make Music include the enduring Crosby classic "Big Noise From Winnetka". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Rogers, Bob Crosby & Orchestra, (more)
