Ann Miller Movies
In the latter stages of her long career, musical comedy star Ann Miller spent much of her time thanking her colleagues for not revealing a secret concerning her early days in Hollywood. According to Miller, she was but 14 years old when she began receiving sizeable screen roles in such RKO films as New Faces of 1937 (1937), Having Wonderful Time (1938), and Room Service (1938), thus it was illegal for her to appear on the set without a guardian or tutor. Perhaps the reason that her co-stars conspired to keep her age a secret was because she was doing so; Miller was in fact 18 when she signed her RKO contract. Not that any of this bears the slightest relevance to Ms. Miller's dazzling terpsichorean talent (in one of her Columbia-starring vehicles, she set a world record for taps-per-minute) nor her stellar contributions to such MGM Technicolor musicals as Easter Parade (1948), On the Town (1949), and Kiss Me Kate (1953). More famous for her winning personality and shapely stems than her acting ability, Miller tended to flounder a bit in her non-singing and non-dancing appearances; thus, when the MGM brand of musicals went out of fashion in the mid-'50s, her film career came to a standstill. Continuing to prosper on the nightclub circuit, Miller made a return before the cameras in a celebrated 1970 TV soup commercial, produced and directed by Stan Freberg and choreographed by Hermes Pan in the all-stops-out manner of a Busby Berkeley spectacular. During that same period, Miller played to SRO crowds in the touring company of Mame. In the mid-'70s, she enjoyed a personal triumph when she co-starred with Mickey Rooney in the Broadway musical Sugar Babies. Ann Miller is the author of two autobiographies, 1974's Miller's High Life (which details her three marriages in an engagingly cheeky fashion) and 1990's Tapping the Force (which dwelt upon her fascination with the Occult). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1936
This musical tells the story of Campo wooing Damita from Keating with songs "So Divine," "Out of the Hills," "The Love Fiesta," "Oh Bella Mia." (Harry Tobias, Jack Stern) ~ All Movie Guide
- 1937
In this musical comedy, an irresponsible young heir is betrothed to the singing daughter of a wealthy matron. Unfortunately, the willful young is not even slightly interested in her "fiance," preferring the attentions of another instead. Unfortunately, the other man has a big problem. Though he really loves the girl, he will lose his $3 million inheritance if he marries her before the age of 30. Complicating matters is the private detective assigned to keep him from getting to involved with women such as the heroine. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe Penner, Gene Raymond, (more)
- 1937
New Faces of 1937 was supposed to be the vanguard of a series of annual musical comedies -- RKO Radio's latest attempt to revive its long-dormant "Radio City Revels" concept. The plot is based on an old show-business legend, later immortalized in Mel Brooks' The Producers: Crooked Broadway producer Robert Hunt (Jerome Cowan) deliberately produces flops so that he can pocket the backers' money himself. His next sure-fire disaster is a show built around talented unknowns (there actually was such a "New Faces" series on Broadway, yielding such stars-to-be as Imogene Coca and Henry Fonda, but it was produced on the up-and-up). When the show threatens to become a hit, the producer desperately seeks a method to sabotage the production. The various subplots involve such vaudeville and radio comedians as Milton Berle (who performs a side-splitting "stockbroker" sketch with Richard Lane), Joe Penner, Bert "Mad Russian" Gordon and Parkyakarkus (aka Harry Einstein, the father of present-day comedians Bob Einstein and Albert Brooks). Among the New Faces displayed herein are 14-year-old dancer Ann Miller, The Brian Sisters, The Three Choclateers and the Four Playboys. Perhaps the fictional Robert Hunt would have been pleased to find out that New Faces of 1937 was a box-office bomb, precluding any follow-ups. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe Penner, Milton Berle, (more)
Adapted from the Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman play, Stage Door is a comedic portrait of the theatrical community in New York. Katharine Hepburn stars as Terry Randall a young woman who comes from a wealthy, socially connected family. Aspiring for a career on the stage, Terry opts to see if she can make it on her own gumption and moves into a boarding house with several other wannabe Broadway starlets attempting to make a mark for themselves in show business. Terry's sassy roommate Jean (Ginger Rogers) just might get the opportunity to do that when she meets a lecherous producer, but at what cost? Unamused by Terry's attempts to pull herself up by her bootstraps, her father offers her an opportunity for a starring role in a show that's sure to fail. Lucille Ball, Eve Arden, and Ann Miller are among the other residents of the boarding house. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, (more)
- 1938
This RKO Radio "expose" film is loosely based on the career of evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, who'd previously gotten the a clef treatment in Capra's The Miracle Woman (1931). Sally Eilers stars as ex-nightclub singer Connie Vinson, an enthusiastic but hypocritical Bible-thumper who turns her ministry into a profit-making business enterprise. Unlike McPherson, who ran her operation with a reasonable degree of honesty, Connie stages a series of phony miracles to separate her wealthier followers from their family jewels. The fact that she has retained a few gangster pals from the old days places Connie under the scrutiny of bunco-squad detective Cramer (Jonathan Hale). Our heroine ultimately mends her ways when she actually heals a crippled client, whereupon she works hand in glove with the cops to get the goods on her crooked cronies. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sally Eilers, Lee Bowman, (more)
- 1938
Based upon Arthur Kober’s play (which was subsequently musicalized onstage as Wish You Were Here, Having Wonderful Time stars Ginger Rogers as Teddy Shaw, a typist who goes to a summer camp for a little rest and relaxation. She’s also getting away from Emil (Jack Carson), whose interest in Teddy is no longer returned. Arriving at Camp Kare-Free, she’s offered a ride by Chick (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.), who works at the camp as a waiter. Unfortunately, they get off to a bumpy start when Chick spills her suitcase and an argument ensues. Once at camp, she makes friends with Fay (Peggy Conklin), Miriam (Lucille Ball) and Henrietta(Eve Arden). Chick apologizes to Teddy, and over the next six days their relationship blossoms, concurrently with that of Miriam and another guest, Buzzy. However, when Chick makes an improper advance during her last night at the camp, Teddy gets angry and leaves him. She dances with Buzzy to make Chick jealous and makes sure she is seen entering Buzzy’s cabin. She takes steps to see that nothing happens and leaves unscathed the next morning, but not before causing trouble between Buzzy and Miriam. Emil has arrived and plans to bring her home after breakfast. While they are eating, Emil proposes to Teddy. Both Chick and Miriam overhear this proposal, after which Miriam loudly comments that Teddy stayed overnight with Buzzy. In the ensuing confusion, Chick decks both Buzzy and Emil, and offers his own proposal to Teddy – which she happily accepts. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ginger Rogers, Peggy Conklin, (more)
- 1938
Set in New York City's famed music hall and featuring an all-star cast, this musical chronicles the desperate search of two bungling aspiring songwriters who are looking for the tune that will make them stars. They hear the sweet sound of opportunity's knock when they find a naive country boy who can literally come up with hit tunes in his sleep. Jack Oakie and Milton Berle play the songwriters. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Oakie, Kenny Baker, (more)
- 1938
- NR
Having paid $255,500 for the rights to John Murray and Allen Boretz' Broadway hit Room Service, RKO Radio then scouted about for a "perfect" cast. Thanks to the persistence of show-biz agent Zeppo Marx, RKO was able to secure the services of Zeppo's brothers Groucho, Harpo and Chico Marx for $100,000. The result is an uneven but entertaining blend of traditional stage farce and Marxian madness. Groucho plays two-bit producer Gordon Miller, who has gone deeply into debt while trying to stage a turgid production called "Hail and Farewell". Miller and his entire cast are ensconced in the Great White Way Hotel, managed by his brother-in-law Gribble Cliff Dunstan, who is fed up with the troupe's inability to pay its bills. As Miller, his director Harry Binelli (Chico) and his business manager Faker Englund (Harpo) try to figure out new methods of raising money, in walks Leo Davis Frank Albertson, the wide-eyed playwright, who is unaware that his masterpiece is in danger of closing before it even opens. He soon figures out what's what after Harry and Faker hock his typewriter for eating money. When hotel inspector Wagner Donald