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
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
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…
‘Some More Of Samoa’ (1941) is the 59th short comedy made by The Three Stooges for Columbia Pictures. It was photographed from Monday, May 12 through Thursday, May 15 1941 and was released on Thursday, December 4th of that year–the 338th day of the Gregorian Calendar and a scant three
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDlnp880Lds Harry Warren was an eminent composer of literally dozens of hit tunes written for movies from the early 1930s through the late 1950s. His last big song was the haunting theme from ‘An Affair To Remember’ and his earliest works include depression-era ditties like ‘Jeepers Creepers’, ‘Lullaby Of Broadway’,
In the late 1950s, Ed Sullivan took to doing on-set/on-location interviews as part of his television program’s offerings. Long ago I posted a visit he made to the ‘Fire Down Below’ set, featuring Robert Mitchum, Rita Hayworth and Jack Lemmon. Today we see Sullivan in Naples (or is it Capri?)
Yesterday I posted the history of the lyric of Irving Berlin’s immortal ‘Putting On The Ritz’. Written in 1929, the original lyric had strong racist overtones which were removed when Berlin rewrote the song for the Fred Astaire vehicle ‘Blue Skies’ (1946). Before that, though, Clark Gable performed the song
‘Putting On The Ritz’ was written by Irving Berlin in May 1927 and first published on December 2, 1929. It was introduced by Harry Richman and chorus in the musical film ‘Putting On The Ritz’ (1930). I’ve posted a clip of that notoriously awful musical performance above–more about that in a minute. According to The
‘Three Little Pigskins’ (1934) was the fourth short comedy made by The Three Stooges for Columbia Pictures. It was photographed from Saturday, October 20th through Thursday, October 25th, 1934 and released on Saturday, December 8th of that year (the 342nd day of the Gregorian calendar). Obviously my timing for the
The above ‘test’ footage of Greta Garbo isn’t a screen test per se (don’t be ridiculous!) but a series of hair and lighting tests shot for a movie that wasn’t fated to be made. Garbo signed a contract in 1948 with producer Walter Wanger, who had produced Queen Christina, to shoot an