MY FAVORITE BLONDE

Gale Sondergaard and Bob Hope

MY FAVORITE BLONDE (1942). Director: Sidney Lanfield.

Larry Haines (Bob Hope) has an act with a trained penguin named Percy. Larry is about to make his way out to Hollywood from New York -- Percy has gotten a movie contract, but not Larry -- when he encounters a blonde named Karen (Madeleine Carroll of The Prisoner of Zenda), who is secretly a British agent. With the unwitting aid of Larry, Karen tries to keep herself and a scorpion-shaped pin containing secret information, out of the clutches of nasty spies Madame Runick (Gale Sondergaard) and Dr. Streger (George Zucco of Fog Island). Meanwhile Larry and Karen are off on a cross-country chase, trying to get safely to Las Angeles where they can give the pin to a military contact. Along the way they get involved with an Irish picnic and some stubborn Irishmen, encounter Bing Crosby in his first cameo in a Hope film, wind up at a lecture for a baby doctor impersonated by Larry, and confront Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer at his most obnoxious. My Favorite Blonde begins rather grimly with the murder of more than one agent, but it is also consistently amusing, has some great and funny sequences, and Hope and Carroll -- who at first seem an odd team -- are both excellent and play extremely well together. Percy is adorable, but Sondergaard [The Cat Creature] and Zucco, although wonderful, don't get nearly enough to do. There are a host of fine and funny character actors in this as well. A top-notch comedy-thriller. Among the many great scenes in this picture is one in which Sondergaard, Zucco and their henchmen get in a staring contest with Hope!

Verdict: One of Hope's best and most entertaining movies with the comic in fine form. ***1/2.

THE PRISONER OF ZENDA (1937)

Ronald Colman meets Ronald Colman

THE PRISONER OF ZENDA (1937). Director: John Cromwell.

Major Rudolph Rassendyll (Ronald Colman) is vacationing when people keep remarking upon his strong resemblance to Prince Rudolph (also played by Colman). The two men meet and turn out to be cousins. When the prince is given a knock-out potion on the night before his coronation, his aides importune the major to impersonate him or all will be lost. But there are two complications. Will Princess Flavia (Madeleine Carroll), the prince's beloved, be able to see past the deception? And what happens when the real king gets kidnapped? Colman is terrific in both roles, and there is also expert work from the lovely Carroll [My Son, My Son] ; Raymond Massey [Possessed] as his evil brother, who wants the crown for himself; C. Aubrey Smith and David Niven as the king's friends and comrades; Mary Astor as the woman who loves Massey not wisely but too well; and especially Douglas Fairbanks Jr. [Little Caesar] as the haughty, deceptively sinister Rupert. The film is capped by an exciting sword fight between Colman and Fairbanks, but it never quite becomes a classic. Remade at least once.

Verdict: Colman  and Massey are always interesting to watch. **1/2.

MY SON, MY SON

MY SON, MY SON (1940). Director: Charles Vidor.

"They say be good and you'll be happy, but I say be happy and you'll be good."

William Essex (Brian Aherne) was born poor but has become an established and successful author and playwright. His wife, Nellie (Josephine Hutchinson), is overly pious, while William is overly apologetic for the actions of his young son, Oliver (Scotty Beckett), who lies with abandon. One afternoon Essex is doing research for a play about miners, and is mistaken for one by an artist named Livia (Madeleine Carroll), who sketches him before realizing her mistake. The two are instantly attracted, but there's nothing to be done about it -- until later. Oliver grows up to become a spoiled, somewhat callous young man (Louis Hayward), whose actions greatly distress his father. But when Oliver is called to the trenches during WW 1, will the two men be able to reconcile their differences? My Son, My Son is a powerful, absorbing and very well-acted drama that culminates in a touching finale. Aherne is given a strong role and runs with it, on top of every scene. His love scene with Carroll [Don't Trust Your Husband] is beautifully played, and she gives a fine performance throughout. Hayward is excellent, and Beckett as the young Oliver is simply amazing. There are also very good performances from Henry Hull as William's old friend, Dermot; Laraine Day as Dermot's daughter, Maeve, who falls in love with William; and Hutchinson as William's first wife. A nice score by Edward Ward helps make this a compelling and classy picture. Hayward also played a bad boy in Vidor's Ladies in Retirement while Aherne and Day both appeared in The Locket.

Verdict: The kind of movie they truly don't make anymore. ****.

DON'T TRUST YOUR HUSBAND aka AN INNOCENT AFFAIR

Madelaine Carroll and Fred MacMurray

DON'T TRUST YOUR HUSBAND (aka An Innocent Affair/1948). Director: Lloyd Bacon.

Advertising man Vincent Doane (Fred MacMurray) is trying to land an account which happens to be controlled by his still-amorous ex-fiancee, Margot Fraser (Louise Allbritton of Fired Wife). Vincent's wife, Paula (Madeleine Carroll), thinks he's spending all his evenings with a Mr. Fraser, but she suspects something's up. Vincent's sister, Eve (Rita Johnson of The Naughty Nineties), comes up with the dubious idea of testing her brother's love for her sister-in-law by seeing how jealous he gets if a paid actor pays too much attention to Paula on their anniversary. Clued in to the scheme, Vincent invites the man into his home and even asks him to take out his wife the next night! What nobody realizes is that the man in question is not the paid actor, but rather wealthy cigarette man Claude Kimball (Charles "Buddy" Rogers), who thinks the Doanes have a wonderfully carefree attitude. This all sounds rather cute, but it's almost by the numbers, with not enough real laughs -- although there are certainly amusing bits -- to make it stand out from the crowd. MacMurray is terrific, as you would expect, and the ladies are all good if not on his level. Alan Mowbray offers his customary fine performance as a man who pretends to be Margot's husband, and Anne Nagel has a small role as a receptionist. Rogers gets by on charm. Bacon also directed Crooner and many others.

Verdict: Cute, if formula, comedy. **1/2. 

ON THE AVENUE

ON THE AVENUE (1937). Directed by Roy Del Ruth.

A charming and genuinely amusing musical with some pleasant (if unspectacular) Irving Berlin songs. Gary Blake (Dick Powell) is the star of a hit Broadway revue, and his co-star, Mona Merrick (Alice Faye), seems a bit smitten with him. In one of the show’s most popular sketches, Mona plays a well-known heiress, Mimi Carraway (Madeleine Carroll), and Blake is her very stuffy father, the Commodore (George Barbier). Father and daughter Carraway are outraged by the sketch and Mimi contacts Gary in an attempt to gain revenge. The two wind up falling in love with each other, naturally, and Blake agrees to make the sketch less offensive. However, a jealous Mona decides she’s not going to take all the juice out of the sketch, and ... well, let’s just say it leads to the funniest sequence in the movie. All three leads and the supporting cast are in top form. Especially notable is Cora Witherspoon as Mimi’s free-spirited aunt, who thinks the aforementioned sketch is hilarious and seems to be the only person in the family with a sense of humor. The Ritz Brothers do some funny routines but one of them goes on forever and nearly stops the picture dead. Otherwise, this fast-moving musical comedy is a pip.

Verdict: Lots of fun. ***.