Leonid Kinskey Movies

That Night in Rio is a musical remake of 1934's Folies Bergère. Don Ameche plays a dual role as a middle-aged Brazilian industrialist, and a young Rio de Janeiro cabaret performer who looks just like him. The highlight of the entertainer's act is an imitation of the industrialist, which impresses the latter's associates. When the industrialist is unable to attend an important business conference, his lieutenants persuade the entertainer to take his place. The entertainer falls in love with the industrialist's wife (Alice Faye), treating her so gallantly that when the real husband returns, he decides to be more attentive to and appreciative of his spouse. Carmen Miranda is supposed to be playing the entertainer's jealous girlfriend, but she's really around just to let loose with such below-the-Equator hits as "Chica, Chica, Boom Chic." The Rudolph Lothar/Hans Adler play on which That Night in Rio was based was given a third go round in 1951 as the Danny Kaye vehicle On the Riviera. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Nazis are clearly the villains in So Ends Our Night, but since the film was made before America's entry into World War II, Adolph Hitler goes unmentioned (we wouldn't want to lose those foreign markets, would we?) Based on Erich Maria Remarque's novel Flotsam, the film zeroes in on three German refugees. Frederic March despises the Nazis on ideological grounds; Margaret Sullavan, a Jew, is fleeing for her life; and Glenn Ford, born of a Jewish mother and Aryan father, is racked with confusion and torn loyalties. The three separate as they move from country to country in Europe, just a step or so ahead of the advancing Nazis. As Sullavan and Ford fall in love, March puts his life on the line by trying to arrange a reunion with his ailing wife Frances Dee, who has remained in Germany. Had So Ends Our Night been released a few months after the US entry into the war, it might have done better at the box office. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Ball of Fire is a delightful retelling (by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett) of the "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" legend -- though strictly for grownups. Gary Cooper is the youngest of eight bookish professors authoring an encyclopedia. They find a perfect "research associate" in the curvaceous form of stripteaser Barbara Stanwyck, who (chastely) hides on the professors' domicile to escape her gangster boyfriend (Dana Andrews). As Stanwyck interprets various slang expression, she and the professors grow quite fond of one another; she brings out their sentimental sides, while they revive her essential decency. Naturally, Cooper is the one most smitten, though he hides his true feelings until the inevitable clinch. When gangster Andrews and his torpedo Dan Duryea show up to claim Stanwyck (Andrews wants to marry her so she can't testify against him), the professors save the day and it is Cooper who ends up with the beautiful Stanwyck. For the record, two of the "ancient" professors are Richard Haydn and O.Z. Whitehead, still in their mid-thirties (the others are S.Z. Sakall, Tully Marshall, Oscar Homolka, Leonid Kinskey and Aubrey Mather). Producer Sam Goldwyn later remade Ball of Fire as a Danny Kaye musical, A Song is Born (1948). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this drama, set in Paris, a devout communist is slowly seduced into becoming a capitalist by a persuasively pretty young woman. The tale begins as the young man shoots at a banker and then flees the police. He runs into the woman's apartment, and for some reason, she decides to let him stay. She then tells him that she is the banker's ex-wife, and they begin to converse; she is fascinated by communist philosophies and in turn shares her views on capitalism with him. He comes to like them and so abandons his other ideologies for the bourgeois life. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this musical, a composer abandons vaudeville in favor of the legitimate stage. He soon finds himself entangle with a Russian ballet company that contains his old childhood lover, but when the troupe mistake him for a traitor trouble ensues. Perhaps the film is most notable for Balanchine's choreography of "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue." Songs include: "There's a Small Hotel," "Quiet Night," "On Your Toes," "Princess Zenobia Ballet." ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The extramarital shenanigans of a young married couple provide the basis of this surprisingly racy (for 1939 Hollywood) comedy. The trouble begins on the couple's second anniversary when he calls to say that he will be held up at the office. Later the wife finds lipstick on his collar and becomes very suspicious so she goes to her more worldly best friend who advises the distraught wife to go out and get a job so she can turn the tables on her husband. She ends up working for a lusty architect and sure enough he makes it very clear that he likes the way she is built. The two go out for dinner one night and who should they run into but her husband and his secretary out for a little tete-a-tete. The foursome end up in the architect's penthouse and everyone has a wonderful time until the architect's wife shows up. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The last of RKO's Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers vehicles, The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle is also the least typical. At their best playing carefree characters in gossamer-thin musical comedy plotlines, Fred and Ginger seem slightly ill at ease cast as the real-life dancing team of Vernon and Irene Castle. The stripped-to-essentials storyline boils down to novice dancer Irene (Rogers) convincing vaudeville comic Vernon (Astaire) to give up slapstick in favor of "classy" ballroom dancing. With the help of agent Edna May Oliver, the Castles hit their peak of fame and fortune in the immediate pre-World War I years. When Vernon is called to arms, Irene stays behind in the US, making patriotic movie serials to aid the war effort. Vernon is killed in a training accident, leaving a tearful Irene to carry on alone. To soften the shock of Astaire's on-screen death (it still packs a jolt when seen today), RKO inserted a closing "dream" dancing sequence, with a spectral Vernon and Irene waltzing off into the heavens. The film's production was hampered by the on-set presence of the real Irene Castle, whose insistence upon accuracy at all costs drove everyone to distraction--especially Ginger Rogers, who felt as though she was being treated like a marionette rather than an actress. In one respect, Mrs. Castle had good reason to be so autocratic. Walter, the "severest critic servant" character played by Walter Brennan, was in reality a black man. RKO was nervous about depicting a strong, equal-footing friendship between the white Castles and their black retainer, so a Caucasian actor was hired for the role. Mrs. Castle was understandably incensed by this alteration, and for the rest of her days chastised RKO for its cowardice. As it turned out, it probably wouldn't have mattered if Walter had been black, white, Chicano or Siamese; The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle was a financial bust, losing $50,000 at the box office. Perhaps as a result, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers would not team up again for another ten years. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Great Waltz was the first of two films bearing the same title which told the life story of Austrian "Waltz King" Johann Strauss. European singing sensation Fernard Gravet stars as Strauss, while MGM's two-time Oscar winner Luise Rainer is top-billed as Poldi Vogelhuber. Poldi is the wife of Strauss, but she is forced to sit and sulk as her husband carries on a lengthy affair with opera singer Milza Korjus (in her only American film). Husband and wife mend their differences shortly before being introduced to the court of Emperor Franz Josef. The scene everyone remembers is the one in which Gravet and Korjus improvise "The Tales of the Vienna Woods" while taking a buggy ride in the country. It's as corny as all get out, but never fails to earn applause when seen today. Dmitri Tiomkin was given the unenviable task of adapting the original Strauss tunes to conform with the concept of the film, while an uncredited Josef Von Sternberg assisted official director Julien Duvuvier in several crucial scenes. The 1972 The Great Waltz, which starred Horst Buchholtz, is generally conceded to be a disaster. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Jones Family heads to Gay Paree in celebration of the 25th wedding anniversary of Pa (Jed Prouty) and Ma (Spring Byington). It doesn't take long for the Joneses to be victimized by clever Parisian con artists. Nor do Jones kids Jack (Ken Howell) and Lucy (June Carlson) have time to unpack before they're both pursued by amorous predators. Somehow or other, everyone gets involved in an espionage plot, much to the dismay of apoplectic hotel detective Emile (Leonid Kinskey). All things considered, the Joneses' married daughter Bonnie (Shirley Deane) is probably grateful that she elected to stay home with her husband Herb (Russell Gleason). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Musical comedy star Phil Regan headlines this modest Republic tunefest. He plays an American bandleader who inherits an Irish castle. With his band members and his singer (Penny Singleton) in tow, Regan takes charge of the castle, hoping turn it into a nightclub. Naturally, these plans arouses the ire of the local landed gentry, but pretty soon they're keeping in step with Regan's entourage. Like many Republic films of the 1930s, Outside of Paradise is generally available only in the 54-minute version prepared for television. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Whenever things got slow at 20th Century-Fox, the studio revved up its old reliable "three girls looking for millionaires" plotline. Three Kansas sisters (Loretta Young, Marjorie Weaver and Pauline Moore) use a small inheritance to set themselves up in a Manhattan penthouse. Figuring that Young has the best chance of snaring a rich husband, she is allowed to pose as a wealthy heiress, while Weaver and Moore pose as her servants. Young wins Joel McCrea, who isn't as rich as everyone thinks. Weaver ends up with a rancher (David Niven) who likewise is cash poor. But Moore hits the jackpot with a slow-witted working stiff (Stu Erwin) who turns out to be the only millionaire in the bunch. Three Blind Mice was remade (with much of the dialogue intact) as the 1941 musical Moon Over Miami, then re-remade in period costume as Three Little Girls in Blue (47). In 1953, elements of Three Blind Mice were combined with the basic plotline of the 1932 comedy The Greeks Had a Word for Them--and the result was How to Marry a Millionaire. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this comedy drama (a remake of 1932's Ladies of the Jury), an apparently bubble-headed but mule-stubborn jurist is convinced of the defendant's innocence and refuses to change her verdict. Unlike the others, she listens to her own common sense and looks carefully at the facts and decides that there is no way the accused could have committed the murder. She then sets off with a fellow jurist and long-time pal to prove it. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi