Helen Morgan Movies
The daughter of a rural Illinois farmer and schoolteacher, Helen Morgan moved to Chicago at an early age, where she was a cracker-packager at Nabisco, a manicurist, and a ribbon counter clerk. After taking singing lessons, she became a Chicago cabaret singer at age 18. Two years later, she was appearing in Broadway's Ziegfeld Follies, and studying music at the Metropolitan Opera in her off-hours; she also toured extensively in vaudeville. Many influential producers felt that Morgan was not "acceptable" for the Big Time: She had a deep, throaty voice, a sad-eyed expression, and a large bosom, all of which were not fashionable in the roaring '20s. But her soulful renditions of "torch songs" were much beloved by Chicago's gangster contingent, who repeatedly bankrolled Morgan's many efforts to open her own nightclub -- efforts which usually came acropper at the hands of the Prohibition agents. Her official "mainstream" stardom began with the 1925 edition of George White's Scandals. Two years later, she created the role of the tragic Julie in Show Boat, introducing such song hits as "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" and "Bill." She was equally successful in the 1929 Kern-Hammerstein production Sweet Adeline. Though at a career high point in 1930, personal problems caused her to lose several potential jobs, but in 1936 she staged a brief comeback in the film version of Show Boat. On the verge of launching a singing engagement at Chicago's Loop Theater, Helen Morgan died at the age of 41. Ann Blyth starred as Helen in the 1957 biopic The Helen Morgan Story. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1936
This second film version of the Edna Ferber/Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein II musical Show Boat is considered by many film buffs to be the best of the three. Covering nearly four decades (was there ever an Edna Ferber novel that didn't?), the film stars Irene Dunne as Magnolia Hawks, a role she'd previously played on stage, though not in the Broadway version. The daughter of showboat impresario Captain Andy (Charles Winninger, who was in the Broadway original), Magnolia is swept off her feet by dashing gambler Gaylord Ravenal (Allan Jones). Yearning to appear on the showboat stage, Magnolia gets her chance when Captain Andy's leading lady, the tragic Julie (Helen Morgan, likewise a holdover from Broadway), is ordered not to perform by a small-town sheriff because she is Mulatto. Julie's husband Steve (Donald Cook) loyally walks out with his wife, thereby leaving the leading-man position open--but not for long, since Gaylord Ravenal agrees to take over for Steve, the better to stay close to Magnolia. Despite the disapproval of Magnolia's mother Parthy Hawks (Helen Westley), Magnolia and Ravenal are married. Later on, the couple has a baby girl named Kim. At first, the young family is blissfully happy, but as Ravenal's gambling debts begin to mount, things turn sour. Unable to support Magnolia and Kim, Ravenal walks out on them both. Desperately, Magnolia tries to get a job as a singer in Chicago. She auditions at a night spot where, fortuitously, Julie is the featured attraction. Hoping to give Magnolia a break, Julie gets drunk, forcing the manager to hire Magnolia as a replacement. During her New Years' Eve debut, Magnolia "chokes up" in front of the raucous audience--and then, who should emerge from the crowd but lovable Captain Andy, who gives Magnolia the encouragement she needs. Magnolia goes on to become a famous musical comedy star, as does her grown-up daughter Kim (played as an adult by Sunnie O'Dea). On the eve of Magnolia's retirement from the theater, she is reunited with her now-contrite husband Gaylord Ravenal. While the second half of Show Boat departs radically from both the novel (in which Ravenal never returns ) and the Broadway show, the film manages to capture the spirit of its literary and theatrical ancestors. Of the original score, "Cotton Blossom," "Ol' Man River," "Where's the Mate for Me?" "Make Believe," "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man," You are Love" and "Bill" are retained, while most of the other songs are heard as background accompaniment. Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II penned three new tunes for the film version: "Ah Still Suits Me," "Gallavantin' Around" and "I Have the Room Above." As in all stage and screen versions of Show Boat, the Charles K. Harris standard "After the Ball" is heard in the New Year sequence. In addition to the aforementioned Dunne, Jones, Winninger, Westley, Morgan, and O'Dea, the Show Boat cast includes the magnificent Paul Robeson as Joe (his rendition of "Ol' Man River" can still induce goosebumps), Hattie McDaniel as Queenie and Sammy White and Queenie Smith as the engagingly second-rate vaudeville team of Frank and Ellie Schultz. Though James Whale of Frankenstein fame seems an odd choice for director, he brings a vibrant theatricality to the proceedings that is lacking in other versions. Show Boat literally saved the financially strapped Universal Pictures from receivership--but not soon enough to prevent the ousters of Carl Laemmle Sr. and Jr. in favor of a new administration. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Irene Dunne, Allan Jones, (more)
- 1936
This low-budget musical drama is based on the famous song and tells the story of Frankie, a cat-house singer (famed singer Helen Morgan), and the naive country boy Johnny who comes to St. Louis to seek his fortune. They fall in love and marry. Unfortunately, the country boy learns fast and soon begins fooling around with the sexy Nellie Bly. It is a tragic mistake, for when Frankie tires of his philandering she opts to stop Johnny with a bullet. Before she can do the deed though, another beats her to it. The fact that this picture was shelved for two years explains the presence of Lilyan Tashman, who died in the interim. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Helen Morgan, Chester Morris, (more)
- 1935
Rudy Vallee made his third feature-film starring appearance in the breezy Warner Bros. musical Sweet Music. Vallee is appropriately cast as singer-bandleader Skip Houston, who falls in love with aspiring dancer Bonnie Haydon (Ann Dvorak). Though Bonnie feels the same way about Skip, the two leads indulge in a movie-long quarrel before the long-awaiting final clinch. This is one musical comedy where there's definitely more comedy than music, what with a chucklesome supporting cast including Ned Sparks, Allen Jenkins, Alice White and veteran vaudevillians Joseph Cawthorn and Al Shean (of "Gallegher and Shean" fame). Despite such heady competition, the film is stolen by the hilarious Frank and Milt Britton Band, a zany precursor to the Spike Jones aggregation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rudy Vallee, Ann Dvorak, (more)
- 1935
Broadway legend Al Jolson and his second wife Ruby Keeler costarred in this thin backstage musical. In keeping with Jolson's earlier starring films, the plotline is melodramatic to the point of risibility. Jolson plays an irresponsible performer whose unprofessional antics incur the wrath of Actor's Equity. Suspended from the stage, Jolson spends all his money on gambling, but is "cured" after his wife (Ruby) is wounded when Jolson shoots it out with a rival. Musical highlights include "A Latin From Manhattan", "A Quarter to Nine" (Jolie's at his best here) and the title number. The script of Go Into Your Dance is predictably full of references to the offstage Jolson/Keeler relationship; reportedly, Al's on-set adlibs became more insulting and abusive as the marriage deteriorated. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Al Jolson, Ruby Keeler, (more)
- 1934
Paramount's You Belong to Me is a showcase for juvenile performer David Jack Holt, youngest son of action star Jack Holt. The boy is cast as Jimmy Faxon, the son of recently widowed vaudeville performer Florette Faxon (Helen Mack). When Florette marries acrobat Hap Stanley (Arthur Pierson), Jimmy takes an instant dislike to his new stepfather, preferring the company of happy-go-lucky vaudeville comic Bud Hannigan (Lee Tracy). Though Bud tries to encourage Jimmy to give Hap a chance, it turns out that the kid's instincts are correct: Hap is a philandering heel, who walks out on Florette at the earliest opportunity. The upshot of all this is that poor Jimmy is left an orphan, with old reliable Bud providing the boy with a shoulder to cry on at the fadeout. Helen Morgan adds to the overall gloominess with one of her patented torch songs. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Tracy, Helen Mack, (more)
Movie newcomer Ketti Gallian plays Marie Gallante, who is abducted by a most ungallant drunken sea captain. He leaves her stranded in Yucatan, where she gets a job as a cafe singer in hopes of paying her way to the Panama Canal zone. While en route, she meets the two-fisted Crawbett (Spencer Tracy), who unlike most of the other men she's encountered believes the kidnapping story. Crawbett, a secret agent, comes to Marie's rescue when she gets inadvertently mixed up in a plot to sabotage the Canal. His job done, Crawbett decides to stick around in Panama for a while when he falls in love with Marie. Based on a novel by Jacques Devel, Marie Gallante was intended to make a star out of Ketti Gallian, but it was the reliable Spencer Tracy who attracted the crowds and earned the critical plaudits. Elements of the film's plotline would later resurface in the 1940 programmer Charlie Chan in Panama. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Spencer Tracy, Ketti Gallian, (more)
- 1930
