S.Z. Sakall

A remake of the 1936 Janet Gaynor vehicle of the same name, Small Town Girl stars Jane Powell in the title role. Powell plays Cindy Kimball, daughter of village judge Gordon Kimball (Robert Keith). When wealthy playboy Rick Livingston (Farley Granger) is arrested for speeding, Judge Kimball sentences the arrogant young sprout to 30 days to teach him a lesson. Taking it upon herself to "reform" the prodigal Rick, Cindy tricks him into marriage, and then the fun begins. Ann Miller co-stars as a musical comedy star with whom Rick had planned to elope; her presence in the film is justified by several well-staged Busby Berkeley dance numbers. Also on hand as Jane Powell's hometown sweetheart is Bobby Van, who performs the film's best and most memorable musical setpiece, "Street Dance," in which Van hops around town like a human pogo stick. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Painting the Clouds with Sunshine was a remake of the 1929 musical Gold Diggers of Broadway, which no longer exists for comparison (though its first remake, Gold Diggers of 1933, has been safely preserved). Carol (Virginia Mayo), Abby (Lucille Norman) and June (Virginia Gibson) arrive in Las Vegas for the express purpose of landing millionaire husbands. Securing work as a singing trio, the girls do their best to cozy up to potential wealthy mates, but always seem to end up with the "wrong" kind of guy. Abby falls for impecunious gambler Vince Nichols (Dennis Morgan). The girls decide to use Vince's resources to save hotelier Felix Hoff (S.Z. Sakall) from bankruptcy. Enter Vince's tight-lipped Boston-banker cousin Bennington (Tom Conway), determined to rescue his relative from gold-diggers, and on and on the plot rolls, occasionally interrupted by splashy, Technicolorful musical numbers emphasizing the physical attributes of the three heroines. Like MGM's Singin' in the Rain, Painting the Clouds with Sunshine was designed primarily to showcase Warner Bros' backlog of songs from its early-talkie musicals. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Tea for Two is a Technicolor adaptation of the 1924 Broadway musical No No Nanette, previously filmed under its own title in 1929. Doris Day stars as Nanette, a Roaring '20s Jazz Baby with showbiz aspirations. Nanette offers to put up $25,000 if producer Billy DeWolfe will star her in a Broadway show. The girl's wealthy, and stingy uncle S.Z. Sakall agrees to advance her the money, but only on one condition; for the next 24 hours, Nanette must answer "No" to every question. Gordon MacRae co-stars as Nanette's attorney, who worships her from afar and who finally manages to win her hand with a little wager of his own. The songs, culled from several sources and written by hands ranging from Irving Caesar to George Gershwin, include "Crazy Rhythm," "Do Do Do," "I Want to Be Happy," "I Only Have Eyes for You" and the title number. In 1970, the original No No Nanette was successfully revived for Broadway, with veterans Ruby Keeler and Patsy Kelly in the cast. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This Gay-90s musical interweaves a number of fictional characters with real-life theatrical impresario Tony Pastor (played by Gordon MacRae, who resembles the real Pastor not at all). The plot involves a roisterous Irish papa (James Barton) who, when not on a drunk, tries to keep his two daughters (June Haver and Debbie Reynolds) from the clutches of predatory men. The older daughter (Haver), who entertains notions of a stage career, meets Tony Pastor during an audition, and promptly falls in love. She becomes a star singing such turn-of-the-century hits as the title song, while Pastor tries to suppress his own warm feelings towards the girl. Warner Bros. stalwart S.Z. Sakall shows up in Daughter of Rosie O'Grady, fully justifying his nickname "Cuddles." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The short but colorful life of American musical comedy star Marilyn Miller is given the standard prettified Hollywood treatment in Look for the Silver Lining. June Haver, an accomplished dancer-singer in her own right, is well-cast as Miller, who rises from an appendage in her parents' vaudeville act to the toast of Broadway. Along the way, she suffers such personal tragedies as the wartime death of her first husband, songwriter Frank Carter (Gordon Macrae), but manages to smile through the tears and go on to even loftier showbiz heights. The film ends in 1936, the year of Miller's death; we last see her "giving her all" to her audience, while an offstage observer makes ominous comments about her future. The Phoebe and Henry Ephron/Marian Spitzer screenplay (based on a story by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby) glosses over Marilyn Miller's notorious prima donna behavior; she is shown lording it over the "little people" in only one scene, whereupon she is gently put in her place by the remonstrative Frank Carter. Charles Ruggles and Rosemary DeCamp co-star as Miller's vaudevillian parents, while Ray Bolger is his usual ebullient self as Jack Donahue; also on hand are S.Z. Sakall and Walter Catlett, recreating a scene from Miller's 1925 Broadway triumph Sally (Catlett had appeared in the original production). Look for the Silver Lining was produced by Warner Bros., the same company that released the real Marilyn Miller's three starring films back in the early days of the talkies. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the Good Old Summertime is a musical remake of the 1940 Ernst Lubitsch comedy The Shop Around the Corner, which in turn was based on a play by Miklos Laszlo. The locale has been changed from Hungary to Chicago, but the turn-of-century time frame and the plot remain the same. Van Johnson and Judy Garland play a couple of clerks in a sheet-music store who detest each other on sight. Both reserve their words of affection for their respective pen pals, whom they've never met. The audience, of course, is aware that Johnson is Garland's pen pal, and she his, but it's fun to anticipate the fireworks when the characters on screen make this discovery. Buster Keaton, then employed by MGM as a "comedy consultant," is provided with one of his best parts in years as the bumbling nephew of shop owner S.Z. Sakall. The songs sung in Summertime consist of period numbers like "I Don't Care", "Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie", and the title tune. This is the film in which 18-month-old Liza Minnelli (Garland's daughter) toddles into the closing number, though it is not her film debut, as has often been claimed: an even younger Minnelli popped up briefly in Garland's previous MGM musical Easter Parade. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

April Showers stars Jack Carson and Ann Sothern as a pair of small-time vaudevillians whose act gets nowhere until their young son (Robert Ellis) joins them. The threesome form a knockabout acrobatic turn which propels them into the big time. Jealous of his son's success, Carson takes to the bottle, and the act breaks up in a spirit of mutual recrimination. This being a Warner Bros. musical, the three family members are reunited for a sentimental climax. April Showers was based in great part on the vaudeville career of Buster Keaton, who chose after much consideration not to pursue the matter in court. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This cute film is Doris Day's film debut and in it she plays Georgia Garrett, a substitute traveller on an ocean cruise. Her friend Elvira Kent (Janis Paige) had scheduled the cruise but at the last minute cancels when she suspects that her husband is cheating on her and she decides to stay at home to check up on him. So she gets her friend Georgia to go on the cruise in her stead. Meanwhile the husband hires a detective to watch Elvira while on the cruise, because, he too, suspects cheating. Of course, the detective falls for the substitute Elvira (Doris Day), making a somewhat complicated scenario with many possibilities. This is a fun-filled spoof with lots of good tunes by Doris Day. ~ All Movie Guide

Fifteen-year-old Elizabeth Taylor receives her first screen kiss in the innocuous MGM confection Cynthia. Taylor plays the title character, a sickly, sheltered young lady who is never permitted the companionship of other teenagers. Frustrated though Cynthia may be, she has nothing on her parents, Larry and Louise Bishop (George Murphy and Mary Astor), who feel they could have gotten a lot further in life had they remained childless Only by discovering that she has a gorgeous (albeit dubbed) singing voice is Cynthia able to break out of her shell and join the high school choir, under the benevolent leadership of cuddly Professor Rosencrantz (S. Z. Sakall). Along the way, the girl's parents overcome their resentment and learn to appreciate their daughter for the prize that she is. As a bonus, Cynthia also falls in love with Ricky Latham (James Lydon), who bestows that historic first kiss on her blushing cheek (Elizabeth Taylor and James Lydon would later be reteamed in Warner Bros.' Life with Father). Based on a play by Vina Delmar, Cynthia is a "programmer" by MGM standards, but an "A"-picture by any other studio's standards. ~ Hal Erickson, 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

Busby Berkeley directed this lightweight musical comedy in which Judy Jones (Joan Leslie) is informed that she's due to receive a $10 million inheritance, but with one very large string attached: she has to marry an unusually intelligent man. With the call of her checking account ringing loudly in her ears, Judy gives her boyfriend Tommy Coles (Robert Alda), the leader of a dance band, his walking papers. She next enrolls in a (previously) all-male Institute of Technology, where she figures that bright boys will be easy pickings. However, snaring her dream man proves more difficult than she imagined, and she finds out that Tommy is a lot brighter than she originally thought. Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne wrote the songs for this film, which include "You Never Know Where You're Goin' Till You Get There" and "When the One You Love Simply Won't Love Back." ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

War hero Dennis Morgan becomes the object of a publicity stunt staged by magazine publisher Sidney Greenstreet. The corpulent print mogul announces that Morgan has won a Christmas dinner, to be prepared by the magazine's housekeeping expert Barbara Stanwyck in her own Connecticut home. The catch: Not only does Stanwyck not have a home in Connecticut, but she's never been in a kitchen in her life! She also doesn't have a husband (as her articles claim), so Stanwyck's erstwhile beau Reginald Gardiner is pressed into service as the hubby. As for the cooking, that will be handled by master chef S. Z. "Cuddles" Sakall. This solves everything, right? No way, Jose. Long dismissed as a lesser film farce, Christmas in Connecticut has its own irresistible charm, and has in recent years become a perennial Christmas-eve TV attraction. Pay absolutely no attention to the 1992 TV remake, starring Dyan Cannon and directed by Arnold Schwarzenegger. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide