Joe Bernard Movies

There's a joke currently making the rounds amongst underpaid civil servants in the state of Vermont: "Moonlight in Vermont-or starve." Back in 1943, however, Moonlight in Vermont was not only a popular song, but also the title of this 6-reel Universal "B" musical. Gloria Jean plays Gwen Harding, fresh off the farm in Vermont and newly arrived in New York. Aspiring to an acting career, Gwen enrolls in a snooty dramatic school, where she falls in love with student "Slick" Ellis (Ray Malone). Though many of Gwen's fellow would-be thespians treat her rather cruelly, they prove that they're good kids underneath when they show up en masse at her family's farm to help with the harvesting. It's all merely an excuse for Gloria Jean to sing, of course-and what's wrong with that? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An Iowa drugstore owner (Don Ameche) becomes embittered when his son is killed in World War II. The druggist believes that the boy's life was cut short before he had an opportunity to truly appreciate his existence. The grieving father is shown the error of his assumption by the ghost of his grandfather (Harry Carey), who through flashbacks details the good things about the son's short term on Earth, and the wonderful life that the druggist himself has enjoyed. Frances Dee plays Don Ameche's wife, while Ann Rutherford portrays his son's girl (who in turn is played in a flashback sequence by former Little Rascal Darla Hood). Happy Land was suitable wartime propaganda, though it doesn't play quite as movingly today. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Olivia De Havilland hadn't wanted to star in RKO's Government Girl, but was forced to do so by her home studio Warner Bros. Perhaps in retaliation, De Havilland delivers a strident, overbaked performance, which serves only to make this so-so wartime comedy something of an endurance test for modern viewers. The actress plays "Smokey", the Washington DC-based secretary of Detroit automobile expert Browne (Sonny Tufts, who's actually pretty good in this one!) Aware that Browne is a babe in the woods so far as Washington lobbying, politicking and backstabbing are concerned, Smokey takes the poor boy by the hand and shows him the ropes. Despite the derivative nature of Adela Rogers St. John's screenplay-the film seems like a hybrid of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and The More the Merrier--Government Girl was an enormous hit, posting a profit of $700,000. The film represents the film directorial debut of producer-screenwriter Dudley Nichols. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Mystery of Marie Roget is more faithful to its Edgar Allan Poe original than most Universal films of its ilk, even though the Poe story and the film aren't exactly twins. Based on the factual unsolved 1842 murder of one Mary Rogers, the film stars Maria Montez as the unfortunate heroine, a popular Parisian entertainer. No innocent young damsel, Marie Roget spends a great deal of her time plotting the demise of her younger sister Camille (Nell O'Day). Shortly afterward, Marie herself disappears, and before long the mutilated, unidentifiable corpse of a young woman turns up. It is up to master detecive Dupin (Patric Knowles) and his Dr. Watson-ish assistant Gobelin (Lloyd Corrigan) to piece all the clues together. The film's best moments belong to Maria Ouspenskaya as Maria's sardonic grandmother. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Wild Geese Calling is one of those 20th Century-Fox star vehicles which used to pop up all the time on TV before the Carsons, Lenos and Lettermans rendered "The Late Late Show" obsolete. Set in Oregon and Alaska at the turn of the century (the last century, that is), the film stars Henry Fonda as John Murdock, a restless young lumberjack. Tired of his job at a Seattle logging camp, he heads to the Yukon in search of gold. Here he marries dance hall girl Sally (Joan Bennett), who turns out to be the sweetheart of his old pal Blackie (Warren William). Throughout the early months of their marriage, he spends less time paying attention to her than he does worrying that she'll run off with her ex-beau. Murdock finally shows he's a right guy when he risks his life braving the elements to deliver a doctor to her bedside when she goes into labor. Russell Simpson, who played Henry Fonda's dad in The Grapes of Wrath, shows up in a typically grizzled role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Working girl Ginger Rogers (who dresses like movie star Ginger Rogers, despite her meager salary!) cannot decide which of her three suitors will march her down the aisle. Will it be fast-talking automobile salesman George Murphy, wealthy Alan Marshall, or free-spirited, eternally unemployed Burgess Meredith? She mulls over her choices in a series of hilarious dream sequences (the best involving Meredith, along with three baby Merediths crawling on the floor). If her final decision takes you by surprise, you're in good company: according to one of the cast members, director Garson Kanin and Oscar-nominated screenwriter Paul Jarrico kept the denouement a secret until the last day of shooting. Featured in the cast is Phil Silvers as a delightfully obnoxious ice cream vendor, and, in a microscopic role, Jack Briggs, who would eventually marry Ms. Rogers. A favorite with both audiences and critics, Tom, Dick & Harry was ineffectively remade in 1957 as the Jane Powell musical The Girl Most Likely. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a young woman shows two dogs at the championship competition at Madison Square Garden and when the two dogs get into a fight, they are both disqualified. The girl decides that she cannot keep them both and decides to sell her least favorite. Unfortunately, her servant loves that dog and secretly smuggles it aboard his mistress' plane on the way back for Canada. When the plane crashes, the dog survives and runs off to bring back help. Some of the racial stereotypes contained in this film may be offensive to contemporary viewers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This quickie RKO musical is the second retread of Street Girl (1929); the 1937 musical That Girl from Paris was the first remake. This time around, the four jacks are musicians Nifty (Ray Bolger), Happy (Eddie Foy Jr.), Nat (Jack Briggs), and Eddie (William Blees). Their singer Opal (June Havoc) quits the band because her mobster boyfriend The Noodle (Jack Durant) is pressuring her to pay more attention to him. Nifty discovers the down-on-her-luck Nine (Anne Shirley) and persuades her to masquerade as a celebrated foreign singing star. Farcical complications result -- including cab driver Steve (Desi Arnaz) posing as Balkan nobility! -- as the musicians and their new girl singer pursue fame and fortune. Songs include "You Go Your Way And I'll Go Crazy" and Boogie Woogie Conga". ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide

Those popular MGM co-stars William Powell and Myrna Loy take a break from their usual Thin Man duties to star in the zany comedy I Love You Again. The film opens with Loy prepared to divorce her dull businessman husband Powell. A blow on the head causes Powell to remember his former life as a notorious con man. No one in town has any knowledge of Powell's criminal past, a fact he hopes to use to his advantage. Loy, astounded at Powell's sudden surge of amorous ardor, reconsiders her divorce. When she learns of his true identity, she is even more fascinated. Another blow on the head restores the non-criminal Powell--at least, that's what he and Loy would like you to believe. The film's highlight is a screamingly funny sequence in which Powell plays scoutmaster to a group of surly youngsters (including Our Gang veterans Carl Switzer and Mickey Gubitosi, aka Robert Blake). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This second of three movie versions of P.C. Wren's adventure novel Beau Geste is a virtual scene-for-scene remake of the 1927 silent version. We open on the now-famous scenes of a remote, burning desert fort, manned by the dead Foreign Legionnaires, then flash back to the early lives of the Geste brothers. As children, the Gestes swear eternal loyalty to one another and to their family. One of the boys, young Beau (played as a youth by Donald O'Connor), witnesses his beloved aunt (Heather Thatcher) apparently stealing a valuable family jewel in order to finance the Geste home; Beau chooses to remain silent rather than disgrace his aunt. Years later, the grown Beau (Gary Cooper) again protects his aunt by confessing to the theft and running off to join the Foreign Legion. He is joined in uniform by faithful brothers John (Ray Milland) and Digby (Robert Preston), who in turn are pursued by a slimy thief (J. Carroll Naish). The crook is in cahoots with sadistic Legion Sgt. Markov (Brian Donlevy, in one of the most hateful portrayals ever captured on celluloid), who is later put in charge of Fort Zinderneuf, where Beau and John are stationed. When the Arabs attack, Markov proves himself a valiant soldier; it is he who hits upon the idea of convincing the Arabs that the fort is still fully manned by propping up the corpses of the casualties at the guard posts. Beau is seriously wounded, and while the greedy Markov searches for the jewel supposedly hidden on Beau's person, he is held at bay by loyal John. The suddenly enervated Beau kills Markov, then dies himself--but not before entrusting two notes to John, one of which requests that John give Beau the "Viking funeral" he'd always wanted (this is why the fort is in flames at the beginning of the film). After the battle, Digby Geste, a bugler with the relief troops, comes upon Beau's dead body, and appropriates the notes. As it turns out, John Geste is the only one who survives to return to England. He gives his aunt Beau's letter, which explains why Beau had confessed and run off--"a 'beau geste', indeed" comments his tearful aunt. No one missed nominal leading lady Susan Hayward in this essentially all-male entertainment. For years available only in muddily processed or truncated versions, Beau Geste was restored to its pristine glory by the American Film Institute in the late 1980s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A model of precision and economy, the MGM "B" thriller Tell No Tales represented the feature-film directorial debut of former actor Leslie Fenton. Reportedly an expansion of a "Crime Does Not Pay" 2-reeler, the story follows editor Michael Cassidy (Melvyn Douglas) as he tries to save his newspaper from being shut down by corporate fat-cat Matt Cooper (Douglass Dumbrille). Hoping to track down the perpetrators of a recent kidnapping (and thereby obtaining an "exclusive"), Cassidy illegally gets hold of one of the bills used for the ransom, tracing the bill to all its previous owners. In the course of his odyssey, Cassidy stumbles into a wake for a murdered black boxer, a haunting sequence dominated by the powerhouse performance of Theresa Harris. He also learns that the much-hated Cooper was tenously connected to the ransom bill, though the identity of the actual miscreants aren't revealed until the last two reels. Louise Platt costars as Ellen Frazier, a harried witness to the kidnapping who winds up being taken "for a ride" along with the unconscious Cassidy. Also figuring prominently in the action is gambling boss Arno (Gene Lockhart) and his weakling brother Phil (Tom Collins), not to mention musical-comedy star Lorna Travers (Florence George), the main attraction at a Policeman's benefit show (another highlight). Showing up unbilled is one Jack Carlton, later known as Clayton Moore. Tell No Tales definitely deserves to be better known. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This French-language version of the 1935 Hollywood musical Folies Bergere retains the original star (Maurice Chevalier) and director (Roy Del Ruth) and Busby Berkeley's big-scale production numbers. It also follows substantially the same plot: A nightclub entertainer (Chevalier), is hired to pose as his look-alike (also Chevalier), a prominent aviation tycoon. The masquerade causes consternation for the entertainer's girlfriend, who of course has no idea what's going on, and for the tycoon's wife, who can't understand why her cold-fish husband has suddenly become so warm and demonstrative. Beyond the obvious language change, the major differences between the two Folies Bergeres are found in their supporting casts: for example, Natalie Paley plays the tycoon's spouse role originally essayed by Merle Oberon, while Sim Viva, as the girlfriend, fills the dancing shoes of the English-language version's Ann Sothern. Folies Bergere served as the basis for two future 20th Century-Fox musicals, That Night in Rio and On the Riviera, neither of which were released in French versions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Consigned to the Warner Bros. "B" unit in the mid-1930s, director Robert Florey must have had a high old time trying to inject some visual dynamics into such unprepossessing projects as Going Highbrow. Guy Kibbee and ZaSu Pitts star as Mr. and Mrs. Matt Upshaw, a nouveau riche couple clearly inspired by Bringing Up Father's Jiggs and Maggie. While Matt prefers to live his life as simply as he'd done before striking it rich, Mrs. Upshaw is bound and determined to crash high society. To appease his wife, Matt hires dimwitted lunch-counter waitress Annie (Judy Canova) to pose as the Upshaw's daughter, thereby qualifying for the upcoming debutante ball. As things turn out, Annie reveals her true identity at the worst possible time, while the Upshaws are clipped for $50,000 by obsequious social "arranger" Augie (Edward Everett Horton). Though Going Highbrow represented Judy Canova's first major role at Warner Bros., the studio was unimpressed and dropped her option; in later years, Canova admitted that the picture was "not so hot." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide