Tony Martin Movies

This German film tells a purely about Ruby Dennis (Joe Pesci , a Jewish bowling alley/nightclub manager in New Jersey. Despite his tacky surroundings, Ruby convinces himself that he's just about to hit the big time in Las Vegas. It takes him 100 minutes to realize that he's never going to be any better off than he is now. Just tap your bowling shoes together three times and say, "There's no place like Jersey." Tony Martin shows up in the film's highlight, a dream sequence in which a handful of songs co-written by star Pesci are featured. Dear Mr. Wonderful was released to video as Ruby's Dream. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Singer Tony Martin plays the non-musical title role in United Artists' Quinannon, Frontier Scout. Sent on a top-secret mission by the government, Quincannon tries to find out who's been selling repeating rifles to the Indians. The culprit turns out to be an old friend of the hero--and, for plot purposes, the brother of heroine Maylene (Peggie Castle). Throughout the film, Tony Martin appears uncomfortable and uncertain, a bad combination when you're dealing with taciturn Indians and renegade whites. On the plus side, Quincannon, Frontier Scout is gorgeously photographed on location in the Utah desert. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Deep in My Heart is the MGM-ified biography of composer Sigmund Romberg, here played by José Ferrer. Evidently the scripters didn't feel that the life of Romberg (as set down by author Elliott Arnold, whose book was used as the film's basis) had enough drama to fill out two hours and ten minutes. As a result, the film is overstocked with guest stars, performing such Romberg standards as "One Alone," "Lover Come Back to Me," "When I Grow Too Old to Dream," "Will You Remember," and "Stout-Hearted Men." Among these celebrities are Ann Miller, Vic Damone, Jane Powell, Tony Martin, Cyd Charisse, Rosemary Clooney, and Gene Kelly, the latter performing a dance duet with his seldom-seen brother, Fred. For all the heady competition, it is José Ferrer who renders the most memorable production number: a one-man presentation of the Romberg musical comedy Jazzboat, in which Ferrer assumes all the roles, from star Al Jolson's to the entire female chorus! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Cole Porter title tune is but one of the musical highlights in the (literally) splashy Esther Williams musical Easy to Love. Reshuffling plot devices utilized in previous Williams vehicles, the film casts Williams as Julie Hallerton, the star of Ray Lloyd's (Van Johnson) aquacade. She loves Lloyd, but he hardly knows she exists. Only when she inaugurates romances with swimming instructor Hank (John Bromfield) and singer Barry (Tony Martin) does Lloyd wake up and smell the chlorine. The plot's finale is top-heavy with "good sport" behavior involving the three male leads. However, if you've come to an Esther Williams movie for the plot, maybe you'd better try another theatre. Easy to Love is the film that includes Busby Berkeley's legendary "motorboat/hang-glider" production number, performed at Florida's Cypress Gardens--though, incredibly, this aquatic tour de force is not the end of the picture! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Personally supervised by Howard R. Hughes, the RKO Technicolor musical Two Tickets to Broadway stars Janet Leigh as a small-town girl who hopes to make it big in the Big Apple. Moving into a Manhattan boarding house populated by such showbiz hopefuls as Ann Miller, Tony Martin, Gloria De Haven and Barbara Lawrence, Leigh aspires to appear on the popular TV variety program hosted by bandleader Bob Crosby. Two-bit agent Eddie Bracken promises to make her dreams come true, even though he doesn't know Crosby from Adam. Along the way, Leigh falls for Martin, though the course of true love seldom runs smooth--in fact, at one point it threatens to run all the way back to Leigh's home town. Injecting their time-honored routines into the proceedings are veteran vaudevillians Joe Smith and Charlie Dale, playing a couple of stagestruck deli owners (their roles were originally slated for Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, but Laurel's illness precluded any film work). Despite the creative input of choreographer Busby Berkeley, the film's best number is the simplest: Let's Make Comparisons, wherein Bob Crosby explains why he's not his brother Bing. Seemingly a surefire box-office hit, Two Tickets to Broadway inexplicably posted a loss of $1,150,000. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

