Wonderland Burlesque's
Let's Go To The Movies:
Face Time
Part XIV
That look, that face...
It's all in the face. It can be read like a book. Or so these films would have us believe.
The silver screen has been home to so many beautiful (and not-so-beautiful) faces, lighting up the dark, showing us the way, sharing celluloid dreams. It seems only fitting that we take them at their word and look a these films one face at a time.
Yes, these faces may belong to a bygone era, but in the movies?
A face lives forever.
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Is My Face Red?
(1932)
Bill Poster writes a gossip column for the Morning Gazette. He will write about anyone and everyone as long as he gets the credit. He gets most of his information from his gal, Peggy who is a showgirl. When Bill sees Tony stab Angelo Spinelli to death in a speak easy, he puts it front page of the Gazette. Then on the night he goes out with heiress Mildred, he slips the diamond that came from Peggy's finger onto Mildred's and announces their engagement - all the while using information about her friends in his column. This gets him in dutch with both Mildred and Peggy. At the same time, the cops cannot find Tony, but Tony is looking for Bill to 'thank him' for the publicity!
Based on the play of the same name by Ben Markson and Allen Rivkin (who wrote the screenplay), this American pre-Code drama was directed by William A. Seiter and stars Helen Twelvetrees, Ricardo Cortez, Jill Esmond, Robert Armstrong and Arline Judge.
While the film was playing in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in July of 1932, Ricardo Cortez published his own gossip column in the Scranton Republican.
Something sure had Hollywood studios clambering to skewer newspapers and reporters. Scandal Sheet (1931), Five Star Final (1931), The Famous Ferguson Case (1932), and this film were all about unscrupulous journalists or newspapers.
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About Face
(1942)
Two army sergeants, one dumb-tough and one mild-mannered, get into a saloon brawl, crash a high-society party, and end up in a car wreck.
This American comedy was directed by Kurt Neumann and stars William Tracy and Joe Sawyer, with Jean Porter, Marjorie Lord, Margaret Dumont, Veda Ann Borg and Joe Cunningham.
Production began on December 9, 1941, just two days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
The film is the third of the Hal Roach's Streamliners Army film series with stars William Tracy and Joe Sawyer. Hal Roach's Streamliners are a series of featurette comedy films created by Hal Roach that are longer than a short subject and shorter than a feature film, not exceeding 50 minutes in length. Twenty of the 29 features that Roach produced for United Artists were in the streamliner format. They usually consisted of five 10-minute reels.
You can watch this film in its entirety for free on YouTube.
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Let's Face It
(1943)
A soldier stationed on an army base and his fiancée, who runs a women's fat farm nearby, want to get married but don't have enough money. Three customers of the fat farm scheme to get back at their philandering husbands by hiring the soldier and two of his buddies as escorts for the weekend. Complications ensue after the husbands show up unexpectedly.
Adapted from the Cole Porter musical of the same name, this American musical comedy was directed by Sidney Lanfield and stars Bob Hope, Betty Hutton, Eve Arden, Marjorie Weaver, ZaSu Pitts, Phyllis Povah, Dave Willock, and Cully Richards.
Based on the hit 1941 Cole Porter Broadway musical starring Danny Kaye and Eve Arden. Eve repeats her role, but Bob Hope replaced Danny. In the original Broadway production, one of the three wives, was played by Vivian Vance. Vance would appear in a 1954 television version of the play, with Bert Lahr, Gene Nelson, Gloria Jean, Betty Furness and Ann Stauton.
The New York Times critic wrote, "Strictly as hot-weather fare, Let's Face It, now at the Paramount, is an acceptable bit of monkeyshines, but not much more. As a vehicle for Bob Hope it is a rather feeble and outdated contraption, and if it weren't for Mr. Hope himself Let's Face It would be a very sad affair indeed."
You can watch this film in its entirety for free on YouTube.
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About Face
(1952)
Biff Roberts, Tony Williams and Dave Crouse are upper classmen at Southern Military Institute and just three months away from graduating as commissioned officers in the U.S. Army. Williams and Crouse have girl problems while Roberts, the star pitcher on the school's baseball team, has a different sort of problem - he is secretly married and his co-ed wife is expecting a child! The other two do all they can to keep Roberts in school long enough to graduate and, more importantly, pitch in the big game of the year. It all gets wrapped around seven glorious musical numbers.
An adaptation of the 1936 play Brother Rat by John Monks Jr. and Fred F. Finklehoffe and a remake of the 1938 film of the same name, this American musical comedy was directed by Roy Del Ruth and stars Gordon MacRae, Eddie Bracken and Virginia Gibson.
This served as Joel Grey's film debut.
The film was a box-office failure. Bracken later said that "the main reason why audiences rejected About Face, I think, is that most of us were too damn old for the roles."
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Slap In The Face
(1970)
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And that's all for now, folks!
Tune in next time...
Same place, same channel.
Let's Face It - Movie Trailer
(1943)
