Franklin Pangborn

Another delightful entry in the Bell Science Series, The Unchained Goddess represents a felicitious collaboration between legendary Hollywood director Frank Capra and animation geniuses Shamus Culhane and William T. Hurtz. Appearing in live action, Dr. Research (Frank Baxter) and The Fiction Writer (Richard Carlson) set about to explain how weather is created, and how scientists have endeavored to predict and control it. They are aided by several animated character, foremost among them the beautiful but somewhat haughty Meteora, the Goddess of Weather (whose long gown rather resembles the funnel cloud of a tornado) and her subjects: Winds, Clouds and Rain. A copacetic blend of entertainment and education, The Unchained Goddess became standard fare on the high-school classroom circuit after its original 1958 telecast, and is still available on home video. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Edward Chodorov's stage farce Oh, Men! Oh, Women! is somewhat unnecessarily overburdened by star names in this 1957 film version. Dan Dailey plays psychiatrist Arthur Turner, who is somewhat put out when he discovers that one of his patients is the ex-boyfriend of his supposedly "normal" fiancée, Myra Hagerman (Barbara Rush). Having always prided himself on keeping his professional and personal life separated, Dr. Turner finds that he's just as mixed up as any of his patients in matters of the heart. Nominally, David Niven and Barbara Rush are the stars, but top billing is bestowed upon Dan Dailey and Ginger Rogers as bickering married couple Arthur and Mildred Turner, two secondary characters in the original play. Director Nunnally Johnson's screenplay also fleshes out the roles played by Dailey and Rogers with a lengthy, amusing "fantasy" sequence wherein Ginger offers a highly fanciful version of her marital life. In his motion picture debut, Tony Randall is hilarious as Cobbler, Myra Hagerman's neurosis-ridden former beau. Watch for Franklin Pangborn and Roy Glenn Sr. in unbilled cameo roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

My Dream Is Yours is a Technicolor remake of the jaunty 1934 Warner Bros. musical Twenty Million Sweethearts. But there's a significant difference here: whereas in the earlier film singing-waiter Dick Powell was turned into a crooning idol, in the remake it is Doris Day who is catapulted to stardom. Jack Carson (who was reportedly romantically involved with Day during filming) is the hot-shot promoter who makes a celebrity out of Day and lives to regret it, as does she, before the happy ending. The film's highlight is an animated dream sequence courtesy of Warners' cartoon division, directed by Friz Freleng and featuring cameos by Bugs Bunny and Tweety. Edgar Kennedy makes his final screen appearance in the role of Day's flustered uncle. The songs in My Dream Is Yours includes the big hit from Twenty Million Sweethearts, "I'll String Along With You." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Absent from films since 1938 (except as producer of a brace of RKO Radio features), silent-screen comedy favorite Harold Lloyd returned before the cameras in The Sin of Harold Diddlebock. The project began as a labor of love between Lloyd and the brilliant, innovative producer/writer/director Preston Sturges. Though these two comedy geniuses eventually had a stylistic falling out, resulting in an uneven, spasmodically dreary film, on the whole Harold Diddlebock is well worth having. Sturges cleverly opens the picture with the final reel of Lloyd's silent classic The Freshman(1925), in which the drudge of the college football team makes good and scores the winning touchdown. The story proper begins in the locker room, where football hero Harold Diddlebock (Lloyd, looking three decades younger than his 53 years) is impulsively offered a job by banker J.E. Wagglebury (Raymond Walburn). Taking his place at his new desk and festooning his walls with inspirational homilies, Harold starts to work, supremely confident that he's poised on the brink of bigger things. Twenty-three years pass: In 1946, a weary, stoop-shouldered Harold is still at the same desk at the same job, his dreams of success but a dim memory. Summarily fired by the pompous Wagglebury ("You have not only ceased to go forward, you have gone backward"), Harold collects his final paycheck, cleans out his desk, and bids farewell to office girl Miss Otis (Frances Ramsden), all of whose older sisters had previously been Harold's sweethearts. Wandering aimlessly on the street with his severance pay in hand, Harold is spotted by a dessicated street hustler named Wormy (Jimmy Conlin), who inveigles the newly fired clerk to join him at a nearby bar. Informed that Harold has never taken a drink in his life, the bartender (Edgar Kennedy) lights up and declares, "Sir, you rouse the artist in me!" With great ceremonial flourish, the bartender concocts a potent beverage called the Diddlebock. Harold takes one sip of the brew, lets out a yell, and immediately loses all the inhibitions that have kept him from advancing himself in the past two decades. With Wormy in tow, Harold goes on a wild spending and carousing spree, totally losing track of an entire day-and-a-half.

