Mel Tormé Movies

Alongside performance footage of the likes of Mel Torme and The Bob Cats, this edition of Swing Era highlights five numbers by blind pianist George Shearing, such as "Move," "I'll Be Around," and "I'll Never Smile Again." Released by Idem Home Video, the series includes classic performances by the some of the 20th century's most popular big-band and jazz artists. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Colonel Breckinridge Marshall (Walter Catlett) of Clearwater, GA -- who puts on a big front but is actually only a step away from the poor house -- rents a luxurious townhouse in Manhattan in anticipation of the Carnegie Hall debut of his two daughters, singer Melinda (Gloria Jean) and pianist/singer Susannah (Martha O'Driscoll). But on their first night there, they hear strange noises and other disturbances, including the sound of someone tap-dancing -- Susannah runs for help to the next building, which turns out to be a nightclub where Olsen (Ole Olsen) and Johnson (Chic Johnson) are working, and finds herself in the middle of one of their "nut humor" Hellzapoppin'-style sketches. The two comics try to make amends by helping her out and find themselves up to their neck in strange warnings ("First is worst"), noises, and bizarre, ghostly apparations seemingly from nowhere, and alleged ghostly goings on. They eventually figure out that the house once belonged to one Wilbur Duffington, a wealthy ne'er-do-well out of New York's "gilded age" whose main hobbies were tap-dancing and drinking plum brandy, before he fell from a third-story window in the year 1900 at a party he was throwing. The boys reason that Wilbur, if he is there, might want to finish the party he was having the night he died; when that doesn't work, they reason out that he had to be a real square because he died in 1900, and so they bring in a swing band and a bunch of jitterbug dancers to drive him out -- that seems to do the trick, the ghost seemingly departing. But then the noises continue and the Marshalls are at their wits' end, until Olsen and Johnson accidentally discover far more sinister goings on, involving a band of criminals who have already committed one murder, something in that house worth killing for, and a plan to eliminate the Marshall family. Before it's over, a pitched battle ensues between the heroes and a band of costumed thugs (including a pair of ill-tempered dwarves), and a race against time to get the Marshall girls to a performance on time to save their careers, plus the unmasking of the man behind all of the mayhem, all intermixed with lots of Olsen and Johnson's patented nut-humor and the presence of a pre-Sky King Kirby Grant leading a band, singing, and playing a violin. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Let's Go Steady was Columbia's annual "audition" musical, spotlighting the studio's latest crop of young contractees. Cheated out of their bankroll by a phony music publisher, a group of talented youngsters come to New York, hoping to promote their songs with their own, self-stage musical revue. Trouble is, none of the big-time bandleaders want to risk utilizing unknowns. Thus, the kids persuade a GI band to showcase their tunes, thereby attracting big-time support from various Broadway bigwigs. Standing out among the youthful cast members are June Preisser, Arnold Stang, and a personable singer-drummer named Mel Torme. Screenwriter Erna Lazarus manages to work in a plug for Columbia's Cover Girl, while director Del Lord, a graduate of the studio's Three Stooges comedies, finds a spot for perennial Stooge supporting player Vernon Dent. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this sequel to the 1944 teenage comedy Janie, Joan Leslie replaces Joyce Reynolds in the title role, playing the virtuous but amorous daughter of Edward Arnold and Ann Harding. Janie marries the soldier (Robert Hutton) she'd met in the earlier film, hoping to help him set the course of a successful civilian life. Robert Benchley (who'd died the year before this film was released) is a delight as the husband's dry-witted stepfather, doing his best to help the young couple in spite of themselves. Complications ensue when hubby's former girl friend (Dorothy Malone) shows up. Janie Gets Married ends with the old flame extinguished and Janie and her husband in each other's arms. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The life stories of Broadway tunesmiths Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart are prettified for the screen in MGM's Words and Music. Billed fourth, the colorless Tom Drake plays Rodgers, but never mind that: the film belongs to Mickey Rooney, as the dynamic, self-destructive Lorenz Hart. Understandably, Hart's bisexuality is downplayed. According to MGM, his biggest problem in life is that he was never satisfied with his work. We are, however, especially when those great Rodgers & Hart tunes are performed by the likes of Judy Garland, Janet Leigh, Perry Como, Lena Horne, June Allyson, Cyd Charisse, Betty Garrett, Ann Sothern, Mel Torme, Allyn McLerie, Gene Kelly and Vera-Ellen. The musical highlights include Garland's powerhouse rendition of Johnny One-Note, Kelly's Slaughter on 10th Avenue dance solo, Horne's interpretation of Where or When, Allyson's take on Thou Swell, and, best of all, Rooney's premiere performance of I'll Take Manhattan, which he allegedly had just written on the back of an automobile advertisement! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a Korean war veteran, a victim of brainwashing while he was a POW, finally goes back to his home in Washington, DC, where he resumes his job at a public relations-opinion research firm. He soon discovers that his company is being run by communists after his partner mysteriously died. Now pro-communist propaganda seems to be their primary business. To stop them, the vet begins cooperating in a full-scale Senate investigation. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This sexually explicit, low-budget film makes no pretensions about being anything other than offensive. There is no plot since none is especially necessary. Director Charles Haas (his last film was the following year), opens with a scene of sexually active men and women at a party. Then one of these women, Silver Morgan (Mamie Van Doren), is mistakenly accused of a crime and sent to an institution, run by Catholic nuns, for wayward young women. As it turns out, the inmates in the institution actually run it through sadistic means. One of them is even more seriously mentally disturbed than the others, and so the nuns welcome her as a novitiate, making even a non-Catholic viewer grimace. The content of this story, such as it is, is made all the worse by an accompanying disregard of the craft of filmmaking. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This parody of Genesis caused an uproar before and during its release (the final version was reworked and cut) though its routine or worse cinematic level would not encourage large audiences. The story begins with a busload of men and women with hang-ups in the romance department, all heading for Reno. A sudden rainstorm brings on flooding, and the passengers have to hole up in a church. That setting, apparently, suggests the skewed "dream" of Genesis that follows. The Catholic Legion of Decency gave this film a Condemned rating. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Toward the end of Jerry Lewis's Paramount studio period, Lewis slapped together this bitter comedy about Hollywood phoniness and fame that has to be the most rancid portrait of the Hollywood star system in the Rat Pack era this side of Clifford Odets. When a famous entertainer suddenly is killed in an airplane crash, his team of flunkies -- producer Caryl Fergusson (Everett Sloane), writer Chic Wymore (Phil Harris), press agent Harry Silver (Keenan Wynn), director Morgan Heywood (Peter Lorre in his final film role), valet Bruce Alden (John Carradine), and secretary Ellen Betz (Ina Balin) -- decide to continue their life style by finding a complete unknown and manufacturing him into a Hollywood star. That unknown turns out to be the nervous and inept bellboy Stanley Belt (Jerry Lewis). They train Stanley to become an over-night singing sensation, and despite a disastrous recording session and a failed nightclub performance, the public relations blitz makes Stanley's recording of "I Lost My Heart in a Drive-In Movie" a smash single. So much so that Stanley is given a shot at appearing on "The Ed Sullivan Show." Expecting the worst, Stanley's management team abandons him right before his performance. But Stanley musters up enough confidence to go on the live program alone and manages to surprise his pessimistic ex-staff. A collection of Hollywood celebrities circa 1964 --George Raft, Ed Wynn, Ed Sullivan, Mel Torme, Rhonda Fleming and Hedda Hopper -- make cameo appearances. High spots include an apocalyptic music lesson with voice teacher Dr. Mule-rrr (Hans Conried), Ed Sullivan performing a bizarre impersonation of himself, and an ending that would make even Jean-Luc Godard blush. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Mel Torme guests in this episode as an out-of-work songwriter named Mel Tinker. When Lucy takes a job as secretary to record-company executive Barney Miller (Lou Krugman), she tries to arrange a recording session for Mel. Alas, the songwriter is woefully behind the times and doesn't know how to pen a rock-and-roll tune--or at least, he didn't know how until Lucy gives him a few pointers. Mel Torme performs his own compositions "Whatever Happened to the Moon?", "My Trousseau" and "Wingding". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A star-studded cast invigorates this film of a jazz trumpeter (Sammy Davis Jr.) who experiences both the prejudices of the music industry and terrible guilt following the traffic accident that killed his family, a tragedy he feels personally responsible for. Co-stars include several giants of jazz and popular music: Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Ossie Davis, and Mel Tormé, as well as Peter Lawford and Cicely Tyson. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide