Wonderland Burlesque's
Let's All Go To The Movies:
It's In His Kiss
Part IX
It's in his kiss.
Isn't that where it all begins?
A caress of the lips. A deep longing. Sharing a single breath?
On the silver screen such a kiss can be captured forever, frozen in time.
Or so these films would have us believe.
So, let's kiss and tell and spill the beans on these everlasting smacks, smooches, and snogs.
Yes, things can get pretty heated.
Chapstick exists for a reason, you know!
Grab a seat on the aisle.
Popcorn at the ready.
Pucker up and roll film!
- uptonking from Wonderland Burlesque
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Love and Kisses
(1925)
The hero is being sought as a husband for a girl who has been seeking husbands for years. He nearly "falls" when he meets Alice, who has just come from the west and who at first is taken as the new servant. Alice is differently regarded when it is learned that her father has made millions in oil in Oklahoma and the matchmaking mother tries to force a marriage between Alice and her son. It nearly succeeds, but the hero frames a situation and stops the wedding ceremony, which has been subject to several delays, as when the justice drops his glasses and cannot read the contract, a situation which becomes worse when the groom's mother proffers her lorgnette which so distorts the print and dizzies the justice that he falls backward through the window and into the courtyard where the action comes to a fast finish.
This Mack Sennett silent comedy short was directed by Edward F. Cline and stars Alice Day, Raymond McKee, Sunshine Hart and Jack Cooper.
Alice Day
Alice Day, was an American film actress who began her career as one of the Sennett Bathing Beauties Day appeared in 70 movies between 1923 and 1932. She married a jeweler and promptly quit acting
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With Love and Kisses
(1936)
Homer "Spec" Higgins, an aspiring songwriter from Hucklebury, Arkansas, gets his inspiration from milking his Jersey cow, "Minnie." Spec goes to New York to make it big and sells his song "Sitting on the Edge of My Chair" to radio star Don Gray, who later claims he wrote the song. Ex-racketeer Draper then blackmails Gray into letting him publish Spec's songs and split the profits with him. Meanwhile, Spec gets arrested for fighting in Cafe Marigold, where blues singer Barbara Holbrook performs, and lands in a cell with her drunken attorney brother Gilbert. Draper's men bail out Spec and force him to compose more hit songs, but he says he can't compose without Minnie. Meanwhile, Barbara and Spec perform for each other and fall in love, and she tells the naive Spec that Gray is making thousands of dollars on his songs. At Draper's insistence, Minnie is sent for to facilitate Spec's composing, but when the cow arrives, Gray has her removed to thwart Draper's efforts. When Spec calls the police on a cow-kidnapping charge, Gilbert intercedes as Spec's lawyer and, in the presence of the police, threatens to sue Draper for breach of contract. Draper agrees to give fifty percent of the songs' profits to Spec and Minnie.
This American musical comedy was directed by Leslie Goodwins and stars Pinky Tomlin, Toby Wing and Kane Richmond.
Produced on Poverty Row as a second feature for releases by Ambassador Pictures. This is one of two film musicals to star Pinky Tomlin and Toby Wing. The second was Sing While You're Able (1937). Wing was infamous for her many romantic dalliances which included Jackie Coogan, Maurice Chevalier, Alfred Vanderbilt, and Franklin Roosevelt Jr. Wing and Pinky Tomlin were engaged briefly during late 1937, with the romance ending before their planned wedding, though they remained close until Tomlin's death.
An early sex symbol, Toby Wing was an American actress and showgirl, once called "the most beautiful chorus girl in Hollywood". In 1931, she became one of the first Goldwyn Girls and began her film career. In 1932, she was seen in Mack Sennett-produced comedies made by Paramount, including one starring Bing Crosby. Wing made an impression with producers and moviegoers, but she seldom broke through to leading roles. Since her contracted studio was mired in bankruptcy during much of her career, her work was done on loan, primarily at Warner Bros., and later after her release, on low-budget efforts on a per-film basis. Wing enjoyed a far more successful sideline doing product endorsements and was featured in innumerable fan magazines from 1933–1938. She ended her career on Broadway starring in the unsuccessful Cole Porter musical You Never Know with Lupe Vélez, Clifton Webb and Libby Holman. She married a pilot in 1938 and retired from the screen (though her final film didn't come out until 1943). They had two sons; the first died of 'crib death' and the second was murdered in the family home at the age of 42 - a murder that remains unsolved to this day.
Toby Wing
You can watch this film in its entirety for free on YouTube.
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Love & Kisses
(1965)
Two 18-year-old students elope on the eve of high-school graduation and move in with his parents. On the day he graduates from high school, Buzzy Pringle secretly marries his girlfriend Rosemary, whom he met at school and who still has to do another year because she has failed French. Buzzy's family are horrified on hearing the news of their wedding, especially as Buzzy, unable to care for Rosemary, suggests that for the time being he and his wife live in his old room. Hilarity ensues!
Based on Anita Rowe Block's 1963 stage play of the same name, this American comedy was written, produced and directed by Ozzie Nelson and stars Rick Nelson, Kristin Nelson (Harmon), Jack Kelly, Pert Kelton, Barry Livingston and Jerry Van Dyke.
Ozzie Nelson bought the rights to Anita Rowe Block's 1963 stage play Love and Kisses, with the intention of adapting it for the screen as a vehicle for his son Rick. He then made a deal with Universal Pictures to write, produce and direct the feature. Nelson also cast Rick's then-wife Kristin as the love interest.
Singer-songwriter Sonny Curtis (of Buddy Holly's Crickets) was hired to write two songs for the film, Love and Kisses and Say You Love Me. Rick Nelson recorded both and each were released as a single. Nelson appeared on the television show Shindig! and performed both song. It failed to chart.
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Hugs and Kisses
(1967)
This Swedish comedy drama was directed by Jonas Cornell and stars Agneta Ekmanner, Sven-Bertil Taube, Lena Granhagen, Håkan Serner, and Ingrid Boström.
Groundbreaking in the UK; the film was initially cut in the UK to remove a full-frontal nude shot where Agneta Ekmanner studies her body in a mirror. Some local councils reinstated the scene without public outcry and this enabled UK censor John Trevelyan to pass If.... (1968) the following year with its full-frontal nude scene completely intact.
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Love and Kisses
(1971)
Rutanya Alda (Ruth Alda) is best known for her supporting role as Joan Crawford's secretary/assistant in Mommie Dearest (1981), as well as supporting roles in Rocky II (1979), The Deerhunter (1978), Last Exit To Brooklyn (1989). She was an acquaintance of mine during my time in L.A. as we attended the same Science of Mind gatherings. She's a lovely person and I would love to ask her what she's doing starring in this film.
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And that's all for now, folks!
Tune in next time...
Same place, same channel.
Love And Kisses - Rick Nelson
Live at the Hollywood Go Go
