EVERYBODY SING

Judy Garland

EVERYBODY SING (1938). Director: Edwin L. Marin.

Judy Bellaire (Judy Garland of Presenting Lily Mars) belongs to a theatrical family, but she keeps getting thrown out of one school after another because she prefers swing music to classical and is therefore considered a "corrupting" influence. The rest of the household consists of her playwright father Hilary (Reginald Owen); her actress mother Diana (Billie Burke); the housekeeper Olga (Fanny Brice), who used to work in vaudeville; and the handsome cook, Ricky (Allan Jones of Reckless), who is moonlighting as a singer at a posh cafe. Judy also has a sister named Sylvia (Lynne  Carver), who is struck on Ricky and vice versa. Judy wants to help get needed money for the cash-poor family by singing at the same cafe, but has to resort to subterfuge when her parents deny her permission to do so. Meanwhile Hilary tries to mount his own show but objects to his wife's acting partner, Jerrold Hope (Reginald Gardiner).

Bus song: Garland, Carver, Jones and Gardiner

This aptly-titled MGM movie is a real charmer, thanks to the cast, some good song numbers, and an amiable disposition throughout, although Judy's attitude (as expressed in one of the song numbers) that classical music is passe is obnoxious. She gets to sing the snappy "Melody Fair," Jones warbles "The One I Love," much of the cast does an operatic pastiche -- based on Verdian melodies -- on a bus; and Fanny Brice [The Great Ziegfeld], who is wonderful, does "Dainty Me," as well as a Baby Schnooks number with Garland. Jones also reprises "Comsi Comsa" from A Night at the Opera. Monty Woolley shows up briefly as a producer and he adds to the fun as well. When they made dithery Bille Burke, they certainly broke the mold.

Verdict: Not just for Garland fans, but they will especially enjoy this. ***.

HOLD THAT KISS

HOLD THAT KISS (1938). Director: Edwin L. Marin.

June Evans (Maureen O'Sullivan) and Tom Bradford (Dennis O'Keefe) meet at a society function and both believe the other one is well-to-do. Tom actually works for a travel agency and June is a model for a couturier, but they do their best to keep up the deception, afraid the other would dump them if they knew they weren't wealthy. The leads are swell, and the picture is bolstered by a fine supporting cast: Mickey Rooney, Frank Albertson and Phillip Terry as June's brothers; Fay Holden as her mother; Jessie Ralph as her Aunt Lucy; Edward Brophy as Tom's roommate; and George Barbier as the father of a bride in the opening sequence. A definite scene stealer is the St. Bernard with soulful eyes who plays Blotto. No world-beater, perhaps, but a cute and amusing trifle.

Verdict: Fun picture with appealing cast. ***.

MISS ANNIE ROONEY

MISS ANNIE ROONEY (1942). Director: Edwin L. Marin.

"Barbaric! -- But it's fun!"

Sweet little Annie Rooney (Shirley Temple) sort of has a kind of steady in pal Joey (Roland Dupree), who loves jazz and jalopies, but she really flips when she meets the sincere and kind-hearted Marty (Dickie Moore), who invites her to his birthday party. "Where on Earth did you meet someone with that name?" asks his snobbish mother, played by Dracula's Daughter herself, Gloria Holden. Alas, Annie's father (William Gargan) is an out of work inventor with aspirations, and Master Marty lives on Sutton Place, and how can Annie afford to buy the proper dress for such a high-toned address? Grandpa (Guy Kibbee) puts on his thinking cap, and it all works out in the end. The good-natured tone of the piece and the excellent acting from the entire cast help disguise the fact that this is really just a lower case Alice Adams, but it does explore the indignations of poverty with some veracity. June Lockhart plays a snobbish girl at the party and Peggy Ryan is Annie's good friend, Myrtle. Although now in her early teens, Temple had lost none of her charm or acting ability. Moore, Gargan and Kibbee are also perfectly swell. Speaking of swells, Shirley wins them over by demonstrating how to dance the jitterbug.

Verdict: If you don't like this movie "you're not hep to the jive!" ***.

YOUNG WIDOW

YOUNG WIDOW (1946). Director: Edwin L. Marin.

The very American hotsy totsy Jane Russell teamed in a romantic pairing with the veddy British and veddy cultured Louis Hayward? You wouldn't think of these two together, but somehow it works. Part of the reason is that this film features a more subdued, much less hard-bitten Russell, who gives a very nice performance as Joan Kenwood, who is dealing with her grief over losing her beloved husband in the war. She and an equally effective Hayward play quite well together, despite their obvious differences. But there are even more cast surprises in this film. Penny Singleton of Blondie fame plays a friend and roommate's of Joan's, but she's not the dingbat -- her other roommate Marie Wilson (My Friend Irma) takes that role, and Singleton is sensible! Kent Taylor of The Day Mars Invaded Earth is Joan's boss and Faith Domergue of It Came from Beneath the Sea is another colleague who is afraid to marry a serviceman. Norman Lloyd of Hitchcock's Saboteur [he falls from the Statue of Liberty at the end] is another serviceman, and Gerald Mohr of Angry Red Planet and Funny Girl is another reporter. Also in the cast are Louise Beavers, Connie Gilchrist, Cora Witherspoon, and James Burke, who plays a motorcycle cop in a funny sequence and was also in the classic "The Diner" episode of I Love Lucy. A bizarre moment occurs in a hospital room full of expectant dads where a middle-aged man tells of how he and his wife were trying for twenty years to have a baby. Their luck finally changed when a young serviceman took a room in their place. Hmmm.

Verdict: Entertaining drama has laughs and poignancy in equal measure. ***.

PURSUIT

PURSUIT (1935). Director: Edwin L.Marin.

A mean old aunt wants to take a little boy away from his mother (Dorothy Peterson), so a man named Mitch (Chester Morris) is hired to spirit the kid away to Mexico. Involved in the action are a pretty gal (Sally Eilers) who teams up/clashes with Mitch, cops, gangsters, farmers and others who hope to claim the $20,000 reward for the return of the child. All of them take a back seat to the kid, as he is played by the talented and adorable Scotty Beckett (pictured) who positively steals the picture away from everyone else. The picture is very minor but it pulls one along, starting with the scene with a runaway plane wherein Mitch rescues the frightened boy who accidentally hit the gas pedal, until it runs out of steam somewhere along the way. There's a pregnant pooch, and an unfazed Beckett has to pretend to be a girl at one point. A lot of cute moments if little else.

Verdict: There have been worse. **.

THE INVISIBLE AGENT

THE INVISIBLE AGENT (1942). Director: Edwin L. Marin.

The third in the Invisible Man series (The Invisible Woman was a comedy that did not follow the continuity of the first two films) has the grandson (Jon Hall) of Frank Griffin, the original Invisible Man, living under an assumed name and besieged by Nazi agents who want his grandfather's formula, as does the United States. After the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, Hall uses the formula himself to enter enemy territory and acquire vital information from the Nazi's. Ilona Massey plays a double-agent who helps Hall even though he doesn't quite trust her. Hall and Massey are fine, but the picture certainly benefits from the participation of J. Edward Bromberg and Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Nazi agents, and Peter Lorre as a sinister Japanese baron -- all three gentlemen give outstanding performances despite the nature of the material (Lorre and Hardwicke each brilliantly underplay a final encounter).

Verdict: The Invisible Agent is a competent B thriller with some excellent effects work courtesy of, as usual, John P. Fulton. **1/2.