Thursday, 7 May 2020

100 -mainly RKO, a smattering of MGM

The Road to Singapore (1931 - b/w) - Routine jungle romance with William Powell.

Sporting Blood (1931 - b/w) - Horsey nonsense, with Clark Gable. See also Sporting Blood (1940 - b/w), Florian (1940 - b/w) and Boys' Ranch (1946 - b/w).

George White's Scandals (1934 -  b/w)/George White's 1935 Scandals  (1935 - b/w)/George White's Scandals (1945 - b/w) - Painful burlesque from my namesake.

Little Orvie (1940 - b/w) - Kiddie comedy.

And One was Beautiful (1940 - b/w) - Forgettable drama with Robert Cummings.

Dance, Girl, Dance (1940 - b/w) -Maureen O'Hara AND Lucille Ball in another routine backstage musical.

Little Men (1940 - b/w) - Forgettable adaptation of the sequel to Little Women (1933 - b/w), though  Kay Francis replaces Katharine Hepburn as Jo.

You Can't Fool Your Wife (1940 - b/w) - Routine Lucille Ball B-comedy.
See also Too Many Girls (1940 - b/w) and A Guy, A Girl and A Gob (1941 - b/w).

L'Il Abner (1940 - b/w) - Cheapo adaptation of the comic strip. A kind of Poverty Row precursor to Popeye. I wasn't sure if the guy playing the Indian comic relief was doing a Buster Keaton imitation or Keaton himself. Surely, it couldn't be the Great Man reduced to these circumstances. But then, I remembered his reduced circumstances.

Tom Brown's Schooldays (1940 - b/w) - Ropey adaptation.

This Time for Keeps (1940 - b/w) - Routine family drama with Frank Morgan.

Irene (1940 - b/w) - Rote musical romance with Anna Neagle and Ray Milland. See also No, No, Nanette (1940 - b/w).

Laddie (1940 - b/w) - Forgettable rural romance, with Peter Cushing last-billed.

Cross Country Romance (1940 - b/w) - Rote romcom.

One Crowded Night (1940 - b/w) - Forgettable, no budget small town drama.

The Ramparts We Watch (1940 - b/w) - A ninety-minute newsreel padded out with stilted amateurs.

Lucky Partners (1940 - b/w) - Rote screwballer with Ginger Rogers.

My Life with Caroline (1941 - b/w) - Forgettable Ronald Colman romcom.

A Date with the Falcon (1941 - b/w) - Ropey mystery with George Sanders. See also The Falcon's Brother (1942 - b/w), which leads into Tom Conway taking over in

Father Takes A Wife (1941 - b/w) - Forgettable Gloria Swanson comeback.

Tom, Dick and Harry (1941 - b/w) - Peculiar Ginger Rogers comedy where she constantly hallucinates. With a young Burgess Meredith. 

Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941 - b/w) - Hitchcock does a  generic screwball comedy. If it had just a little suspense, it would add a bit more excitement.

Play Girl (1941 - b/w) - Forgettable Kay Francis vehicle.

They Met in Argentina (1941 - b/w) - Routine exotica musical with Maureen O'Hara.

Unexpected Uncle (1941 - b/w) - Another comedy with Charles Coburn as an eccentric relative.

The Villain Still Pursued Her (1940 - b/w) - Unusual Pearls of Pauline homage with Hugh Herbert.

The Mayor of 44th Street (1942 - b/w) - Routine nightclub saga.

Scattergood Rides High (1942 - b/w)/Scattergood Swings It (1942 - b/w)/Cinderella Swings It (1953 - b/w) - Interchangeable Scattergood Baines installments.

Joe Smith,American (1942 - b/w) - Forgettable Robert Young propaganda.

Powder Town (1942 - b/w) - Slightly scientific comedy drama. Average, but interesting seeing a fresh-faced Edmond O'Brien before the hellraising set in.

Ladies' Day (1942 - b/w) - Forgettable B-comedy with Eddie Albert and Lupe Velez.

Obliging Young Lady (1942 - b/w) - Routine chase-com B from RKO.

Four Jacks and a Jill (1942 - b/w) - Rote musical with Ray Bolger.

Pierre of the Plains (1942 - b/w) - Sentimental MGM northern.

My Favorite Spy (1942 - b/w) - Kay Kyser variety show with a limp plot. See also Playmates (1941 - b/w).

Mokey (1942 - b/w) - Little Robert Blake, before he became a murderer runs away from home, eat some Babe Ruths and blacks up to live with his African American pals.

Sing Your Worries Away (1942 - b/w) - Routine musical with Bert Lahr and Buddy Ebsen.

Mr. Lucky (1943 - b/w) - Rote Cary Grant vehicle.

Hitler's Children (1943 - b/w) - Propaganda puff with Bonita Granville about the Hitler Youth.

Higher and Higher (1943 - b/w) - Routine early Frank Sinatra vehicle with his old head.

They Got Me Covered (1943 - b/w) - Routine Bob Hope routine.
See also Road to Singapore (1940 - b/w), Road to Zanzibar (1941 - b/w), Road to Rio (1947 - b/w).

Government Girl (1943 - b/w)  - Rote political romance with Olivia De Havilland.

Petticoat Larceny (1943 - b/w) - Forgettable precocious little girl comedy.

Call of the South Seas (1944 - b/w) - Routine South Seas hokum, from Republic. See also Harbor of Missing Men (1950 - b/w).

My Pal Wolf (1944 - b/w) - Forgettable kiddy-pic. See also Banjo (1947 - b/w).

Heavenly Days (1944 - b/w) - Bogstandard angelic comedy with Fibber McGee, Molly and Eugene Pallette.
See also Seven Days' Leave (1942 - b/w) and Look Who's Laughing (1942 - b/w), which brings in Fibber, Gildersleeve and the genius Edgar Bergen, and Charlie McCarthy plus Lucille Ball and a wing-walking chimp, and the sitcommy The Great Gildersleeve (1942 - b/w), Gildersleeve on Broadway (1943 - b/w) and Gildersleeve's Bad Day (1943 - b/w).

Belle of the Yukon (1944) - Rote saloon musical with Randolph Scott.

Youth Runs Wild (1944 - b/w) - Ropey juvenile delinquency from Val Lewton
Step Lively (1944 - b/w) - Rote musical comedy, with Frank Sinatra, but one of several vehicles for Brown and Carney. See also Gangway for Tomorrow (1943 - b/w), Seven Days Ashore (1944 - b/w), Girl Rush (1944 - b/w), Radio Stars on Parade (1945 - b/w), and a part in Mexican Spitfire's Blessed Event (1944 - b/w).
Also saw the various Mexican Spitfires with Leon Errol and Lupe Velez - The Girl from Mexico (1939 - b/w), Mexican Spitfire (1940 - b/w), Mexican Spitfire Out West (1940 - b/w), Mexican Spitfire's Baby (1941 - b/w), Mexican Spitfire Sees a Ghost (1942 - b/w), Mexican Spitfire's Elephant (1942 - b/w), Mexican Spitfire at Sea (1942 - b/w). Typical sitcoms that focus more on Leon Errol's faux-Lord schtick.

The Enchanted Forest (1944) - Charming if treacly color fantasy from PRC, with Harry Davenport as the white equivalent of a Magical Negro.

The Clock (1945 - b/w) - Routine romance with Judy Garland and Robert Walker.

Riverboat Rhythm (1946 - b/w) - Dullish musical comedy.

San Quentin (1946 - b/w) -Ropey prison fare with Lawrence Tierney.

Without Reservations (1946 - b/w) - Routine romcom with Claudette Colbert and John Wayne.

The Flame (1947 - b/w) - Threadbare Republic noir, with Henry Travers and Hattie McDaniel as, what else, a maid. See also The Red Menace (1949 - b/w).

Honeymoon (1947 - b/w) - Routine romcom with Shirley Temple.
See also Bride by Mistake (1944 - b/w), Casanova Brown (1944 - b/w), Lady Luck (1946 - b/w), A Likely Story (1947 - b/w).

Tenth Avenue Angel (1948 - b/w) - Margaret O'Brien schmaltz.

T-Men (1948 - B/W) - Well-made noir, but I find these kind of stories boring.

Mickey (1948) -Cheapo color teen musical from Eagle Lion, with Hattie McDaniel.

The Shanghai Story (1954 - b/w) - Hackneyed Republic attempt to do a Phil Karlson-type true crime film in China, with Ruth Roman and Edmond O'Brien.

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