Bill Shirley Movies

At one time the longest-running Broadway musical, My Fair Lady was adapted by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe from the George Bernard Shaw comedy Pygmalion. Outside Covent Garden on a rainy evening in 1912, dishevelled cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn) meets linguistic expert Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison). After delivering a musical tirade against "verbal class distinction," Higgins tells his companion Colonel Pickering (Wilfred Hyde-White) that, within six months, he could transform Eliza into a proper lady, simply by teaching her proper English. The next morning, face and hands freshly scrubbed, Eliza presents herself on Higgins' doorstep, offering to pay him to teach her to be a lady. "It's almost irresistable," clucks Higgins. "She's so deliciously low. So horribly dirty." He turns his mission into a sporting proposition, making a bet with Pickering that he can accomplish his six-month miracle to turn Eliza into a lady. This is one of the all-time great movie musicals, featuring classic songs and the legendary performances of Harrison, repeating his stage role after Cary Grant wisely turned down the movie job, and Stanley Holloway as Eliza's dustman father. Julie Andrews originated the role of Eliza on Broadway but producer Jack Warner felt that Andrews, at the time unknown beyond Broadway, wasn't bankable; Hepburn's singing was dubbed by Marni Nixon, who also dubbed Natalie Wood in West Side Story (1961). Andrews instead made Mary Poppins, for which she was given the Best Actress Oscar, beating out Hepburn. The movie, however, won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Harrison, and five other Oscars, and it remains one of the all-time best movie musicals. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Ray Middleton and Bill Shirley, Republic Pictures' answer to Hope and Crosby, star in Sweethearts on Parade. Middleton and Shirley play Cam Ellerby and Bill Gamble, the featured singers in a travelling medicine show. While stopping over in a small town, Cam renews his acquaintance with his former wife Sylvia (Eileen Christy), who now has a pretty, grown-up daughter -- Kathleen -- played by Lucille Norman. When Kathleen makes noises about a show-business career, Sylvia won't hear of it -- nor does she approve of her daughter's romance with Bill. One gets the sneaking suspicion that everything will turn out all right in the end for all four protagonists. With 26 songs in the picture, how could things not turn out all right? ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The life of Stephen Foster, one of America's greatest and best-loved songwriters of the 19th century, sets the stage for this musical biography. Foster (Bill Shirley) is a shy bookkeeper who writes songs in his spare time. He is madly in love with Inez McDowell (Muriel Lawrence), but she isn't interested in him, and she eventually gives him the brush-off. However, Inez's sister Jeanie (Eileen Christy) carries a torch for Foster, and in time, he finds happiness with her. Jeanie's inspiration leads Foster to write some of his best known songs, which brings him success in the music business and allows him to leave bookkeeping behind. Along with the title tune, the soundtrack features such Foster classics as "My Old Kentucky Home", "Swanee River", "Camptown Races", "Oh! Susannah", "The Old Folks at Home", "A Ribbon in Your Hair", and "I Still See Her in My Dreams". ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Republic's ongoing professional association with the celebrated "Ice-Capades" skating show yielded a number of flashy but forgettable musicals, including 1942's Ice-Capades Revue. Though a plot is hardly necessary, the story concerns New England farm gal Ann (Ellen Drew), whose already-mounting debts are escalated when she inherits a near-bankrupt ice show. Her efforts to revivify this operation are regularly thwarted by a conniving promoter named Duke Baldwin (Harold Huber), who has already tied up all the best arenas for his own skating spectacular. But Baldwin's second-in-command Jeff (Richard Denning) falls in love with Ann and vows to see to it that her show will be staged, come heck or high water. Jerry Colonna goes through his customary zaniness as an eccentric would-be backer who turns out to be a phony, while Barbara Jo Allen again trots out her dizzy "Vera Vague" characterization. Foremost among the skating acts in Ice-Capades Revue is Vera Hruba Ralston, who'd later be elevated to leading-lady status at Republic by her ardent admirer (and future husband), studio president Herbert J. Yates. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Flying Tigers were a group of American volunteer aviators, flying against the Japanese on behalf of General Claire Chennault and Chinese leader Chiang Kai-Shek in the months just prior to World War II. John Wayne is the most responsible of the bunch, and John Carroll the least. It's bad enough that Carroll tries to beat Wayne's time with pretty Red Cross nurse Anna Lee; but when Carroll's negligence results in the death of veteran-flyer Paul Kelly, the man becomes a pariah to the rest of the pilots. Unable to serve in World War II due to health reasons, John Wayne spent the duration licking the Japanese and the Germans in front of a Republic Studios process screen. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Sailors on Leave stars William Lundigan as sailor Chuck Stephens, who has borrowed so much money from his fellow gobs that he's in debt up to his eyelids. Chuck's shipmates decide to get even with him by arranging a "fake" marriage with cafe songstress Shirley Ross that turns out to be genuine. Naturally, the two despise each other, at least until fadeout time. Staving off the inevitable final clinch is a silly subplot involving stolen jewels. Shirley Ross, who three years before this Republic programmer was filmed had introduced "Thanks For the Memory" with Bob Hope in Big Broadcast of 1938 (38), is here paired with the ever-popular Bill Shirley in four forgettable musical interludes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi