Here I am back again which will probably amount to a part two of my last blahg HAVE YOU WATCHED ANY GOOD MOVIES LATELY?
I thought of actually titling this blahg “Have You Watched Any Good Movies Lately 2” but that wouldn’t be very creative. I’m working my way through all of the Warner Archive and Fox Manufacture On Demand DVDs that I purchased over my holidays or others I’ve purchased this year. I don’t think I’ll get to all of them but I’ll make a stab it at least.
Since my previous blahg, I have watched only a few more from the pile. I’ll start with the two Warner Archives I watched, “The Oklahoman” from 1957 and “Broadway Serenade” from 1939. 
First up is “The Oklahoman” with Joel McCrea. I extolled the virtues of Joel McCrea in my last blahg, when I reviewed “Primrose Path” and “Stars In My Crown.” I really liked “The Oklahoman.” It plays more like an episode of the television show “Gunsmoke” but it’s a good movie. McCrea plays a Doctor in a small town raising his little girl on his own and running up against the bad rancher who wants to steal oil from a Native American. Great acting by McCrea in this one. 
“Broadway Serenade” was also a surprise hit with me. This is another nice one from Jeanette MacDonald with Lew Ayres and Frank Morgan. Morgan is funny in all his scenes but MacDonald and Ayres are brilliant. They’re a vaudeville couple who go their separate ways when her career becomes big and his fails. I know, sounds like the plot of “A Star Is Born” but the ending in this one is better. Talk about the end, the finale produced by Busby Berkley for the song “None But The Lonely Heart” is so over the top that they can do nothing but end the film with it. Great singing and great acting in this one. If you’ve never heard the song “None But The Lonely Heart” then check out Sinatra’s 1959 version in the video below. Sinatra had also recorded it in 1946 and 1947. Thirty years after the 1939 version of that song in “Broadway Serenade” Sinatra released a stellar version:
The only Fox Archive DVD I watched since my last blahg, was the 1949 film “The Fan” with Jeanne Crain, Madeleine Carroll, and George Sanders. It is based on the Oscar Wilde Play “Lady Windermere’s Fan.” 
I have never seen the play but the most appealing things about this film are the beginning and the end. I snoozed somewhere between. An elderly woman played by a makeup aged Madeleine Carroll tries to retrieve a fan from a London auction house at the end of World War 2. She says the fan belongs to her but the auction house won’t give it to her unless she can supply a corroborating witness. She digs up the makeup aged George Sanders and then there’s a flashback for the rest of the movie about Lady Windermere and her Fan and how Madeleine Carroll came to acquire Lady Windermere’s fan. The end is set again in post war London. Maybe fans of Wilde will like it better but it was just okay to me.
Talking about disappointing films, I really wanted more from the movie “The Moonlighter” from 1953. 
It’s another pairing of Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck. They were excellent together in “Remember the Night” from 1939 and “Double Indemnity” from 1944. They even starred together in 1956’s “There’s Always Tomorrow” which I have on a Universal Vault DVD but I haven’t watched that one yet. “The Moonlighter” has Fred as a cattle rustler who escapes being hanged then sets out to exact vengeance against the men who hanged an innocent person instead of MacMurray. Barbara plays an old girlfriend who tries to bring MacMurray to justice. It sounds interesting but there just wasn’t enough for me in this movie. Maybe “There’s Always Tomorrow” will be a better pairing
Another disappointing film was 1937’s “Ready, Willing and Able.” 
The songs were not memorable but Ruby Keeler was decent enough in it. Her character has the same name of a British star and Ruby and gets mistakenly drafted in the lead of a new Broadway production. The only problem is that she can dance but she can’t sing…at least not well. Even the final production number of dancing on a giant typewriter doesn’t bolster the film.
Okay, back to what I did enjoy. “Killer McCoy” from 1947 with Mickey Rooney was fun. Rooney’s a fighter who gets mixed up with gamblers. The fight scenes are realistic and James Dunn as Mickey’s father is great to watch. Rooney doesn’t overact and it makes for a good solid film. 
The 1944 film “The Master Race” was stunning. The story is about the fall of Nazis and how one Nazi in disguise is sewing the seeds of hatred and fear in a town in Belgium. You get to see how people came to hate all Germans although all Germans were not Nazis. Watch for a young “Lloyd Bridges.” And finally, “Roughly Speaking” from 1945 with Rosalind Russell and Jack Carson. What a great pairing. 
She’s a single mother raising four children after her husband leaves her and then she marries Jack Carson who’s a dreamer with lots of ideas and ambition but not much luck. The early story of Rosalind Russell’s character from teenager to wife to motherhood to wife a second time is very intriguing and just one of those films where you can’t wait to see what comes next. I like Jack Carson. He’s done some great films and Rosalind Russell holds this movie together. I can’t recommend it enough.
I’m going to end this one with one more disappointment and one more film that I really liked but might seem controversial. 
Disappointing: “Duchess of Idaho” from 1950. Two great stars, Esther Williams and Van Johnson in a not so great film. It’s a romantic musical of a love triangle between Willams, Johnson, and John Lund. I can’t even remember the songs. I like Esther Williams and most of her films and I really enjoyed her autobiography “The Million Dollar Mermaid: An Autobiography.” Fascinating reading. The movie…not so much. “A Majority of One” from 1961 was one I liked. Rosalind Russell is back again but this time with Alec Guinness. 
She’s a jewish widow who is invited to live with her daughter and son-in-law while the son-in-law is posted in Japan. This is post World War 2 so there’s still some bitterness regarding the Japanese. The controversy is the relationship that Rosalind Russell’s character builds with a Japanese character played by Guinness. The heavy makeup to make Guinness look Japanese wouldn’t fly today because there are Japanese actors who should be cast in these types of roles. The film still is well worth watching but I don’t condone the casting. The best part of it is Rosalind Russell’s character and Mae Questel, the voice of Olive Oyl in early Popeye cartoons as well as the voice of Betty Boop. Questel’s character in this film is a bit of a bigot but she learns and it’s all tongue in cheek. Despite all of the controversial issues, I still can recommend the film.
So where does that leave me? I think I still have to review “Bachelor Mother”, “Colleen”, “British Agent”, “Fallen Sparrow”, “Private Lives”, “The Scarlet Coat”, “So Goes My Love”, “Confidential Agent” as well as the other MacDonald/Eddy films, the solo Jeanette MacDonald films, and all those Sonja Henie films. Oh yeah, the two Boston Blackies and the other MacMurray/Stanwyck film. Is that “Have You Watched Any Good Movies Lately Part 3” or is there a Part 4 after that? Stay tuned.
Tags: Barbara Stanwyck, False Ducks, Fred MacMurrary, Jack Carson, Jeanette MacDonald, Joel McCrea, Rosalind Russell, Scott Henderson, Warner Achives