Spike Jones Movies
Diminutive, silver-haired bandleader Spike Jones didn't intend to gain fame as "the man who murdered music" (as he was described by one biographer); it just turned out that way. During the first 12 years or so of his professional career, Jones, the son of a Long Beach railway station agent, worked as a drummer for radio orchestra leaders Victor Young, Henry King, Cookie Fairchild, John Scott Trotter, and Billy Mills. In 1940 he formed his own group called the City Slickers. Essentially a Dixieland aggregation (one of the best, in fact), Jones and his boys got together on weekends to perform wacky variations on such classics as "The William Tell Overture" and "Dance of the Hours." This peculiar form of musical relaxation became a full-time job when, in 1942, the City Slickers recorded a novelty tune titled "Der Fuhrer's Face." The song caught on like wildfire with the public, its immortality assured when it served as the basis for a Donald Duck cartoon. By the end of 1942, Jones and company were touring the country with their "musical depreciation revue," performing on such novel musical instruments as the anvilphone and the latrinophone. The City Slickers used cowbells, shotguns, and the gurgling gullet of comedian Mickey Katz (Joel Grey's dad) to slaughter such standards as "Cocktails for Two" (hic!), "Chloe" ("Where are ya, you old bat?"), and "You Always Hurt the One You Love" (kar-RUNCH!). Thanks to constant radio exposure, such City Slickers as Doodles Weaver, Carl Grayson, and Horatio W. Birdbath became as famous as Jones himself. The group made its feature film debut in Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943), making subsequent guest appearances in Bring on the Girls (1945), Variety Girl (1947), and many others. In 1954, Jones and the City Slickers were teamed with Buddy Hackett and Hugh O'Brien (last-minute replacements for Abbott and Costello) in Fireman Save My Child (1954), in which they were required to act as well as make music. While they never became movie stars, Jones and his boys continued to flourish on television into the 1960s in such weekly series as Club Oasis, most of these featuring Jones' wife Helen Grayco as vocalist. After the death of Spike Jones in 1965, the band made a few sporadic appearances under the baton of Spike Jones, Jr. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This ambient release contains images of a yuletide fireplace that allows anyone with a TV to turn their own home into a Christmas wonderland. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- 1998
The 1940s was a monumental decade for the United States. Amid World War II, economic recovery, and the start of the Cold War, American music provided a soundtrack to a generation. The Music Classics line from MPI Home Video attempts to offer the chance to relieve the era with a ten-volume series of restored film footage featuring performances by many of the 40's most revered artists. Among the musicians who appear in this seventh entry in the series are Monica Lewis, Count Basie, Johnny Downs, Carol Stevens, and Nat King Cole. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- 1991
The 1940s was a monumental decade for the United States. Amid World War II, economic recovery, and the start of the Cold War, American music provided a soundtrack to a generation. The Music Classics line from MPI Home Video attempts to offer the chance to relieve the era with a ten-volume series of restored film footage featuring performances by many of the 40's most revered artists. Doris Day, Ozzie Nelson, Spike Jones, Count Basie, and Guy Lombardo are just a handful of the musicians who appear in this third entry in the series. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- 1991
This refreshing music video features Dr. Demento as he hosts this look at bizarre music videos. Included are tunes by Cab Calloway, Allan Sherman, "Weird Al" Yankovic, and many others. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1988
This television documentary chronicles the career of Spike Jones, a talented musical satirist who had audiences of the '50s rolling in the aisles as he and his City Slickers committed inventive forms of musical murder on some of America's most beloved songs. Archival footage from performances during the early '50s, coupled with interviews of former band members and Jones' family, round out the show. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1957
Zany Spike Jones and his noisesome orchestra make musical mincemeat out of numerous American standards in this cacophonous outing. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1956
Spike Jones, America's first great master of musical mayhem, challenges the hit parade to a wrestling match -- best two falls out of three wins! -- in this collection of classic moments from Spike's television show of the 1950's. With help from his guests (including Eddie Arnold and Billy Barty), Spike Jones and his City Slickers interpret "Cry", "Stranger In Paradise", and "Indian Love Call" as only they can, along with such originals as "Sock Myself In The Chin" and "Hotcha Cornya". ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 1955
Best of Spike Jones, Vol. 1 features some of the wildest musical moments from performer Spike Jones' hit 1950s television variety show. Jones and the band the City Slickers play "Beetle Bomb," "Cocktails for Two," and more. Billy Barty performs a show-stopping Liberace routine. Jones plays impressive drums in a duet of "Minka" with trumpet player George Rock. And the video features still other sketches. Picture and sound quality are excellent. ~ Betsy Boyd, All Movie Guide
- 1952
Crash! Bang! Squeal! Spike Jones and his City Slickers, still the craziest band of their time or ours, turn music upside down and inside out in this selection of comic highlights from Jones's popular television series of the 1950's. With his guests (among them Zasu Pitts, Howdy Doody and Billy Barty), Jones and his band run riot over such tunes as "Cocktails For Two", "Love In Bloom", "Cold Cold Heart", "Ricochet Romance", and "The Typewriter Song". ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 1951
Host Spike Jones welcomes the Wayne Marlin Trio and Helen Grayco in this episode of the golden era television comedy show that had the entire country doubled over in laughter. With vaudeville skits featuring muscle men, cave men, and even a few hula dancers, as well as musical performances of "Pass the Biscuits Mirandy", "Hotcha Cornya", and "Mad About the Boy" viewers of all ages will be cracking up for an entire hour. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Spike Jones
- 1951
Spike Jones makes his first TV appearance on this episode of The Colgate Comedy Hour. A young Mike Wallace also appears as an announcer. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Spike Jones
- 195z
This historic presentation features an episode from each of these vintage comedy series with Jimmy Durante. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1947
No relation to the 1961 Jerry Lewis comedy of the same name, the 1947 musical Ladies' Man stars Eddie Bracken as the title character. It all begins when rural rube Henry Haskell (Bracken) inherits an oil fortune in Oklahoma. Enjoying his newfound wealth, Henry goes on a sightseeing tour of New York City, where he is quickly bamboozled into playing "Prince Charming" on a radio giveaway show (this plot device is a takeoff of the "Miss Hush" contest on radio's Truth or Consequences). The architect of this chicanery is ad agency exec Gladys Hayden (Virginia Field), who convinces Henry that she'll lose her job if he doesn't go along with the gag. Somewhere along the line, the plot is put on the back burner in favor of a steady stream of specialty numbers, performed by the likes of Cass Daley and Spike Jones & His City Slickers, the latter aggregation performing their classic Cocktails for Two." Eddie Bracken himself does a nice singing job with a pair of Jule Styne-Sammy Cahn numbers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Bracken, Cass Daley, (more)
- 1947
This story of two young hopefuls who come to Hollywood is merely a thin device to feature almost every star working for Paramount Studios in 1947. Mary Hatcher plays Catherine Brown, a woman of humble origins who arrives in Hollywood, where she meets another wanna-be movie star, Amber La Vonne (Olga San Juan). They work their way through the Paramount studios, trying to impress every important person. Mostly, the film is a cavalcade of songs by various stars that take place at several studio and Hollywood locations, including the famous Brown Derby restaurant. Many of the film's songs were written by Frank Loesser. Dorothy Lamour and Alan Ladd sing "Tallahassee"; Bing Crosby and Bob Hope play golf and sing a duet, "Harmony"; the Original Dixieland Jazz Band plays "Tiger Rag"; and a host of other top performers of the era appear in brief cameos. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Alden, Mary Hatcher, (more)
- 1946
Breakfast in Hollywood was loosely based on the ABC radio program of the same name. Tom Breneman, the series' host, appears as himself in a contrived story about a radio personality attempting to smooth the path of true love for heroine Dorothy (Bonita Granville) and hero Ken (Edward Ryan); he also helps the wife (Billie Burke) of a philanderer (Raymond Walburn) and assists a charity-minded matron (Beulah Bondi). The plot can be forgotten, and in fact is forgotten as a parade of guest stars-Andy Russell, The King Cole Trio, Spike Jones et. al.-do their specialties. Columnist Hedda Hopper also makes a brief appearance. After years in obscurity, Breakfast in Hollywood resurfaced in the mid-1970s when it was first offered on the 8-millimeter home movie market. In England, where the original radio series was unknown, the film was retitled The Mad Hatter (evidently a reference to Hedda Hopper's bizarre headgear!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Breneman, Bonita Granville, (more)
- 1945
In this high-spirited musical comedy, J. Newport Bates (Eddie Bracken) is a millionaire who finds women are only interested in him for his money. When he becomes infatuated with Teddy Collins (Veronica Lake), a cigarette girl, he tries to hide his true identity from her, hoping she'll be interested in him for himself rather than his bank account. However, once Teddy figures out who he is, Bates drops her, and he is about to give up on women entirely when he meets Sue Thomas (Marjorie Reynolds), a nice girl who isn't interested in his money (or at least not yet). Musical satirists Spike Jones and his City Slickers also appear, though most prints are missing a bit from one of their musical numbers: a verse from a song that made fun of Eleanor Roosevelt was clipped after the film's initial engagements. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Veronica Lake, Sonny Tufts, (more)
