Buddy Ebsen Movies

The Broadway Melody of 1936 was designed as the first of many annual follow-ups to "MGM"'s early-talkie triumph Broadway Melody (1929). Jack Benny is atypically cast as a Walter Winchell type who carries on a feud with Broadway producer Robert Taylor. Into this fray comes Taylor's childhood sweetheart Eleanor Powell, who wants to play a role in Taylor's upcoming production. Already under fire from Benny for exhibiting favoritism, Taylor says no. Powell gets into the show anyway, disguising herself as a celebrated Parisian stage star. The film's song highlights (one of them sung by Robert Taylor!) include "I've Got a Feeling You're Fooling", "Broadway Rhythm", and a holdover from the original Broadway Melody, "You Are My Lucky Star." Spotlighted in several numbers is the song 'n' dance team of Buddy and Vilma Ebsen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A never-completed stage musical was the source for the MGM superproduction Born to Dance. The plot is another three-sailors-on-leave affair, with Ted (James Stewart), Mush (Buddy Ebsen) and Gunny (Sid Silvers, who also co-wrote the script) romancing the eminently romanceable Nora (Eleanor Powell), Peppy (Frances Langford) and Jenny (Una Merkel). Nora aspires to become a dancing star, but her career nearly ends before it begins when she inadvertently comes between Broadway luminary Lucy James (Virginia Bruce) and her producer-lover McKay (Alan Dinehart). If anyone watching back in 1936 really cared about the plot, they probably weren't music lovers. The lovely Cole Porter score (his first written directly for the screen) includes "I've Got You Under My Skin", sung by Virginia Bruce to James Stewart, and "Easy to Love", warbled by Stewart to Eleanor Powell. Highlights include Reginald Gardiner's impersonation of a symphony-conducting traffic cop (a routine he'd previously performed on stage) and Eleanor Powell's climactic tap routine on board an art-deco battleship (a sequence later re-deployed for the climax of 1944's I Dood It). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This third entry in MGM's "Broadway Melody" series may not have been the biggest or best, but thanks to a masterpiece of casting it is one of the most memorable of the batch. Signed by MGM in 1935, 15-year-old Judy Garland made her first feature-film appearance under the aegis of Leo the Lion, immediately capturing the hearts of moviegoers everywhere by singing "You Made Me Love You" to a photograph of Clark Gable (a sequence that has since been excerpted countless times in TV and movie documentaries). She later shares a song-and-dance number with gangly Buddy Ebsen, making an impressive entrance in a white midget car (Ebsen would later be cast as the Tin Man in Judy's The Wizard of Oz, only to be replaced by Jack Haley when he fell ill during shooting). The presence of Garland, coupled with several superlative dance solos by Eleanor Powell and a spectacular musical finale, tends to make one forget about the plot, which has something to do with a racehorse owned by heroine Sally Lee (Powell). The horse wins the Grand Steeplechase, the prize money is poured into the stage production previously bankrolled by Steve Raleigh (Robert Taylor), and the Show Goes On. Movies fans of the 1930s with long memories were gratified to see such old vaudeville favorites as Sophie Tucker and Willie Howard in the cast, even if their material wasn't quite up to standard. Interestingly, one of the best comic turns is performed by "professional sneezer" Robert Wildhack -- leaving another famed movie sneezer, Billy Gilbert, with virtually nothing to do! On the other hand, Robert Benchley is his usual droll self, managing to score a comic bullseye despite all the lavish and noisy competition around him. Broadway Melody of 1938 was followed by a 1940 sequel, distinguished by the "challenge dance" between returnee Eleanor Powell and Fred Astaire. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Sidney Howard/Paul de Kruf Broadway play Yellow Jack was transferred to the screen by MGM in 1938. The film is set at the turn of the century, when yellow fever was the Number One killer in Latin America. Army doctors Lewis Stone, Charles Coburn and Stanley Ridges gather in Cuba to attempt to find the cause and cure of the dreaded disease. Five US soldiers--Robert Montgomery, Buddy Ebsen, Alan Curtis, Sam Levene and William Henry--volunteer to expose themselves to yellow fever as a means to test the experimental vaccines. In a very well handled close-up setpiece, the audience discovers long before the medical staff that the humble mosquito is the disease carrier. The "Let me be the first to die" brand of heroics is sometimes hard to take, but otherwise Yellow Jack is inspiring entertainment in the grand old Hollywood tradition. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This hospital drama chronicles the exploits of four nursing students enrolled in a three-year training course. One of them decides that she will have a brilliant young doctor, but then she changes her mind and begins pursuing a wealthy playboy. Unfortunately, the playboy loves another nurse. A railroad disaster interrupts the romantic shenanigans. Later the flaky nurse and the doctor get married. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The third and definitive film adaptation of L. Frank Baum's 1900 children's fantasy, this musical adventure is a genuine family classic that made Judy Garland a star for her heartfelt performance as Dorothy Gale, an orphaned young girl unhappy with her drab black-and-white existence on her aunt and uncle's dusty Kansas farm. Dorothy yearns to travel "over the rainbow" to a different world, and she gets her wish when a tornado whisks her and her little dog, Toto, to the Technicolorful land of Oz. Having offended the Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton), Dorothy is protected from the old crone's wrath by the ruby slippers that she wears. At the suggestion of Glinda, the Good Witch of the North (Billie Burke), Dorothy heads down the Yellow Brick Road to the Emerald City, where dwells the all-powerful Wizard of Oz, who might be able to help the girl return to Kansas. En route, she befriends a Scarecrow (Ray Bolger), a Tin Man (Jack Haley), and a Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr). The Scarecrow would like to have some brains, the Tin Man craves a heart, and the Lion wants to attain courage; hoping that the Wizard will help them too, they join Dorothy on her odyssey to the Emerald City.

Garland was MGM's second choice for Dorothy after Shirley Temple dropped out of the project; and Bolger was to have played the Tin Man but talked co-star Buddy Ebsen into switching roles. When Ebsen proved allergic to the chemicals used in his silver makeup, he was replaced by Haley. Gale Sondergaard was originally to have played the Wicked Witch of the West in a glamorous fashion, until the decision was made to opt for belligerent ugliness, and the Wizard was written for W.C. Fields, who reportedly turned it down because MGM couldn't meet his price. Although Victor Fleming, who also directed Gone With the Wind, was given sole directorial credit, several directors were involved in the shooting, included King Vidor, who shot the opening and closing black-and-white sequences. Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg's now-classic Oscar-winning song "Over the Rainbow" was nearly chopped from the picture after the first preview because it "slowed down the action." The Wizard of Oz was too expensive to post a large profit upon initial release; however, after a disappointing reissue in 1955, it was sold to network television, where its annual showings made it a classic. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this patriotic war drama, a unit of Army recruits train for a parachute corps. One is an arrogant football star who finds jumping a kick. Another is a coward who eventually finds his courage. Finally there is a chronic bumbler. The coward and jock find themselves competing for the affections of an indecisive young woman. The filmmakers of this movie paid careful attention to detail and was made with the cooperation of the 501st Parachute Battalion at Fort Benning, Georgia using actual paratroopers. The viewer is taken through every stage of a jump including folding the chute at the beginning. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Under Mexicali Stars spotlights Republic's newest singing cowboy, Rex Allen. Our hero plays a U.S. treasury agent, hot on the trail of gold smugglers. It's a plot as old as the movies itself, but Allen was a fresh new personality in 1950, thus the film takes on some of his freshness. Besides, the methods utilized by the smugglers are intriguing, especially to the coin collectors in the audiences. Republic's all-purpose leading lady Dorothy Patrick co-stars. Under Mexicali Stars manages to evenly balance its action highlights and musical numbers, to everyone's satisfaction. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"Arizona Cowboy" Rex Allen and his faithful horse Koko head the cast of Republic's Utah Wagon Train. Allen plays a modern-day cowpoke who agrees to shepherd a group of Easterners along the same route used by a long-ago wagon train. The purpose is to hopefully locate a fortune in gold, left behind by the original pilgrims. There's something suspicious about the whole enterprise: for starters, Rex's uncle is killed just before he was to join the expedition. The plot gradually evolves into a murder mystery, complete with the Least Likely Suspect who turns out to be the killer. Penny Edwards co-stars as the pert heroine who instigates the reconstructed wagon train, while Buddy Ebsen once more proves to be a suitable sidekick for the personable Rex Allen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Republic singing cowboy Rex Allen is once again teamed with bucolic Buddy Ebsen in Thunder in God's Country. This contemporary western casts Ebsen and Harry Lauter as WW II pals who meet for a reunion in a corruption-ridden community. When a murder occurs, the former servicemen immediately fall under suspicion. Coming to the rescue is Allen, a professional artist on assignment in the West. Our Hero soon learns that the key to the mystery is a taped recording of the genuine killer. Well, one can't say that Thunder in God's Country didn't at least try to be different. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

On paper, Red Garters sounds like a wonderful idea: a raucous spoof of westerns, done up in the stylized fashion of a Broadway musical. Rosemary Clooney and Guy Mitchell, both popular recording stars of the era, head the cast as Calaveras Kate and Reb Randall, while Jack Carson is on hand as wheeler-dealer frontier lawyer Jason Carberry. The plot, which hardly matters, concerns Reb Randall's efforts to find out who was responsible for his brother's death. The film's basic joke is that none of the traditional western cliches come to fruition: the bad guys outdraw the good guys, the damsel-in-distress isn't rescued in the nick of time, and so on. Also, this may well be the first sagebrush satire in which the male characters doff their hats respectfully when mentioning "The Code of the West" (it certainly wasn' t the last!) To emphasize the unreality of the entire project, the backgrounds are designed impressionistically, like an animated cartoon. Red Garters might have worked better as the closing production number on a TV variety program than a 91-minute feature film; even so, everyone involved (especially tunesmiths Jay Livingston and Ray Evans) deserves credit for trying something different. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The jewel in the crown of the TV anthology Disneyland's first season was the phenominally successful three-part miniseries Davy Crockett, an entertaining mixture of fact and legend surrounding fabled frontiersman Davy Crockett (Fess Parker). All three episodes were originally introduced with series host-producer Walt Disney reading a chapter from Davy Crockett's Journal, whereupon a series of semi-animated tableaux faded into the live-action portion of the program. In Episode One, civilian Indian Fighter Davy Crockett proves indispensible to both British and American armed forces with his unorthodox but effective methods of lessening the threat of Indian attack. Eventually, Davy and his pal George Russel (Buddy Ebsen) are assigned to track down the fearsome Chief Red Stick (Pat Hogan), in hopes of bring peace to the territory once and for all. Captured by Red Stick's warriors, Davy earns the Chief's respect by beating him in hand-to-hand combat, thereby proving himself as effective a man of peace as a man of war. Among other achievements, this episode introduced one of the biggest hit songs of the 1950s, "The Ballad of Davy Crockett"--and also transformed Davy's coonskin cap into a national status symbol. In 1955, the three Emmy-winning Davy Crockett episodes were re-edited and released as the theatrical feature Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The jewel in the crown of the TV anthology Disneyland's first season was the phenominally successful three-part miniseries Davy Crockett, an entertaining mixture of fact and legend surrounding fabled frontiersman Davy Crockett (Fess Parker). All three episodes were originally introduced with series host-producer Walt Disney reading a chapter from Davy Crockett's Journal, whereupon a series of semi-animated tableaux faded into the live-action portion of the program. In Episode Two, Davy hopes to live a peaceful life as a farmer with his wife Polly (Helene Stanley) and their kids, but his old pal Georgie Russell (Buddy Ebsen) convinces him to head to Tennessee in search of more "elbow room." After routing a local bully and crook named Big Foot Mason (Mike Mazurki), Davy is asked to run for office, but he refuses--until word arrives that his wife Polly has died. Now bereft of marital ties, Davy is elected to the Nashville Legislature, then goes on to Congress under the patronage of his old commanding officer (and current presidential candidate) Andrew Jackson (Basil Ruysdael). But when he realizes he's being used by Jackson as a cat's-paw to rob the Indians of their land, Davy quits politics in disgust and returns to the Great Outdoors. In 1955, the three Emmy-winning Davy Crockett episodes were re-edited and released as the theatrical feature Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide