George Sidney Movies
American director George Sidney was the nephew of the Jewish comic actor of the same name. After working as a child actor, Sidney received a messenger-boy position at MGM in 1933, through the auspices of another relative, Louis K. Sidney. Before long, the teenager was working as a film editor; he moved up to assistant director in 1935, and one year later was given an opportunity to direct a... (read more) "Pete Smith Specialty" one-reel short. Sidney's extreme youth prompted MGM to hype the novice director as a "boy wonder," listing his age at 16 (a pretense Sidney himself would maintain for years afterward). He remained busy in the MGM short subjects department, even handling a few Our Gang shorts -- an experience which he'd later claim would condition him to hate all kids. After winning Oscars for two of the Pete Smith shorts, Sidney was promoted to "B" feature films. Under the aegis of producer Arthur Freed, Sidney became a top director of musical comedies; he also proved adept at such larger than life swashbucklers as Scaramouche (1953). After directing the disastrous Esther Williams vehicle Jupiter's Darling in 1955, Sidney decided it was high time to leave MGM. He became an independent producer for Columbia in the late 1950s, and at the same time became an executive of the fledgling Hanna-Barbera cartoon firm. Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera were old friends from the MGM days, who had contributed the "dancing mouse" sequence for Sidney's Anchors Aweigh; Sidney repaid the favor by helping to finance their new studio, and also smoothing the path for Hanna-Barbera's valuable distribution deal with Screen Gems, Columbia's TV division. After the success of 1963's Bye Bye Birdie, Sidney remained with musicals to the end of the 1960s as both producer and director. His last film was 1968's Half a Sixpence. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Half a Sixpence
1967
British musical star Tommy Steele had starred in Half a Sixpence in London and on Broadway, thus he was first choice for this garish film version. Based on the H.G. Wells...
The Swinger
1966
The most interesting aspect of The Swinger is the name of the character played by Ann-Margret: the former Ann Margaret Olsson essays the role of Kelly Olsson. A naive...
Viva Las Vegas
1964
Viva Las Vegas, one of Elvis Presley's most popular vehicles, adheres as rigidly to formula as a Kabuki dance. Elvis plays a race-car driver competing in the Las Vegas...
Bye Bye Birdie
G 1963
George Sidney's adaptation of the satiric Broadway musical smash by Michael Stewart, Charles Strouse, and Lee Adams -- about an Elvis Presley-inspired rock star,...
A Ticklish Affair
1963
This light romantic comedy finds a young widow with three young boys investigated by the Navy. Amy Martin (Shirley Jones) has a curious child who inadvertently sends out a...
Pepe
1960
Popular Mexican comedian Cantinflas (Mario Moreno) plays the title character in this star-studded, amusing comedy drama by George Sidney. Pepe is the same sort of...
Who Was That Lady?
1960
A screwball comedy that turns into political farce, this film was something of a throwback even in 1960. Real-life husband and wife Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh star as David...
Jeanne Eagels
1957
Kim Novak is clearly out of her depth as legendary Broadway actress Jeanne Eagels, but one can't fault her for trying very hard. As this filmed biography gets under way,...
Pal Joey
NR 1957
The John O'Hara/Richard Rodgers/Lorenz Hart Broadway musical Pal Joey created quite a stir during its original theatrical run in 1940. Here we had a heel of a hero who...
The Eddy Duchin Story
NR 1956
Tyrone Power stars in this tear-jerking biography of the beloved but short-lived pianist and bandleader Eddy Duchin. Boston-born Eddy Duchin (Tyrone Power) moves to New...
Jupiter's Darling
1955
Esther Williams' long association with MGM came to an abrupt end with Jupiter's Darling, which even she will admit was her silliest film. Based on Robert Sherwood's...
Kiss Me Kate
1953
Cole Porter's Kiss Me Kate is a musical within a musical -- altogether appropriate, since its source material, Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, was a play...
Young Bess
1953
This costume drama was based on the historical fiction of Margaret Irwin, which embellishes the facts of the early years of England's eventual Queen Elizabeth I. It's told in...
Scaramouche
1952
This delightful adaptation of Rafael Sabatini's swashbuckling novel stars Stewart Granger as Andre Moreau, an 18th-century French nobleman who is publicly humiliated by the...
Show Boat
1951
The third and (to date) last film version of the Edna Ferber/Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein II musical Show Boat falls just short of greatness but is still a whale of a...
Annie Get Your Gun
1950
Judy Garland was originally slated to star in MGM's film version of Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun, but she was forced to pull out of the production due to illness...
Key to the City
1950
George Sidney directs this pleasant romantic comedy concerning mayoral love. During a convention of mayors in San Francisco, Clarissa Standish (Loretta Young), the...
The Red Danube
1949
One of the more palatable of Hollywood's anti-communist tracts of the late 1940s-early 1950s was MGM's The Red Danube. Janet Leigh plays Maria Buhlen, an Eastern Bloc...
The Three Musketeers
1948
The third talkie version of Dumas' The Three Musketeers, this splashy MGM adaptation is also the first version in Technicolor. Gene Kelly romps his way through the role...
Cass Timberlane
1947
A visibly uneasy Spencer Tracy plays the title role in this lavish MGM screen version of Sinclair Lewis' 1945 magazine serial. A small-town bachelor judge, {%Cass...