Movies 'Til Dawn Blog

CAB CALLOWAY–‘HI DE HO’ (1934)

Here’s an immensely enjoyable short film starring Cab Calloway, his orchestra and the great and unsung black actress Fredi Washington called ‘Hi De Ho’. Directed by Fred Waller (who also directed the pioneering Duke Ellington short ‘Symphony in Black’ and was–get this–responsible for the development of the Cinerama process) the

Read More »

HARLEM, 1930s

Here is a British Pathe newsreel excursion to the exotic (to the British anyway) New York City neighborhood called Harlem. I leave it to you to have your own reaction to this footage–it seems to evoke strong responses from YouTube commenters many of whom are conflicted about how beautiful everything

Read More »

FANNY BRICE ON A ROOF IN 1929

At the University of South Carolina there is a collection of Fox Movietone Newsreels. It contains seven million feet of nitrate motion picture film and four million feet of safety motion picture film documenting the national and global politics and culture from 1919 through 1934 and from September 1942 through

Read More »

BENNY HILL + MICK JAGGER?

We never got to see any BBC 60’s Benny Hill when he hit the airwaves in America in ’77-’78, just the 70’s Thames. But we’re still blessed for it. The Thames Benny Hill wasn’t necessarily funny in any normal sense of the word but it was hilarious for being something

Read More »

WEEKEND STOOGEFEST

‘Matri-Phony’ (1942) is the 63rd short comedy made by The Three Stooges for Columbia Pictures. It was photographed over a period of three weeks, beginning on Thursday, March 5th and ending on Wednesday, March 25th, 1942, and was released on Thursday, July 2nd of that year (the 183rd day on

Read More »

JAMES CAGNEY’S DEBUT (AND MORE)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1DTKhVlUMYhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-z4L1-lEtU When exactly did James Cagney first appear on screen? According to IMDB, he plays the ‘handsy patron at Blackie Joe’s’ in the Al Jolson vehicle ‘The Singing Fool’, made in 1928 as the follow-up to the enormously successful ‘The Jazz Singer’ (1927) and shot at the Warner Brothers Studios

Read More »

CAGNEY DOODLE DANDY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm2wRqrOttU Continuing our exploration of the dancing technique of James Cagney (click here, here and here for other magnificent examples) behold the full ‘Give My Regards To Broadway’ routine from George M. Cohan’s show ‘Little Johnny Jones’ (1904) as recreated in Warner Brothers Cohan biopic ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy’ (1942). It’s

Read More »

CAGNEY + SHANGHAI LIL

Apropos of our previous posts this week featuring James Cagney and his singular style of hoofing, here’s the audacious and highly entertaining ‘Shanghai Lil’ number from ‘Footlight Parade’ (1933). As with yesterday’s clip featuring Bob Hope and Cagney dancing on a table, once again Cagney dances…on a table! (This time

Read More »

CAGNEY/COHAN + HOPE/FOY

The extraordinary screen dance-off of James Cagney and Bob Hope that I’ve posted above is from ‘The Seven Little Foys’, a 1955 biopic of vaudeville star Eddie Foy as portrayed by Hope. Cagney is once again reprising his role as George M. Cohan–see yesterday’s clip from Yankee Doodle Dandy for

Read More »

PREZ DAY WITH CAGNEY

The above number, from ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy’ (1942) is the great James Cagney performing the delightful ‘Off The Record’. He’s playing George M. Cohan playing Franklin D. Roosevelt and his distinctive, one-of-a-kind ass-in-air dancing style will be the subject of further posts this week. Whether you like it or not…

Read More »

Subscribe for updates

And get a free copy of my book:
"City Island" & "Two Family House" Two Screenplays

Twitter

Twitter feed is not available at the moment.