Henry Myers Movies

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

Merry-Go-Round of 1938 was the first (and last) of a proposed series of films spotlighting top Broadway talent. Three headliners from the Great White Way--comedian Bert Lahr, pantomime artist Jimmy Savo and monologist Billy House--team with veteran Hollywood scene-stealer Mischa Auer. The storyline has our four heroes taking care of a cute little girl, but the plot is forgotten amidst a series of choice specialty acts, including Lahr's legendary "Woodman Spare That Tree." Universal took a bath with Merry-Go-Round of 1938, which explains why you never saw the 1939 edition. As for the stars, Bert Lahr went on to Wizard of Oz; Jimmy Savo returned to Broadway; Billy House became a Hollywood character actor; and Mischa Auer continued to be everyone's favorite "Gloomy Russian." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, an sheltered heiress bets her father that she can make it in New York city on only $150 per week. She does this to prove to her father that she will be able to live a scaled down existence with her fiancé, who is not wealthy. Her father agrees to the bet, and she goes to the Big Apple where she does very well indeed. Unfortunately, trouble ensues when she meets another impoverished fellow, another resident in the boarding house she is in, and falls in love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

G.K. Chesterton's crime-solving cleric Father Brown was first brought to the screen in 1934, in the corpulent form of Walter Connolly. The good father spends most of the film trying to retrieve a valuable diamond cross from elusive thief Flambeau (Paul Lukas). Father Brown is convinced that Flambeau is eminently redeemable, but the double-crossing thief hardly proves to be a prime candidate for salvation. Amazingly, Father Brown's faith in Flambeau's essential decency proves well-founded, but it's certainly touch-and-go for a while. Long unavailable for reappraisal, 1934's Father Brown, Detective has been eclipsed by the popularity of the 1954 Alec Guinness remake. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"Klopstokia: A Far-Away Country. Chief Exports: Goats and Nuts. Chief Imports: Goats and Nuts. Chief Inhabitants: Goats and Nuts." This introductory title ushers in Million Dollar Legs, one of the zaniest comedies ever to emerge from a major studio. W.C. Fields stars as the president of Klopstokia, who will hold on to his office so long as he can best the secretary of the treasury (Hugh Herbert) in their daily arm-wrestling contests. Like most of the Depression-era world, Klopstokia is broke, forcing the government to take drastic measures to raise money. Fortunately, everyone in the country is a super-athlete, inspiring visiting Fuller Brush salesman Migg Tweeney (Jack Oakie) to come up with a brilliant idea: Klopstokia will enter the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. Alas, the subversive cabinet members, hoping to overthrow the president, plot to undermine the Klopstokian athletic team with the aid of sexy seductress Mata Machree (Lyda Roberti), "the woman no man can resist." Words can hardly describe the nonstop parade of gags and verbal insanity in Million Dollar Legs: Ben Turpin, playing a cloaked-and-caped spy, pops in and out with neither rhyme nor reason; the conspirators' outdoor hideout is incongruously equipped with hydraulic lifts and elevators; Mata Machree's butler informs the villains that "Madame can only be resisted from 2 to 4,"; and, when asked why all the Klopstokian men are named George and the women named Angela, the president's daughter (Susan Fleming, later the wife of Harpo Marx), replies "Why not?" then launches into the national anthem -- a double-talk version of "One Hour With You." Among the writers were Joseph L. Mankiewicz and Henry Myers, who were also responsible for the wacky Wheeler andWoolsey political satire Diplomaniacs. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Clara Bow's career as one of Hollywood's liveliest leading ladies was drawing to a close when she made this early sound farce, one of her few talkies. Larry Charters (Ralph Forbes) is a highly successful songwriter who is growing weary of life in the public eye. Hoping for a break, Larry convinces his friend Bob (Richard "Skeets" Gallagher) to impersonate him as he takes a well deserved vacation in the French Riviera. While trying to get a room at a hotel, both Larry and an attractive young American tourist, Norma Martin (Bow), are flummoxed by the fact that they speak no French and that the desk clerk speaks no English. Things get much more complicated when they discover that the desk clerk isn't a desk clerk at all -- he is the local magistrate, and instead of renting them a pair of rooms, he has just married them. Three years after making this film, Clara Bow announced her retirement from the screen at the age of 28. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide