Pert Kelton Movies

In this domestic comedy, a high school graduate causes chaos when he tells his parents that he is going to get married and remain at home. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Meredith Wilson's hit 1957 Broadway musical was transferred to the screen in larger-than-life fashion in 1962. Robert Preston repeats his legendary stage performance as fast-talking con man Harold Hill, who goes from town to town selling citizens on starting a "boy's band," then extracts money from them by ordering instruments and uniforms, with the promise that he'll teach the kids how to be musicians. Once he's collected his bankroll, Hill skips town, leaving the kids in the lurch. Looking for new suckers in Iowa, Hill arrives in River City, where he declares that the only way to save the youth of River City from the lure of the poolroom is to organize a boy's band. He charms the mayor's wife Eulalie (Hermione Gingold) into forming a "ladies' dance committee" and sets his sights on winning over local music teacher Marian Paroo (Shirley Jones). Marian rightly considers Hill a fraud, especially when he espouses the "Think System" of learning music: if you think a tune, he claims, you can play it. But Marian becomes Hill's staunchest ally when her young brother Winthrop (Ronny Howard), sullen and withdrawn since the death of his father, exuberantly comes out of his shell at the prospect of joining Hill's band; and Marian's budding romance with the charming but unreliable Hill ultimately brings her out of her own shell as well. Marion Hargrove's script uses most of the original play, with a handful of amusing expansions, especially in the roles played by Gingold and by Buddy Hackett as Hill's comic sidekick. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman's whimsical Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play You Can't Take It With You was transformed into a paean to populism by director Frank Capra and screenwriter Robert Riskin. This is the story of the zany Sycamore household, presided over by Grandpa Vanderhof (Lionel Barrymore), a former businessman who has turned his back on commerce to enjoy life. At the Sycamores', everyone does just what he or she pleases. Penny Sycamore (Spring Byington), Grandpa's daughter, has become a novelist because someone delivered a typewriter to her home by mistake. Penny's husband makes firecrackers in his basement with the help of Mr. DePinna (Halliwell Hobbes), an iceman who showed up at the Sycamore doorstep one day and never left. Their daughter, Essie (Ann Miller), imagines that she's a prima ballerina, even though her dour teacher, Boris (Mischa Auer), assesses her work with, "Confidentially, it steenks!" Essie's husband, Ed (Dub Taylor), who'd rather play a xylophone than work, spends his free time selling Essie's candy, wrapping each package in paper from a used printing press that dispenses anarchistic slogans. The one normal member of the household is Alice Sycamore (Jean Arthur), in love with wealthy Tony Kirby (James Stewart).

Naturally, when the stuffy, aristocratic Kirbys come to the Sycamores' for dinner, the event is a disaster, capped with the arrest of everyone in the household. Hart and Kaufman's third act found the previously judgmental Kirby softening his attitude toward the freewheeling Sycamore clan, admitting that he's never had so much fun in his life. Screenwriter Riskin altered the focus of the play by throwing out the third act and concentrating upon Tony Kirby's father, Kirby Sr., who as played by Edward Arnold is transformed from a stock stuffed shirt into a ruthless, grasping tycoon, eager to buy up every house on the Sycamores' block to make room for a munitions plant. The film thus became the story of Kirby's regeneration at the hands of the carefree Sycamores. Enough of the play's screwball elements are retained to compensate for Riskin's speechifying and plot distortions (though the softening of one of the play's vital ingredients, Grandpa's refusal to pay his income tax, borders on the sacrilegious). You Can't Take It With You earned several Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director (Capra's third Oscar). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Its somewhat risible title aside (how can a saddle have rhythm?), this is one of the better Gene Autry westerns of the late 1930s. The story is built around a Frontier Week rodeo, owned by pretty Maureen (Peggy Moran). Despite doing land-office buisness, Maureen is in danger of losing the rodeo thanks to the chicanery of villain Pomeroy (Leroy Mason). But trick rider Autry and his saddle pal Frog (Smiley Burnette) can be counted upon to come to the rescue, even though he finds himself at the mercy of Pomeroy's minions somewhere during the fourth reel. One of the minor characters is played by Archie Hall, the legendary wheeler-dealer later immortalized in the 1961 Jack Webb picture The Last Time I Saw Archie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this musical an agent hawks a new singing star to irritate a wealthy socialite whom he managed to get on the radio. There the socialite found some success, but then she dumped her agent. As the radio network continues to search for new talent, music and mayhem ensue. Songs include: "Sweet Heartache," "Hail Alma Mater," "Last Night I Dreamed of You," "You'd Like It," "I'll Reach for a Star," "The Lady Wants to Dance," "Was It Rain," "Love Is Good for Anything That Ails You," "I've Got to Be a Rug Cutter," and "Jungle Rhythm." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Women of Glamour is a considerably toned-down remake of Frank Capra's pre-code drama Ladies of Leisure. Virginia Bruce steps into the old Barbara Stanwyck role as streetwise good-time girl Gloria, who falls in love with wealthy playboy Dick (Melvyn Douglas). Not only must she contend with Dick's snooty society pals, but she must also cross claws with the hero's rich-bitch lady friend Carol (Leona Maricle). The dilemma almost leads Gloria to suicide, but there's a happy ending in the offing. Counterpointing the Gloria-Dick romance is the comic courtship of Gloria's dance-hall chum Fan (Pert Kelton) and silly socialite Fritz (Reginald Denny). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Produced by Hal Roach, Kelly the Second is one of the few feature films to capture the comic spirit of Roach's wonderful two-reelers. Patsy Kelly stars as Molly Kelly, who as the result of an unexpected street brawl becomes the trainer of truck-driver-turned-prizefighter Cecil Callahan (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams). It seems that Cecil is a gentle soul who turns into a fighting fool whenever he hears the strains of "The Irish Washerwoman." Molly talks her boss, druggist Doc Klum (Charley Chase), into financing Cecil's ring career, which gets Doc in dutch with gangsters Ike (Ed Brophy) and Spike (Harold Huber). When Cecil's head is briefly turned by Ike's moll Gloria (Pert Kelton), Molly walks out on him but returns in time to cheer him to victory in the inevitable Big Fight. Despite some formidable comic competition, the film is stolen by the great Charley Chase, in one of his few feature-film appearances. Kelly the Second also features unbilled cameos by such Hal Roach favorites as Max Davidson and Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer (Billy Gilbert, alas, was cut from the final release print); best of all, the musical score includes several familiar "background" themes by the inimitable LeRoy Shield. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This highly fictionalized biopic of legendary sharpshooter Annie Oakley stars Barbara Stanwyck as "Little Sure Shot" Annie. Coming down from the hills of Ohio, Annie rises to fame with Buffalo Bill's (Moroni Olsen) Wild West Show. Her success as a performer is counterpointed by her stormy romance with fellow performer Toby Foster (Preston S. Foster), whose reputation as the World's Great Marksman is shot to holes by Annie's accomplishments. Walking out on Annie and the show, Toby loses himself in the streets of New York but is discovered and dragged back by Annie's faithful Indian friend Sitting Bull (Chief Thunderbird, whose performance is far from politically correct but undeniably amusing). Melvyn Douglas co-stars as Annie's manager and would-be boyfriend Jeff Hogarth, while an uncredited Dick Elliot delivers a hearty performance as press agent Ned Buntline; others in the cast include such 2-reel comedy favorites as Charlie Hall and Harry Bernard, who like director George Stevens were alumni of the Hal Roach fun factory. The much-later musical version of the Annie Oakley story, Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun, bears traces of this 1935 film, but not so much as to constitute plagiarism (Coincidentally, Herbert Fields, one of the writers of Annie Oakley, collaborated with his sister Dorothy on the libretto of Annie Get Your Gun). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

It's a dark and stormy night. The butler of a large mansion is annoyed by the howling of a cat. He fires a few gunshots at the annoying feline, which rouses the attention of two dimwitted cops. Before long, nearly everyone in New York has converged on the mansion--including a couple of bona fide criminals. Lightning Strikes Twice can't make up its mind to be a straight melodrama or a slapstick comedy, and therein lies both its weakness and its charm. The film is of greatest interest to fans of 1930s "B" pictures, thanks to a vintage cast including Chick Chandler, Thelma Todd, Steffi Duna and Walter Catlett. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After several years' faithful service in RKO Radio's short-subject department, director George Stevens was rewarded with his first feature-length assignment, the innocuous comedy Bachelor Bait. Stu Erwin plays Wilbur Fess, the busy owner of a matrimonial agency called Romance, Inc. So dedicated is Fess to his job that he fails to notice how much his girlfriend Linda (Rochelle Hudson) loves him. As consequence, he very nearly marries Linda off to someone else, but at the last moment he is saved from this boo-boo by good-time girl Alice (Pert Kelton). The title Bachelor Bait was later used by RKO for the British release of the 1949 Shirley Temple vehicle Adventure in Baltimore. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dry-goods store owner Tillie Prescott (ZaSu Pitts) has promised to marry meek barber Chris Peterson (El Brendel), but he won't marry her until his business has grown successful enough to allow him to get a second chair in his barber shop -- and it's been 10 years, and he's not any closer to getting that second chair. Then, one day, an acting troupe gets stranded in town, and out-of-work showgirl Lulu White (Pert Kelton) sets herself up in Chris's barber shop doing manicures. Lulu knows a lot of the angles, including how to get men to do what she wants most of the time, and suddenly every male in town is eager to get his nails manicured (and hang around for a shave and haircut) just to get near Lulu. Chris's second chair seems like a real possibility, but Tillie gets jealous of Lulu, and is tricked by a smooth-talking salesman (Skeets Gallagher) into signing with a big retail chain that forces her out of the store she founded. Meanwhile, local wise-guy Duke Slater (James Gleason) gets led on by Lulu and decides he's going to set right what's happened to Tillie, and teach Lulu a lesson in the bargain. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

In this sassy dramatic comedy, two reform-school girls finally graduate and as soon as they get out decide to board a New Orleans-bound stern-wheeler and rustle up a couple of handsome, wealthy men. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide