William Tracy Movies
A professional actor since childhood, Philadelphia-born William Tracy came to Hollywood in his Broadway role as a military school "plebe" in Brother Rat (1938). Kept briefly under contract to Warner Bros, Tracy went on to play Pat O'Brien as a boy in the classic gangster saga Angels with Dirty Faces. The cherub-faced actor then went on to Hal Roach Studios, where he costarred in several "streamliners" (45 minute films, designed for double-feature bills) with Joe Sawyer. In such slick little comedies as Tanks a Million (1941), About Face (1941) and Yanks Ahoy (1942), Tracy played a rookie serviceman with a photographic memory, while Sawyer played his tough topkick. An attempt to recreate the team in 1951 with a pair of Lippert Studios quickies, As You Were! and Mister Walkie Talkie, sank without a trace. Tracy's other big-screen role of note was as Terry Lee in the serialized movie version of Milton Caniff's comic strip Terry and the Pirates (1940). William Tracy spent the remainder of his career in the '50s and '60s in small movie and TV supporting parts, save for a worthwhile costarring stint with John Russell in the popular 1955 syndicated TV adventure show Soldiers of Fortune. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1941
In 1941, producer Hal Roach abandoned production of full-length features in favor of a new concept: The "Streamliner", a four-reel film-halfway between a short subject and a feature-designed for the double-bill market. The first Roach streamliner was the timely service comedy Tanks a Million, previewed in August of 1941 and released by United Artists the following month. Chubby William Tracy starred as Dodo Doubleday, a feckless Army draftee blessed (or cursed) with a photographic memory. Inexplicably promoted to sergeant, Doubleday becomes the bane of topkick Sgt. Ames' (Joe Sawyer) existence. On the verge of being booted out of service because of his constant bumbling, Doubleday redeems himself by curing his commanding officer of a bad case of "mike fright" just before a network radio broadcast. At 50 minutes, Tanks a Million was one of the longer streamliners, and one of the best: it would spawn several William Tracy-Joe Sawyer sequels, including Hay Foot, About Face, Fall In and Yanks Ahoy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Tracy, James Gleason, (more)
- 1941
In this romantic comedy, a blue-blooded girl falls in love with a wealthy rake who wants to settle down and marry her. Unfortunately, the young woman's guardian and personal stockbroker refuses to sanction the match. This enrages the girl who decides to prove that she doesn't need a guardian by getting a job on Wall Street. Time passes and mayhem ensues until the lass realizes that she has fallen in love with her guardian. Her playboy lover, with great charm, defers to the new lover and leaves them to their happiness. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Bennett, Franchot Tone, (more)
In Hitchcock's rare foray into comedy (courtesy of a wittily risque script by Norman Krasna), Mr. Smith (Robert Montgomery) makes the mistake of telling Mrs. Smith (Carole Lombard) that if he had it to do all over again, he might not have married her. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Smith discovers that his marriage is invalid. Rather than say goodbye, the newly aroused Mr. Smith attempts to entice Mrs. Smith into the bedroom, thrilled at the prospect of an "illicit" romance. But Mrs. Smith has also been apprised that her marriage is no more--and, remembering Mr. Smith's "second thoughts", she kicks him out of the house. This comedy of misunderstanding rolls merrily along from this point onward, accommodating an uproarious scene at a fancy restaurant, a near-liaison between Mrs. Smith and new beau Gene Raymond on the World's Fair parachute jump, and a farcical denouement at a ski lodge, with Mrs. Smith's conjugally crossed skis symbolizing the carnal pleasures ahead for both Mr. and Mrs. Smith. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carole Lombard, Robert Montgomery, (more)
- 1941
America had not officially gone to war in November of 1941, but try telling that to the producers of the "preparedness" drama Cadet Girl. The title character is nightclub songstress Gene Baxter (Carole Landis), but the weight of the film rests on the shoulders of West Point cadet Tex Mallory (George Montgomery). Falling in love with Gene, Tex wants to marry her, even though this will force him to give up his military-academy appointment. Tex' innate patriotism is aroused by his bandleader brother Bob (John Sheppard, aka Sheppard Strudwick), Gene's boss, who writes a patriotic song called "Uncle Sam Gets Around." After a few bars of this flag-waving ditty, Tex realizes that his first duty is to his country, and he returns to West Point-but not before securing a promise from Gene that she'll wait for him until his tour of duty is over (little did she know that she'd have a four-year wait!). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carole Landis, George Montgomery, (more)
The Shop Around the Corner is adapted from the Hungarian play by Nikolaus (Miklos) Laszlo. Budapest gift-shop clerk Alfred Kralik (James Stewart) and newly hired shopgirl Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan) hate each other almost at first sight. Kralik would prefer the company of the woman with whom he is corresponding by mail but has never met. Novak likewise carries a torch for her male pen pal, whom she also has never laid eyes on. It doesn't take a PhD degree to figure out that Kralik and Novak have been writing letters to each other. The film's many subplots are carried by Frank Morgan as the kindhearted shopkeeper and by Joseph Schildkraut as a backstabbing employee whose comeuppance is sure to result in spontaneous applause from the audience. Directed with comic delicacy by Ernst Lubitsch, this was later remade in 1949 as In the Good Old Summertime, and in 1998 as You've Got Mail. It was also musicalized as the 1963 Broadway production She Loves Me. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, (more)
- 1940
Though its title suggests a war picture of some sort, MGM's Gallant Sons actually concerns the efforts of a group of kids to solve a murder. Young Johnny Davis (Gene Reynolds) is beside himself when his gambler father (Ian Hunter) is arrested for murder. In truth, Davis' pop is shielding several other people, whose reputations might have been ruined during his trial. Sensing that something is amiss, Johnny's pal Byron Newbold (Jackie Cooper) and his ragtag collection of tenement cronies play detective themselves to clear the elder Davis' name and trap the actual killer. Bonita Granville, at the time Jackie Cooper's girl friend, plays the only female member of the crime-solving gang. Coincidentally, Cooper, Granville and costar Gene Reynolds would later go into the production end of the business; in fact, in the early 1970s Reynolds would hire Cooper to direct an Emmy-winning episode of MASH. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jackie Cooper, Leo Gorcey, (more)
Best remembered today as the upwardly mobile errand boy in Ernst Lubitsch's The Shop Around the Corner (1940), busy juvenile actor William Tracy starred in the title-role of this popular action serial that very same year. Released in fifteen chapters by Columbia Pictures, Terry of the Pirates told of how young Terry Lee goes in search of his father (J. Paul Jones, who has vanished in the Asian jungles. Dr. Lee, it turns out, was kidnapped by the jungle pirates of Fang (Dick Curtis), a local warlord attempting to solve the secret of the Temple of Mara. Attacked by Fang, his henchman Stanton (Jack Ingram) and an army of Tiger Men, Terry and his friends, Pat Ryan (Granville Owens, Normandie Drake (Joyce Bryant and the beautiful Dragon Lady (Sheila Darcy), manage not only to locate the missing Dr. Lee but also the hidden treasure of Mara. Based on the 1934 comic strip by Milton Caniff, Terry and the Pirates was turned into a television series in 1952, this time with John Baer as Terry and William Tracy as comic relief character Hot Shot Charlie. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1940
Hey, gang! Let's put on a swell show and call it Strike Up the Band! Yes, it's the irrepressible Mickey Rooney, teamed up again with Judy Garland to show the grownups how to do things right. This time, Rooney wants to organize a high-school band. He hopes to enter a competition being held in Chicago by the great orchestra leader Paul Whiteman; all he needs is two hundred dollars for train fare. To raise the money, Rooney, Garland and company stage a student "mellerdrammer" that in real life would have cost the equivalent of a third-world-nation annual budget. They get the dough, but soft-hearted Rooney turns over the money to the mother of student musician Larry Nunn, who is in desperate need of emergency surgery. It looks hopeless until, luck of luck, Paul Whiteman arrives in Rooney's town. The original George and Ira Gershwin Broadway musical Strike Up the Band was a satire of warfare, with America declaring war on Switzerland in order to corner the chocolate industry. You'll see none of that subversive stuff in this MGM musical; instead, we are treated to such highlights as a George Pal animated sequence involving dancing fruit. It ain't profound, but Strike Up the Band is sure entertaining. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, (more)
- 1939
No relation to the 1932 W.C. Fields comedy of the same name, Million Dollar Legs is a college picture starring most of Paramount's younger contract players. The college is in financial trouble, so the students pin their hopes on a race horse--the "million dollar legs" of the title. As it turns out, the college's salvation rests with its rowing team, captained by Jackie Coogan (who was once upon a time a leading-man type). At the time Million Dollar Legs was made, Coogan was married to his costar, Betty Grable. A few years later, Grable would parlay her own lovely legs into a career worth several millions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Betty Grable, John Hartley, (more)
- 1939
The Jones family goes to Tinseltown in this entry in the series. They go so Father can attend an American Legion meeting. While there, the daughter has a terrible screen test. Later the family visits a movie studio and chaos ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Childhood chums Rocky Sullivan (James Cagney) and Jerry Connelly (Pat O'Brien) grow up on opposite sides of the fence: Rocky matures into a prominent gangster, while Jerry becomes a priest, tending to the needs of his old tenement neighborhood. Rocky becomes a hero to a gang of teenaged boys (played by Dead End Kids Billy Halop, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell, Bobby Jordan and Bernard Punsley). Father Jerry despairs at this, asking Rocky to lay off so he can keep the kids on the straight and narrow. Then Rocky's crooked business associates George Bancroft and Humphrey Bogart attempt to end Father Jerry's radio campaign against the rackets by killing the priest. Rocky (whose cynical outlook on life has been softened by his romance with true-blue Anne Sheridan) shoots them down and takes it on the lam. Arrested and convicted of murder, Rocky sits smugly on death row, fully intending to go to the chair with a smile on his face. A few moments before the execution, Father Jerry pleads with Rocky to "turn yellow" so that the tenement kids will despise his memory. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, (more)
- 1938
In this lively comedy, three young hell-raisers enroll in the Virginia Military Institute and have a hard time staying out of trouble. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Priscilla Lane, Wayne Morris, (more)
