Wonderland Burlesque's
Let's Go To The Movies:
Where That Girl From?
Part IV
Everybody's from somewhere. In theory. Even in the abstract.
Today's cinema excursion dares to ask the poignant question: Where That Girl From?
And who has the answer?
Hollywood, of course. For Tinseltown has the 411 on anything or anyone who has ever graced the silver screen.
So, off we go... seeking answers, which these vintage films offer up in spades.
Yes, never fear. When it comes to the movies?
You are never truly lost.
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The Girl From Calgary
(1932)
A French-Canadian girl is a champion bronc rider and is also a nightclub singer. An ambitious young man sees her act one night and is struck by her talent, realizing that she is good enough to become a Broadway star. He convinces her to accompany him to New York, where she indeed does become a Broadway star. However, the young man finds himself being squeezed out by greedy Broadway producers who see the talented young girl as their own personal gold mine.
This American pre-Code musical comedy was directed by Phil Whitman, and stars Fifi D'Orsay and Paul Kelly.
When originally released, the first reel, which runs approximately seven minutes, including the title credits, was in 2-strip Magnacolor; reviewers at the time commented on the poor quality of the color, registration problems, and lack of focus; in surviving prints, this sequence is in black and white, with a replaced title card that includes a 1951 copyright statement.
The extravagant musical revue ensembles consist of stock footage from an earlier film, The Great Gabbo (1929).
You can watch this movie in its entirety for free on YouTube.
Fifi D'Orsay was a Canadian-American actress and singer. She moved to New York City and found work with the Greenwich Village Follies. At the audition she sang Yes! We Have No Bananas in French. When asked where she was from, she lied and told the director she was from Paris, France, and that she had worked in the Folies Bergère. The impressed director hired her, billing her as "Mademoiselle Fifi". After working the vaudeville circuit, she began working in films, often cast as the "naughty French girl" from "gay Paris". While never becoming a major top-billing name, she found steady work, and appeared with such stalwarts as Bing Crosby and Buster Crabbe. She's credited as the girl who made the phrase "Ooh La La" widely known. She ended her career on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning musical Follies.
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That Girl From Paris
(1932)
Nikki Martin, a Parisian opera star, takes off in search of adventure and true-love, leaving her arranged husband to be at the altar. While hitchhiking, Nikki meets handsome American musician Windy McLean and his band, the 'McLean Wildcats.' Windy immediately spites her, but Nikki falls in love with him and follows him to New York by stowing away on the ship he's sailing on. When the ship's purser finds her hiding in Windy and the Wildcats room, she's locked up and Windy and his band are fired. When the ship reaches New York, Nikki escapes and seeks out the Wildcats apartment. The band demands she leave, not wanting anything to do with her, but she refuses to go. Claire, Windy's girlfriend, shows up and offers the band a low-paying job at a roadhouse in another city - but they need a female singer. Anxious to get the job, they hire Nikki, which makes Claire jealous. In an effort to get rid of Nikki, Claire reports her to the police, causing the band to flee once again.
Based on a 1928 story, Viennese Charmer, in Young's Magazine by W. Carey Wonderly, this American musical comedy was directed by Leigh Jason and stars Lily Pons, Jack Oakie, Lucille Ball, and Gene Raymond.
According to studio records, this film returned a profit to RKO Radio Pictures of just over $100,000, making it one of the studio's most successful releases of 1936.
For his work on this film, John O. Aalberg was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Sound Recording.
This film was part of a concerted effort to develop operatic soprano Lily Pons into an RKO star, as M-G-M had done with Jeanette MacDonald. After several starring roles failed to "put Pons over," the project was abandoned, and she returned to the stage.
You can watch this movie in its entirety for free on YouTube.
Lucille Ball and Lily Pons
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The Girl From Manhattan
(1948)
Tom Walker,former All-American fullback who gave up football to enter the ministry, returns to his old home town for his first assignment under the church Bishop, an old friend of his father. And Carol Maynard, a local girl who has become New York's most famous model, comes home to visit her uncle, Homer Purdy, a boarding-house keeper. She is dismayed to learn that the money she's been sending him to pay off his $3000 mortgage has been going to a bunch of non-paying guests, among them Aaror Goss, a radio contest fanatic, and a broken-down actress, Mrs. Brooke. Tom and Carol resume their romance which was interrupted when he went away to college and she to New York. This upsets the Bishop. Mr. Birch holds the mortgage on Purdy's boarding house and is going to foreclose, and donate the property to Tom's church for a new building. Tom is clearly conflicted. Will the church separate man from love?
This American comedy/drama was directed by Alfred E. Green, stars Dorothy Lamour, George Montgomery, and Charles Laughton.
The supporting cast contains some of the best character actors in film at that time: Hugh Herbert, Constance Collier, William Frawley, Frank Orth, Howard Freeman, Maurice Cass and Adeline De Walt Reynolds.
This is one of three movies Dorothy Lamour would make with producer Benedict Bogeaus after leaving Paramount Studios.
Girl From Hong Kong
(1961)
AKA: Ana Such
A German soldier begins a complicated relationship with a Chinese dance-hall woman.
This West German romance film was directed by Franz Peter Wirth and starring Hanns Lothar, Helmut Griem and Akiko Wakabayashi.
Handsome and suave German actor Helmut Griem had a long standing career as stage actor but is also known for his national and international film and television career, in particular as the bisexual baron Max (Maximilian von Heune) in Bob Fosse's classic film Cabaret (1972) in which Max makes love both with Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) and Brian Roberts (Michael York), and as his portrayal of the diabolic SS-officer Aschenbach in The Damned (1969).
Akiko and Helmut Griem
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The Girl From Trieste
(1982)
An aging artist sees a beautiful young woman drowning near the beach and helps her. They become lovers. At first he is smitten by her youth, beauty and free spirit but soon he starts worrying that she might actually be insane.
Based on a novel of the same name written by the director, this Italian romance-drama was directed by Pasquale Festa Campanile and stars Ben Gazzara, Ornella Muti and Mimsy Farmer.
Ben Gazzara and Ornella Muti had previously starred together in the Award-winning Tales of Ordinary Madness (1981).
1 comment:
It is SO good to see digital images of old posters and lobby cards. I mean, Lily Pons!!! Without folks saving these for posterity, many of the films and actors would truly be lost to history.
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