THE MAN WHO LOST HIMSELF

Brian Aherne and Kay Francis

THE MAN WHO LOST HIMSELF (1941). Director: Edward Ludwig.

John Evans and Malcolm Scott (both played by Brian Aherne of My Son, My Son) both look  exactly alike, so alike that no one, including Scott's wife, Adrienne (Kay Francis of The Keyhole), can tell them apart. Evans wakes up in Scott's bed -- sans Scott -- and the household staff, including lovable Paul (S. Z. Sakall of Lullaby of Broadway)  assume he is their employer. Evans discovers that "he" died in a fall in front of a subway train, when the dead man is actually Malcolm Scott. When John realizes that he is attracted to Adrienne, who is on the perpetual verge of divorcing Scott, he decides to assume the other man's identity. And this is a comedy?

Glamorous Kay

The Man Who Lost Himself offers some intriguing situations but hasn't much idea what to do with them. Evans doesn't seem the slightest bit upset when he learns of Malcolm's death, but this is made somewhat palatable when we learn that Scott was a bit of a bounder. The cast, including a very enthusiastic Aherne, the glamorously caparisoned Francis, and especially the wonderful "Cuddles" Sakall do their best with the material, but there's a kind of grotesque seriousness underneath the silliness that strips the film of its alleged fun quotient. The picture could have been a funny movie but aside from one or two chuckles it just isn't. It may have worked better as a drama.

"Cuddles" Sakall and Brian Aherne

Other cast members include Henry Stephenson as the family lawyer; Dorothy Tree as a girlfriend of Scott's nicknamed Boobie Woobie; Nils Asther as an admirer of Adrienne's; Marc Lawrence as a would-be blackmailer; Sig Ruman and Barlowe Borland as psychiatrists; Henry Kolker as a business associate; and Eden Gray as Scott's sister Venetia. They all give it their best but it just isn't enough. Of all the films about doubles taking the place of someone else, this is one of the least interesting. There is no explanation for why the two men look like identical twins but apparently aren't.

Verdict: Lots of possibilities that add up to very little. **. 

SMALL TOWN GIRL

Farley Granger and Jane Powell

SMALL TOWN GIRL (1953). Director: Leslie (Laszlo) Kardos.

Rich and patronizing playboy Richard Livingstone III (Farley Granger) speeds through the small town of Duck Creek, sasses Judge Kimbell (Robert Keith), and winds up thrown in jail for thirty days. Richard importunes the judge's daughter, Cindy (Jane Powell), to let him out one night for his "mother's" birthday. Richard has a jealous if unfaithful fiancee in Broadway star Lisa Bellmount (Ann Miller), but during a night in New York he and Cindy start to fall in love. How will the judge react when he is apprised of this situation?

Jane Powell

Small Town Girl is the perfect example of a well-turned out MGM musical. The players are fine and enthusiastic (Granger is much better than you might imagine); the TechniColor is vivid and beautiful; there are a couple of more than pleasant tunes ("Small Towns;" "The Fellow I Follow"); some excellent production numbers; and an essentially amiable if lightweight veneer that puts over the slight but entertaining storyline. Jane Powell [Seven Brides for Seven Brothers] again proves an adept leading lady with a lovely voice and good delivery. And besides Granger, Powell has a host of excellent supporting players and character actors to back her up.

Bobby Van 

First among these is Bobby Van [Lost Horizon], who plays Ludwig Schlemmer, the boy next door who has Broadway aspirations. Van is by no means handsome in Hollywood terms, but he is so irrepressible and talented that it doesn't matter; he has a kind of Al Jolson delight in performing. The most famous highlight of Small Town Girl is when Van literally hops his way across town in sheer spirited excitement, a well-choreographed (Busby Berkeley) sequence that was filmed with only a few cuts. When Ludwig meets Ann Miller and tells her his name, she says "Well, keep it quiet and no one will notice." Ludwig's father is played by "Cuddles" Sakall, whose character in this seems more grumpy and unpleasant than lovable.

Miller struts her stuff

Then there's Ann Miller [Carolina Blues]. There may well have been better female dancers in Hollywood musicals, but in this Miller stars in a zesty production number, "Feel That Beat," wherein the members of the band are hidden behind walls and under the floor, with only their arms and instruments protruding. As for the rest of the players, Robert Keith is fine as the judge, as is an uncredited Chill Wills as the friendly sheriff, Happy. Fay Wray is the judge's wife; Billie Burke is her dithery self as Richard's society mother; William Campbell is a reporter; Marie Blake is a shop customer; and Beverly Wills, the daughter of Joan Davis, plays Ludwig's sister, Deidre. Nat King Cole also sings a number, "Burn Low." Photographed by Joseph Ruttenberg.

Verdict: Delightful MGM musical. ***.   

WONDER MAN

Danny Kaye meets Danny Kaye

WONDER MAN (1945). Director: H. Bruce Humberstone.

Witness to a gangland killing, club entertainer Buzzy Bellew (Danny Kaye) is bumped off at the direction of mobster Ten Grand Jackson (Steve Cochran).  Before you can say Topper, his ghost importunes his nerdier twin brother, Edwin (also Danny Kaye), to impersonate him until the murderers are found, which creates an obvious and dangerous disadvantage. Buzzy can not be seen by anyone, and can take over Edwin's body whenever he wants, but this often causes more problems than it solves. Added complications are that Buzzy was supposed to get married to long-time beau Midge (Vera-Ellen) while Edwin has fallen for beautiful librarian, Ellen (Virginia Mayo), who cares for him but comes to think he's demented. Will all of this ever get straightened out, and will anyone give a damn? Perhaps I'd seen too many Danny Kaye movies in a row, but Wonder Man didn't work for me at all. Kaye is a talented performer, but his shtick can be unfunny and wearisome at times. Meant to be whimsical, the plot of Wonder Man is actually rather depressing, as is Buzzy's jaunty attitude about being deceased (Since he's dead, Midge simply goes off and marries someone else, and seemingly forgets her fiance in a second without shedding a tear, but then Buzzy seems to forget about Midge as well! That's love for ya!) On the plus side, Vera-Ellen does a splendid dance routine and the performances in the picture are all good. Steve Cochran [The Big Operator], who, like Mayo, appeared with Kaye several times, gets a much smaller role this time, but we get appearances from Huntz Hall [Valentino] as a sailor, and "Cuddles" Sakall as a delicatessen owner who is very amusing, as is Gisela Werbisek as his wife. Otto Kruger [Beauty for Sale] is a district attorney, and Natalie Schafer shows up briefly as a patroness of the arts who finds Edwin fascinating if a little too strange. The worst thing about the movie is that it has the temerity to try to ape A Night at the Opera by including a climactic bit on the opera stage (they even use music from Verdi's Il trovatore, as in the Marx Brothers film). This seemingly endless scene not only isn't very funny, but it suffers mightily in comparison to that Marx brothers masterpiece.

Verdict: Not Kaye's finest hour and a half. *1/2. 

THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS

"Cuddles" Sakall, Edward Everett Horton, and Bette Davis

THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS (1943). Director: David Butler.

Joe Simpson (Eddie Cantor in a dual role) is an aspiring actor and tour guide who can't get a job because of his resemblance to ... Eddie Cantor. Joe befriends two show business hopefuls: singer Tommy Randolph (Dennis Morgan) and songwriter Pat Nixon (Joan Leslie). A shady "agent" named Barney Johnson (Richard Lane) fools Tommy into thinking he's got a job on the real Eddie Cantor's radio show, but he gets thrown out of Cantor's house moments after arriving with "contract" in hand. Meanwhile conductor Dr. Schlenna (S. Z. Sakall) and entrepreneur Farnsworth (Edward Everett Horton) are mounting a charity concert, Cavalcade of Stars, and want to use Dinah Shore, who works for Cantor. The catch is that they don't want Cantor because he tends to take over and "stink" everything up. (Cantor wants to dress the dancers like boiled potatoes and have them dive into a tub of sour cream.) However, they have to use him just to get Dinah. Joe hits upon the idea of impersonating Cantor, hiring Tommy, and taking over the production himself, while Cantor is temporarily kidnapped. But when the real Cantor breaks out of confinement ... ? Thank Your Lucky Stars is another of those all-star WW2 revues with a thin plot, this one from Warner Brothers, and it's one of the better ones. Cantor is very funny dealing with some over-anxious dogs and especially as he winds up in an institution where everyone thinks he's crazy and wants to operate on him; Ruth Donnelly is especially good as a nurse. The movie's highlights include: Errol Flynn doing a very creditable song and dance routine in a tavern;  Ann Sheridan warbling "Love Isn't Born, It's Made;" Alan Hale and Jack Carson in the comical duet, "I'm Going North;" John Garfield doing a comic interpretation of "Blues in the Night;" Cantor enthusiastically performing "We're Staying Home Tonight" while his household staff is forced to listen; Morgan and Leslie doing the duet, "No You, No Me;" Alexis Smith doing a very sexy Latin dance; and Dinah Shore demonstrating her singing chops with "How Sweet You Are." The two very best production numbers are "Ice Cold Katie," featuring Hattie McDaniel and Willie Best; and Bette Davis beautifully emoting and sort of singing to "They're Either Too Young or Too Old." The lowlight of the film is George Tobias, Ida Lupino and Olivia de Havilland doing a rather dreadful bebop number, and I'm not sure what to make of the odd-looking Spike Jones and his City Slickers as they do a strange jazz rendition of the "Volga Boatmen." As for the non-musical scenes, Sakall and Horton make a great and funny team, and it's a riot watching "Cuddles" Sakall telling off a tough but chastened Humphrey Bogart ("I hope my fans don't see this"). Joan Leslie does a pretty good impression of Ida Lupino at one point. The bouncy songs are by Arthur Schwartz and Frank Loesser. Director David Butler and producer Mark Hellinger make cameo appearances as themselves, and Mary Treen, James Burke, Mike Mazurki, Billy Benedict, and Benny Bartlett, among others, show up briefly as well.

Verdict: A real pleasure practically from start to finish. ***1/4. 

LULLABY OF BROADWAY

Doris Day

LULLABY OF BROADWAY (1951). Director: David Butler.

Melinda Howard (Doris Day) is a struggling show girl waiting for a big break who has just come back from Europe to see her mother, a big Broadway star named Jessica Howard (Gladys George) who lives in a mansion. Apparently Melinda has been away for quite some time, because she is completely unaware that her mother, far from being a Broadway star, has descended into alcoholism and near-oblivion and is now croaking out songs in a not-so-posh supper club. The mansion is now owned by theatrical producer Adolph Hubbell (S. Z. Sakall), who lives there with his formidable wife, Anna (Florence Bates). Taking pity on Melinda, dance man turned butler Lefty (Billy De Wolfe of Dear Wife), importunes Hubbell to let her stay in her "mother's" mansion, and to try to get her a job in a new Broadway show. However, Hubbell's relationship to the much younger woman is misinterpreted, especially by Mrs. Hubbell ... Lullaby of Broadway is one of Day's best vehicles, an amusing and charming trifle with some classic old tunes and excellent performances all around. Sakall, who can be cloying in some movies, is well-cast and wonderful as Hubbell, and Bates is his equal as his jealous and over-sized wife. De Wolfe also gives a winning performance, although I thought much less of Anne Triola as his girlfriend and the maid; she had very few credits. As the male lead, Gene Nelson [So This is Paris] is perfect, dances quite well, and does an astounding jump from the floor onto the top of a piano! Gladys George [Flamingo Road] is also memorable as the dissipated if plucky Jessica.

Verdict: Day struts her stuff in an entertaining musical. Watch for the sequence with Day's floating head! ***. 

THE DOLLY SISTERS

June Haver, Betty Grable and John Payne

THE DOLLY SISTERS (1945). Director: Irving Cummings.

Latsie Dolly (S. Z. Sakall) brings his two nieces from Hungary to America where Jenny (Betty Grable) and Rosie (June Haver) become a popular singing and dancing sister act. Jenny falls for entertainer Harry Fox (John Payne) but their romance hits a couple of snags. Lest you think that the Dolly Sisters were a mere invention of 20th Century-Fox, these gals actually existed, and a true story of their lives would have shocked the hell out of staid 1940's movie house patrons. In this sanitized version of their backstage history, the focus is on the love affair and marriage of Jenny and Harry -- Harry Fox was also a real person -- but the latter was only one of Jenny's husbands -- and lovers. This movie completely ignores the fact that the two gals became more famous for gambling and bed-hopping with wealthy men than they did for their singing and dancing! A car crash which necessitated plastic surgery for Dolly is presented in the movie, and would seem like a lame attempt to add "drama" were it not for the fact that it actually happened. Reginald Gardiner [Black Widow] plays a duke who dallies with Jenny after she and Harry part ways, and Frank Latimore [Shock] is a real-life store owner, Irving Netcher, who marries Rosie. Trudy Marshall [Mark of the Gorilla] has a nice bit as Lenora, a woman who has the misfortune of falling for Harry even though he's still in love with Jenny. While the screenplay is mediocre, The Dolly Sisters is bolstered by sumptuous Technicolor, high-class cinematography from Ernest Palmer, professional performances (from Sig Ruman and others), and some pleasant songs (Gordon and Monaco), although the best numbers are standards such as "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows." Two ladies who make an impression are Collette Lyons as (fictional?) entertainer Flo Daly and an uncredited chorus cutie who plays "Rosie Rouge" in a production number devoted to make up. (This song, in particular, has a weird off-kilter melody, if you can even call it that.) I have no idea what they were like in real life, but as embodied by Haver and Grable, the Dolly Sisters come off as a decorative but not terribly mesmerizing or especially talented vaudeville act.

Verdict: Smooth and entertaining and good to look at it nothing else. ***.

THAT NIGHT IN RIO

Carmen does her thing!

THAT NIGHT IN RIO (1941). Director: Irving Cummings.

"If I can't be happy with another man's wife, how can I be happy with my own?" -- Pierre.

Larry Martin (Don Ameche) is an entertainer with a jealous and tempestuous girlfriend, Carmen (Carmen Miranda of Copacabana). Larry puts on an act in which he impersonates the wealthy Baron Duarte (also played by Ameche), who has a rather cold marriage to his wife, the baroness (Alice Faye). Due to a business foul-up, the baron has to leave town, and his advisers (S. Z. Sakall and Curt Bois) importune Larry to impersonate the baron -- which causes numerous complications but may save a marriage as well as Larry's relationship with Carmen. That Night in Rio is a big, kitschy, Technicolor musical with spirited performances and fun songs (by Gordon and Warren), including Miranda's "Chicki Chicki Boom" and "Ai Yi Yi." The three lead performers are all terrific, and there's excellent support from J. Carrol Naish [The Kissing Bandit] as rival businessman Machado and Frank Puglia [20 Million Miles to Earth] as manservant, Pedro. Maria Montez plays one of the young ladies but hasn't any lines that I recall. Leonid Kinskey plays Pierre, who is hopelessly in love with the baroness. A similar plot was used for a Maurice Chevalier starrer, as well as for On the Rivera with Danny Kaye.

Verdict: It's hard not to like this amiable nonsense. ***.

PAINTING THE CLOUDS WITH SUNSHINE

PAINTING THE CLOUDS WITH SUNSHINE (1951). Director: David Butler.

"Money has always been very mysterious, and on the first of the month, very elusive."

A sister act that is actually comprised of three unrelated ladies is the cornerstone of this kitschy musical comedy. Abby (Lucille Norman) is in love with Vince (Dennis Morgan), but can't put up with his gambling, while Ted (Gene Nelson of So This is Paris) is carrying a torch for Abby, while June (Virginia Gibson) in turn is pining away for Ted. Meanwhile the more practical Carol (Virginia Mayo of Smart Girls Don't Talk) decides the gals should move to Les Vegas and each find themselves a millionaire. By the time "Cuddles" Sakall shows up as the ever-lovable and often cloying honorary uncle, who runs a casino-hotel, you know the movie will be a positive mass of cliches. The cast is at least enthusiastic, there's brilliant Technicolor, and several nice song numbers, such as "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" (years before Tiny Tim made it popular again), "With a Song In My Heart," and "Jealousy." Unfortunately there are also some tunes which I believe were written just for the movie -- "A Necessary Evil" and "Mambo Man" -- which are truly wretched, although Gene Nelson does some excellent dancing for this and other numbers. Tom Conway [The Atomic Submarine] gives a fine comic performance as a banker who at first disapproves of his cousin, Ted's, upcoming nuptials. Wallace Ford is strictly irritating as a grubby business associate of Sakall's. Lucille Norman was a professional singer with a gorgeous semi-operatic voice; she made few appearances in films. Virginia Gibson had a longer list of film and TV credits. The big finish takes place at the "Helldorado" festival -- you can miss it.

Verdict: Amiable enough if rather treacly. **1/2.

WHIPLASH

Unlikely couple: Dane Clark and Alexis Smith

WHIPLASH (1948). Director: Lewis Seiler.

In this chopped suey of a movie, artist Michael Gordon (Dane Clark of Paid to Kill) falls for a woman, Laurie (Alexis Smith of The Constant Nymph), who buys one of his paintings. In spite of the fact that Laurie is completely out of his league in every way possible, Michael tells her he's in love with her after knowing her for six hours. Unfortunately, Laurie has a wheel-chair bound husband, an ex-fighter named Rex (Zachary Scott of Ruthless), who convinces Michael that he could be a sensation in the ring. Then there's Laurie's brother, a doctor (Jeffrey Lynn), whom Rex somehow blames for his condition. Whiplash is less a boxing movie than an unconvincing and utterly unexceptional soap opera-melodrama with superficial characters and equally superficial performances. All of the lead actors have been seen to much better advantage in other pictures, although Lynn is generally creditable. Eve Arden adds some slight fun in her inimitable way as a friend of Michael's who wishes she were something more and S. Z. "Cuddles" Sakall is as cuddly and monotonous as ever. This is another in a long line of obnoxious Dane Clark portrayals. Clark and Smith generate no fireworks and are completely unbelievable as a romantic couple. The only good scene is when Zachary Scott gets what's coming to him. Director Lewis Seiler does nothing to help the actors or the picture.

Verdict: A "romance" with two lovers who seem to come from different planets. **.

IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME

Van Johnson and Judy Garland

IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME (1949). Director: Robert Z. Leonard.

"I have hardly any voice at all." -- Judy Garland

This venerable story was originally filmed as The Shop Around the Corner. This (first) semi-musical remake casts Van Johnson and Judy Garland in the roles originally essayed by Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan, and both are fine. The two are clerks in a shop (in this version a perfumery has been turned into a music store) who can't stand each other, but unknowingly have been sending romantic letters to one another via mailbox. (The third version of the story, You've Got Mail, turned the letters into email.) Johnson and Garland, both at their most charming, play very well together whether they're antagonists or falling in love. "Cuddles" Sakall is swell as the old man who owns the shop, with Spring Byington her usual adept self as the clerk who has unofficially been engaged to him for decades. The only cast mate who doesn't really deliver the goods is silent star Buster Keaton, who seems completely out of place as the boss' nephew, although he tries. This version drops some sub-plots relating to the other employees, and adds a completely unnecessary one involving Johnson's fellow boarder, Louise (Marcia Van Dyke), who plays the violin and is in love with him; Van Dyke is fine but had very few credits. Of course, Garland is given ample opportunities to sing (and for a mere music ship clerk she sure sings like a trouper!), and she delivers, especially on the "Barbershop Chord" production number, although some may feel the quivering lips bit during other numbers is a little too much. The sequence when Johnson and Garland first bump into each other, literally, is very funny, as is their encounter in a restaurant. The same story was the basis for the Broadway musical "She Loves Me."

Verdict: A Technicolor treat with music and romance. ***1/2.