MacBride threatens to throw Miller and his entourage out bag and baggage, the producer and his cronies fake a measles epidemic so that Wagner will be forced to allow them to stay. Salvation seems at hand when Jenkins Philip Wood, a potential backer, arrives with a blank check in hand. But after sampling a bit of the lunacy that has surrounded the play since its inception, Jenkins dashes off, refusing to finance such a chancy property. Miller manages to mollify Wagner by pretending that Jenkins has invested money in the show, but when this scheme falls through, our hero resorts to really drastic measures by pretending that Davis and Faker have both committed suicide because of Wagner's persecution. Weaving in and out of the proceedings are nominal heroines Lucille Ball and Ann Miller, as well as Philip Loeb (who played Faker in the original Broadway production), brilliantly cast as a mild-mannered bill collector. Room Service is hardly typical Marx Bros. fare, despite the efforts by screenwriter Morris Ryskind to inject characteristic verbal gags and visual bits into the action; the film works better as a situation comedy than as a Marx vehicle (Groucho's only comment on the subject was that his brother Zeppo should have arranged a larger salary). In 1943, RKO Radio remade Room Service as a musical titled Step Lively, which was actually something of an improvement on the original. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, (more)
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
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
- Starring:
- Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore, (more)
- 1940
In this musical, the second entry in a five-film series, a thrift shop owner sells his business and buys a small time radio station. He begins looking for sponsors. He finds one with a department store owner who will only lend him the money if he will allow his daughter, an aspiring tap-dancer and singer, to perform on the air. This is unfortunate as she is tone-deaf. To compensate, the owner hires a real singer to dub the daughter's voice. The singer and the owner's nephew fall in love and mayhem ensues. Songs include: the Oscar nominated "Who Am I?," "Swing Low Sweet Rhythm," "In The Cool of the Evening," "Make Yourself at Home," "The Swap Shop Song," "The Trading Post," "Sally," "Ramona," "Sweet Sue," "Dinah," "Margie," and "Mary Lou." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kenny Baker, Frances Langford, (more)
- 1940
Now immortalized as the film on which Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz met, Too Many Girls is a faithful adaptation of the Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart-George Abbott Broadway musical hit. The light-as-a-feather plotline finds four football players hired to escort dizzy heiress Connie Casey (Lucille Ball) when she goes off to attend a southwestern college. The girls far outnumber the boys on campus, which is sheer ambrosia for the four "protectors": Clint Kelly (Richard Carlson), Jojo Jordan (Eddie Bracken), Cuban exchange student Manuelito (Desi Arnaz) and Al Terwilliger (Hal LeRoy). The order of billing should indicate who ends up romancing the icy Connie, but the other boys don't go home empty-handed either, not with such cuties as Pepe (Ann Miller) and Eileen (Frances Langford) around. As was customary in collegiate musicals of the era, the whole thing ends with the Big Football Game, with the four heroes emerging triumphant. It doesn't take a microscope to spot a young Van Johnson among the chorus boys, especially since he shows up on-screen even before the opening credits! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lucille Ball, Ann Miller, (more)
Beautifully restored to its original theatrical length of 84 minutes by the Gene Autry Foundation, Melody Ranch is a bright, tuneful, and at times quite action-packed piece of B-Western extravaganza, Republic style. The victim of both a drop in ratings and a tardy leading lady, radio star Gene Autry is only too happy to oblige when old friend Pop Laramie (George "Gabby" Hayes) proposes that he return to his hometown of Torpedo as honorary sheriff during the upcoming Frontier Day celebration. With leading lady Julie Shelton (Ann Miller), city slicker announcer Cornelius Courtney (Jimmy Durante), and bemused sponsor Tommy Summerville (Jerome Cowan) in tow, Gene takes Torpedo by storm. That is, everyone except the Wildhack brothers (Barton MacLane, Joe Sawyer, and Horace MacMahon), old enemies who take umbrage to Gene's lampooning them on his daily broadcast. Julie, meanwhile, falls in love with the Wild and Woolly West in general and Gene in particular, and when the crooner proposes to leave show business and run for the office of sheriff for real, she decides to stay as well. The Wildhack brothers, meanwhile, attempt to sabotage the election, but Gene and his pals persevere against the odds. Produced at a cost of 500,000 dollars, Melody Ranch was the first Autry Western to be booked into first-run theaters, which had been Republic Pictures' goal all along. Autry, Ann Miller, Jimmy Durante, Mary Lee, and Bob Wills and His Playboys perform "Melody Ranch," "We Never Dream the Same Dream Twice," "Call of the Canyon," My Gal Sal," "Torpedo Joe," What Cowboys Are Made Of," and "Rodeo Rose," all by Jule Styne and Eddie Cherkose, and a good time is had by all. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gene Autry, Jimmy Durante, (more)
- 1941
Taking a vacation from her "Blondie" movies, Penny Singleton plays an Eastern girl who follows Horace Greeley's advice and heads westward. She arrives in a flea-bitten frontier town where Marshal Glenn Ford is trying to rid the community of the vicious Pecos Pete. Singleton vies with saloon gal Ann Miller over Glenn Ford's affections, and along the way both actresses perform a few musical numbers. In the end, Singleton helps Ford lasso the villain. Go West, Young Lady takes great pains to avoid originality, especially in a knock-down, drag-out fight scene between Penny Singleton and Ann Miller which was clearly inspired by the Marlene Dietrich-Una Merkel battle in Destry Rides Again (39). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Penny Singleton, Glenn Ford, (more)
- 1941
A strong lineup of guest stars enhances the enjoyment of the Columbia B-plus musical Time Out for Rhythm. The somewhat futuristic storyline finds producers Dan Collins (Rudy Vallee), Mike Armstrong (Richard Lane) and Off-Beat Davis (Allen Jenkins) lining up talent for a series of television specials. Trouble brews when Collins selects singers Kitty Brown (Ann Miller) and Joan Merrill (playing herself) to star in his upcoming show, while Armstrong hires Frances Lewis (Rosemary Lane) for the same purpose. The plot is happily forgotten when the specialty acts begin parading before the camera. The highlights include a Busby Berkeley-ish musical production number featuring Glen Gray and His Casa Loma Orchestra, and the Three Stooges' classic "Maharaja" routine ("Ma Ha? Ah Ha!") ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Miller, Rudy Vallee, (more)
- 1942
In this musical comedy set during WW II, a circus aerialist desires to be closer to her lover, a soldier. When she finds herself chased by gangsters, the woman dresses up as a man and joins the military. Mayhem ensues as she tries to undergo training and keep her sex a secret. The secret is revealed at the end, when the camp puts on a show and the gangsters suddenly appear. Luckily the police arrive at the same time and justice prevails. Songs include: "In the Army," "Need I Speak," "Jitterbug's Lullaby," "Spangles on My Tights," "Wacky for Khaki" (Frank Loesser, Harold Spina), "Swing in Line" (Loesser, Joseph J. Lilley), "Love in Bloom" (Ralph Rainger, Leo Robin), and "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" (Dorothy Fields, Jimmy McHugh). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Judy Canova, Allan Jones, (more)
- 1942
Very much a product of its times, Priorities on Parade was disliked by everyone but the public when it was first released in 1942. The story takes place in a wartime aircraft plant, where a group of entertainers secure jobs putting on shows for the workers during lunch and dinner breaks. The troupe's duties also include a bit of spot-welding and assembly-line work as well, leading to a variety of mildly comic complications. Naturally, all plot roads lead to a big, morale-boosting musical finale, highlighted by choreographer Jack Donahue's precision-dance routines, wherein the entertainers elect to turn down a Broadway show in favor of defense-plant work (this is a fantasy, isn't it?) The four protagonists are played by zany Jerry Colonna, handsome Johnnie Johnston, and gorgeous Ann Miller (in a blonde wig) and Betty Rhodes, while Vera Vague supplies her usual dizziness as a Rosie-the-Rivetter type. The Frank Loesser-Jules Styne-Herb Magidson score includes the hit tune "You're in Love With Somebody Else But I'm in Love With You". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Miller, Johnny Johnston, (more)
- 1943
Beverly Ross (nn Miller) is a would-be radio personality, but the closest she gets to being on the air is running the switchboard at a local station. Worse yet, the blustery station owner Mr. Kennedy (Tim Ryan) wants no part of programming "jive" (i.e., swing music) that she loves, preferring the classics. But she manages to con Vernon Lewis (Franlin Pangborn), the host of the station's early morning classical show, into believing that he needs a vacation and slips into his time-slot at 5 am, where she starts running records by Bob Crosby's band, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Frank Sinatra in place of Beethoven and Mendelssohn. The soldiers at the local army base pick up on the new show, and two of them, wealthy candy company magnate Barry Lang (William Wright) and his former chauffeur Andy Adams (Dick Purcell, decide they want to meet this new disc jockey, and as luck would have it her brother (Larry Parks) is in their platoon and invites them to his home. But the two men decide to switch identities, Barry denying his wealth and pretending to be Andy, and Andy presenting himself as the candy heir Barry -- and as if matters aren't complicated enough for Beverly, coping with their antics, she has to fight to keep her radio show. But when the soldiers listening to her start writing in by the thousands, and Barry suggests she call her 5am show "Reveille," she takes it one step further and "Reveille With Beverly," and becomes a smash. But can she sort out the intertwining romantic overtures of the two men in her life? ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Miller, William Wright, (more)
- 1943
Ann Miller goes through her usual twinkle-toed paces in the quickie Columbia musical What's Buzzin', Cousin? The pencil-thin plotline involves attorney Jimmie Ross (John Hubbard), who moonlights as a singer with the Freddie Martin Orchestra. Using his legal and showbiz know-how, Jimmie revitalizes a broken-down hotel owned by Ann Crawford (Ann Miller) and her family. Musical highlights include Freddie Martin's swing rendition of Liszt's second Hungarian Rhapsody, and Ann Miller's terpsichorial interpretation of the bond-rally standard "18.75." Were it not for the presence of Miller and Martin, What's Buzzin' Cousin? would be utterly forgettable. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Miller, John Hubbard, (more)
- 1944
Within its brisk 78 minutes, Jam Session manages to accommodate the singing, dancing and acting talents of Ann Miller, a romantic main plot, a comic subplot-and no fewer than six big-name orchestras. The story is the old saw about a small-town girl named Terry Baxter (Miller), who wins a trip to Hollywood. Unable to impress any of the tinseltown bigwigs, Terry is about to pack it in and head home until she meets go-getting screenwriter George Carter Haven (Jess Barker). Several mishaps and setbacks later, Terry not only lands a studio contract, but Haven as well. In addition to the terpsichorean talents of Ann Miller, the film spotlights such major big-band names as Charlie Barnet (playing "Cherokee," of course!), Louis Armstrong, Alvino Ray, Jan Garber, Glen Gray and Teddy Powell, along with vocalists Nan Wynn and the Pied Pipers. A tantalizingly brief clip of Jam Session was featured (wildly out of context!) in the 1968 Monkees film vehicle Head. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Miller, Jess Barker, (more)
- 1944
Musical star Ann Miller plays a Broadway leading lady coaxed into reteaming with Larry Parks, her former producer. Parks is now a lowly Army G.I., anxious to produce a show for the troops--with a 200 dollar budget! This being a wartime musical, Ann Miller succumbs to Patriotism and stars in Parks' threadbare production. This being a Hollywood film, the "inexpensive" revue cost several times as much as any real-life show of this nature. Hey Rookie proved a boon to the Columbia publicity department when Ann Miller set a tap-dance record of 550 taps per minute in her climactic musical number. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Miller, Larry Parks, (more)
- 1944
In his final starring film, bandleader Kay Kyser is cast as bandleader Kay Kyser. Picking up where Kyser's previous RKO Radio film Around the World left off, Columbia's Carolina Blues finds Kay and his band returning to America after a worldwide USO tour. Phineas J. Carver (Victor Moore), the woebegone "black sheep"scion of a powerful family of industrialists, poses as one of his wealthier relatives to persuade Kyser to perform at a defense plant. When Kyser's regular vocalist Georgia Carroll quits the band to get married, Carver's talented daughter Julie (Ann Miller) steps in as replacement. Naturally, Julie is a hit, and equally naturally, she lands Kyser as a husband. Outside of the expected musical numbers (which, in addtion to Kyser's aggregation, feature such artists as The Step Brothers and the Nicholas Brothers) Carolina Blues is highlighted by the bravura performance of Victor Moore, who essays five roles in all. Ironically, singer Georgia Carroll did retire from show business in real life to get married-to Kay Kyser! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Miller, Victor Moore, (more)
- 1945
Eve Knew Her Apples is an pinchpenny musical reworking of Frank Capra's Oscar-winning It Happened One Night. Musical star Ann Miller takes over the Claudette Colbert role; this time she's not a runaway heiress but a runaway radio star, escaping her stuffy fiance rather than her autocratic father. William Wright assumes the Clark Gable part as the man who helps the girl on her flight for his own mercenary interests, but who eventually falls in love with her. Clocking in at 64 minutes rather than It Happened One Night's 105, Eve Knew Her Apples is more successful as a showcase for the terpsichorean talents of Ann Miller than as a romantic comedy. Columbia Pictures would attempt to musicalize It Happened One Night again with 1956's You Can't Run Away From It, filmed with ten times the budget but only half the entertainment value of Eve Knew Her Apples. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Miller, William Wright, (more)
- 1945
New chorus member Eadie Allen (Ann Miller) is the only thing that's good or lively or fresh in a run-down burlesque revue run by Tommy Farley (William Wright). He gives her a featured number and soon she's the star of the show, and he'd like to get to know her better because, conniver though he is, he's also genuinely falling in love with her, but she won't let him know anything about herself. And with good reason -- Eadie is a socially prominent debutante, a member of an old-money family of blue-noses; she wants to be an actress (something they wouldn't hear of) and Farley was the only producer willing to hire her. She's appalled by burlesque, and the physical comedy she's forced to perform, but the audience loves her and she gets to prove she can do a good song, and is also conned by Farley -- appealing to her patriotism and her good nature -- to stay with it. And she becomes a star, which is wonderful until the two sides of her life start to collide at the edges. Her college roommate Pepper (Miss Jeff Donnell) is attracted to the eccentric Professor Diogenes Dingle (Joe Besser), who is no professor but a burlesque comic himself impersonating a teacher; and one of Eadie's legitimate teachers twice spots her performing on stage and otherwise identified in public. The complications pile up until it looks as though Eadie will lose her chance at real love and also her chance to graduate from college. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Miller, Joe Besser, (more)
- 1946
This A-minus musical stars Evelyn Keyes in the uncharacteristically comic role of Vicki Dean, the divorce-bound wife of theatrical impresario Steve Farraugh (Keenan Wynn). While mounting a big musical spectacular in Brazil, Farraugh simultaneously campaigns to win back his wife. The couple encounters romantic interference from tap-dancer Linda Lorens (Ann Miller) and Latin American singing heartthrob Tito Guizar (as himself). Nothing new here, but the cast puts over the material with such enthusiasm that the film seems better than it is. The highlight is Ann Miller's energetic specialty number "Man is Brother to a Mule" (it makes sense in context!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Evelyn Keyes, Keenan Wynn, (more)
Fred Astaire had announced his retirement before the cameras began to roll on Easter Parade, but he decided to accept the film's leading role when its original star Gene Kelly became incapacitated. The thinnish plot, which finds Astaire trying to turn chorus girl Judy Garland into a star in order to show up his former partner Ann Miller, is hardly what keeps the audience's eyes riveted to the screen. All that truly matters are the 17 musical numbers, all written by Irving Berlin (ten were standards, while seven were new to this film). Among the many highlights are Astaire's slow-motion version of "Steppin' Out," the Astaire/Garland duet "We're a Couple of Swells," the opening rendition of "Happy Easter," and the closing performance of the title number. So successful was Easter Parade that plans were immediately drawn to reteam Fred Astaire and Judy Garland in The Barkeleys of Broadway; this time, however, it was Garland who withdrew, to be replaced by Astaire's most famous vis-à-vis, Ginger Rogers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, (more)
