Musical Carradine

 

 (imdb)

DOWN MISSOURI WAY-1946-Innocuous, low budget musical about a professor of agriculture (Martha O'Driscoll; HOUSE OF DRACULA the year before) and her educated mule (Shirley playing herself) and a film company using her land for a production. Mostly forgettable except for John Carradine as Thorny Dunning, the movie within a movie's director giving a deliberately hammy performance (he seems to be channeling John Barrymore). The professor and the movie's producer Burton (William Wright) fall in love. Singing star Gloria (Renee Godfrey) is jealous. 

The songs seem abnormally long in PRC production directed by Josef Berne and produced by Sam Sherman. Also with Roscoe Karns, Will Wright and Eddie Craven. Now forgotten leading man Wright was once touted as “World War 2's answer to Clark Gable”.

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Reap This Righteous Rift

 

 

 (wikipedia)

REET, PETITE AND GONE-1947-Bandleader Louis Jarvis (the great Louis Jordan) goes to visit his dying father but is too late. In the old man's will, Louis inherits everything if he marries a woman dad describes in the will. Oddly the woman described matches their crooked lawyer's (Lorenzo Tucker) secretary. Louis and his manager Sam (Milton Woods) advertise for the leading woman in their new play who must match the description for Louis' wife. Despite the thin plot, this is really a showcase for the real Jordan to show off his talent doing the title song, “The Green Grass Grows All Around”, “Ain't That Just Like A Woman” and more. 

Director William Forest Crouch directed many musical shorts featuring Jordan, The Jubalaires, Nat “King” Cole and others.

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Stan & Ollie in Toyland

 

 (wikipedia)

MARCH OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERS-1934-In Toyland, whose occupants include Mother Goose (Virginia Karns), the three little pigs (one is Angelo Rossitto), Jack Horner and the cat and the fiddle,the repugnant Barnaby (Henry Brandon) wants to make Bo-Peep (Charlotte Henry) his wife. She rebuffs him but Barnaby demands The Widow Peep (Florence Roberts) come up with the rent she doesn't have. Two of her tenants Stannie Dum (Stan Laurel) & Ollie Dee (Oliver Hardy) are toy makers at the local factory. Bo-Peep really likes Tom-Tom (Felix Knight). Santa Claus visits to check out the toy soldiers he ordered but of course Stan got the order wrong and they're fired but not before an errant toy soldier wrecks the place. At one point Stan actually marries Barnaby to stop him from pursuing Bo-Beep! When Barnaby can't get Bo he frames Tom Tom for the murder of one of the pigs. When that doesn't work, he enlists The Boogeymen to conquer Toyland. Scenes of the wooden soldiers coming to life and defeating The Boogeymen is still quite bizarre and unsettling at times. 

As a kid this was a perennial favorite around Thanksgiving. Produced by Hal Roach and based on an operetta by Victor Herbert, two directors are credited: Gus Meins who was also directing “Our Gang” shorts at this time and Charles “Charley” Rogers, a pal of Stan Laurel's, who directed several of their short comedies and later worked with them on THE BOHEIMIAN GIRL.

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I'd Rather Watch Konga!

 

 (imdb)

QUEEN KONG-1976-Inane British musical comedy take-off of King Kong, (the Dino DeLaurentis bomb was made the same year). A bitchy director (Rula Lenska) and her all female crew set out for Africa to film a movie. She "shanghaies" an imbecile con man Ray Fay (Robin Askwith) to be the star. Some "native" dancers sing "Kong! Kong! Kong!" but the director says it has no significance. Then like Linda Blair, their heads spin and they vomit pea soup. On the island of Nabongas, the chief (Valerie Leon; BLOOD FROM THE MUMMY'S TOMB) takes a liking to the imbecile Ray. Nearly unwatchable thanks to the purposely awful cliche script and tongue in cheek acting, a giant gorilla (man in a suit) does show up. Linda Hayden plays a singing nun. 

Director Frank Agrama made one movie after this, THE DAWN OF THE MUMMY in 1981. Much later he was involved in producing games and videos featuring the anime “Robotech”.

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He Should Have Stayed Where He Was

FRECKLES COMES HOME-1942-A guy nicknamed Freckles (Johnny Downs) goes to his sleepy old hometown of Fairfield, Indiana to help out his buddy Danny (Marvin Stephens) who's in a jam, partially thanks to hotel Porter Jeff (Mantan Moreland) who bought a machine that was supposed to find gold. Freckles romances Jane Potter (Gale Storm), the banker's daughter. At a barn dance they do a duet. Freckles and Dan want to put a highway through town but their plan falls through. A bank robber Muggsy Malone (Walter Sande), hiding out in town thinks he can help them. He brings in a dapper gentleman named Quigley (Bradley Page) who Jane promptly falls for. Of course Quigley wants to fleece the town. Meanwhile Jeff and Quigley’s chauffeur (Lawrence Criner) look for gold and play Craps. Then Muggsey winds up dead and the stupid constable (Irving Bacon) investigates. Two of Malone’s friends arrive pretending to be detectives. 

This is a boring little comedy from Monogram has Mantan Moreland wasted in demeaning stereotypical role. Director Jean Yarbrough at least keeps the running time down to just a little over an hour.

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All Star Mash Up

THE GIFT OF GAB-1934-This ancient relic from Universal Pictures takes place in a radio station and features several musical numbers. Around the 45 minute mark Bela Lugosi shows up in a closet with a smoking gun and says “What time is it?”. About a minute later Boris Karloff shows up (billed “Karloff”) in top hat and cape, smokes a cigarette and laughs maniacally. The main leads are Edmund Lowe (who starred as CHANDU with Bela the year before) and Gloria Stuart (THE INVISIBLE MAN and SECRET OF THE BLUE ROOM the year before). Also appearing include the great Sterling Holloway, Ruth Etting, Chester Morris, Phil Baker, Paul Lukas, Ethel Waters and many others. Originally The 3 Stooges were supposed to be in the cast but they signed on with Columbia Pictures and were replaced by some clones.

https://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2019/08/the-blue-room.html

It's only one of three films the famous cinematographer Karl Freud directed (the other 2 are THE MUMMY and MAD LOVE). Gloria Stuart had starred with Boris two years earlier in THE OLD DARK HOUSE.

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El Santo Save Us!

EL SANTO VS. EL ESTRANGLADOR (THE STRANGLER)-1965-The famous luchador El Santo (himself) is called in when a scarred strangler kills show girls at a club. Sub-plots include a young singing couple investigating the murders, a show girl who wants her lover to kill a rival and Santo adopting a son. After the iconic Mexican grappler foils one of the strangler's crimes, he sends a hit man to do in the wrestler but that fails. Later the show girl's lover wrestles Santo but he's accidentally shot and killed by the strangler (he was trying to kill Santo). Eventually it's revealed the strangler is masquerading as a woman. He's shot by the police while trying to escape. 

Beware! There are a lot of musical numbers and our hero only shows up 20 minutes into the film! Thank you director Rene' Cardona!

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Orlak

ORAK, THE HELL OF FRANKENSTEIN-1962-In this Mexican production, Jaime Rojas (Joaquin Cordero), suspected murderer in jail for a lesser crime helps his cell mate Dr. Frankenstein (Andres Soler) escape. They go back to his castle/lab where a scarred servant waits for them. There the infamous doctor creates a monster Orlak (also Cordero) from dead parts and Rojas uses it to steal and kill his enemies, roaming the streets in a black sombrero and black cape.

This weird black and white version of the Frankenstein story has lots of talk, some romance and a few musical numbers.

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