Hollywood's Classic Comedies: 200 Fun-Filled Films Rated & Reviewed

By John Howard Reid

200 classic movie comedies are discussed and reviewed (with full cast and credit details) in this must-have book that will delight every vintage film fan. If you've never heard of Abbott and Costello, The 3 Stooges, or Laurel and Hardy, this is not the book for you. On the other hand, if you’re a fan of classic Hollywood comedies, this book will not only evoke lively memories of TV laugh-makers of the 1970s and 1980s, but even (if you are old enough to remember such things) of Saturday movie matinees when Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake and many other solo clowns like Harold Lloyd, Red Skelton, Joe E. Brown, Charles Chaplin, Clifton Webb and W.C. Fields convulsed audiences with their antics. I also fondly remember comedy teams like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey, Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. Some of their funniest movies are all featured in this book too. HOLLYWOOD'S CLASSIC COMEDIES, is a treat for movie lovers and collectors. It features slapstick, romance, music, glamour and screwball fun with a massive 200 entries. The reviews read like a who's who in the field of comedy films. In addition, there's a listing of 50 Must-See Highlights of Movie Comedy, and three pages listing the major comedians featured in the reviews with the titles of their films. Some of the movies covered include Adam's Rib, And Baby Makes Three, Belles of St Trinian's, Bringing Up Baby, Designing Woman, The Egg and I, The Paleface, The Philadelphia Story. Raffles (all three versions), Slightly Dangerous, The Titfield Thunderbold, Woman of the Year, and many, many more to delight the reader. Series films include Abbott and Costello, Bulldog Drummond, Blondie, Charlie Chaplin and Dad Rudd. As is usual in John Howard Reid's books, the author goes into much detail about the cast, the technicians, and release dates in America, England and Australia. And his own comments are always balanced with the views of other critics. To quote Molly Martin: This must-have book is nicely presented and will provide the movie enthusiast with a wealth of information that cannot be found in any other publication. From fall down silly slapstick to satirical, from lunacy for the sake of lunacy to more genteel giggles, writer Reid has gathered a great collection of comedy masterpieces. Among the featured comedians are included my Daddy's favorites Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. My childish laughter was piqued with the antics of Hope and Crosby and the many Road movies. Abbot & Costello Meet the Mummy, And Baby Makes Three, Bringing Up Baby, a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Designing Woman, the Emperor Waltz, Follow the Fleet, Getting a Ticket, the Gracie Allen Murder Case, Scared Stiff and Woman of the Year are titles I remember well, and remember cackling with glee then, and still laugh without restraint when given opportunity to view today. There are names everyone remembers today: Will Rogers, The Three Stooges, Charlie Chaplin, W.C. Fields, Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin, Audrey Hepburn, Spencer Tracy and Robert Young. And some, few other than those who are of my parents generation do: Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Jacques Tati, Sid Field, The Crazy Gang, Jack Hulbert, Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson, Clifton Webb, Ronald Shiner, Cecil Kellaway, Norman Wisdom, Frankie Howard, Toto, Arthur Askey, Marjorie Main, Percy Kilbride, Stanley Holloway, Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake. Eddie Cantor, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Joe E. Brown, Red Skelton, Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Claudette Colbert, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Joan Davis. Reid's reviews of the various films bring back happy memories of movies almost forgotten, or stirred an interest to hunt down some I may have missed as a child. In all, here is a wonderful treasure trove!

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Howard Reid
• Release date: Apr 21, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458166876

John Howard Reid

Author of over 100 full-length books, of which around 60 are currently in print, John Howard Reid is the award-winning, bestselling author of the Merryll Manning series of mystery novels, anthologies of original poetry and short stories, translations from Spanish and Ancient Greek, and especially books of film criticism and movie history. Currently chief judge for three of America's leading literary contests, Reid has also written the textbook, "Write Ways To Win Writing Contests".

Book preview

HOLLYWOOD’S CLASSIC COMEDIES

200 Fun-Filled Films Rated & Reviewed

John Howard Reid

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Published by:

John Howard Reid at Smashwords

Copyright (c) 2011 by John Howard Reid

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All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

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Original text copyright 2011 by John Howard Reid. All rights reserved.

Enquiries: [e-mail]

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Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour in My Favorite Brunette

http://filmindex.0catch.com

Lauren Bacall: Designing Woman

Dolores Del Rio: Flying Down To Rio

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HOLLYWOOD CLASSICS 24

2011

Other Books in the Hollywood Classics series:

1. New Light on Movie Bests

2. B Movies, Bad Movies, Good Movies

3. Award-Winning Films of the 1930s

4. Movie Westerns: Hollywood Films the Wild, Wild West

5. Memorable Films of the Forties

6. Popular Pictures of the Hollywood 1940s

7. Your Colossal Main Feature Plus Full Supporting Program

8. Hollywood’s Movie Miracles of Entertainment

9. Hollywood Gold: Famous Films of the Forties and Fifties

10. Hollywood B Movies: A Treasury of Spills, Chills & Thrills

11. Movies Magnificent: 150 Must-See Cinema Classics

12. These Great Movies Won No Hollywood Awards

13. Movie Mystery & Suspense

14. America’s Best, Britain’s Finest

15. Films Famous, Fanciful, Frolicsome and Fantastic

16. Hollywood Movie Musicals

17. Hollywood Classics Index Books 1-16

18. More Movie Musicals

19. Success in the Cinema

20. Best Western Movies

21. Great Cinema Detectives

22. Great Hollywood Westerns

23. Science-Fiction & Fantasy Cinema

24. Hollywood’s Classic Comedies

25. Hollywood Classics Title Index to Books 1-24

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Other Movie Books by John Howard Reid:

Mystery, Suspense, Film Noir & Detective Movies on DVD

Silent Films & Early Talkies on DVD

British Film Entertainments on DVD

WESTERNS: A Guide to the Best (and Worst) Western Movies on DVD

Musicals on DVD

CinemaScope One: Stupendous in ’Scope

CinemaScope Two: 20th Century Fox

CinemaScope 3: Hollywood Takes the Plunge

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Table of Contents

A

Abbott & Costello Lost in Alaska 1952

Abbott & Costello Meet Captain Kidd 1952

Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy 1955

Adam’s Rib 1949

Africa Screams 1949

Alias Bulldog Drummond (see Bulldog Jack)

All For Mary 1956

All Over the Town 1937

Always a Bride 1940

Always Together 1947

And Baby Makes Three 1949

Another Shore 1948

B

Back to the Woods 1937

Behave Yourself 1951

Bees in Paradise 1944

Belles of St Trinian’s 1954

Blacksmith 1922

Blonde from Brooklyn 1945

Blondie Goes Latin 1941

Blondie Has Servant Trouble 1940

Blondie on a Budget 1940

Blondie Plays Cupid 1940

Brave Tin Soldier 1934

Breakfast in Hollywood 1946

Bride Wore Crutches 1941

Bright Lights 1935

Bringing Up Baby 1938

Buck Privates 1941

Bulldog Jack 1935

Bullfighters 1945

Bumping into Broadway 1919

Butch Minds the Baby 1942

C

Café Metropole 1937

Calling All Curs 1939

Calling All Husbands 1940

Camels Are Coming 1934

Campus Rhythm 1943

Can’t Help Singing 1944

Captain Is a Lady 1940

Cardboard Cavalier 1949

Careful Soft Shoulder 1942

Carmen 1916

Casa Manana 1951

Charlie Chaplin’s Burlesque of Carmen (see Carmen 1916)

Cockeyed Cavaliers 1934

Conga Swing (see Blondie Goes Latin)

Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court 1949

Cops and Robbers (see Guardie e Ladri)

Cox and Box 1982

D

Dad and Dave Come To Town 1938

Dad Rudd M.P. 1940

Dames 1934

Daring Young Man 1935

Darling, How Could You? 1951

Designing Woman 1957

Doctor Jack 1922

Don’t Take It To Heart! 1944

Dude Goes West 1948

Dummy Trouble 1940

E

Earthworm Tractors 1936

Eastern Westerner 1920

Egg and I 1947

Emperor Waltz 1948

F

Falling for You 1933

False Alarms 1936

Farmer Goes To Town (see Dad and Dave Go To Town)

Feet First 1930

Fit for a King 1937

Flying Deuces 1939

Flying Down To Rio 1933

Follow the Fleet 1936

For Heaven’s Sake 1926

Freshman 1925

From Nurse to Worse 1940

Funny Face 1957

Funny Face (see Bright Lights 1935)

G

Gents Without Cents 1944

Getting a Ticket 1930

Girl from Calgary 1932

Girl o’ My Dreams 1934

Goldilocks and Three Bears 1939

Gone to the Dogs 1939

Good Morning, Boys 1937

Gracie Allen Murder Case 1939

Grandma’s Boy 1932

Guardie e Ladri 1951

H

Half Shot at Sunrise 1930

Half Shot Shooters 1936

Haunted Spooks 1920

Hellzapoppin’ 1941

Help Wanted, Female 1931

Here Comes Cookie 1935

High Pressure 1932

Hired Wife 1940

Hold That Ghost 1941

Hook, Line and Sinker 1930

Hot Water 1924

I

In Old Kentucky 1935

Insurance 1930

International House 1933

In the Meantime, Darling 1944

I Thank You 1941

It Happened One Night 1934

It’s a Gift 1934

It’s Magic (see Romance on the High Seas)

