The Vagabonds Movies
Art Linkletter had only recently taken over the popular audience-participation radio series People are Funny from Art Baker when he appeared as "himself" in this lighthearted musical comedy. The film's plot concerns a rivalry between two radio producers, both of whom want to produce a weekly radio series in which audience members indulge in silly stunts for huge cash prizes. A romance develops between supposedly slow-on-the-uptake radio producer Pinky Wilson (Jack Haley) and writer Corey Sullivan (Helen Walker), while wealthy sponsor Ormsby Jamison (Rudy Vallee) tries to determine if People are Funny is a saleable concept. Ozzie Nelson costars as Wilson's business rival, Frances Langford shows up for a song, and future 3 Stooges member Joe DeRita has a funny bit as a contestant. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Haley, Helen Walker, (more)
- 1945
Sam White, brother of Columbia Pictures' 2-reel-comedy maven Jules White, served as producer of the quickie Columbia musical Tahiti Nights. The lissome Jinx Falkenberg plays Tahitian princess Luana, who is promised in marriage to American bandleader Jack (Dave O'Brien). Luana is delighted by the arrangement, but Jack is less enchanted, and he spends most of the film trying to wriggle out of the wedding. In the meantime, Luana and a chorus line of sun-kissed sweeties dance to such tunes as "Let Me Love You Tonight," which in 1945 was a Hit Parade favorite. Featured in the cast of Tahiti Nights is hefty Hawaiian nightclub entertainer and radio star Hilo Hattie, who brightened many an otherwise dreary tropical musical of the 1940s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jinx Falkenburg, Dave "Tex" O'Brien, (more)
- 1944
Musical star Ann Miller plays a Broadway leading lady coaxed into reteaming with Larry Parks, her former producer. Parks is now a lowly Army G.I., anxious to produce a show for the troops--with a 200 dollar budget! This being a wartime musical, Ann Miller succumbs to Patriotism and stars in Parks' threadbare production. This being a Hollywood film, the "inexpensive" revue cost several times as much as any real-life show of this nature. Hey Rookie proved a boon to the Columbia publicity department when Ann Miller set a tap-dance record of 550 taps per minute in her climactic musical number. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Miller, Larry Parks, (more)
- 1943
In this musical, a lovely and ambitious young woman masquerades as the daughter of a formerly beloved stage actress to help launch her Broadway career. She chooses one entertainment columnist in particular. But the starlet's carefully-made plans begin to unravel when a rival columnist learns of her ruse and tries to expose her. Songs include: "Let's March Together" (Saul Chaplin), "I Bumped My Head on a Star" (Cindy Walker), "Honk, Honk" (Roy Jacobs, Gene De Paul), "Timber Timber" (Don Reid, Henry Tobias), "Moon on My Pillow" (Charles, Henry, Elliot Tobias). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jinx Falkenburg, Tom Neal, (more)
- 1943
In one of their most genial comedies -- based on a Damon Runyon story -- Bud Abbott and Lou Costello have to help one friend (Cecil Kellaway) replace his beloved carriage horse, and another friend (Leightno Noble) put together a US Army camp show. Through a misunderstanding, they take what they think is a worthless nag from a racetrack stall, only to discover that they've actually stolen "Tea Biscuit," the world's greatest racehorse. Not only are the authorities after the pair -- who try to hide the horse in their hotel room -- but so is freelance trouble-shooter Eugene Pallette (who already has had one unrelated run-in with the boys), and complicating matters even further are three racetrack touts (led by Shemp Howard) who want to cash in on the mistake. Grace McDonald and Patsy O'Connor), along with bandleader Noble and the Step Brothers, provide the music and dancing in this wild romp, that takes us from New York's Central Park to the racetrack at Saratoga. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, (more)
Battling Hoofer is the reissue title of the 1936 James Cagney vehicle Something to Sing About. Cagney plays Terry Rooney, a New York bandleader who heads to Hollywood when he is offered a movie contract. The down-to-Earth Rooney resists the "star treatment," an attitude misinterpreted by movie executive Bennett O. Regan (Gene Lockhart) as arrogance. When Terry's first film is a hit, Regan orders everyone involved to keep its success a secret from Terry, lest he develop a swelled head! (We don't believe it either.) The best sequence has Rooney chewing out his Asian houseboy, Ito (Philip Ahn), whereupon he drops his "So solly" pidgin English and begins talking like a Harvard professor! Terry gets to romance newcomer Evelyn Daw, as well as veteran vamp Mona Barrie; he also gets to participate in several lively dance numbers. Something to Sing About was the second of Jimmy Cagney's films for Poverty Row studio Grand National: the production values and snappy script work that he might have enjoyed at Warner Bros. are noticeably lacking, but Cagney is always fun to watch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Cagney, Evelyn Daw, (more)
