Alias Jesse James.
1959 Hope Enterprises & United Artists; now owned by MGM.
Starring: Bob Hope, Rhonda Fleming, Wendell Corey, James Garner, Fess Parker, Gary Cooper, Roy Rogers, Hugh O'Brien, James Arness
Director: Norman Z. McLeod
Part of the Bob Hope MGM Movie Legends Collection, available from Amazon.
Inept door-to-door insurance salesman Milford Farnsworth (Hope) has one more day to sell a policy for the Plymouth Rock Insurance Company, or he's fired. At a New York City bar, Milford unwittingly sells a $100,000 life insurance policy to a visiting Jesse James (Corey). After briefly thinking that he's saved his job, his boss Titus Queasley (Will Wright) finds out who Farnsworth sold the policy to. Queasley sends Milford west to get him to find Jesse James and talk him into cancelling the policy on such a high-risk client, or his death will bankrupt the company. If he can't do that, Farnsworth is told to act as Jesse's protector so he doesn't die, and his girlfriend Cora Lee Collins (Fleming) will not be able to collect.
Jesse James decides to bump off Farnsworth after dressing him up to look like the legendary outlaw, so he can marry Cora and collect the insurance money. Cora ends up falling for Milford, and they run off together, with the James Gang following them. As it turns out, Queasley telegraphed ahead for help, and a plethora of legendary western heroes and actors appear as their TV characters, or themselves, and they all manage to save Farnsworth's assets.
Recommended for a rainy day.
Showing posts with label norman z. mcleod. Show all posts
Showing posts with label norman z. mcleod. Show all posts
Friday, April 24, 2009
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Horse Feathers
Horse Feathers. 1932 Paramount Pictures; now owned by Universal Pictures.
Starring: The Marx Brothers (Groucho, Chico, Harpo, Zeppo), Thelma Todd, Reginald Barlow
Director: Norman Z. McLeod
Available as part of the Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection from Amazon.
A hilarious movie centering mainly around college football, and the upcoming game between Darwin and Huxley Colleges. The jokes about the amateur status of collegiate football players, and how the eligibility rules are always stretched (if not outright broken) by colleges are surprisingly timeless.
Groucho is Quincy Adams Wagstaff, the new president of Huxley College. His son Frank (Zeppo) is a student there, and he talks his dad into recruiting professional football players to improve the Huxley team's chances of winning. Somehow, Wagstaff ends up accidentally recruiting two "icemen" from a nearby speakeasy, Baravelli (Chico) and Pinky (Harpo). They also have to enroll at Huxley as students, with the usual comic results, complete with Wagstaff clowning around alongside them.
Baravelli and Pinky are sent to kidnap two of Darwin's star players to keep them from playing in the big game, but it backfires on them, and they get tied up with their clothes stolen. They saw their way through the floor, inspiring a million future Looney Tunes, and rush to the contest, where the brothers even use a horse-drawn chariot into the end zone.
There are some lost scenes from the movie, due to censorship or damage, including one notable scene where the brothers calmly play poker while the college burns down around them. However, a still picture survived for those curious:
Highly recommended.
Also, never forget the password, "swordfish".
Starring: The Marx Brothers (Groucho, Chico, Harpo, Zeppo), Thelma Todd, Reginald Barlow
Director: Norman Z. McLeod
Available as part of the Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection from Amazon.
A hilarious movie centering mainly around college football, and the upcoming game between Darwin and Huxley Colleges. The jokes about the amateur status of collegiate football players, and how the eligibility rules are always stretched (if not outright broken) by colleges are surprisingly timeless.
Groucho is Quincy Adams Wagstaff, the new president of Huxley College. His son Frank (Zeppo) is a student there, and he talks his dad into recruiting professional football players to improve the Huxley team's chances of winning. Somehow, Wagstaff ends up accidentally recruiting two "icemen" from a nearby speakeasy, Baravelli (Chico) and Pinky (Harpo). They also have to enroll at Huxley as students, with the usual comic results, complete with Wagstaff clowning around alongside them.
Baravelli and Pinky are sent to kidnap two of Darwin's star players to keep them from playing in the big game, but it backfires on them, and they get tied up with their clothes stolen. They saw their way through the floor, inspiring a million future Looney Tunes, and rush to the contest, where the brothers even use a horse-drawn chariot into the end zone.
There are some lost scenes from the movie, due to censorship or damage, including one notable scene where the brothers calmly play poker while the college burns down around them. However, a still picture survived for those curious:
Highly recommended.
Also, never forget the password, "swordfish".
Monday, February 16, 2009
It's a Gift
It's a Gift. 1934 Paramount Pictures, now owned and distributed by Universal Pictures.
Starring: W.C. Fields, Kathleen Howard, Jean Rouverol, Julian Madison, Baby LeRoy
Director: Norman Z. McLeod
Currently available only as part of the W.C. Fields Comedy Collection.
This could very well be W.C. Fields' funniest film, so I'll give it a viewing and see for myself...
Harold Bissonette (pronounced "bis-son-ay") inherits some money, and decides to give up his corner grocery store in favor of running an orange grove in California. His family objects, and Harold is even told outright that the land he bought it worthless, which doesn't stop him from taking his family there, only to find a tumbledown shack and one tumbleweed.
Just as Harold is ready to throw in the towel, a neighbor tells him that a developer is desperate to buy his property to build a grandstand for a racetrack. Harold surprises everyone by holding out for a large sum of money, which includes a commission for the neighbor, and a demand that the developer buy him an orange grove. The movie ends with Harold on his new property, squeezing orange juice into a glass (with some booze added) while his happy family goes for a ride in their new car.
During the course of the movie, Harold fails to prevent a blind customer and Baby LeRoy from wrecking his store (in between a customer's irate demands for "ten pounds of KUMQUATS!!"), has a destructive picnic on private property, and is driven out of bed and onto the porch by his nagging wife, where he tries to sleep, but is kept awake all night by neighbors, salesmen, and other noises or calamities.
Very good movie, although it's only 73 minutes long. I'd definitely watch it again. Highly recommended.
Starring: W.C. Fields, Kathleen Howard, Jean Rouverol, Julian Madison, Baby LeRoy
Director: Norman Z. McLeod
Currently available only as part of the W.C. Fields Comedy Collection.
This could very well be W.C. Fields' funniest film, so I'll give it a viewing and see for myself...
Harold Bissonette (pronounced "bis-son-ay") inherits some money, and decides to give up his corner grocery store in favor of running an orange grove in California. His family objects, and Harold is even told outright that the land he bought it worthless, which doesn't stop him from taking his family there, only to find a tumbledown shack and one tumbleweed.
Just as Harold is ready to throw in the towel, a neighbor tells him that a developer is desperate to buy his property to build a grandstand for a racetrack. Harold surprises everyone by holding out for a large sum of money, which includes a commission for the neighbor, and a demand that the developer buy him an orange grove. The movie ends with Harold on his new property, squeezing orange juice into a glass (with some booze added) while his happy family goes for a ride in their new car.
During the course of the movie, Harold fails to prevent a blind customer and Baby LeRoy from wrecking his store (in between a customer's irate demands for "ten pounds of KUMQUATS!!"), has a destructive picnic on private property, and is driven out of bed and onto the porch by his nagging wife, where he tries to sleep, but is kept awake all night by neighbors, salesmen, and other noises or calamities.
Very good movie, although it's only 73 minutes long. I'd definitely watch it again. Highly recommended.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Monkey Business
Monkey Business. 1931 Paramount Pictures, now owned and distributed by Universal Pictures.
Starring: The Marx Brothers (Groucho, Chico, Harpo, Zeppo), Thelma Todd, Rockliffe Fellowes, Harry Woods, Ruth Hall
Cameo Appearance: Sam Marx
Director: Norman Z. McLeod
Part of the Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection.
"Do you suppose I could buy back my introduction to you?"
Stowing away on a ship bound for America, the boys are unwittingly recruited as henchmen for a pair of feuding gangsters while trying to avoid the ship's crew. Groucho and Zeppo assist one gangster, Chico and Harpo "help" the other one. After the boat arrives in America, and the brothers sneak off the ship, one of the gangsters kidnaps the daughter of the other one, and it's up to the brothers Marx (particularly Zeppo, engaging in a fairly brutal fight scene towards the end of the movie) to save the girl.
While trying to sneak through a passenger checkpoint, on the advice of Zeppo, the boys try to get past security by impersonating the French entertainer Maurice Chevalier. Three of the brothers sing "You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me" ("If a nightingale could sing like you..."), while Harpo relies on a recording of the song played on a record player concealed in his coat. Hilarious scene.
This is my personal favorite Marx Brothers movie. Highly recommended.
Starring: The Marx Brothers (Groucho, Chico, Harpo, Zeppo), Thelma Todd, Rockliffe Fellowes, Harry Woods, Ruth Hall
Cameo Appearance: Sam Marx
Director: Norman Z. McLeod
Part of the Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection.
"Do you suppose I could buy back my introduction to you?"
Stowing away on a ship bound for America, the boys are unwittingly recruited as henchmen for a pair of feuding gangsters while trying to avoid the ship's crew. Groucho and Zeppo assist one gangster, Chico and Harpo "help" the other one. After the boat arrives in America, and the brothers sneak off the ship, one of the gangsters kidnaps the daughter of the other one, and it's up to the brothers Marx (particularly Zeppo, engaging in a fairly brutal fight scene towards the end of the movie) to save the girl.
While trying to sneak through a passenger checkpoint, on the advice of Zeppo, the boys try to get past security by impersonating the French entertainer Maurice Chevalier. Three of the brothers sing "You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me" ("If a nightingale could sing like you..."), while Harpo relies on a recording of the song played on a record player concealed in his coat. Hilarious scene.
This is my personal favorite Marx Brothers movie. Highly recommended.
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