J

Jack and the Beanstalk 1933

Jack’s the Boy 1932

Jour de Fete 1949

Jumping for Joy {You} 1955

Just My Luck 1957

K

Keep It Clean 1956

Kettles in the Ozarks 1955

Kid Brother 1927

L

Looking for Trouble 1934

Lord Epping Returns 1951

Lottery Lover 1935

Love In Waiting 1948

Lucky Number 1933

M

Mad Hatter (see Breakfast in Hollywood)

Make Me a Star 1932

Matinee Idol 1928

Meet Mr Lucifer 1953

Men in Black 1934

Misbehaving Husbands (see Dummy Trouble)

Mr Chedworth Steps Out 1939

Movie Crazy 1932

My Favorite Brunette 1947

N

Natural Born Salesman (see Earthworm Tractors)

Never Weaken 1921

Night and Day (see Jack’s the Boy)

Now Or Never 1921

O

O-Kay for Sound 1937

One Night With You 1948

One Sunday Afternoon 1933

One Sunday Afternoon 1948

P

Paleface 1948

Philadelphia Story 1940

Pride and Prejudice 1940

Princess and the Pirate 1944

Princess Ida 1982

Princess O’Rourke 1943

Raffles 1917

Raffles 1925

Raffles 1940

Rendezvous (see Darling How Could You)

Restless Knights 1935

Romance on the High Seas 1948

Rookies (see Buck Privates)

Roxie Hart 1942

Rudd Family Goes To Town (see Dad and Dave Go To Town)

Runaway Bus 1954

S

Said {Sez} O’Reilly To McNab 1937

Sailing Along 1938

Safety Last 1923

Scared Stiff 1945

Scared Stiff 1953

School’s Out 1930

Seven Keys to Baldpate 1917

Seven Keys to Baldpate 1947

She’s Working Her Way Through College 1952

Should Sailors Marry? 1925

Sitter Downers 1937

Sitting Pretty 1948

Slightly Dangerous 1943

Slippery Pearls (see Stolen Jools)

So Long Mr Chumps 1941

Sorcerer 1982

So You Want To Be a Detective 1948

So You Want To Be In Pictures 1947

Special Delivery 1927

Speedy 1928

Square Peg 1958

Stolen Jools 1931

Stop Press Girl 1949

Stormy Weather 1935

Strange Boarders 1938

Strawberry Blonde 1941

Sweet Devil 1938

T

That Certain Thing 1927

That’s Right, You’re Wrong 1939

Time of Their Lives 1946

Titfield Thunderbolt 1953

Top of the Form 1953

Treasure of Fear (see Scared Stiff)

Trial by Jury 1982

W

Week-End in Havana 1944

Where There’s a Will (see Good Morning Boys)

Whispering Ghosts 1942

Why, Daddy? 1944

Why Worry? 1923

Will Power 1936

Without Reservations 1946

Woman of the Year 1942

Wrong Again 1929

Wrong Direction 1934

Y

Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (see Connecticut Yankee…)

Yellow Cab Man 1950

Yeomen of the Guard 1982

You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man 1939

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Abbott and Costello Lost in Alaska

Bud Abbott (Tom Watson), Lou Costello (George Bell), Tom Ewell (Nugget Joe), Mitzi Green (Rosette), Bruce Cabot (Jake Stillman), Emory Parnell (Sherman), Jack Ingram, Joseph Kirk (henchmen), Minerva Urecal (Mrs McGillicuddy), Rex Lease (old-timer), Howard Negley (Hoggins), Maudie Prickett (woman in window), Billy Wayne (croupier), Paul Newlan (Captain Chisholm), Michael Ross (Willie), Julia Montoya (Eskimo woman), Iron Eyes Cody (Nanook), Fred Aldrich (bearded prospector), Donald Kerr (Multolah), Bobby Barber (ship’s cook), George Barton (bit), Vic Parks (stunt double), Harry Tyler (man in bank queue), William Gould, Sherry Moreland.

Director: JEAN YARBOUGH. Screenplay: Martin Ragaway, Leonard Stern. Story: Elwood Ullman. Photography: George Robinson. Film editor: Leonard Weiner. Art directors: Bernard Herzbrun, Robert Boyle. Set decorators: Russell A. Gausman, Ray Jeffers. Costumes designed by Kara. Hair styles: Joan St Oegger. Make-up: Bud Westmore. Music composed by Henry Mancini, Milton Rosen. Music director: Joseph Gershenson. Musical numbers staged by Harold Belfer. Sound recording: Leslie I. Carey and Harold Lewis. Producer: Howard Christie.

Copyright 24 June 1952 by Universal Pictures Co., Inc. A Universal-International Picture. U.S. release: August 1952. No New York opening. U.K. release through General Film Distributors: 6 October 1952. Australian release: 28 November 1952. 8 reels. 76 minutes. Alternate title: LOST IN ALASKA.

SYNOPSIS: Two firemen become involved with a group of killers when they follow a wealthy prospector to Alaska in 1898.

NOTES: Child star Mitzi Green’s first adult role, and her second last film appearance [Bloodhounds of Broadway (1952) was her last].

COMMENT: In view of its bad reputation, this entry came across as a surprisingly amusing A&C comedy. The team’s usual writer, John Grant, may not be credited on this one, but he is certainly present in spirit, for the boys go through some mighty familiar routines, including a reprise of the squirting oyster from The Naughty Nineties (1945) [also directed by Jean Yarbrough]. Admittedly, our boys are below their best, and director Yarbrough seems equally uninspired. But I liked the film mainly because some curious people are in it, including Tom Ewell as the love-sick schnook (much the same type of role in fact he was later to play with such acclaim in The Seven Year Itch); Mitzi Green, the former child star of Skippy and Huckleberry Finn, making a comeback after a screen absence of eighteen years [although she’s handed a couple of songs, she makes little impression, alas!]; Bruce Cabot, always one of our favorite character players, can particularly be trusted for a colorful study in villainy; and adding to the histrionic fun are a fine array of cameo players including Jack Ingram, Emory Parnell, Minerva Urecal and Billy Wayne.

The film is well produced, with the Klondike settings quite elaborately realized.

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Abbott & Costello Meet Captain Kidd

Bud Abbott (Rocky Stonebridge), Lou Costello (Oliver Johnson), Charles Laughton (Captain Kidd), Fran Warren (Lady Jane), Hillary Brooke (Captain Bonney), Bill Shirley (Bruce Martingale), Leif Erickson (Captain Morgan), Syd Saylor, Frank Yaconelli, Lester Dorr (waiters), Joe Kirk, Harry Wilson (pirates), Rex Lease (waiter with black eye), Bobby Barber, Millicent Patrick (bits), Leonard Mudie (Captain Bonney’s first mate), Paul Newlan (publican), Suzanne Ridgeway, Milicent Patrick (pub patrons), Vic Parks (stunt double).

Director: CHARLES LAMONT. Screenplay: Howard Dimsdale, John Grant. Photographed in SuperCinecolor by Stanley Cortez. Film editor: Edward Mann. Art director: Daniel Hall. Set decorator: Al Orenbach. Costumes: Albert Deano, Maria P. Donovan. Make-up: Abe Haberman. Music: Raoul Kraushaar. Songs by Bob Russell and Lester Lee; Sir William Schwenk Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan. Musical numbers staged by Val Raset. Choral arrangements: Norman Luboff. Still photographs: Glen Adams. Special effects: Lee Zavitz. Dialogue director: Milt Bronson. Comedy coach for Mr Laughton: Lou Costello. Color consultant: Wilton R. Holm. Stunts: Sailor Vincent. Production assistant: Robert H. Justman. Set continuity: Don McDougall. Assistant director: Robert Aldrich. Sound recording: Mac Dalgleish, Ben Winkler. Producer: Alex Gottlieb. Executive producer: Bud Abbott. Woodley Productions.

Copyright 17 December 1952 by Woodley [Bud Abbott] Productions, Inc. Released through Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: 27 December 1952. U.K. release: 20 June 1953. Australian release: 17 December 1953 (sic). Sydney opening at the Palace. 70 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: Captain Kidd’s treasure map is accidentally switched for a love letter entrusted to a couple of dumb waiters.

NOTES: Abbott and Costello’s second and final film in color (SuperCinecolor to be precise). The first was their immediately preceding movie—produced by Lou Costello’s Exclusive Productions—Jack and the Beanstalk (1952).

COMMENT: Critics were so aghast at the eminent Charles Laughton’s allowing himself to become the butt of an A&C slapstick comedy, they tended to discount the end result, namely that Laughton’s presence in Captain Kidd makes for jolly good entertainment. Laughton in fact is so delightfully hammy that he even inspires Bud and Lou to attempt a few comic heights themselves. And all three are aided immeasurably by the expertise of lovely Hillary Brooke who quite outshines the film’s nominal female lead, Fran Warren. Singer Bill Shirley, who did such a marvelous job dubbing for Mark Stevens in both Oh, You Beautiful Doll (1949) and I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now (1947), makes a disappointingly dull hero.

Filmed on an extremely lavish budget under the expert supervision of producer Alex Gottlieb, Kidd also boasts attractive SuperCinecolor cinematography and a couple of exceptionally rousing musical interludes.

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Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy

Bud Abbott (Peter), Lou Costello (Freddie), Marie Windsor (Madame Rontru), Michael Ansara (Charlie), Dan Seymour (Josef), Kurt Katch (Dr Gustav Zoomer), Richard Karlan (Hetsut), Richard Deacon (Semu), Mel Welles (Iben), George Khoury (Habid), Edwin Parker (Klaris, the mummy), Jan Arvan (waiter), Michael Vallon (Dr Azzui), Kem Dibbs, Mitchell Kowal, Ken Alton (policemen), Lee Sharon (blonde girl), Hank Mann (waiter with kabob), Donald Kerr (newspaperman), Peggy King (vocalist), Carole Costello (flower girl), Ted Hecht (Anzi), Veola Vonn (café showgirl), Vic Parks (stunt double), and Morris Ankrum, Robin Morse, Paul Marion; plus the Mazzone-Abbott Dancers, Chandra-Kaly and His Dancers (themselves).

Director: CHARLES LAMONT. Screenplay: John Grant. Story: Lee Loeb. Photography: George Robinson. Film editor: Russell Schoengarth. Art directors: Bill Newberry, Alexander Golitzen. Set decorators: Russell A. Gausman, James M. Walters. Costumes: Rosemary Odell. Make-up: Bud Westmore. Hair styles: Joan St Oegger. Special photographic effects: Clifford Stine. Music: Henry Mancini, Hans J. Salter, Irving Gertz, Lou Maury. Music supervisor: Joseph Gershenson. Song, You Came a Long Way from St Louis (King) by John Benson Brooks. Assistant director: Phil Bowles. Sound recording: Leslie I. Carey, Robert Pritchard. Western Electric Sound System. Producer: Howard Christie.

Copyright 1955 by Universal-International. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: June 1955. U.K. release: July 1955. Australian release: 17 November 1955. Sydney opening at the Lyceum as the lower half of a double bill with Foxfire. 79 minutes. Cut to 63 minutes in Australia.

Alternative title: Meet the Mummy.

SYNOPSIS: Abbott and Costello play two Americans who are stranded in Egypt. They hope to return home with an archaeologist. But he is murdered by members of a secret society.

NOTES: The last of the twenty-nine pictures Abbott and Costello made for Universal. A studio press release notes that for their first movie, One Night in the Tropics (1940), the comedians were each paid $8,750. This had now increased to $100,000 each, plus a 25% each share of the profits. The studio felt that Abbott and Costello’s popularity was now on the wane and that a 50% share of dwindling profits was no longer worth the trouble of keeping the comics on the payroll. Accordingly, their contract was dissolved—a move the studio was later to bitterly regret. Although MCA will not disclose actual figures, it is estimated that the corporation has grossed more than $60 million over the years for licensing A&C movies to domestic television alone. In other words, more than $2 million per film.

COMMENT: Entertaining A&C comedy, not one of their best (Charles Lamont’s direction hovers around the routine mark, John Grant’s screenplay often amounts to self-plagiarism and producer Howard Christies’s budget is not as lavish as usual), but the boys are still happily in good form and they receive adequate support (though Richard Deacon is sadly miscast as the High Priest). Attractive photography by ace cameraman George Robinson proves another big asset.

OTHER VIEWS: Abbott and Costello signed off from Universal in reasonable style with some typical verbal and slapstick routines in a fairly well produced, atmospherically photographed and competently directed vehicle that cleverly combined laughs with screams in line with many of their earlier successes. A great support cast helped too.

Needless to say, Messrs A&C come across as delightfully incompetent boobs. However, Bud Abbott, the perennial straight guy, looks as if the wealth he’s accumulated over his past thirty-plus pictures, has all gone to his stomach. He’ll have to watch out or he’ll soon be mistaken for his chubby partner.

In the supporting cast, villainess Marie Windsor proves quite effective; but singer Peggy King seems to lack vocal power.

Summing up: Satisfyingly shuddersome.

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Adam’s Rib

Spencer Tracy (Adam Bonner), Katharine Hepburn (Amanda Bonner), Judy Holliday (Doris Attinger), Tom Ewell (Warren Attinger), David Wayne (Kip Lurie), Jean Hagen (Beryl Caighn), Hope Emerson (Olympia La Pere), Eve March (Grace), Clarence Kolb (Judge Reiser), Emerson Treacy (Jules Frikke), Polly Moran (Mrs McGrath), Will Wright (Judge Marcasson), Elizabeth Flournoy (Dr Margaret Brodeigh), Janna da Loos (Mary, the maid), James Nolan (Dave), David Clarice (Roy), Marvin Kaplan (court stenographer), Gracille LaVinder (police matron), William Self (Benjamin Klausner), Paula Raymond (Emerald), Ray Walker (photographer), Tommy Noonan (reporter), De Forrest Lawrence, John Fell (Adam’s assistants), Sid Dubin (Amanda’s assistant), Joe Bernard (Bonner), Madge Blake (Mrs Bonner), Marjorie Wood (Mrs Marcasson), Lester Luther (Judge Poynter), Anna Q. Nilsson (Mrs Poynter), Roger David (Hurlock), Louis Mason (elderly lift driver), Rex Evans (fat man), Charles Bastin (young district attorney), John Maxwell Sholes (court clerk), E. Bradley Coleman (subway rider), Glenn Gallagher, Gil Patric, Harry Cody (criminal attorneys), George Magrill, Bert Davidson (subway guards).

Director: GEORGE CUKOR. Original screenplay: Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin. Photography: George Folsey. Film editor: George Boemler. Music: Miklos Rosza. Song Farewell Amanda (Wayne) by Cole Porter. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons, William Ferrari. Set decoration: Edwin B. Willis. Associate set decorator: Henry W. Grace. Special effects: A. Arnold Gillespie. Miss Hepburn’s costumes: Walter Plunkett. Hair styles: Sydney Guilaroff. Make-up: Jack Dawn. Sound recording: Douglas Shearer. David Wayne’s piano solos played by Cole Porter himself. Producer: Lawrence Weingarten.

Copyright 1 November 1949 by Loew’s Inc. An MGM picture. New York opening at the Capitol: 25 December 1949. U.S. release: 18 November 1949. U.K. release: 17 April 1950. Australian release: 29 June 1950. 9,104 feet. 101 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: A husband and wife are both attorneys. So, (you guessed it!), one is signed for the defense and the other for the other party. And so, (you guessed it!), the courtroom squabbles spill over into their domestic life.

NOTES: Sixth teaming of Tracy and Hepburn. Since Woman of the Year (an original script by Ring Lardner, Jr and Michael Kanin — Garson’s brother), they had starred in Keeper of the Flame (directed by Cukor from I.A.R. Wylie’s novel), Without Love (Harold S. Bucquet directing Philip Barry’s play), The Sea of Grass (Elia Kazan directed from Conrad Richter’s novel), and State of the Union (Frank Capra from the stage play by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse). Future films were Pat and Mike (another original screenplay by the husband and wife team, Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin), Desk Set (1957) and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? (1967).

The Kanins were nominated for the annual award given by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Best Story & Screenplay, losing to Sunset Boulevard.

COMMENT: An intellectually exciting and stimulating re-working of several basic myths, splendidly acted. The script is so strong and the performers so capable, the director is often content to take an inconspicuous back seat by shooting in some of the longest, static takes on record — though he can be stylish when the occasion demands it.

This philosophic pill is admirably sugar-coated with lashings of wit and humor and fascinating verbal by-play. The screen personalities of Tracy and Hepburn are set against one another with a clash that sends some delightful sparks flying and the support cast peoples the background with a wonderful parade of characters.

Foremost in the supporting pack is David Wayne, playing a delightfully obnoxious Amanda-admirer, forever smirking, smiling and singing up the action.

Judy Holliday* (movie stardom was just around the corner) is also not to be missed, while Tom Ewell and Jean Hagen complete the amusingly nutty triangle.

The Kanins start their satiric thrust at the sexes with a marvelous opening in which Holliday brilliantly parodies one of the dime romance’s most staple situations: jealous wife shoots husband in femme fatale’s apartment.

Tracy and Hepburn are then introduced as husband-and-wife lawyers who are engaged by opposite sides at the subsequent trial.

Upon this promising premise the comedy builds to a splendid climax.

Mind you, it would not be half as funny without the skilled matching and point-scoring that only Hepburn and Tracy at their most charismatically abrasive could achieve.

Yes, despite all Hepburn’s strident femininity and Tracy’s latent, sneaky masculinity, the Bonners are likeable, attractive, sympathetic — and wholly believable.

These realities are also assisted by some remarkably attuned production credits.

The photography, for instance, is not only unobtrusively slick, but it can allow itself to become amusingly amateurish in the home movie episode (filmed incidentally at the Kanins’ own country house in Connecticut).

Cole Porter’s song, catchy and glib, is mockingly utilized by Miklos Rosza, here showing an unexpected flair for comic effects. Sets and costumes are both attractive and appropriate. (MGM’s extra-special care even extended to the trailer, which — hilariously narrated by Pete Smith — is itself a little comedy gem.)

To sum up: — absolutely first-class! Witty, scintillating sophisticated entertainment.

* Judy left her long-running Broadway hit Born Yesterday only after much persuasion by director George Cukor, according to an MGM press release.

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Africa Screams

Bud Abbott (Buzz Johnson), Lou Costello (Stanley Livingston), Hillary Brooke (Diana Emerson), Max Baer (Boots), Buddy Baer (Grappler), Shemp Howard (Gunner), Joe Besser (Harry), Clyde Beatty (himself), Frank Buck (himself), Bobby Barber (bit).

Director: CHARLES BARTON. Original screenplay: Earl Baldwin. Photography: Charles van Enger. Film editor: Frank Gross. Art director: Lewis Creber. Set decorator: Ray Robinson. Music: Walter Schumann. Special effects: Carl Lee. Executive production manager: Joseph C. Gilpin. Assistant director: Joseph Kenny. Wardrobe manager: Albert Deano. Sound recording: Robert Pritchard. RCA Sound System. Associate producer: David S. Garber. Producer: Edward Nassour. Executive in charge: William Nassour. Executive producer: Huntington Hartford.

Copyright 27 May 1949 by Nasbro Pictures, Inc. A Huntington Hartford production presented by Nassour Studios, Inc. Released through United Artists. New York release at the Criterion: 4 May 1949. U.S. release: 2 May 1949. U.K. release: 17 April 1950. Australian release: 29 September 1949. U.S. length: 7,147 feet. 79½ minutes. Australian length: 7,287 feet. 81 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: Two bungling book salesmen unwittingly parlay a trip to Africa with a ruthless diamond huntress.

NOTES: An independent production, filmed at Abbott & Costello’s home studio — Universal.

COMMENT: Until DVDs arrived on the scene, this was one of the rarest of all Abbott & Costello movies — and with good reason: It’s not very funny. True, the team are in good voice and have a couple of able assistants in Joe Besser (as a pamby manservant) and Shemp Howard (a near-sighted gunman). In fact, Besser and Howard are given more amusing material than the stars.

Lacking their usual writer, John Grant, Abbott and Costello have been fashioned into rather unusual characters. At first glance, Abbott is his normal hectoring, looking-out-solidly-for-number-one self, but then we find him volunteering to don a lion-skin so that his fraidy-cat buddy can impress the blonde vamp — something the old Abbott would never do.

Costello’s character has undergone an even more startling metamorphosis: No longer a lovable dimwit, he is a lying, cowardly braggart of uncommon stupidity yet self-preserving disloyalty! It’s obvious that writer Earl Baldwin gave no great thought to sympathy or consistency of characterization but simply threw every old wheeze and routine he could think of into an already overburdened script. Unfortunately a lot of this material wasn’t even meant to be funny in the first place. With the exception of such extended ennui-inducing episodes as Lou taming a lion in the process screen, the straight material is even more tedious than the unfunny funny. By and large, Baldwin lost a contract-sent opportunity to send up the whole jungle genre. Contenting himself with a few mild japes (Lou propelling his canoe with an eggbeater; the Baer Brothers trading insults), he allows Hillary Brooke (attractive though she is) to strut around in dead seriousness like the queen of a Congo serial. This mood is abetted by Frank Buck and particularly Clyde Beatty who take themselves very earnestly indeed. So eager were the producers to get their money’s worth out of Beatty, they even provide him a chair, a whip and a cage of lions. A daring act certainly, but as presented in Africa Screams, boringly long-winded.

Charles Barton could have perked things up with pacier or less flat-footed direction, but has resisted the temptation to give the film any style. Although the budget was obviously fairly liberal, the film looks cheap.*

A pity, Africa Screams might have been great fun. Even as is — with a lot of judicious trimming — it could be rendered quite agreeable.

* Director Barton and photographer Van Enger did such stylish and attractive work on Abbott & Costello’s previous feature Meet the Killer, philanthropist Huntington Hartford doubtless expected the same level of atmospheric competence here.

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All For Mary

Nigel Patrick (Clive Morton), Kathleen Harrison (Nannie Cartwright), David Tomlinson (Humpy Miller), Jill Day (Mary), David Hurst (M. Victor), Leo McKern (Gaston Nikopopoulos), Nicholas Phipps (general) Joan Young (Mrs. Hackenfleuger), Lionel Jeffries (maitre d’hotel) Paul Hardtmuth (porter), Fabia Drake (opulent lady), Tommy Farr (bruiser) Charles Lloyd Pack (doctor), Robin Brown (American boy), Dorothy Gordon (W.R.A.C. orderly), Neil Hallett (Alphonse).

Directed by WENDY TOYE from a screenplay by Peter Blackmore and Paul Soskin, based on the stage play by Harold Brocke and Kay Bannerman. Additional dialogue: Alan Melvllle and Nicholas Phipps. Photographed in Eastman Colour by Reginald Wyer.

Film editor: Frederick Wilson. Music composed and conducted by Robert Farnon. Title song by Robert Farnon (music) and Norman Newell (lyrics), sung by The Stargazers. Song, Far Away From Everybody by Milton Delugg (music) and Bob Hilliard (lyrics). Art director: Maurice Carter. Costumes: Joan Ellacott. Make-up: Geoff Rodway. Camera operator: Jim Bawden. Set continuity: Yvonne Axworthy. Production manager: T.S. Lyndon-Haynes. Production controller for Pinewood Studios, London, England: Arthur Alcott. Assistant director: Adrian Pryse-Jones. Still photographs: George Ward. Sound editor: Archie Ludski. Sound recording: John Dennis, Gordon K. McCallum. Producer: Paul Soskin. A Paul Soskin Production.

Copyright 1956 by General Film Distributors, Ltd. Presented by J. Arthur Rank for Rank Film Productions. Released in the U.K. through Rank Film Distributors: 6 February 1956. No record of any U.S. theatrical release, but available to TV through United Artists. Australian release through British Empire Films: 30 May 1957. 7,150 feet. 79 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: Two British holidaymakers catch chicken pox at a Swiss chalet.

COMMENT: Mildly amusing charade with Kathleen Harrison in her element as an overbearing nanny who bosses and cajoles two grown men as if they were little boys. David Tomlinson is also well cast as the milder of the boys. The producer has gone to some expense with color photography, real locations and all, but the film does tend to out-stay its welcome, despite a short enough running time.

OTHER VIEWS: Mild little comedy which occasionally slips into the infantile. Slender enough as a stage farce, it becomes labored and often silly when transferred to the screen. For this type of thing the performances need plenty of vitality and this is supplied by the three principals. Miss Day is suitably attractive in the title part — she was a popular singer at the time and this was her second film (her first was Always a Bride) — but her acting leaves a lot to be desired.

—E.V.D.

An indifferent transmission of a long-running West End farce, with some remarkably tedious additional dialogue, All For Mary is at best mildly amiable, but mostly, despite pretty color photography, it runs close to rather dull. The cast registers agreeably enough, but Wendy Toye’s direction seems uninventive and uninspired.

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All Over the Town

Ole Olsen, Chic Johnson (themselves), Mary Howard (Joan Eldridge), Harry Stockwell (Don Fletcher), Franklin Pangborn (costumes man), James Finlayson (McDougal), Eddie Kane (Bailey), Stanley Fields (Slug), Lew Kelly (Martin), D’Arcy Corrigan (Davenport), Earle Hodgins (Barker), Gertrude Astor (Mamie), Blanche Payson (Mrs Wilson, the landlady), Otto Hoffman (Phillips), Fred Kelsey (Inspector Murphy), John Sheehan (McKee), Louis Natheaux (Slug’s henchman), Syd Saylor (equipment tester), Sherry Hall (costumes assistant), Alan Ladd (young man), Ethan Laidlaw (street cop), Charles McAvoy (radio broadcast cop), Jack Cheatham (theatre cop), Jack Egan, June Wilkins, Charles Becker (bits).

Director: JAMES W. HORNE. Screenplay: Jack Townley, Jerome Chodorov. Comedy construction: James Parrott, Ole Olsen, Chic Johnson. Story: Richard English. Photography: Ernest Miller. Supervising film editor: Murray Seldeen. Film editor: Howard O’Neill. Music: Basil Adlam. Songs: Ole Olsen, Chic Johnson. Music director: Alberto Colombo. Costumes: Eloise. Sound recording: Terry Kellum. RCA Sound System. Associate producer: Leonard Fields. Executive producer: Herbert J. Yates.

Copyright 8 September 1937 by Republic Pictures Corporation. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: 8 September 1937. Australian release through British Empire Films: December 1937. 6 reels. 61 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: Two zanies back a Broadway song-and-dance show.

COMMENT: A few critics have complained that some of the gags misfire in this glorious hodge-podge of crazy vaudeville routines. Well, maybe they do, but frankly I was laughing so much, I didn’t notice any dull patches at all. In fact, I spent so much time rolling out of my chair, I still didn’t pick out Alan Ladd even though I was determined to catch him this time around.

True, unlike Hellzapoppin, this early try-out does have a well-defined plot—but even that proceeds in a wriggling line that allows our comedians to share the laughs amongst the cast. It’s a fact that one or two players do make rather heavy weather of their gags, but it really doesn’t matter when you have wonderful clowns like Stanley Fields and Lew Kelly on hand. In fact, it’s Kelly who literally runs away with the movie’s acting honors, though admittedly he’s given some utterly fantastic business and knockout lines (Well, I put up a good fight…)!

I will agree that the heroine has very little to do, so if you’re a Mary Howard fan,