MGM's Till the Clouds Roll By is the musicalized, and highly fictionalized, life story of beloved composer Jerome Kern, who gave his blessing to the production shortly before his death in 1946. As played by a gray-templed Robert Walker, Kern is a likeable but none too exciting sort who expresses his emotions through his music. Constructed in the form of an extended flashback, the story proper begins at the turn of the century, as Kern tries to peddle his ditties to disinterested Broadway producers. His efforts to interest impresario Charles Frohman (Harry Hayden) go nowhere because Frohman is convinced that the only good music comes from Europe. Obligingly, Kern moves to London, where he meets and falls in love with his future wife Eva (Dorothy Patrick). On the verge of securing work with Frohman, Kern's hopes are dashed when the producer goes down with the Lusitania in 1915. Fortunately, Kern has developed such powerful U.S. contacts as Victor Herbert (Paul Maxey) and Oscar Hammerstein (Paul Langton), enabling him to find success as the composer of several "intimate" musicals for New York's Princess Theater. The film ends where it begins, with Kern's triumph as composer of the Broadway blockbuster Show Boat. Van Heflin weaves in and out of the proceedings as the obligatory best friend/severest critic, a musical arranger named Jim Hessler (purportedly based on longtime Kern associate Paul Sadler). No one in 1946 really cared about the dramatic passages of Till the Clouds Roll By; the film's biggest drawing card was its lineup of all-star MGM talent, performing Kern's most famous numbers. Judy Garland (as Marilyn Miller) sings "Look for the Silver Lining"; Dinah Shore performs "The Last Time I Saw Paris" before a back-projected "Gay Paree"; Kathryn Grayson does a Rita Hayworth imitation with "Long Ago and Far Away"; Virginia O'Brien deadpans "A Fine Romance"; Tony Martin warbles "All the Things You Are"; June Allyson and Ray McDonald team up for the title number; and Frank Sinatra, incongruously dressed in white tuxedo, runs through "Ol' Man River." In addition, other musical contributions are made by Van Johnson, Angela Lansbury, Cyd Charisse, Gower Champion, and Lucille Bremer (cast as Van Heflin's daughter). The film's high point comes at the very beginning with a Reader's Digest edition of Show Boat, featuring Lena Horne, as Julie (the role she was born to play, but never did again on screen), delivering a powerhouse rendition of "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man." Since lapsing into public domain in 1974, Till the Clouds Roll By has, along with Royal Wedding, become the most readily accessible of all MGM musicals. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

All that MGM's Ziegfeld Girl lacks is Technicolor; otherwise, the film has talent and "sock" entertainment value in abundance. The story focuses on three showbiz hopefuls-Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr and Lana Turner-and the efforts to attain the lofty status of "Ziegfeld Girl." Garland is compelled to leave her family vaudeville act; she bids her dad Charles Winninger a tearful farewell, and later falls in love with Turner's brother Jackie Cooper. In her bid for success, Lana forgets all about her faithful boyfriend James Stewart, who turns to bootlegging to come up to the financial stature of Lana's new beau, socialite Ian Hunter. Lamarr nearly dumps her impoverished violinist husband Philip Dorn as she climbs the ladder of success. There are happy endings in store for two of the three female leads, but we'll let you watch the film yourselves to find out who wins and who loses. Featured in the cast are Tony Martin, Edward Everett Horton, Eve Arden, Dan Dailey, and, in a poignant cameo as a wardrobe woman, the "ever popular" Mae Busch. Song highlights include "Minnie from Trinidad", "You Never Looked So Beautiful Before", "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows", "Laugh? I Thought I'd Split My Side", "Caribbean Love Song", "Whispering", "Mr. Gallagher and Mr. Shean" (performed by Charles Winninger and the surviving half of the Gallagher-and-Shean duo, Al Shean-who happened to be the Marx Bros.' uncle), "You Stepped Out of a Dream" and "You Gotta Pull Strings." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this lively boxing comedy, Steve Bishop is a cowboy who works a waiter in an Italian restaurant. He agrees to participate in a prizefight for charity. He has a lucky punch and knocks out his famous opponent. This leads him to become a famous and wealthy prizefighter. What he doesn't know is that gamblers have fixed all of his fights. Thinking he is indeed a champion, the fighter soon acquires an ego to match his reputation. This inspires the ire of female sportswriter Julie Harrison. She really likes him, but decides to teach him a humbling lesson before things get too out of hand. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Those zany Ritz Brothers are at it again--good news or bad, depending on one's feelings toward the team. This time they're a trio of Manhattan entertainers who can't get anywhere because hillbilly acts are "in" with radio and theatrical producers. Also left out in the cold by the new fad is singer Marjorie Weaver. Weaver and the Ritzes decide to pass themselves off as hillbillies, and to do this head for the Kentucky hills in order to be discovered. They land smack-dab in the middle of one of those mountain feuds so beloved of comedy filmmakers. Radio star Tony Martin, who has been sent southward to find genuine hayseed talent, spots the Ritzes and Weaver and brings them back to New York. The truth comes out at last, but the Ritz boys redeem themselves with a rib tickling "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" radio sketch--easily the highlight of this wildly uneven film. When reminiscing about Kentucky Moonshine in 1978, director David Butler remembered that team member Al Ritz refused to perform a barefoot hillbilly dance unless he was outfitted with rubber feet! The producers should have recreated that true-life bit in the film and gotten rid of the tiresome opening routine in which the Ritzes play poker using hospital progress charts. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Two imprisoned con men become ace football players on the prison team in this comedy. They get into real trouble when the duo decides to bust out to keep the mother of a fellow inmate from getting conned by a gang of crooks. When the warden finds out, he is steaming mad because he has bet his entire fortune on an upcoming game and without his two stars, the team will surely lose. Fortunately for him, the two hustle back to prison and get there just in time to win the Big Game. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Autograph hound Al Babson (Eddie Cantor) accidentally disrupts the filming of a movie about Ali Baba, and is injured in the process. The filmmakers try to buy him off, but nurse Dinah (Virginia Field) suggests he be hired as an extra. He takes an overdose of painkillers, and his Arabian Nights dreams combine with the plot of the movie. His name leads the populace to think he's the son of Ali Baba, and he's taken to the palace of Sultan Abdullah (Roland Young), who's so impressed by Al that he makes him prime minister. Princess Miriam (June Lang) is in love with Yusuf (Tony Martin), the leader of the peasants, while Al has fallen for Deenah (also Virginia Field), whose father Omar (Maurice Cass) is trying to make a carpet fly. Meanwhile, the evil Prince Musah (Douglas Dumbrille) is conspiring with Sultana (Louise Hovick), one of Abdullah's many wives, to capture the princess, take over Bagdad, and kill Abdullah and Al as well. Miriam and Yusuf are unhappy because royalty and commoners cannot marry, so Al comes up with a plan to help his friends, but the plan spectacularly backfires, and Abdullah orders him to be boiled in oil. ~ Bill Warren, Rovi

Alice Faye stars as aspiring playwright Judith Poe Wells. She falls in love with producer George Macrae (Don Ameche), which makes George's girlfriend Louise Hovick (Gypsy Rose Lee) see red. Judith drops from view while George loses his troublesome girlfriend and prepares to put together a Broadway musical. He chooses Judith's play for his next production, which of course reunites the pair at fadeout time. And how do The Ritz Brothers fit into You Can't Have Everything? Not very well, but the Ritzes do have one funny elongated number set in a Greenwich Village nightclub (where the extras are obviously breaking up at the boys' adlibs). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi