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Give Out Sisters (1942) Starring The Andrews Sisters and Dan Dailey | |
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Beautiful print and will
play in all DVD players. | |
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The Andrews Sisters headline this musical. They play
the lead act at a popular nightclub. The trouble begins when they hire a
few students from a financially foundering dance school for their newest
production. One of the dancers, a rich young socialite, desperately wants
to be in it too, but her prurient maiden aunts refuse to allow her to
disgrace their family by becoming a common chorine. She and the club
owner (who must have the aunt's permission because the girl is underage)
try to convince them, but it's not easy. Meanwhile the talented girl
finds herself falling hopelessly in love with the club bandleader. In
desperation, the ingenious club owner has the obliging Andrews dress up
as the aunties and sign the consent forms. The real aunts are infuriated
when they discover the ruse and in a tizzy rush down to the club. They
arrive just in time to catch the girl's performance and a predictably
happy ending ensues.
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Director: Edward F. Cline
Writers: Paul Gerard Smith, Warren Wilson, Lee Sands, Fred Rath
Stars: The Andrews Sisters, Grace McDonald, Dan Dailey, Charles
Butterworth, Walter Catlett, William Frawley, Donald O'Connor, Peggy
Ryan, The Jivin' Jacks And Jills
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Songs include:
Pennsylvania Polka
by Zeke Manners and Lester Lee
Sung by The Andrews Sisters
You're Just a Flower From An Old Bouquet
Written by Gwynne Denni and Lucien Denni
Sung by The Andrews Sisters
Who Do You Think You're Fooling?
Written by Ray Stillwell and Ray Gold
Sung by The Andrews Sisters
The New Generation
Written by Walter Donaldson
Sung by The Andrews Sisters
Jiggers the Beat
Written by Sid Robin and Al Lerner
Sung by Dan Dailey | |
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This is one of several Universal musical comedies in
'42 that combined the very popular Andrew Sisters with other young
musical talent, including teenage Don O'Connor and Peggy Ryan and
sometimes Gloria Jean, who is missing from this film. The prior
"What's Cooking", which included Gloria Jean, is generally
regarded as more interesting, but don't count this one out! It's lots of
fun too, with lots of comedic dialogue along with the musicals. The
second half turns into a Marx Brothers or Lucy-styled zany comedy. | |
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The plot here centers on millionaire heiress Gracie
Waverly (Grace McDonald), adopting a new last name for anonymity in order
to join a dance school, where she becomes the lead dancer of the student
body. Problem is the school is in deep financial trouble, so needs to be
signed as an act by the Flamingo Club. The club owner (William Frawley,
as Harrison) insists that Gracie must be included or its no deal. Someone
recognizes Gracie as the heiress and she makes the newspaper headlines.
Her fuddy duddy rich old 3 spinster aunts she lives with, still living in
the Victorian era, forbid her to continue with the dance group, or they
will disinherit her. | |
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The Marx Brothers-like second half, with dance school
co-owner Gribble (Walter Catlett) masquerading as a famous doctor
specialist the aunts have called for when one becomes ill after learning
that Gracie is in this club show. While he's keeping the sister busy
upstairs with his phony diagnosis and remedies,the Andrews are downstairs
masquerading as the aunts, for the benefit of Harrison, who has arrived
to get their OK that Gracie can perform at his club. Harrison invites
them to come to his club that night, thus the Andrews have to maintain
their disguises while going to the club, where they are supposed to
perform.Meanwhile, the aunts learn they have been duped and rush to the
club.. The Andrews perform their song, then redress as the aunts for the
benefit of Harrison, not knowing that the real aunts have arrived.
Unexpectedly , the Andrews are asked for an encore and thus have to
perform in the aunts disguises. Yes, it gets very confusing and
hilarious! It all works out in the end, as the aunts discover that modern
music and dance can be fun, while they dance with their mirror images. | |
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About every musical of this era needed a new-found
romantic couple or two to end the film with. Cute blond Grace McDonald
and tall handsome Dan Dailey, as the Orchestra leader, are that couple in
this film. Although their romantic development occupies only a tiny
portion of the film, their dance and kiss in the finale suggests a future
as a couple. Both Grace and Dan had an extensive background in vaudeville
and Broadway as singer/dancers before their film careers. Like the
Astaires, Grace formed a vaudeville team with her brother Ray, who also
had a film career. Along with Dan, they were important players in the
Broadway hit, "Babes in Arms", later featuring Judy Garland and
Mickey Rooney in the film version. Ray would later marry Don O'Connor's
constant film companion of this era: Peggy Ryan, featured in the present
film. Unfortunately, Dan's considerable vaudevillian talents were little
utilized in film before he entered military service, although he did a
song and dance near the end of this film. After the war, Fox immediately
made him a star leading man, mostly in musical comedies. He also
costarred in the MGM musical comedy "It's Always Fair Weather",
with Gene Kelly. In '49, he cut several records with The Andrew
Sisters". A dozen years after the present film, he would again
costar with Don O'Connor in the Fox musical comedy "There's No
Business Like Show Business". Unfortunately, they didn't get along
then, as Don's wife was in the process of switching to being Dan's wife! | |
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The songs "Pennsylvania Polka" and "The
New Generation" were significant hits for the Andrews Sisters. | |
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Blessed Event (1932) Stars: Lee Tracy, Mary
Brian, Dick Powell
Blessed Event is one of several early-1930s films inspired by the
meteoric rise to fame of gossip columnist Walter Winchell--and like most
such films, its title is based on a Winchell tag line. Lee Tracy plays a
glib-tongued reporter who is conducting a feud with popular singer Dick
Powell (making his film debut). Along the way, Tracy offends a powerful
gangster, and in so doing becomes entangled with chorus girl Mary Brian.
The film is at its best when parodying commercial radio of the era
(notably an inane jingle for "Shapiro Shoes" warbled by Dick
Powell). The original Broadway stage version of Blessed Event was written
by Manuel Seff and Forrest Wilson--and reportedly inspired by the career
of Ruby Keeler, who rose to stardom thanks in part to the patronage of a
New York mobster. | |
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Blind Alibi (1938) Stars: Richard Dix,
Whitney Bourne, Eduardo Ciannelli A French sculptor travels to
LA and, with the help of Ace the Wonder Dog, pretends to be blind so he
can sneak into a museum and reclaim some missing love letters. The
amorous missives were written by his sister and could destroy her
reputation. Someone has been using them to blackmail her, so her brother
steals them. Unfortunately, they get mixed up in some shipping crates and
get sent to California with a bunch of his latest creations. When the
crooks learn that the letters are there, they too head for LA making the
bulk of this crime drama a race to find those letters. | |
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Blind Date
(1959) Stars: Hardy Krüger,
Stanley Baker, Micheline Presle
Dutch painter Jan-Van Rooyer hurries to keep a rendezvous with Jacquleine
Cousteau, an elegant, sophisticated Frenchwoman, slightly his elder,
whose relationship with him had turned from art student into one of love
trysts. He arrives and is confronted by Detective Police Inspector Morgan
who accuses him of having murdered Jacqueline. Morgan listens sceptically
to the dazed denials of Van-Rooyen as he tells the story of his
relationship with the murdered woman. Morgan, after hearing the story,
realizes that the mystery has deepened and it becomes more complicated
when the Assistant Commissioner, Sir Brian Lewis, explains that
Jacqueline was not married but was being kept by Sir Howard Fenton, a
high-ranking diplomat whose names must be kept out of the case.
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Block-Heads (1938) Stars: Stan Laurel,
Oliver Hardy, Patricia Ellis Twenty years after the
Armistice, doughboy Stan Laurel continues guarding a trench in
France--simply because no one told him the war was over. His rescue
coincides with the first wedding anniversary of his old pal Oliver Hardy.
Heading to town to pick up a gift for his wife (Minna Gombell), Ollie
discovers that Stan has been located and is now residing at the Veteran's
Home. The two buddies share a warm reunion, whereupon Ollie invites Stan
home to enjoy a "big thick juicy steak" prepared by Mrs. Hardy.
As a result of Ollie's hospitality, Stan inadvertently wrecks Ollie's
brand new car; the boys spend half the afternoon trudging up and down 13
flights of stairs; Ollie gets into a fight with belligerent Jimmy
Finlayson; Mrs. Hardy angrily walks out on her husband; the boys manage
to blow up the kitchen while preparing their own meal; and Hardy's
beautiful next-door neighbor (Patricia Ellis) ends up minus her dress in
Ollie's steamer trunk, with both Mrs. Hardy and the neighbor's husband,
big-game hunter Billy Gilbert, converging upon our bethumped heroes.
Essentially a remake of the 1929 Laurel and Hardy two-reeler
Unnaccustomed as We Are, Block-Heads is a brilliant parade of virtuoso
comedy turns. The best bits of business include the mountain of bean cans
representing Stan's two decades in the trenches; the "white
magic" gags involving Stan's pulling down the shadow of a window
shade, producing a glass of water from his pocket and smoking his thumb
like a pipe; and an uproarious "black" joke involving Ollie's mistaken
belief than Stan has lost a leg in the war. The film sustains its high
level of humor for 56 of its 57 minutes, faltering only in its
disappointing closing gag (borrowed from the 1928 short We Faw Down).
Among the writers of this chucklefest was former silent comedian Harry
Langdon. Erroneously announced in 1938 as Laurel and Hardy's final
feature, Block-Heads was indeed the last of the team's genuine classics. | |
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Blonde Dynamite
(1950) Stars: Leo Gorcey, Huntz
Hall, Adele Jergens Blonde Dynamite was the 17th
of Monogram/Allied Artists' 48 Bowery Boys entries. This time, the boys
have transformed Louie's Sweet Shop into an escort bureau. Louie (Bernard
Gorcey) has little to say on the matter, since he's on vacation and knows
nothing about this new business enterprise. The boys' steadiest customers
are a group of gorgeous ladies who are in the employ of a bank-robbery
gang. The girls keep Slip (Leo Gorcey), Sach (Huntz Hall) and the others
busy while their confederates dig a tunnel between the sweet shop and a
neighboring bank. Gabe Marino (Gabe Dell), a bank employee, manages to
alert the police, but it's lame-brained Sach who turns out
(inadvertently, of course) to be the hero of the hour. One of the gun
molls in Blonde Dynamite is Beverlee Crane, who in the 1930s was teamed
with her twin sister Bettie Mae to deliver the "talking
credits" for Hal Roach's Laurel & Hardy, Our Gang and Charley
Chase comedies.
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Blonde Fever (1944) Stars: Philip Dorn, Mary
Astor, Felix Bressart MGM's notion of a
"B" picture would be an "A" production at any other
studio, and Blonde Fever is no exception. Philip Dorn heads the cast as
restauranteur Peter Donay, happily married to the pleasant but plain
Delilah (Mary Astor). Approaching "that certain age", Donay's
head is turned by curvaceous waitress Sally Murfin (Gloria Grahame, in
her first important film role). At first only mildly amused by the
flirtatious Donay, Sally begins turning on the charms herself when she
finds out that he's won a $40000 lottery. It takes six reels, but Donay
finally realizes how much he loves and needs his faithful wife, and how
little Sally truly cares about him. Blonde Fever is based on a play by
Ferenc Molnar, though it must have taken a lot of cutting to cram the original
into 65 minutes' running time. PS: Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy,
personal friends of director Richard Whorf, show up in unbilled cameos. | |
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