GO WEST, YOUNG LADY

Glenn Ford

GO WEST, YOUNG LADY (1941). Director: Frank R. Strayer. Colorized.
 

The town of Headstone is regularly besieged by a masked villain known as "Killer" Pete and his gang. Then into town comes the official replacement for the murdered sheriff, Tex Miller (Glenn Ford of Gilda). Bar owner Jim Pendergast (Charlie Ruggles) is expecting his nephew, Bill, to take over as sheriff, but "Bill" turns out to be his niece, Belinda (Penny Singleton of Young Widow), who's dad always wanted a boy. Belinda and Tex are immediately drawn to one another, while Pete keeps robbing the saloon. Judge Harmon (Jed Prouty), Deputy Hank (Allen Jenkins), and businessman Tom Hannegan (Onslow Stevens of The Vanishing Shadow) are at their wit's end, but one of them is hiding a secret. Meanwhile dance hall gal Lola (Ann Miller) knows much more than she's telling. 

Penny Singleton and Ann Miller have at each other!

Go West, Young Lady is a delightful western musical comedy that is bolstered by fast-paced direction, a great spirit of fun, and terrific performances. Ford is appealingly boyish, and while Singleton could be accused of simply playing Blondie Out West, she is also very good. Miller is suitably nasty as Lola, and she and Singleton have a protracted "cat fight" (they are not fighting over Ford) that is one of the best examples of a femme fight scene I've ever seen in the movies. Ruggles, Stevens, and Jenkins are also terrific -- Jenkins has a funny song and dance number with Miller -- and Edith Meiser is also notable in a small bit as an angry townswoman (she appeared in the I Love Lucy episode when Ricky makes the mistake of putting Lucy on a schedule). 

Charlie Ruggles and Ford

Go West, Young Lady is punctuated by several songs -- the title tune and "Take Your Time" are the most memorable -- but all of the tunes are pleasant. Waffles the dog makes an impression, and we've got numbers by the Foursome, as well as Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. The opening, with Ford and Singleton shooting attacking Indians, is a bit problematic, but the ending, in which the ladies of the town take matters into their own hands, is wonderful! Frank R. Strayer also directed several installments of the Jones Family movie series in which Jed Prouty played the father. 

Verdict: An utterly charming musical comedy with the added bonus of a major "cat fight!" ***.

SIX OF A KIND

SIX OF A KIND (1934). Director: Leo McCarey. "

According to you everything I like to do is illegal, immoral, or fattening." -- W. C. Fields. 

 A bank employee, "Pinky" Whinney (Charlie Ruggles), and his wife (Mary Boland) advertise for another couple to share expenses as they go on a second honeymoon and drive all the way from the east coast to California. Who shows up but George (Burns) and Gracie (Allen), an unmarried couple with a humongous, if lovable, dog. The foursome and the beast have assorted, funny misadventures as they travel westward, especially in a small town where John Hoxley (W. C. Fields) is sheriff, Mrs. Rumford (Alison Skipworth) is the hotel proprietress, and "Pinky" is accused of stealing $50,000 from the bank where he works -- and of having a mistress! Fields gets to perform his famous pool routine as he explains how he got the nickname of "Honest" John, and it's a delight to see the formidable Boland squaring off against him. One of the funniest bits has Boland falling off a cliff onto a tree. Everyone in the cast is in top form! 

Verdict: This will put you in a good mood if nothing does! ***.

LOVE ME TONIGHT

Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald

LOVE ME TONIGHT (1932). Director: Rouben Mamoulian.

"I don't know what will come tomorrow, but love me tonight."

Tailor Maurice (Maurice Chevalier) is hoping to be paid a large bill for several suits by the deadbeat Viscount Gilbert (Charles Ruggles). To that end Maurice travels to the home of the man's uncle, the Duke d'Artelines (C. Aubrey Smith), whom he is visiting. There Maurice becomes smitten with the Princess Jeanette (Jeanette MacDonald), who finds him rude and brash. Not wanting his uncle to realize he has yet another creditor nipping at his heels, Gilbert tells everyone that Maurice is actually a baron, and then an even greater dignitary traveling incognito. Slowly, Maurice begins to wear the princess down, but what happens when she learns he's just a tailor ..? Love Me Tonight would have to go on the list as one of the best movie musicals ever made. The story is slight, and often zany, but this is cinematic, very well directed by Mamoulian, with superior cinematography (Victor Milner of So Red the Rose) and editing (Mamoulian and William Shea). Chevalier gives an excellent and charming performance, MacDonald is swell, and Smith as effective and fun as ever. Ruggles is fine, but Myrna Loy as a countess and Charles Butterworth as a hopeless suitor for the princess's affections are less memorable. Elizabeth Patterson, Ethel Griffies, and Blanche Friderici stand out as a trio of "old biddies" who almost serve as a Greek chorus and are very funny.

And then there's the music. Although this was based on a straight stage play and not a musical, Rodgers and Hart provided several songs that were written just for the movie. The best-known is Isn't It Romantic, a standard. and a classic Rodgers melody. It is first sung (not that well, frankly) by Chevalier, then picked up by a customer in his shop, a cab driver, moving on to several other people throughout the French countryside, until the tune is taken up by marching soldiers and finally McDonald, whose voice is very imperfect but who at least sings the tune better than Chevalier. (He could get across a song without having a great voice). We also have "Lover;" "Apache:" "The Son of a Gun;" the title tune; and "Mimi." Some of Hart's racy lyrics survive intact in this pre-code movie (the production code was formed two years earlier, but not really enforced until 1934 when pictures had to obtain a certificate of approval.) Chevalier sings of how his father and mother "weren't very well acquainted."

Now here's where things get odd. Chevalier sings "Mimi" to MacDonald but the song is never repeated. I could swear that the first time I saw this movie, "Mimi" was intoned by virtually everyone in the movie. Am I confusing it with what happened with "Isn"t it Romantic?" But in the wikipedia entry regarding the song, it says that the song is "later reprised by the entire company." Could this have happened in a later movie? I swear I remember dozens of people singing the tune in Love Me Tonight, and the DVD doesn't say anything about the film being cut. Anyone know what's up?

The movie has other notable scenes, such as a Foxhunt in which Chevalier winds up befriending a frightened stag, and MacDonald's racing on a horse to get ahead of a train. The film begins with all of the sounds of Paris combining to form a kind of music.

Verdict: A lovely and entertaining gem, if a little odd at times. ***1/2.

IT HAPPENED ON FIFTH AVENUE

IT HAPPENED ON FIFTH AVENUE (1947). Director: Roy Del Ruth.

Aloysius T. McKeever (Victor Moore) is a bum who lives in boarded up mansions while the owners are away for the season. His latest domicile is the Fifth Avenue mansion of Michael O'Connor (Charles Ruggles). A new interloper in the mansion is a homeless soldier, Jim (Don DeFore), and through him a couple of families with children who also need a place to stay. Popping into the mansion for a coat is O'Connor's daughter, Trudy (Gale Storm), who doesn't tell anyone who she is, and when her father and divorced mother (Ann Harding) show up, swears them to secrecy as well. So the world's richest man pretends to be a bum while a hobo dines on his food and wears his clothing ... only in Hollywood! It Happened on Fifth Avenue is meant to be a frothy, hilarious social comedy, but it falls utterly flat. First of all, no movie can convince anyone that it's better to be a homeless hobo than to have money and security -- of course O'Connor is the stereotype of the rich man who has lost touch with real values -- and the film is miscast and not very funny. Don DeFore could be fine in certain roles such as in Too Late for Tears, but he's not exactly Cary Grant. Pretty Gale Storm is equally competent, but this was before she developed a real flair for comedy as on My Little Margie. Victor Moore and Charlie Ruggles are old pros, as is Ann Harding [The Unknown Man], who is pretty much wasted as Trudy's mother; all are given sub-standard material. Grant Mitchell of The Man Who Came to Dinner is his customary tight-assed self. Alan Hale Jr. [Advance to the Rear], later of Gilligan's Island, is fine as one of Jim's soldier buddies. Although Gale Storm could sing and even cut some recordings in later years, her singing voice is dubbed in this.

Verdict: Almost like watching paint dry. *1/2.

THE PARENT TRAP (1961)

Hayley Mills meets Hayley Mills

THE PARENT TRAP (1961). Director: David Swift. Walt Disney Studios.

"You must bring mother to California. Boston is no place to rekindle a romance."

Two girls at a summer camp named Sharon and Suzie (Hayley Mills) look exactly alike. Initially hating each other, they eventually become friends, compare notes, and discover they are sisters raised on separate coasts. The two decide to switch places so they can each get to know the parent the other one lives with. When it develops that their father Mitch (Brian Keith) is about to get remarried, they contrive to rekindle a romance between him and their mother, Margaret (Maureen O'Hara). The film starts badly with a horrible title tune sung not at all well by Tommy Sands and Annette Funicello, but the opening scenes in camp are very funny. Hayley Mills reminds everyone that she was one of the most talented child stars ever. Brian Keith and Maureen O'Hara make a good team, even if Keith is a more natural actor; O'Hara looks stunning. Joanna Barnes and Linda Watkins are the scheming fiancee, Vicky, and her overbearing mother, Edna; Cathleen Nesbitt and Charlie Ruggles, the maternal grandparents -- all are fine. Ruth McDevitt is fun as the dithery head of the summer camp, Miss Inch, and Nancy Kulp appears briefly as a counselor. Una Merkle plays Mitch's housekeeper, Verbena, and Leo G. Carroll, a few years before The Man from U.N.C.L.E., has a very amusing turn as the reverend Dr. Mosby. The most hilarious scene occurs when Margaret meets Vicky and her mother for the first time and mischievously confuses the two of them. At over two hours, this is a little overlong, but entertaining for the most part. However, the plot and its holes will not hold up to much scrutiny [why not tell the girls they have a sister, for instance?] The girls perform the snappy "Let's Get Together." Mills starred in the very different Twisted Nerve seven years later.

Verdict: Amiable Disney comedy with some good performances. ***. 

A STOLEN LIFE

A STOLEN LIFE (1946). Director: Curtis Bernhardt.

Kate Bosworth (Bette Davis) falls for a handsome lighthouse keeper named Bill (Glenn Ford) but he finds that her twin sister Pat has a little more "frosting" on her and marries the latter, devastating Kate. This is an interesting study of unrequited love with a little melodrama thrown in for good measure. Despite some trenchant dialogue, this is essentially a pure soap opera and it's perfectly swell on that level. Davis is fine and successfully limns two separate personalities as Kate and Pat. Ford merely has to look cute and be pleasant and this he does adroitly. Walter Brennan is his usual peppery self as the other "elderly" lighthouse keeper (Brennan was only 52 at the time!) and Charlie Ruggles scores as the twins' wise and compassionate cousin. Dane Clark is okay as the bitter starving artist Karnock but frankly it would have been wiser to forget about him and show us scenes of domestic discord with Bill and Pat -- that certainly would have been more fun. Bruce Bennett has a small role as one of Pat's extracurricular interests. A bit on the slow side at times, but the photography by Sol Polito and Ernest Haller is excellent, as is Max Steiner's score. The FX blending the two sisters together -- Davis acting with herself (and doing very well!) -- are very well executed and seamless.

Verdict: Handsomely produced soaper. ***.

BRINGING UP BABY

BRINGING UP BABY (1938). Director: Howard Hawks.

After sixty-seven years this hilarious film arguably remains the best and funniest “screwball” comedy ever made. Katharine Hepburn is an heiress who is instantly attracted to a somewhat stuffy but handsome and likable scientist (Cary Grant) whose life she turns upside down (on the eve of his marriage to a cold fish, no less) as she not only tries to win him over but deal with a tamed leopard named Baby who was dropped off at her door. Grant is putting together the bones of a dinosaur and is supposed to take particular care of a certain specimen which winds up being buried in an enormous backyard by Hepburn's little dog. If that's not enough, a dangerous leopard escapes from a zoo and is mistaken for Hepburn's charming pet. Add Hepburn's peppery relative (May Robson), an alleged big game hunter (Charlie Ruggles) and other eccentrics to the mix and you've got a classic that sparkles and delights from start to finish. While the material may seem more geared to Lucille Ball, Hepburn gives a wonderful, interestingly nuanced performance, and Grant puts his fine comic gifts on display throughout. Howard Hawks keeps things at a brisk pace. While I've never belonged to the school of major Hawks' admirers, it has to be said that this is one of his best pictures, far more memorable than Rio Bravo and others of its ilk.

Verdict: Great! ***1/2