Charlotte Greenwood Movies
Tall, long-legged comic actress Charlotte Greenwood received her first speaking part in a 1907 musical comedy starring the Rogers Brothers, a dialect team. She formed a vaudeville act called "Two Girls and a Piano," then performed solo specialty spots in such revues as The Passing Show, bringing houses down with her wisecracks and high kicks. Her stardom was secured in 1915 with a stage musical uniquely suited for her talents, So Long, Letty--the first of several productions in which Greenwood was cast as the energetic, man-chasing Letty. Also in 1915, she made her film debut in Jane. A Broadway headliner throughout the 1920s, Greenwood made her talkie bow in the 1930 film version of So Long Letty; she went on to co-star with Eddie Cantor in Palmy Days (1931), Bert Lahr in Flying High (1931) and Buster Keaton in Parlor, Bedroom and Bath (1931). By 1940, Greenwood had settled into character roles, usually playing the all-knowing aunt or guardian of the heroine. She brightened many a 20th Century-Fox musical of the 1940s, including Moon Over Miami (1941), Springtime in the Rockies (1942) and The Gang's All Here (1943). Rodgers and Hammerstein conceived the role of "Aunt Eller" in their 1943 Broadway hit Oklahoma with Greenwood in mind, but her film commitments made it impossible for her to appear in the original stage version of that musical. She finally got to play Aunt Eller in the 1955 film version of Oklahoma--one of her last screen appearances before her 1956 retirement. Married twice, Charlotte Greenwood's first husband was actor Cyril Ring, the brother of musical comedy star Blanche Ring and brother-in-law of actors Thomas Meighan and Charles Winninger. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1931
Flying High was a nonsensical Broadway musical hit of 1930 starring Bert Lahr. The film version, made one year later by MGM, made a few efforts to "cinematize" the stage original, but the focus was on Lahr, re-creating his Broadway performance virtually verbatim -- except for his famous (and notorious) gag sequence involving a urinalysis! Lahr plays the goofy inventor of an "aerocopter" flying machine, who is compelled to prove the efficiency of his invention in a slapstick cross-country airmail delivery race. While Lahr's original Broadway co-star Kate Smith does not appear in the film, he was more than amply matched comedically by Charlotte Greenwood. The musical numbers for Flying High were choreographed by Busby Berkeley; one of his more engaging routines was later excerpted for the 1934 Ted Healy/Three Stooges two-reeler Plane Nuts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bert Lahr, Charlotte Greenwood, (more)
- 1931
Eddie Cantor plays Eddie Simpson, a shy and jumpy young fellow who spontaneously bursts into song whenever he gets nervous. He works with the sly Yolando, a phony but successful psychic. The trouble in this lively musical farce begins when Yolando attempts to swindle the owner of the local bakery. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Cantor, Charlotte Greenwood, (more)
Based on the stage comedy by Charles W. Bell and Mark Swan (previously filmed in 1920), Parlor, Bedroom and Bath is a curious mixture of all that was good and everything that was bad in Buster Keaton's talkie features. Keaton plays Reginald Irving, a dimwitted bill-poster who finds himself the pawn in a scheme cooked up by wealthy Jeffrey Haywood (Reginald Denny). It seems that Jeffrey will not be permitted to marry Virginia Embrey (Sally Eilers) until a suitable husband is found for Virginia's older sister Angelica (Dorothy Christy). Since Angelica has rejected all the available suitors, Jeffrey schemes to offer Reginald as an eligible mate. First, however, he has to transform our dopey hero into a gentleman -- and a great lover. Somehow or other, poor Reginald innocently ends up in a compromising situation involving vampish Polly Hathaway (Charlotte Greenwood) and the very married Nita Leslie (Joan Peers) at a posh no-tell hotel. Keaton is permitted a few choice pantomimic moments in Parlor Bedroom and Bath, notably his scenes with the aggressive Charlotte Greenwood and a spectacular sight gag "borrowed" from his 1920 silent classic One Week. On the whole, however, Keaton is lost in a sea of unfunny dialogue and tired farcical situations -- a not untypical pitfall of his MGM talkies. Long unavailable due to legal complications, Parlor, Bedroom and Bath can be purchased from any of the public-domain video companies proliferating in the U.S. (Incidentally, that baronial "upstate New York" mansion in the film's early scenes was actually Buster Keaton's Beverly Hills home) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buster Keaton, Charlotte Greenwood, (more)
- 1929
In this musical comedy, an oddball wife fears that her husband's rich uncle will not like her and therefore disinherit her spouse, so she engages another woman to play her when the uncle comes to call. Songs include: "One Sweet Little Yes," "Clowning," "Beauty Shop," "Am I Blue?," "Let Me Have My Dreams," "My Strongest Weakness is You," (by Grant Clarke, Harry Akst), "Down Among the Sugar Cane" (by Clarke, Charles Tobias), and "So Long Letty" (Earl Carroll). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlotte Greenwood, Grant Withers, (more)
- 1928
Filmed in 1917 with Frank Morgan and in 1921 with Fatty Arbuckle, Baby Mine was brought to the screen a third time in 1928. This time, the warhorse Margaret Mayo stage play was refashioned into a vehicle for the MGM comedy team of Karl Dane and George K. Arthur. The plot remains as always: Dane's wife Charlotte Greenwood, hoping to win back her husband after an argument, claims that she's delivered a bouncing baby boy. This time around, Dane and Arthur engage in some broad but hilarious byplay concerning diapers. There's also an amusing vignette involving a midget (smoking the inevitable cigar). For reasons unknown, Baby Mine was never remade as a talkie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Karl Dane, George K. Arthur, (more)
- 1922
Lily Becker (Hope Hampton) is the musically talented daughter whose mother forces her into a marriage to the son of a wealthy man. Mistreated by the callous husband, she flees to New York to make it in the music business. She gives birth to a child and attempts suicide when she nearly starves to death for lack of work. A sympathetic young songwriter who has been down the same road takes her in and offers her the benefit of his musical experience. Lily becomes a successful opera singer the very night her husband perishes in a train wreck. She also must overcome the tragic death of her beloved baby. Lily overcomes her misfortunes to become a successful singer. After her husband dies, she is free to pursue romance with the young maestro in this routine melodrama. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
