Arthur Treacher Movies

Long resistant to film adaptations of her Mary Poppins books, P.L. Travers finally succumbed to the entreaties of Walt Disney, and the result is often considered the finest of Disney's personally supervised films. The Travers stories are bundled together to tell the story of the Edwardian-era British Banks family: the banker father (David Tomlinson), suffragette mother (Glynis Johns), and the two "impossible" children (Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber). The kids get the attention of their all-business father by bedevilling every new nanny in the Banks household. Whem Mr. Banks advertises conventionally for another nanny, the kids compose their own ad, asking for someone with a little kindness and imagination. Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews in her screen debut) answers the children's ad by arriving at the Banks home from the skies, parachuting downward with her umbrella. She immediately endears herself to the children. The next day they meet Mary's old chum Bert (Dick Van Dyke), currently employed as a sidewalk artist. Mary, Bert, and the children hop into one of Bert's chalk drawings and learn the nonsense song "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" in a cartoon countryside. Later, they pay a visit to Bert's Uncle Albert (Ed Wynn), who laughs so hard that he floats to the ceiling. Mr. Banks is pleased that his children are behaving better, but he's not happy with their fantastic stories. To show the children what the real world is like, he takes them to his bank. A series of disasters follow which result in his being fired from his job. Mary Poppins' role in all this leads to some moments when it is possible to fear that all her good work will be undone, but like the magical being she is, all her "mistakes" lead to a happy result by the end of the film. In 2001, Mary Poppins was rereleased in a special "sing-along" edition with subtitles added to the musical numbers so audiences could join in with the onscreen vocalists. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In the conclusion of a two-part story arc, Pinckney the butler (played by the ineluctable Arthur Treacher) demands that his employer, Mr. Drysdale, present him with a ticket back to England. In flashback, Pinckney details his futile efforts to bring "culture" to the Clampett family. Foremost among his complaints is the fact that Granny insists upon treating him as a boarder rather than a servant. "The Boarder Stays" originally aired on December 16, 1964. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Love That Brute is a remake of the 1942 comedy Tall, Dark and Handsome. In the original, Cesar Romero starred as a soft-hearted 1920s gangster who manages to maintain a reputation as a dangerous character, even though he's never killed anyone in his life. In the remake, Romero is cast as Pretty Willie, the principal villain, while the starring role is essayed by Paul Douglas. Falling in love with Ruth Manning (Jean Peters), the pretty recreation director of the city's park system, "Big Ed" Hanley (Douglas) hires Ruth as the governess for his children. Trouble is, he has no children, so he dispatches his faithful henchman Bugs (Keenan Wynn) to find him a kid. Meanwhile, "Big Ed" tilts with arch-enemy Pretty Willie, gaining the upper hand when it appears that "Big Ed" has bumped off several of Willie's lieutenants. Discovering that her boss is a gangster, Ruth is about to walk out on him--and then, the truth behind Ed's phony "killer instinct" is hilariously revealed. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This musical tells the tales of two movie extras who abscond to an expensive resort with their costumes and pretend to be aristocrats. Included in the film are ice skating numbers and songs. Songs include: "The Friendly Polka," "Count Your Blessings," and "Who Believes in Santa Claus." ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Long before he became the foremost purveyor of ultra-realistic melodramas, writer/producer/director Andrew Stone turned out a handful of screwball comedies like Fun on a Weekend. Eddie Bracken stars as P. P. Porterhouse III, who despite his triple-barrelled monicker is flat broke. Long on ideas but short on self-confidence, Porterhouse teams up with Nancy Crane (Priscilla Lane), who has the push and fortitude to turn our heroe's grandiose dreams into reality. Posing as a fabulously wealthy married couple, Porterhouse and Nancy mingle with the rich and famous at a fancy summer resort, ever on the prowl of financial backers. Porterhouse, however, nearly drops the facade when he becomes jealous of the attentions paid to Nancy by suave playboy Van (Tom Conway). Fun on a Weekend cheerfully throws logic to the winds in favor of slapstick and whimsy. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Though on its last legs, Universal's "B"-musical unit continued grinding out tune-filled quickies like Swing Out, Sister well into 1946. Universal cowboy star Rod Cameron plays Geoffrey, conductor of a high-toned symphony orchestra. Secretly harboring the desire to become a swingin' jazz trumpeter, Geoffrey takes a job at a "hot" Broadway nightclub. Here he meets and falls in love with café songstress Donna (Frances Raeburn), who has led her family to believe that she's studying for a classical-music career. Meanwhile, a comedy-relief romance develops between Geoffrey's snooty valet Chumley (Arthur Treacher) and Donna's best pal Pat (Jacqueline De Wit). For those not interested in the plot (what there is of it), Swing Out, Sister includes specialty numbers by organist Selika Pettiford and the Lou Diamond Quintet. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A musical comedy star whose career is just starting to take off returns home from military school. En route, he meets a pretty girl whom he begins to woo. Unfortunately his hometown girl friend is waiting for him at the station and typical romantic mayhem ensues amidst many lively songs and dances. Songs include: "Is It Good or Is It Bad?" "Mighty Nice to Have Met You," "Spelling Prep," "I Gotta Give My Feet A Break," "Love Is Like Music," "My Song," and "Sailor Song." ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

For their first film in a year, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello played it safe with a medley of old burlesque routines and slapstick setpieces -- and never mind a coherent plot. The boys play Eddie and Albert, a pair of plumbers hired to fix the pipes of a fancy society mansion. While a masquerade party takes place on the first floor, our heroes wreak havoc in the bathroom on the second floor. The angry owners (Thurston Hall, Netta Packer) shoot off a letter of complaint to the plumbers which gets mixed up with an invitation for a fancy weekend party. Thus it is that Eddie and Albert, accompanied by their female cab-driving pal Elsie (Marion Hutton), show up dressed to the nines at a posh country estate. While the boys get mixed up in further comic complications, Elsie carries on a romance with wealthy and handsome Peter (Kirby Grant). Things come to a head when a valuable painting is stolen, prompting Eddie and Albert to chase after the thieves by commandeering a fire engine! Released in most areas simply as In Society, this slapped-together comedy proved beyond all doubt that Abbott and Costello's appeal had not slipped during their screen absence. Highlights include a variation on the burlesque chestnut "Floogel Street" (here renamed "The Susquehanna Hat Company"), a wild and crazy fox hunt, and the climactic fire-engine pursuit, which was lifted virtually in toto from W.C. Fields' Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The 80-star cast of Forever and a Day would certainly not have been feasible had not most of the actors and production people turned over their salaries to British war relief -- a point driven home during the lengthy opening credits by an unseen narrator. The true star of the film is a stately old manor house in London, built in 1804 by a British admiral (C. Aubrey Smith) and blitzed in 1940 by one Adolf Hitler. Through the portals of this house pass a vast array of Britons, from high-born to low. The earliest scenes involve gay blade Lt. William Trimble (Ray Milland), wronged country-girl Susan (Anna Neagle), and wicked landowner Ambrose Pomfret (Claude Rains). We move on to a comic interlude involving dotty Mr. Simpson (Reginald Owen), eternally drunken butler Bellamy (Charles Laughton), and cockney plumbers Mr. Dabb (Cedric Hardwicke) and Wilkins (Buster Keaton). Maidservant Jenny (Ida Lupino) takes over the plot during the Boer War era, while the World War I sequence finds the house converted into a way-station for soldiers (including Robert Cummings) and anxious families (including Roland Young and Gladys Cooper). Finally we arrive in 1940, with American Gates Pomfret (Kent Smith) and lady-of-the-house Lesley Trimble (Ruth Warrick) surveying the bombed-out manor, and exulting over the fact that the portrait of the home's founder, Adm. Eustace Trimble (Smith), has remained intact -- symbolic proof of England's durability in its darkest hours. The huge cast includes Dame May Whitty, Edward Everett Horton, Wendy Barrie, Merle Oberon, Nigel Bruce, Richard Haydn, Donald Crisp, and a host of others -- some appearing in sizeable roles, others (like Arthur Treacher and Patric Knowles) willingly accepting one-scene bits, simply to participate in the undertaking. Seven directors and 21 writers were also swept up in the project. Forever and a Day was supposed to have been withdrawn from circulation after the war and its prints destroyed so that no one could profit from what was supposed to have been an act of industry charity. Happily for future generations, prints have survived and are now safely preserved. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this remake of the 1926 silent hit (which was in turn based on a hit musical from 1919), Anna Neagle stars as Irene O'Dare, an Irish girl of humble beginnings who comes to New York in search of work. She finds a place as a shopgirl at a fashionable and expensive boutique managed by Mr. Smith (Roland Young). Irene does well at her new job and soon finds that two wealthy men are vying for her affections. Don Marshall (Ray Milland), the owner of the store, is much attracted to Irene, but so is socialite Bob Vincent (Alan Marshal), which does not come as a pleasant surprise to Eleanor Worth (Marsha Hunt), Bob's sweetheart. Irene features several (but not all) of the songs from the original stage production, including "Castle of Dreams", "Worthy of You", "You've Got Me out on a Limb", and "There's Something in the Air". The "Alice Blue Gown" number was shot in Technicolor, while the remainder of the film is in black and white. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The gathering war clouds in the late 1930s prompted a number of Hollywood films about recent political upheavals, one of which was 20th Century-Fox's Barricade. While fleeing war-torn China by train, two Americans-singer Emmy Jordan (Alice Faye) and journalist Hank Topping (Warner Baxter)-are attacked by Mongol bandits. United in danger, Faye and Baxter fall in love as they attempt to escape the American embassy where they're holed up. More than one reviewer noted that Barricade resembled a modern-dress western, with the Mongol hordes substituting for American Indians. Also noted was the fact that the film had been completed as a nine-reel "A" picture in 1938, undergoing drastic cutting and script revisions before it finally emerged in its present truncated 71-minute form. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Shirley Temple's first Technicolor feature, The Little Princess was inspired by the oft-filmed novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Set in turn-of-the-century England, the film finds Temple being enrolled in a boarding school by her wealthy widowed father (Ian Hunter), who must head off to fight in the Boer War. At first, Temple is treated like royalty; her behavior couldn't be more down to earth, but this preferential treatment foments resentment. When her father is reported killed in the war, circumstances are severely altered. The spiteful headmistress (Mary Nash) relegates Temple to servant status and forces the girl to sleep in a drafty attic. She keeps her spirits up by hoping against hope that her father will return, and to that end she haunts the corridors of a nearby military hospital. Queen Victoria doesn't have to make a guest appearance in the tearfully joyous closing sequence, but it does serve as icing on the cake to this, one of Temple's most enjoyable feature films. Reliable Shirley Temple flick supporting actors Cesar Romero and Arthur Treacher are back in harness in The Little Princess, while adult leading lady Anita Louise figures prominently in a sugary dream sequence. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Two imprisoned con men become ace football players on the prison team in this comedy. They get into real trouble when the duo decides to bust out to keep the mother of a fellow inmate from getting conned by a gang of crooks. When the warden finds out, he is steaming mad because he has bet his entire fortune on an upcoming game and without his two stars, the team will surely lose. Fortunately for him, the two hustle back to prison and get there just in time to win the Big Game. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi