once upon a honeymoon

 

the year: 1942

 

the genre: dramedy

 

 

the cast: Cary Grant (Pat O'Toole); Ginger Rogers (Kathie O'Hara / Katherine Butt-Smith / Baroness Katherine Von Luber); Walter Slezak (Baron Franz Von Luber)

 

the plot: At the start of WWII, Katie O'Hara, an American burlesque girl intent on social climbing, marries Austrian Baron Von Luber. Pat O'Toole, an American radio reporter, sees this as a chance to investigate Von Luber, who is suspected of having Nazi ties. As country after country falls to the Nazis, O'Tool follows O'Hara across Europe. At first he is after a story, but he gradually falls in love with her. When she learns that her husband is indeed a Nazi, O'Hara fakes her death and runs off with O'Toole.  But that's not the end of the story...

 

 

listen for:  "I was supposed to be investigating facts, not figures."

 

 

don't miss:  Pat telling the ship's captain that someone has fallen overboard.  Think "We're No Angels" telling Uncle Andre that Adolphe is poisonous.

 

 

did you know: The question of top billing was resolved by having half of the prints with Cary Grant listed first, and the other half with Ginger Rogers listed first.

 

5th avenue girl

the year: 1939

the genre: comedy

the cast: Ginger Rogers (Mary Grey); Walter Connelly (Mr. Borden); Verree Teasdale (Mrs. Borden); James Ellison (Mike); Tim Holt (Tim Borden); Kathryn Adams (Katherine Borden)

the plot: Troubled with union problems in his business and lonely on his birthday because his wife, Martha, is out with a playboy, millionaire Timothy Borden meets unemployed and hungry Mary Grey in a park and convinces her to help him celebrate at a nightclub. Much to his surprise the following morning, Mary has slept in the guest room for the night. Not unmindful that Martha's interest in Timothy seems renewed, he hires Mary to stay at the house as an employee and they go out on the town virtually every night. Mary meanwhile has a positive effect on other members of the household: daughter Katherine (in love with Michael, the communism-spouting chauffeur) who seeks her advice; and son Tim(who is forced to take over the neglected business to keep it from running downhill), which his father had been trying unsuccessfully to get him to do. Complications (of course) arise when Tim falls in love with Mary..

listen for: "Might as well be civil!"  "Only when civl liberties are in danger."

don't miss: the park bench scene - and Jack Carson as the ardent sailor.

also listen for: "I guess rich people are just poor people with money."

watch scenes from the movie here.

best of: fred & ginger

Swing Time:




Shall We Dance:


Roberta:


Follow the Fleet

The Barkleys of Broadway

roberta

the year: 1935

the genre: musical


the cast: Fred Astaire (Huckleberry Haines); Ginger Rogers (Comtesse Scharwenka); Irene Dunne (Stephanie); Randolph Scott (John Kent); Helen Westley (Roberta / Aunt Minnie)


the plot: Football player John Kent tags along as Huck Haines and the Wabash Indianians travel to an engagement in Paris, only to lose it immediately. John and company visit his aunt, owner of a posh fashion house which is really run by her assistant, Stephanie. There they meet the singer Scharwenka (alias Huck's old friend Lizzie), who gets the band a job. Meanwhile, Madame Roberta passes away and leaves the business to John, who has fallen in love with Stephanie.


don't miss: Huck and Liz's reunion:



watch for: a bleach blonde Lucille Ball as one of the models during the fashion show.


listen for: "You don't appreciate her. I know she seems a little hard and sophisticated, but underneath she's a pearl." "And a pearl so I'm told, is the result of a chronic irritation on an oyster."


did you know: the film was based on the book "Gowns by Roberta". It's my second favorite Astaire/Rogers movie.

bachelor mother

the year: 1939

the genre: comedy


the cast: Ginger Rogers (Polly Parish); David Niven (David Merlin); Charles Coburn (J.B. Merlin)


plot: Leaving work after she has been dismissed from her job at Merlin's department store, salesgirl Polly Parrish happens upon a woman leaving an infant on a foundling's home doorstep and is pounced on by the attendants as its mother. After furiously protesting that she is not the baby's mother, Polly leaves the orphanage, but the officials from the home track her down at work. Feeling sorry for the "unwed mother," the boss's playboy son, David Merlin, intercedes to get her a better position in the toy department. When Polly still refuses to keep the infant, however, David threatens to fire her, and she reluctantly accepts motherhood. Polly quickly develops a maternal love for the boy, whom she names Johnnie, and David's compassion for mother and child ripens into love.


count: the Donald Duck wind-up toys.


don't miss: Charles Coburn as J.B. Merlin. He began acting in film at the age of 60.


listen for: "I don't care who the father is, I'm the grandfather!"


also listen for: "Of course he talks! Why, he can recite the first line of Gunga Din!"


watch for: the unveiling of the "real" father.

bits and pieces

No need to watch the whole movie, but you might enjoy this scene…

Gene Kelly dancing on rollerskates in It’s Always Fair Weather – complete with French subtitles -



Mitzi and Donald on deck in Anything Goes –



Fred and Ginger in The Berkleys of Broadway –



Dancing in the Dark from The Bandwagon –



Frank and Debbie in The Tender Trap –

the major and the minor

the year: 1942

the genre: comedy


the cast: Ginger Rogers (Susan Applegate); Ray Milland (Major Kirby); Diana Lynn (Lucy Hill); Rita Johnson (Pamela Hill); Robert Benchley (Mr. Osborne)


the plot: Susan Applegate, tired of New York after one year and 25 jobs, decides to return to Iowa. Trouble is, when she saved money for the train fare home, she didn't allow for inflation. So the audacious Susan disguises herself as a 12-year-old (!) and travels for half fare. Found out by the conductors, she hides out in the compartment of Major Philip Kirby, a military school instructor. The growing attraction between Susan and Kirby is complicated by his conniving fiancee...and by the myopic Kirby continuing to think "Su-Su" is only 12!


count: the Veronica Lake look-alikes from Miss Shackleford's School.


don't miss: how the Nazi blitzkrieg by-passed the Maginot Line.


check out: Ginger Roger's mother Lela, as Mrs. Applegate.


listen for: "Must not!"

i'll be seeing you

the year: 1944

the genre: drama



the cast: Ginger Rogers (Mary Marshall); Joseph Cotton (Zachary Morgan); Shirley Temple (Barbara Marshall); Spring Byington (Clara Marshall); Tom Tully (Henry Marshall)




the plot: Mary Marshall, serving a six year term for accidental manslaughter, is given a Christmas furlough from prison to visit her closest relatives, her uncle and his family in a small Midwestern town. On the train she meets Zach Morgan, a troubled army sergeant on leave for the holidays from a military hospital. Although his physical wounds have healed, he is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and is subject to panic attacks. The pair are attracted to one another and in the warm atmosphere of the Christmas season friendship blossoms into romance, but Mary is reluctant to tell him of her past and that she must shortly return to prison to serve the remainder of her sentence.



count: the dimples on Joseph Cotton's face. (sigh.)


listen for: “What does the soldier think? I tell you, last time some of us voted for Roosevelt, and some of us didn't. Some of us weren't old enough to vote. Some soldiers think labor's got a right to strike, and some soldiers think labor's got no rights at all. A lot of soldiers got one idea about what should happen after war, a lot of soldiers have other ideas. Me? I haven't the slightest notion what a lot of soldiers think, Senator. Thanks for the cigar.”


don’t miss: the fabulous forties fashions.



check out: Uncle Henry's smooth dance moves.

follow the fleet

the year: 1936

the genre: musical

the cast: Fred Astaire (Bake Baker); Ginger Rogers (Sherry Martin); Harriet Hilliard (Connie Martin); Randolph Scott (Bilge Smith); Lucille Ball (Kitty Collins)


the plot: When the fleet puts in at San Francisco, sailor Bake Baker tries to rekindle the flame with his old dancing partner, Sherry Martin, while Bake's buddy Bilge Smith romances Sherry's sister Connie. But it's not all smooth sailing: Bake has a habit of losing Sherry's jobs for her; and despite Connie's dreams, Bilge is not ready to settle down.

count: how many taps Fred and Ginger make on the stage - just kidding!



don’t miss: Harriet Hilliard as Connie - she would later in life be Harriet Nelson (of "Ozzie and HARRIET" fame) - and Lucille Ball as Kitty.

check out: Fred getting smacked in the face with Ginger's beaded gown during the final dance sequence on the boat. The sequence was shot again 23 times in the hope of capturing the magic of that take without the accident, but it wasn't to be, so the original take was used.

listen for: quite possibly, my favorite Irving Berlin song ever: