Gracie Allen Movies
The daughter of a musical comedy performer, San Francisco-born comedienne Gracie Allen joined her sisters on the vaudeville stage at the age of 3 1/2. After convent school, Allen returned to the family act, then at age 18 joined the Larry Reilly Stock Company. Quitting the Reilly troupe over a dispute about billing, Allen left show business to become a secretary. In 1922, she was introduced by her showbiz friends to struggling vaudevillian George Burns. After striking out professionally with several male partners, Burns was anxious to launch a boy-girl act. He and Allen toured small-time vaudeville with a routine largely borrowed from other performers. At the time, it was customary in boy-girl routines for the girl to play "straight" while the boy told the jokes, but as Burns would later claim, "They laughed at all of her questions but none of my answers." Burns wisely switched roles, allowing Allen to be the "funny one." Allen's stage character would ever after be the dumb-dora chatterbox who confounded Burns with her convoluted logic. Burns would react in exasperation to double the laugh, but learned early on that he couldn't indulge in any slapstick with Allen; the audience was firmly on her side, and wouldn't stand for any rough stuff. After three years of courtship, Burns finally convinced Allen to marry him in 1926 (it was her first marriage, his second). That same year the team graduated to the prestigious Palace Theatre with an act called "Dizzy"; later on they would score a bigger success with the Al Boasberg-written routine Lambchops. While touring the British Isles in 1929, Burns and Allen made their radio debut with a 26-week BBC series. Back in New York, they began appearing in one-reel movie comedy shorts, first for Vitaphone, then Paramount. Rudy Vallee "discovered" the team for American radio in 1931; the next year, they costarred with Guy Lombardo on a weekly CBS program, quickly entering the realm of folklore with an extended running gag about Allen's "missing brother." With The Big Broadcast (1932), Burns and Allen inaugurated their feature-film career, first as guest stars and supporting players, and finally as leads in such programmers as Many Happy Returns (1934), Love in Bloom (1935) and Here Comes Cookie (1936). Though their film career had begun to peter out by the late 1930s, Burns and Allen were selected to costar with Fred Astaire in his first film without Ginger Rogers, A Damsel in Distress (1937). Here for the first time, the moviegoing public was treated to the terpsichorean skill of Burns and Allen, who not only kept up with Astaire, but at times matched him step for step. In 1939, mystery writer S. S. Van Dyne came up with a "Philo Vance" story idea titled The Gracie Allen Murder Case. While both Burns and Allen "appear" in the published version of the story, Allen alone starred in the 1939 film version, driving erudite detective Vance (Warren William) to distraction by referring to him as Fido Vance. Allen could get a bit trying without Burns around to rein in her insanity, but audiences were pleased with The Gracie Allen Murder Case, prompting MGM to concoct another Gracie Allen solo vehicle, Mr. and Mrs. North (1941). With the exception of a guest appearance in Two Girls and a Sailor (1944), the North film closed out Allen's movie career. She stayed busy in radio, and made headlines in 1940 when Burns concocted a nonsensical presidential campaign for Allen on the Surprise Party ticket. When their radio ratings began dropping in the 1940s, Burns changed their radio characterizations from young sweethearts to middle-aged parents (the couple had adopted two children in the 1930s); this transition was successful, and was carried over into the popular Burns and Allen TV series, which ran from 1950 through 1958. Plagued by illness and increasing stage fright, Allen decided to retire in 1958, a move that warranted a cover story in Life magazine. Burns continued performing without her, working with several partners (including Carol Channing) until he felt secure enough to go it alone. Comfortably retired for many years, Gracie Allen died in her sleep of a heart attack in August of 1964. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 2001
To many people around the world, the Hawaiian island of Waikiki has long symbolized an exotic paradise on Earth, and the advent of convenient and inexpensive air travel has transformed the island from an idyllic stop for adventurous travelers to one of the world's leading tourist attractions. Waikiki: In the Wake of Dreams is a feature-length documentary that offers a look at the history of the island, both as a striking find for offshore explorers and as the sometimes-campy focus of enthusiasts of exotica. Waikiki: In the Wake of Dreams features vintage performances from Hawaiian entertainers Don Ho and Arthur Lyman, clips of Bing Crosby, George Burns, and Gracie Allen performing in islander mufti, and an interview with Hawaiian senator Daniel Inouye. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don Ho
This concert and interview documentary features the racy wit of Canada and the U.S.'s most popular female comedians, including Jenny Jones, Whoopi Goldberg, Phyllis Diller, Ellen DeGeneres, and Paula Poundstone. In addition to screening their stand-up gigs and providing interviews with these funny ladies, the documentary provides some historical perspective about the origins of present-day feminine humor using clips of performances by Eve Arden, Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Phyllis Diller, Whoopi Goldberg, (more)
- 1944
Two Girls and a Sailor is another of those all-star, no-plot wartime musicals turned out by the bushel basket in the 1940s. Its lack of nuance does not lessen its entertainment value in the least. Gloria DeHaven and June Allyson play a couple of well-meaning sisters who stage their own USO shows in their apartment for the benefit of visiting servicemen. They'd like to expand their show, so GI Van Johnson, who happens to be a millionaire, buys an empty factory and has it converted into a canteen. A trivial love triangle develops, but who cares? Bring on the stars! In the case of Two Girls and a Sailor, the celebrity lineup includes Jimmy Durante, Lena Horne, Jose Iturbi, Xavier Cugat, Grace Allen (performing her immortal "Concerto for Index Finger"), Harry James, Helen Forrest, and, in an amusing uncredited cameo, Buster Keaton (Also: keep a sharp eye out for Ava Gardner) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Van Johnson, June Allyson, (more)
- 1941
"Mr. and Mrs. North" started as a series of comic articles about a Park Avenue married couple, written by Richard and Frances Lockridge. One of these articles was "The Norths Solve a Murder", which was adapted as a stage play by Owen Davis Sr. and was later spun off into a popular radio and TV comedy-mystery series. The Davis play made it to the screen in 1941 as Mr. and Mrs. North, with Gracie Allen (in a rare appearance without George Burns) as dizzy socialite Pamela North and William Post Jr. as her long-suffering husband Jerry. Upon returning home from a vacation, Pam North opens her closet door--and out pops a dead body. As it turns out, all the suspects are close friends of the Norths, a fact that encourages Pam to gently interfere in the ongoing murder investigation conducted by Lt. Weygand (Paul Kelly). A second murder serves only to send Pam off on another flight of convoluted logic, but somehow or other the case is solved and justice is served. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gracie Allen, William Post, Jr., (more)
- 1939
A longtime fan of comedians George Burns and Gracie Allen, "Philo Vance" creator S. S. Van Dyne wrote a tailor-made screenplay for the team, which emerged on-screen as The Gracie Allen Murder Case. The Paramount studio executives decided to dispense with the services of George Burns, leaving scatterbrained Gracie on her own to match wits (?) with urbane private detective Philo Vance (Warren William). The story proper gets under way when Bill Brown (Kent Taylor) stumbles onto a murder scene and is accused of the crime. Fortuitously, Gracie Allen was also in the vicinity when the killing took place, but her garbled version of what she witnessed (or thinks she witnessed) is of no help whatsoever to the authorities. Philo Vance offers to protect Gracie from the murder and to try to make heads or tails of her "assistance", but even he is driven to distraction by our heroine's relentless stupidity, especially when she insists upon referring to him as Fido Vance. As enjoyable as she is in small doses, Gracie Allen is a bit much to take in this film; fortunately, the basic mystery is good one, even if the identity of the murderer is fairly obvious from the start (the actor in question played so many "surprise killers" during his career that, by 1939, the bloom was off the rose). After The Gracie Allen Murder Case ran its course in the theaters, S. S. Van Dine published a novelized version of the story, restoring George Burns to the proceedings and wisely cutting back on Gracie Allen's imbecilities. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gracie Allen, Warren William, (more)
- 1939
George Burns and Gracie Allen made their last screen appearance together in the 1939 MGM musical Honolulu; indeed, it would be Burns' last film until his 1976 "comeback" in The Sunshine Boys. The nonsensical plotline is carried by Robert Young as famous movie star Brooks Mason, who wants to go to Honolulu for a long rest but can't shake off his throngs of adoring female fans. As luck would have, Mason has an exact double, a Hawaiian plantation owner named George Smith. Mason convinces Smith to switch identities, with the expected comedy-of-error complications as a result. Things get really complicated when Smith, posing as Mason, proposes marriage to lovely Dorothy March (Eleanor Powell), who then can't understand why the real Mason seems to be so fickle. Clearly in support, Burns and Allen are cast respectively as Mason's personal manager Joe Duffy and Dorothy's scatterbrained friend Millie de Grasse. The film contrives to separate George and Gracie for most of the footage, bringing them together in the last reel for a characteristic comedy routine about Gracie's dizzy relatives. Also on hand in a minor role is another comedy giant, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson. Highlights include a masquerade-party production number in which Gracie Allen is serenaded by the King's Men Quartet (disguised as the Marx Brothers), and Eleanor Powell's blackface stair-tap tribute to Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (Powell also performs a tap-dance hula, which scores on its novelty value alone!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eleanor Powell, Robert Young, (more)
- 1938
It's hard to go wrong with such stars as Bob Hope, Burns & Allen, Martha Raye and Edward Everett Horton, and College Swing doesn't-go wrong, that is. The film begins in 1738, when a pact is drawn up between the Alden family and a highly respected Colonial college: If any female member of the family can pass her college exams within a 200-year period, ownership of the institution will be turned over to her. Comes 1938, and the last of the Alden girls, giddy Gracie Alden (Gracie Allen, of course) hires glib-tongued tutor Bud Brady (Bob Hope) to help her pass her exams. She also tries to win over no-nonsense professor Hubert Dash (Edward Everett Horton), who has no intention of handing his college over to a blithering idiot like Gracie. Once she has inherited the place, however, Gracie turns it into a jumpin'-jivin' joint, complete with jitterbugging students, swing bands and remote radio broadcasts. Though George Burns' role is nearly nonexistent, he does get to indulge in his patented cross-talk with Allen. Others contributing to the fun are Ben Blue, Jerry Colonna, Betty Grable, and Grable's then-husband Jackie Coogan. Highlights include Allen's spirited Irish jig and her endearing song duet with Edward Everett Horton. College Swing is the sort of high-powered, all-star entertainment that is virtually impossible to reproduce today. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Burns, Gracie Allen, (more)
- 1937
- NR
Fred Astaire's first RKO musical without his longtime partner Ginger Rogers is one of his best from any period -- even though it's obvious that leading lady Joan Fontaine can't dance a step. Written by P. G. Wodehouse, Damsel in Distress casts Astaire as Jerry, an American entertainer appearing in London. Poor Jerry gets sucked into a wager conducted among servants of country squire Lord Mashmorton (Montague Love) He is "elected" to rescue his Lordship's daughter Lady Alyce (Joan Fontaine) from an arranged marriage with orchestra leader Reggie (Ray Noble), a likeable chap who steadfastly refuses to play the villain of the piece. Weaving in and out of all this are Jerry's business manager George (George Burns) and his daffy secretary Gracie (Gracie Allen). In addition to including such Gershwin standards as "A Foggy Day" and "Nice Work if You Can Get It," not to mention Fred Astaire's untoppable "drum dance," A Damsel in Distress affords George Burns and Gracie Allen their best-ever screen roles; the team is permitted to join Astaire in the elaborate "round-and-round" production number "Things are Looking Up," as well as a delightful whisk-broom dance (which, it is said, George and Gracie taught to Fred, rather than the other way around). As Lady Alyce's duplicitous butler, Reginald Gardiner enjoys his own comic highlight with an interesting variation on his "musical cop" routine in Born to Dance. As for 19-year-old Joan Fontaine, she's quite lovely and charming, and Astaire does his very best to camouflage her utter lack of terpsichorean ability. Amazingly, A Damsel in Distress lost money at the box office, compelling RKO Radio to play safe by quickly reteaming Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in Carefree. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred Astaire, George Burns, (more)
- 1936
The third film of Paramount's "Big Broadcast" series follows the pattern of the first two titles: negligible plot with plenty of memorable music and guest stars. Jack Carson (Jack Benny) owns the radio station this time out; he doesn't get along with the sponsors, and many are threatening to pull their advertising off the air. Jack's solution? Put on a big show, of course, with a handful of the biggest stars of the day. George Burns and Gracie Allen appear once again, this time as the hosts of a golfing program; musical guests include Benny Goodman and his Orchestra, Gene Krupa, Larry Adler, and Leopold Stokowski. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Benny, George Burns, (more)
- 1936
The quaint genetic theories of the 1930s are satirized in College Holiday. Dotty matron Mary Boland runs a ramshackle summer resort, opening her doors to college students of both sexes--but only those collegiates with extra-special physical and mental skills. She hopes to encourage these select co-eds to meet and mate, then produce a breed of "perfect" children. What Boland doesn't count on is the supremacy of the Heart over Science. Engagingly silly, College Holiday devotes generous screen space to some of the biggest comic talents of the 1930s: Jack Benny, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Martha Raye and Ben Blue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Benny, Gracie Allen, (more)
- 1935
After a false start in 1932, Paramount's Big Broadcast series was jump-started in late 1935 with The Big Broadcast of 1936. The wisp of a storyline involves two-bit radio station owner Spud (Jack Oakie), who doubles as the station's sole announcer while his comic partner Smiley (Henry Wadsworth) serves as the house crooner. On the verge of bankruptcy, Spud is receptive to the wacky notions of George Burns and Gracie Allen, who've just invented a television device which can pick up and transmit any signal, any time, anywhere. Among the variety artists captured on cathode by George and Gracie's invention are Bing Crosby, Ethel Merman, Amos 'N' Andy (Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll in blackface), Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, the Vienna Boys Choir, bandleaders Ray Noble and Ina Ray Hutton, and a knockabout vaudeville act called Willie, West and McGinty, who spend most of the film's running time trying to simultaneously build and demolish a house. The plot evolves into a dry run for the later Hope-Crosby "Road" pictures, with Spud and Smiley ending up on the intrigue-ridden island governed by zany countess Ysobel de Nargila (Lyda Roberti). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Oakie, George Burns, (more)
- 1935
The classic comedians Burns and Allen are featured in this fast-paced farce that includes an assortment of corny vaudeville acts. The story centers around Gracie, the daughter of a wealthy business magnate. To prevent a gigolo, who is attempting to seduce his other daughter, from getting his fortune, the father gives all his money, temporarily, to Gracie who promptly turns their Park Avenue manse into a boarding house for impoverished show biz performers. She charges them nothing. Some of the acts that stay there include: Jack Powell, Cal Norris and Monkey, The Buccaneers, Moro and Yaconelli, Pascale Perry and Partner, The Six Candreva Brothers, Seymour and Corncob, Jester and Mole, Jack Cavanaugh and Partner, Six Olympics and Big Boy Williams. In the end, all the residents stage a show to give themselves a chance for a comeback. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Burns, Gracie Allen, (more)
- 1935
Love in Bloom ostensibly stars George Burns and Gracie Allen,but the team is actually comedy relief for the romantic leads, Joe Morrison and Dixie Lee. Burns and Allen are travelling carnival performers working in a rundown tent show for Lee's father. Lee tires of her nomad life and heads to New York, where she meets would-be songwriter Morrison. The hero loves Lee, but each time the twosome makes wedding plans some crisis or other gets in the way. The course of True Love finally runs smooth, but audiences can't help but feel disappointed that Burns and Allen aren't given more to do (Allen's big scene, set in a grocery store, is painfully unfunny). If nothing else, Love in Bloom features a rare screen appearance by Dixie Lee, better known as the first wife of Bing Crosby. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Burns, Gracie Allen, (more)
- 1934
Department-store owner Horatio Allen's (George Barbier) biggest mistake is to name his scatterbrained daughter Gracie (Gracie Allen) as his sole heir. Suddenly Gracie becomes obsessed with the notion of converting her dad's store into a bird sanctuary. Psychologist Dr. Otto von Strudel (Egon Brecher) suggests that the best way to dissuade Gracie is to marry her off to Burns (George Burns). Burns vetoes the idea until Allen Sr. offers to pay him 10 dollars for every mile he travels with Gracie away from the store. This leads to a series of zany "on the road" complications, with Gracie's foolishness causing no end of trouble for the long-suffering George. Much ado about nothing, Many Happy Returns is recommended for Burns and Allen's staunchest admirers, though music fans will enjoy Larry Adler's harmonica solo and the dulcet sounds of Guy Lombardo's Orchestra (incidentally, some of Lombardo's numbers are actually performed sans screen credit by the Duke Ellington band). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Guy Lombardo, Gracie Allen, (more)
- 1934
The "six" are Charlie Ruggles, Mary Boland, George Burns, Gracie Allen, W.C. Fields, and Alison Skipworth, who star in this cross-country comedy. Planning a motor vacation to California, J. Pinkham Whinney (Ruggles) and Flora Whinney (Boland) advertise for a couple to help drive and share expenses. That couple turns out to be George Edwards (Burns) and Gracie De Vore (Allen), accompanied by Allen's surly Great Dane. Whinney is driven to near-insanity by Edwards' intrusiveness and stupidity, but the worst is yet to come: thanks to a crooked co-worker, Whinney has been accused of stealing bank funds and is now an unwitting fugitive from justice. Sheriff Hoxley (W.C. Fields, who spends a priceless ten minutes explaining why he's called "Honest John") joins forces with hotel proprietor Mrs. "Duchess" K. Rumford (Alison Skipworth) in hopes of capturing Whinney and claiming the reward. After a zany night of everybody in the cast running in and out of hotel rooms, the real crook is captured and Whinney and Flora prepare to enjoy what's left of their vacation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlie Ruggles, Mary Boland, (more)
- 1934
We're Not Dressing is a bouncy musical-comedy variation of J. M. Barrie's The Admirable Crichton -- complete with a happier ending, as befitting its jaunty star Bing Crosby. Der Bingle is cast as Stephen Jones, a lowly crew member on yacht owned by wealthy Doris Worthington (Carole Lombard). During one memorable voyage, Doris' inebriated Uncle Dudley (Leon Errol) mans the controls of the yacht, and the result is a shipwreck on a tropical isle. Doris and her marooned society friends are then obliged to take orders from Stephen, the only one among them who knows how to fend for himself. He even manages to win over the icy Doris, though it's quite a struggle right up to the fade-out. Ethel Merman is on hand for a song or two (including a rollicking duet with Leon Errol), while George Burns and Gracie Allen show up on the not-so-deserted island as anthropologists with a full quota of rib-tickling verbal gags. Everyone involved in the making of We're Not Dressing harbored happy memories of the film, though Ray Milland (cast as Doris' snooty society fiancé) had less pleasant memories of the trained bear which figures prominently in the opening scenes. Bing Crosby's musical numbers include two of his best, "May I" and "Love Thy Neighbor." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bing Crosby, Carole Lombard, (more)