Jimmy Durante made his movie debut in Roadhouse Nights, a strange amalgam of musical comedy and gangster melodrama. In truth, Durante is a special added attraction, together with his nightclub partners Lou Clayton and Eddie Jackson. The film's nominal star is Helen Morgan, a nitery chanteuse whose gangster bosses head a murderous bootleg operation. Charlie Ruggles portrays an ineveterate drinker who frequents Morgan's club; actually, Ruggles is a news reporter whose phony drunkenness is a cover for his investigation of the bootleg ring. Filmed at Paramount's East Coast studios in Astoria, Long Island, Roadhouse Nights is typically brash and brassy Prohibition-era entertainment, with a reasonably "straight" performance from comic actor Ruggles and a few hauntingly rendered songs from Helen Morgan. The most succinct review for this film came from a "non-professional:" When asked what he thought of Jimmy Durante's first talking picture, his father Bartolomeo grumbled "Talk, talk, talk." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Helen Morgan, Charlie Ruggles, (more)
Broadway impresario Florenz Ziegfeld brought his legendary "Follies" to the silver screen in Glorifying the American Girl. The barely visible plotline concerns a virginal young miss (Mary Eaton) who aspires to greatness as a Follies girl. With stars in her eyes, she heads to New York, leaving her hometown boyfriend to fend for himself. Upon arriving in the Big Apple, our heroine links up with a two-bit dancer who offers to make her a star -- if only she'll let him make her, period. The greater part of the film is given over to a re-creation of a "typical" Follies production, replete with musical solos by Rudy Vallee and Helen Morgan and a sidesplitting comedy sketch with Eddie Cantor and Louis Sorin as a pair of kvetching Jewish tailors ("Vat's der idea uff calling me a damn fool in front uff der customers?" "So, it's a secret?"). From time to time, the camera cuts away to the many celebrities enjoying the show, including journalist Ring Lardner, nightclub doyenne Texas Guinan, New York mayor Jimmy Walker, Paramount Pictures head man Adolph Zukor, and Flo Ziegfeld himself, accompanied by his then-wife, Billie Burke. And yes, that's Johnny Weissmuller on-stage as a provocatively undraped "Nature Boy." As a bonus, the musical score was the handiwork of Irving Berlin. Originally filmed in Technicolor, Glorifying the American Girl is presently available only in black-and-white. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary Eaton, Edward Crandall, (more)
Stage director Rouben Mamoulian jolted the (at the time) moribund sound-film industry with innovative sound experiments and revolutionary camera techniques with his electrifying feature-film debut Applause. In this backstage musical tragedy, Kitty Darling (Helen Morgan), a big-time burlesque star, sends her young daughter to a convent to get her away from the sleazy burlesque environment. Years later, Kitty has hit the skids, her best days behind her. Now an alcoholic living in the past, she has taken up with a low-life burlesque comic by the name of Hitch (Fuller Mellish Jr.). But then her now-grown daughter, April (Joan Peers) returns. Kitty, embarrassed by her condition, marries Hitch so that April won't be ashamed of her. Nevertheless, when April arrives, she is disgusted with her mother and her decrepit life. Shocked and lonely, April roams the city streets and meets an equally lonely young man --Tony (Henry Wadsworth). They fall in love and agree to marry. When April goes to tell her mother about their final plans for the wedding, she overhears Hitch belittling Kitty, calling her a has-been. Infuriated, April calls off the wedding, joining the chorus line of a burlesque show, and Kitty, thinking that April is going to be married, is deeply despaired. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Helen Morgan, Joan Peers, (more)
- 1929
Show Boat was a part-silent, part-talkie adaptation of the book by Edna Ferber. The film traces the life of Magnolia Hawkes (Laura La Plante), daughter of Captain Andy of the Cotton Blossom, a 19th century show boat. Magnolia's head is turned by handsome gambler Gaylord Ravenal (Joseph Schildkraut), who woos and weds her. He turns out to be a poor husband and provider, eventually deserting Magnolia and her daughter. But Magnolia, harking upon her performing experiences while on her father's show boat, becomes a successful stage star and raises her daughter all by herself. Though filmed just two years after the Broadway debut of the Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein Jr. musical Show Boat, this film is more closely based on the source novel than the stage play. While the immortal "Ol' Man River" was retained, the rest of the Broadway version's songs were jettisoned in favor of several forgettable tunes written by entrepreneur Billy Rose, who convinced the movie's producers that the public had grown tired of hearing the Kern-Hammerstein score! Show Boat would be remade twice, with most of the original songs intact and without Rose's "improvements," in 1936 and 1951. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laura La Plante, Joseph Schildkraut, (more)