At the end of his revelry, the hung-over Harold is awakened by his sister (Margaret Hamilton), who informs him that he's bought a garish new wardrobe, a ten-gallon hat, and goodness knows what else. He soon finds out what else when he ventures into the street and is informed that he's bought a horse-drawn cab (with driver!) -- and a circus, complete with hungry lions. Quickly formulating a plan to get rid of the circus at a substantial profit, Harold decides to elicit bids from the town's various bankers, bringing Jackie the Lion along with him so that the bank guards won't stop him at the door. All of this leads to a wild recreation of Lloyd's skyscraper-teetering gags from his silent days, a noisy episode at the local jail, and a romantic tête-à-tête with Miss Otis, who reveals at the very end how Harold really spent his "missing" Wednesday! Though it tested well upon its first release, Sin of Harold Diddlebock was abruptly withdrawn from circulation by its co-producer Howard R. Hughes, who spent four years reediting and sometimes reshooting the film before finally releasing it through RKO as Mad Wednesday. Both this version and the original Sin of Harold Diddlebock still exist; while the earlier version is undeniably richer in comic invention and characterization, the shortened Mad Wednesday works better in front of an audience. Neither version completely fulfills the potential of its premise, however. Though not to be missed, this final Harold Lloyd vehicle pales in comparison with his vintage silent comedies. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this musical comedy, Louise Ginglebusher (Deanna Durbin) is a girl from a small town who comes top New York City with dreams of making it in show business. She gets her foot in the door in a roundabout way when she gets a job as an usherette at a prestigious movie palace run by tycoon J. Conrad Nelson (Adolphe Menjou). It soon becomes obvious that Nelson has eyes for his new hire, while Louise is more interested George Prescott (Tom Drake), a young lawyer looking to establish himself. Hoping to discourage Nelson while helping Prescott at the same time, Louise fibs and tells Nelson that Prescott is her husband, and could use a job within his organization. However, Louise's white lie turns out to have unexpected repercussions. Like any Deanna Durbin vehicle, I'll Be Yours features the star singing several tunes, including "Sari Waltz and "Granada"; two years after making this film, she would retire from the screen. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

If Paramount could rake in the bucks by teaming singer Bing Crosby and comedian Bob Hope in a series of Road pictures, then Warner Bros. could do the same. Lacking a Crosby or Hope, Warners paired Dennis Morgan and Jack Carson (who like Crosby and Hope were good buddies off-screen) and came up with the Two Guys series--which lasted two pictures. Two Guys From Milwaukee cast Carson as a wisecracking cabdriver and Morgan as a likable Balkan prince. Anxious to learn the "American way," Morgan joins Carson for a night on the town. Along the way, the boys fall in love with Joan Leslie and Janis Paige (Warners wasn't satisfied with just one Dorothy Lamour counterpart); and if you keep your eyes open, you'll see Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in a closing-scene cameo. Two Guys From Milwaukee had its premiere showing in the "beer city" of the title--which happened to be the childhood home of both Dennis Morgan and Jack Carson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bearing little relation to the hit Broadway play on which it was based, See My Lawyer was the last and least of Olsen and Johnson's starring vehicles for Universal. The zany Hellzapoppin stars play a couple of nightclub entertainers who want to break their contract with proprietor R. J. Wagenhorn (Franklin Pangborn), but business is so good that Wagenhorn refuses. As a means to force Wagenhorn to let them out, and to simultaneously drum up business for a trio of struggling lawyers (Noah Beery Jr., Alan Curtis and Richard Benedict), O & J go on a comic rampage, insulting and humiliating nightclub customers left and right. As a result, Wagenhorn is slapped with 39 lawsuits, which he gleefully signs over to Olsen and Johnson as part of his contract-breaking deal. The boys manage to settle 38 of the lawsuits with a minimum of muss and fuss, but the last claimant, Otis Fillmore (Edward S. Brophy), intends to take the comedians for every penny they have. After a riotous courtroom trial, the judge moves the defendants, plaintiffs and jurors to the nightclub itself, vowing to render his decision as soon as he's seen the nightly floor show. This silly plot device is merely an excuse to showcase an unending stream of specialty acts, including the King Cole Trio (dressed as cooks!) Outside of a few good gags (Olsen & Johnson driving their car into a hotel lobby, Otis Fillmore swaying the jury by having his gray-haired mother provide testimony while accompanied by a violinist), See My Lawyer is a disappointment, affording Olsen & Johnson precious little screen time to perform their own special brand of comic lunacy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hollywood and Vine is set in a drugstore located at the intersection of the title. James Ellison plays a successful screenwriter who likes to do his research first-hand. Assigned to write a film about Hollywood hopefuls, Ellison gets a job as a drugstore soda jerk. Wanda McKay plays Daisy, a small-town girl with dreams of stardom who hangs out at the soda counter in hopes of being discovered. Despite its tiny budget and brief running time, Hollywood and Vine is jam-packed with prominent movie character people, including Franklin Pangborn, Ralph Morgan, Leon Belasco, Robert Grieg, and sometimes "Bowery Boy" Billy Benedict. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this musical, a humble cigarette girl dreams of auditioning for the handsome bandleader at the nightclub. Her many attempts keep failing until her uncle appears. To help her, he impersonates a colonel and uses his "influence" to get her singing with the band. Eventually their ruse is revealed, but by then the bandleader has fallen in love with her. Songs include: "Tell It to a Star" (Shirley Botwin), "Love Me or Leave Me" (Gus Kahn, Walter Donaldson), "You're So Good to Me" (Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne), "A Batucada Corazon" (Ary Barroso). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A druggist's pretty assistance ignores the call of the bright lights and audience that runs in the veins of her show biz family. Eventually though, the family succeeds in getting the talented lass to perform the music of a struggling young composer. His music is great and she enthusiastically helps him to launch his new show. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Reckless Age is a by-the-numbers Universal musical, elevated by the presence of perky songstress Gloria Jean. The star plays Linda Wadsworth, the granddaughter of fabulously wealthy department-store magnate J. H. Wadsworth (Henry Stephenson). Rebelling against Wadsworth's close-minded tyranny, Linda assumes an alias and takes a job at one of his stores. She also moves into a boarding house for Wadsworth employees, overseen by stern-but-kindly Mrs. Connors (Jane Darwell). Oddly, there is no romantic subplot to speak of; like Deanna Durbin before her, Gloria Jean plays a sexless "Little Miss Fixit" who saves the day when all looks bleak. The film is noteworthy only as the screen debut of that matchless comic actor Jack Gilford, then starring in the Broadway revue Meet the People, whose budding film and TV career was egregiously cut short by the Hollywood Blacklist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Olsen and Johnson's followup to their zany, iconoclastic Hellzapoppin' was the more conventional Crazy House. The premise: Having nearly laid waste to Universal while filming Hellzapoppin', O & J are thrown out of the studio when they arrive with plans for a new picture. Only momentarily daunted, our heroes decide to produce the film themselves, renting a studio and hiring carhop Margie (Martha O'Driscoll) as their leading lady. The success of this plan hinges upon an "angel", self-proclaimed millionaire Col. Merriweather (Percy Kilbride), who promises to advance the money for the new film. Things get sticky when the Colonel turns out to be a balmy eccentric with nary a cent to his name. After a wild courtroom trial presided over by ever-scowling Edgar Kennedy, it is decided that Olsen and Johnson will be permitted to screen their new film before a gathering of Hollywood studio executives, with distribution rights going to the highest bidder. The finale devolves into frantic slapstick when the last reel of the film turns up missing (a plot device later utilized in Mel Brooks' Silent Movie). Though Crazy House gets off to a suitably wacky start-when word arrives at Universal that Olsen and Johnson are coming, barricades are set up and armed guards posted, while every studio contractee from Leo Carrillo to "Sherlock Holmes" (Basil Rathbone) and "Dr. Watson" (Nigel Bruce) brace themselves for the comedians' invasion-the film quickly settles into a standard musical-comedy groove, complete with such guest stars as Allan Jones, Count Basie, the Delta Rhythm Boys and the Glenn Miller Singers. Still, there are plenty of hilarious moments along the way, most of them handled by raucous comedienne Cass Daley, playing a dual role. And there's seldom been a more satisfying movie finale than the last gag of Crazy House, which literally disposes of tiresome romantic leads Martha O'Driscoll and Patric Knowles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The title of this "Lum 'N' Abner" comedy isn't explained until the film is half over. Chester Lauck and Norris Goff repeat their radio characterizations of Lum and Abner, proprietors of the Jot-Em-Down Store in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. This time, the boys journey to Chicago, where Abner hopes to collect his share of an inheritance, only to find out that they're responsible for their "benefactor's" debts. Required to take a medical exam, Abner is incorrectly informed that he has only two weeks to live (from the motion picture of the same name). In their efforts to raise enough money to square their debts, Our Heroes get mixed up with a Nazi spy ring. When this plot point is abruptly dropped (indeed, it looks as though the script was being made up as it went along), Abner agrees to take an experimental rocket trip to Mars for a huge cash sum. The climactic special effects are as ridiculous as the rest of the film; even so, Two Weeks to Live did well at the box-office thanks to the popularity of the Lum 'N' Abner radio show. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide