Paul Porcasi
- 1945
In this drama, a goodie-two-shoes singer tries to save her bankrupt family by getting a radio job. She is soon entangled in a fight between rival radio commentators that culminates in a mysterious murder that she soon solves. Songs include: "Hittin' The Beach Tonite", and "I'll Remember April". ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gloria Jean, Kirby Grant, (more)
- 1944
It took nerve for writer/director Preston Sturges to lampoon the whole concept of hero worship in the middle of World War II, but once more Sturges' oddball sense of taste and propriety paid off at the box office in Hail the Conquering Hero. Eddie Bracken plays the son of a World War I Marine hero who is the first in his small town to sign up for military service. When Bracken is discharged from the Marines for hay fever, he hasn't the nerve to go home and tell his mother and the rest of the townsfolk. Fortunately, he is befriended by a bunch of good-hearted Marines, led by sergeant William Demarest. Bracken's new buddies decide to help him save face by accompanying him to his home and telling one and all that Bracken has served valiantly in the Pacific. Lauded as a hero thanks to this subterfuge, the hapless Bracken finds himself being coerced into running for mayor! When he finally does confess the truth, the townspeople decide that only a real hero would own up to his lies in public. As always, Preston Sturges' richly varied supporting cast makes the most of every scene they're in, especially Raymond Walburn as a blustering politico and Franklin Pangborn as a persnickety councilman. Special mention must be made of Ella Raines as a refreshingly non-cliched heroine, and ex-boxer Freddie Steele as a morose Marine with a Mother complex. While Eddie Bracken's nerdish mannerisms can wear on the viewer, he is kept marvelously in check throughout Hail the Conquering Hero. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Bracken, Ella Raines, (more)
- 1944
Robert Lowery and the comedy team of Tim Ryan and Irene Ryan star in this pleasant musical-comedy about a jingle-writer (Lowery) attempting to turn his girlfriend (Dona Drake) into a band vocalist. Unfortunately, there is a case of mistaken identity and the bumbling recording studio owner (Tim Ryan) instead signs his dim-witted secretary (Irene Ryan). Everything works out for the best, of course, and rather than facing bankruptcy, Beacon Recording Company can launch no less than two new stars. In his penultimate feature film role, silent screen clown Harry Langdon is seen all too briefly as a perplexed recording studio manager. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dona Drake, Robert Lowery, (more)
- 1944
The second of Laurel & Hardy's two MGM starring films, Nothing But Trouble casts Stan and Ollie as, respectively, an unemployed butler and chef. Despite their inherent ineptitude, there's a wartime servant shortage, so the boys are hired by flighty dowager Mrs. Hawkley (Mary Boland), who hopes to impress visiting dignitaries from the kingdom of Orlandia. While purchasing food for Mrs. Hawkley's dinner party, Stan and Ollie meet a likeable child named Chris (David Leland)-who unbeknownst to them is Orlanda's young monarch-in-exile King Christopher. The boy's uncle, Prince Saul (Philip Merivale), intends to assassinate Chris and take (Peter Cookson) into helping her solve the case, despite his protestations and reminders of what happened "last time". It turns out that the killings are tied in with a jewel theft, a fact that comes out during the film's slapsticky finale. Tim Ryan, who also cowrote the script, is back as long-suffering Inspector Clancy, who'd like to arrest Kitty for the murders if only to shut her up for a few minutes. A note of caution: the scared-reaction humor of black porter Jeff (Shelton Brooks) may not play too well with racially-sensitive viewers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, (more)
- 1944
In this musical, an unemployed swing-band singer cannot hook up with another group and so becomes a switchboard operator at a juke box company. Later she falls in love with a handsome bandleader who hires her to sing. Songs include: "I'll Eat My Hat," "Let's Capture This Moment," "Say It with Love," "Music to My Ears," "Highway Polka," "Got an Invitation" (Jay Livingston, Ray Evans, Lewis Bellin). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1943
Eric Ambler's intriguing novel Uncommon Danger is brought down to a Republic serial level in Warner Bros.' Background to Danger. George Raft, who always seems miscast, plays an American undercover intelligence agent operating in Turkey. Sultry Osa Massen passes on some valuable secret papers to Raft just before she is killed. Our Hero then finds himself at the mercy of enemy agent Sidney Greenstreet, who knows that the papers contain Nazi plans to invade Turkey. Despite several brutal beatings, Raft and his cohorts Peter Lorre (a good guy for a change) and Brenda Marshall turn the tables on Greenstreet. Background to Danger was the first of many Warner Bros. follow-ups to the studio's megahit Casablanca; it's also the film wherein the prankish Peter Lorre stole George Raft's hat between takes--an affront that rankled the touchy Raft to his dying day. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Raft, Brenda Marshall, (more)
- 1943
The seemingly ageless Eddie Quillan heads the cast of the Monogram musical Melody Parade. Eddie plays Jimmy Tracy, a nightclub busboy who hopes to become a big-time producer. Mary Beth Hughes costars as Anne O'Rourke, a hatcheck girl with singing aspirations. The arrival of supposed heriess Gloria Brewster (Irene Ryan) would seem to bode well for Jimmy and Anne's showbiz future-but alas, Gloria turns out to be a phony. Never mind: no matter how many complications and setbacks, it's a sure bet that Melody Parade will end with an elaborate, all-smiles production number. Providing extra chuckles are Irene Ryan's husband/vaudeville partner Tim Ryan, and the ineluctable Mantan Moreland. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary Beth Hughes, Eddie Quillan, (more)
In the tradition of Hellzapoppin', Hi Diddle Diddle is an all-stops-out "screwball comedy" populated by certifiable zanies. Billie Burke plays Mrs. Prescott, the featherbrained mother of bride-to-be Janie Prescott (Martha Scott). When Mrs. P is swindled out of her life savings, Colonel Phyffe (Adolphe Menjou), the con-man father of Janie's fiancé Sonny (Dennis O'Keefe), vows to get her money back -- by any means possible. The plotline is merely an excuse for a series of wild nonsequitur visual and verbal gags, culminating in a cute reverse-cliché finale. Making her first Hollywood appearance in years, silent screen star Pola Negri is hilariously cast as Phyffe's opera-star wife Genya Smetana. Best bits: Mrs. Prescott revealing that a recurring female character is a "special friend of the director"; Leslie Quayle (June Havoc singing a duet with herself); and an outrageous scene in which the wallpaper comes to life during a eardrum-shattering family sing-along (the animation was provided by the Warner Bros. cartoon staff). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dennis O'Keefe, Martha Scott, (more)
- 1942
A public library at night is the setting for this fast-moving crime caper. George Sanders is a gentleman crook specializing in selling forgeries of rare books. In the company of phony policemen, Sanders enters the library unmolested and pilfers a priceless Shakespeare folio in order to expedite his operation. The criminal's girl friend/accomplice Gail Patrick is willing to go along with the crime until Sanders begins displaying a homicidal streak. She calls in a detective (Richard Denning) to foil the criminal. A murder or two later, Sanders is tracked down amidst the dark, forbidding library shelves. It's no small trick to make a library exciting, but Quiet Please, Murder pulls this off with speed and economy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Sanders, Gail Patrick, (more)
- 1942
An unusually sentimental endeavor from rough-and-ready Monogram pictures, Road to Happiness stars former 20th Century-Fox leading man John Boles. Recently divorced, Boles tries to make things pleasant for his son Billy Lee (who two years earlier had captivated the critics in The Biscuit Eater). Complications ensue in the form of Boles' ex-wife and a battery of lawyers. Roscoe Karns lightens the proceedings with his patented brashness. Road to Happiness was scripted by Robert D. Andrews, of If I Had a Million fame. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
One of the most beloved American films, this captivating wartime adventure of romance and intrigue from director Michael Curtiz defies standard categorization. Simply put, it is the story of Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), a world-weary ex-freedom fighter who runs a nightclub in Casablanca during the early part of WWII. Despite pressure from the local authorities, notably the crafty Capt. Renault (Claude Rains), Rick's café has become a haven for refugees looking to purchase illicit letters of transit which will allow them to escape to America. One day, to Rick's great surprise, he is approached by the famed rebel Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) and his wife, Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), Rick's true love who deserted him when the Nazis invaded Paris. She still wants Victor to escape to America, but now that she's renewed her love for Rick, she wants to stay behind in Casablanca. "You must do the thinking for both of us," she says to Rick. He does, and his plan brings the story to its satisfyingly logical, if not entirely happy, conclusion. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, (more)
- 1942
Star-Spangled Rhythm is a typical wartime all-star musical-comedy melange, this time from Paramount Pictures. The slender plot involves the efforts by humble studio doorman Pop Webster (Victor Moore) to pass himself off as a big-shot Paramount executive for the benefit of his sailor son Jimmy (Eddie Bracken). The overall level of humor can be summed up by the scene in which Webster is advised that the best way to pretend to be a studio big-shot is to say "It stinks!" to everything -- whereupon Cecil B. DeMille shows up to ask Webster's opinion about his current production. Betty Hutton, cast as studio switchboard operator and co-conspirator Polly Judson, is at her most rambunctiously appealing here. The huge lineup of guest performers includes Bing Crosby (and his 8-year-old son Gary!), Bob Hope, Veronica Lake, Dorothy Lamour, Dick Powell, Mary Martin, Alan Ladd, Fred MacMurray, William Bendix, Paulette Goddard, and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, most (but not all) of them going through their characteristic paces. Highlights include a surrealistic rendition of That Old Black Magic with Johnnie Johnston and Vera Zorina; a frantic staging of the old George S. Kaufman sketch "If Men Played Cards as Women Do" with MacMurray, Ray Milland, Franchot Tone, and Lynn Overman; and The Sweater, the Sarong and the Peekaboo Bang, first performed by Goddard, Lamour and Lake, then lampooned in drag by Arthur Treacher, Sterling Holloway and Walter Catlett! PS: The actor playing Rochester's chauffeur in the Smart as a Tack number is John Ford "regular" Woody Strode. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Victor Moore, Betty Hutton, (more)
- 1942
Strange but true: Norma Shearer turned down the title role in Mrs. Miniver to star instead in the insignificant trifle We Were Dancing. Loosely based on two Noel Coward playlets originally presented as part of the omnibus production Tonight at 8:30, the story concerns the romance between socialite Vicki Wilomirsky (Norma Shearer) and Nicki Prax (Melvyn Douglas), an impoverished baron who supports himself as a "professional guest." Nicki steals Vicki away from her stuffy attorney fiance Hubert Tyler (Lee Bowman), but their subsequent marriage comes to an end when Vicki spots Nicki in the arms of his ex-lover Linda Wayne (Gail Patrick). Returning to Tyler, Vicki is on the verge of a second marriage, when Nicki once again waltzes into her life?.and on and on it goes, where it will stop, nobody knows. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Norma Shearer, Melvyn Douglas, (more)
- 1941
Maintaining Republic Pictures' early-1940s predilection for corny, antiquated titles, Rags to Riches made its national debut in the late summer of 1941. Despite its Horatio Algerish cognomen, the film is a fur-hijacking melodrama, with nary a genuine "rag" in sight. Taking a break from his usual screen villainy, Alan Baxter plays honest cabdriver Jimmy Rogers, who is falsely imprisoned for his supposed complicity in a recent fur robbery. With the help of his aspiring-singer sweetheart Carol (Mary Carlisle), Rogers clears himself and exposes the suave mastermind behind the theft. Anyone who can't figure out the culprit's identity has probably never seen any film made between 1940 and 1945. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Baxter, Mary Carlisle, (more)
- 1941
Columbia's Two in a Taxi is perfect "Late Late Late Show" fare, just the sort of brisk, breezy film with which one would want to greet the new sunrise. Cab driver Jimmy Owens (Russell Hayden) hopes to push a hack just long enough to raise enough money-300 bucks, to be exact--for his own gas station. He also intends to marry his longtime sweetheart Bonnie (Anita Louise) as soon as he's on his feet financially. Alas, this plan hits a snag when the couple breaks up over a silly misunderstanding; in addition, Jimmy manages to lose his nest egg at every turn, even after collecting $1000 for capturing a gang of bank robbers. The conformist travails of Jimmy and Bonnie are counterpointed by the the faintly Communistic speeches delivered by a radical cabbie known as The Professor (Henry Brandon), whose presence in the film adds a welcome (but never overdone) dash of vitriol. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anita Louise, Russell Hayden, (more)
- 1941
MGM's The Trial of Mary Dugan was based on the popular stage play by Bayard Vellier, previously filmed as a Norma Shearer vehicle in 1929. This time, Laraine Day is cast as Mary Dugan, a young stenographer who is falsely accused of murdering her philandering employer Edgar Wayne (Tom Conway). In the course of her trial, Mary falls in love with her attorney Jimmy Blake (Robert Young). The original Trial of Mary Dugan was highlighted by the heartfelt testimony of the tarnished heroine, who recounted a life of shame and degradation endured on behalf of her impoverished law-student brother. Thanks to the tightened censorial restrictions of 1941, Mary Dugan's checkered past is eliminated, leaving the viewer with just another courtroom melodrama. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laraine Day, Robert Young, (more)
The second Bing Crosby/Bob Hope "Road" picture casts Crosby as a penny-ante sideshow promoter and Hope as Crosby's only client, "Fearless Frazier." Under Crosby's tutelage, Hope has been shot from a cannon, zapped in an electric chair and nearly strangled by an octopus. Now they're practically broke and stranded on the African coast. Crosby spends the last of their money to spring helpless Dorothy Lamour from a native slave market. Actually, Lamour and her pal Una Merkel are scamming Crosby and Hope to finance a safari across Africa, so that Lamour can link up with her wealthy fiance in Zanzibar. En route through the deepest, darkest jungle, both Hope and Crosby fall in love with Lamour. But when they find out they're being taken for chumps, the boys leave the safari and strike out on their own. Captured by cannibals, the boys try and fail to win their freedom by having Hope wrestle a particularly grumpy gorilla. Making their escape after teaching the natives their time-honored "Patty Cake" routine, they head for Zanzibar. Once again, Crosby spends his ready money to spring Lamour from her captured-by-slavers con game, obliging Hope, Crosby, Lamour and Merkel to try to earn passage money home by staging a "sawing the lady in half" routine for the locals. Crosby: "Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Hope: "If I don't, one of us is going back half fare." Like the earlier Road to Singapore, Road to Zanzibar sticks too closely to the script and plot to allow those inveterate adlibbers Hope and Crosby free reign. Still, there are some choice moments: our favorite bit occurs when Crosby comments to Lamour on the artificiality of movie musicals--whereupon the sound of an orchestra pops up out of nowhere. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, (more)
- 1941
In this medical melodrama, a young MD finds himself in love with a woman who doesn't love him. She is interested in an older, more sophisticated doctor. After she discovers that the older medic has a sleazy side, she decides to go for the younger doctor. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
This Roy Rogers vehicle was based on a Zane Grey story, previous filmed twice in the silent and early-talkie era. Rogers stars as young doctor Steve Kells, who after leaving New York in disgrace (it wasn't his fault) takes up residence in Idaho territory. Here he redeems himself by taking on a deadly outlaw gang, headed by a surly gent named Gulden (Joe Sawyer). Just so the audience knows that this is a "typical" Rogers picture despite its pedigree, the producers cast Gabby Hayes as Steve's sidekick Honest John Whittaker. Carol Hughes, who'd recently played Dale Arden in the third "Flash Gordon" serial, is Rogers' leading lady in this one. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roy Rogers, Carolyn Hughes, (more)
- 1940
Actress/ballerina Vera Zorina stars as a phony countess, working in cahoots with two international con artists (Erich von Stroheim and Peter Lorre). She renounces her earlier life after falling in love with one of her victims (Richard Greene), but her old crooked cronies show up to blackmail her. Zorina confesses to her husband, who forgives all. Von Stroheim and Lorre steal everything but the cameras in their brief scenes, outshining both hero and heroine with their patented rascality. I Was an Adventuress ends with a George Balanchine ballet sequence, which like all such film "highlights" goes on too long and is strictly a matter of taste. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vera Zorina, Richard Greene, (more)
- 1940
The Andrews Sisters made their screen debut in Argentine Nights, but the stars of the show are the Ritz Brothers, in the first of their four Universal vehicles. The wafer-thin plotline finds the Ritz boys showing up flat broke in Argentina with an all-girl band. Despite their utter lack of funds, the zany trio tries to save a local hotel from the clutches of a con man. Highlights include the Ritz Brothers' famous "hero sandwich" routine (repeated by the two surviving brothers in 1975's Blazing Stewardesses) and a perversely hilarious climax in which the Ritzes are called upon to impersonate the Andrews Sisters (which may have given rise to Patty Andrews' oft-quoted observation "We looked like the Ritz Brothers in drag"). As a bonus for fans of the Superman TV series, nominal romantic lead George Reeves warbles the deathless tune "Amigo We Go Riding Tonight". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- The Ritz Brothers [Al, Jimmy, Harry], The Andrews Sisters, (more)
This fourth entry in MGM's "Dr. Kildare" series once again stars Lew Ayres as Kildare, Laraine Day as his sweetheart Mary Lamont, and Lionel Barrymore as crusty Dr. Gillespie. In this outing, surgeon Gregory Lane (Sheppard Strudwick) begins pitching woo at Mary himself, much to Kildare's dismay. But when Lane is accused of incompetence in the wake of an unsuccessful surgery, it is Kildare who proves that his rival is blameless. One of the film's subplots involves an emotionally disturbed patient who is cured via shock therapy-a dubious procedure that held more water in 1940 than it does today. The usual comedy relief is provided by the usual Nat Pendleton and Marie Blake. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, (more)
- 1940
Dorothy Lamour once again wraps a variety of alluring costumes around her hourglass frame in the Paramount bread-and-butter feature Moon Over Burma. Lamour is cast as Aria Dean, an American showgirl stranded in Rangoon. It doesn't take long before Aria becomes the romantic bone of contention between teak-lumber camp owners Chuck Lane (Robert Preston) and Bill Gordon (Preston Foster). The animosity between the two men is put on the back burner when the film's villains attempt to block shipment of Lane and Gordon's logs, a dilemma exacerbated by a deadly forest fire. Albert Basserman's performance as the blind logging-camp supervisor is an interesting precursor to his similar performance in the superior Paramount "B" Fly By Night. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Lamour, Robert Preston, (more)
Torrid Zone star James Cagney once described the film as "The Front Page among the bananas." Indeed, the screenplay diligently follows the Front Page plot device of a tough boss (Pat O'Brien) pulling every underhanded trick in the book to keep his top man (Cagney) from quitting. This time the setting is a Central American plantation owned by O'Brien, which supervisor Cagney would dearly love to leave behind. Complicating the plot is a nightclub singer (Anne Sheridan) over whom O'Brien and Tracy do battle; a bored married woman (Helen Vinson) with eyes for Cagney; and a gang of Latino bandits, led by George Tobias (providing comic relief). What Torrid Zone lacked in originality it made up for in sheer energy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Cagney, Ann Sheridan, (more)
- 1939
20th Century Fox's Christmas gift to moviegoers in 1939, this fanciful comedy-drama features the studio's darling of the ice, Sonja Henie. She plays the daughter of a Nobel Peace Prize-winner feared murdered by the German Gestapo. A couple of rival American newspaper reporters, Ray Milland and Robert Cummings, discover that the legendary Professor Norden (Maurice Moscovich) is still very much alive and living under an assumed name in Switzerland. The heroes, however, completely forget their critical assignment after spotting the professor's lovely daughter, Louise (Henie), and their preoccupation with the girl nearly leads to disaster. Fox borrowed Ray Milland from Paramount for this Henie vehicle, which was partially filmed at Sun Valley, ID. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sonja Henie, Ray Milland, (more)
