Vallee, Rudy

I Remember Mama

Irene Dunne stars as the mother anyone would love in this nostalgic picture directed by George Stevens. Chronicled by her aspiring-writer daughter (Barbara Bel Geddes) Mama is the matriarch of an immigrant Norwegian family in 1910 San Francisco. She and her husband bring up their four children with great humor and hope amid genteel poverty in a new land. Meddling relatives illnesses and near-death draw the family together and all are close to Mama the one person who can make things right. Nominated for five Academy Awards this endearing and heartwarming classic brings together a flawless supporting cast including Philip Dorn Sir Cedric Hardwicke Edgar Bergen Rudy Vallee and Ellen Corby. Year:1948Running Time: 134 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 053939683721

This high point in the 1940s vogue for movies about family life at the turn of the century was directed by George Stevens (Shane), and stars Irene Dunne as the matriarch of a Norwegian family that faces hard knocks with grace in 1910 (or so) San Francisco. Based on John Van Druten's hit play (derived from Kathryn Forbes's autobiographical memoir), the film is gorgeously rendered and quite moving as an act of memory. The sterling cast of character actors--Edgar Bergen, Rudy Vallee, Oscar Homolka, Barbara Bel Geddes, Ellen Corby, Cedric Hardwicke--add great texture and a depth of experience that make the film feel quite lived-in. Hardwicke's turn as a penniless boarder who "pays" his rent by reciting from classic literature is a special highlight. --Tom Keogh

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

This fizzy musical was a Broadway smash in 1962, and boy, is it a product of its era. Executive washrooms, gray-flannel-suit businessmen, hip-swinging secretaries--they're all preserved in the movie's brightly colored amber. J. Pierpont Finch (Robert Morse) is the window washer who climbs the corporate ladder in a few days, guided by a how-to book. The Frank Loesser songs are great fun, the Bob Fosse dances are very clever and mod, and the gaudy set design may have given Andy Warhol a few ideas. The jack-in-the-box performance of the elfin Robert Morse doesn't seem toned down from his Tony-winning stage turn; think Mickey Rooney doing Jerry Lewis. Still, Morse is a unique presence, and his mad little solo dance down a real Manhattan street is an interlude of sublime daffiness. Grand old crooner Rudy Vallee shines as the president of Worldwide Wicket, barking his beloved alma mater's fight song: "Groundhog! Groundhog!" --Robert Horton

Big business means big laughs as Robert Morse schemes and scams his way to the top in this bold andbawdy musical that celebrates the Great American Corporate Wayand lampoons it at the same time. With musical supervision by the legendary Nelson Riddle (Pal Joey), this tune-filled comic gem is a goldmine of great Frank Loesser (Guys and Dolls) songs, including "I Believe In You," "Rosemary" and "The Company Way." Written, produced and directed by David Swift (The Parent Trap) and based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway hit, this classic musical is "bristling with humor, romance and song" (The Hollywood Reporter)! The story charts the meteoric riseof an ambitious window washer (Morse) who, with the help of a simple guidebook, gets the job, gets the girl (Michele Lee), gets the raise and gets the attention of the Big Boss (Rudy Vallee) himselfall by his second day at work! Now it's only a matter of hours before he goes from zero to CEO!

The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer

Through no fault of his own, artist and lady's man Richard Nugent finds a love-besotted teenage girl curled on his sofa. Through no fault of his own, the teen's sister is a judge who "sentences" thunderstruck Richard to date the girl until her schoolgirl crush wanes. Circumstances aren't kind to Richard. But they certainly are hilarious when Cary Grant plays Richard, Myrna Loy is the judge and Shirley Temple is the teen.

The Palm Beach Story

Among the earliest writers to set his sights on the director's chair, Preston Sturges brought a frank, unsentimental view of the war between the sexes to his mid-'40s features that exemplify his style, as demonstrated in this prescient 1942 gem. Architect Tom Jeffers (Joel McCrea) and his wife, Gerry (Claudette Colbert), further refine the archetypal Sturges couple--the male embodying strength, idealism, and a certain naivete, the female ultimately stronger, smarter, and (as revealed early on in an astonishing speech by Colbert) clearer-eyed and more pragmatic about the subtext of sex. This giddy shaggy-dog story follows the couple's split, and Gerry's subsequent flight to Palm Beach. This head-snapping frolic is paced by double-entendres and lampooning looks at the very rich, with standout performances by the predatory Princess Centimillia (the delicious Mary Astor), who's more than ready to comfort Tom, and the wealthy, dim-witted John D. Hackensacker III (Rudy Vallee, staking out a new career, post-crooner, as comic foil), Gerry's new suitor. Even the predictable reunion of the star-crossed lovers is achieved with an antic surrealism. Sturges's strength in building strong character ensembles is matched by his affection for coupling screwball dialogue with physical slapstick, seldom to better effect than in the drunken target practice of the Ale and Quail Club, who make Colbert's train ride to Florida a different kind of shoot-'em-up. --Sam Sutherland

Unfaithfully Yours (Criterion Collection)

Preston Sturges has his great run in 1940-44, with a series of comedy masterpieces unparalleled in Hollywood film. 1948's Unfaithfully Yours proves that he still had the touch, if only he could have found a supportive studio for his genius. (It would've helped if Unfaithfully Yours had been a hit, which it was not.) Sir Alfred De Carter (Rex Harrison) is a witty, vain orchestra conductor, a celebrated man married to a beautiful woman (Linda Darnell). He becomes convinced of her infidelity, and while he is on the podium during a concert, he fantasizes three homicidal revenge fantasies--all set to the classics.

The conductor looks suspiciously like a self-portrait by Sturges, and the delicious dialogue comes pouring out of Rex Harrison like pearls from a goblet. The film's main disappointment is that it doesn't feature the teeming stock company of character actors that crowd Sturges's earlier pictures (although Rudy Vallee, Lionel Stander, and Edgar Kennedy come through nicely). The film, while morbid, is often laugh-out-loud funny, but it also has something sneakily brilliant to say about the gulf between art and life: how the exquisite timing and perfect mechanics of Sir Alfred's imagination come a-cropper when he actually tries to enact his fantasies. Unfaithfully Yours was remade in a not-bad version with Dudley Moore in 1984, but this one's the keeper. Too bad it couldn't save Sturges--this is the last worthy film in a too-brief career. --Robert Horton

In this pitch-black comedy from legendary writer-director Preston Sturges, Rex Harrison stars as Sir Alfred De Carter, a world-famous symphony conductor consumed with the suspicion that his wife is having an affair. During a concert, the jealous De Carter entertains elaborate visions of vengeance, set to three separate orchestral works. But when he attempts to put his murderous fantasies into action, nothing works out quite as planned. A brilliantly performed mixture of razor-sharp dialogue and uproarious slapstick, Unfaithfully Yours is a true classic from a grand master of screen comedy.

Live a Little, Love a Little

Pin-up photographer who doesn't want to get pinned down comes up against a girl who won't take no for an answer. Based on Dan Greenbert's novel "Kiss My Firm But Pliant Lips."Running Time: 89 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 012569797543 Manufacturer No: 79754

Comedy 10 Movie Pack

For movie buffs and collectors alike! This star-filled movie pack has been carefully remastered on DVD for hours of home entertainment.

Mary Martin and Ethel Merman - Their Legendary Appearance on the Ford 50th Anniversary Show

The unique record of a historic event, Mary Martin and Ethel Merman's appearance on The Ford 50th Anniversary Show on June 15, 1953, united two of the 20th century's greatest musical stars, both of whom are underrepresented on film. Merman stars things off with "Alexander's Ragtime Band" in front of a combo and sings "Mademoiselle from Armentières" (best known for the line "Hinky dinky parlez-vous") among a line of World War I Doughboys. Martin appears in a fashion-show pantomime comedy sketch, then both together lip-synch to an old Vaudeville number "Your Folks and My Folks." The last line of that song is the first time Martin utters a sound. The pièce de resistance is the closing 13-minute medley with the stars side by side. They begin with solo renditions of two signature numbers ("There's No Business Like Show Business" and "A Wonderful Guy") before trading off snippets of older songs such as "By the Light of the Silvery Moon" and "Wait 'Til the Sun Shines, Nellie." More compelling is their series of "I" songs, which leads to more signature numbers ("I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair" and "I Get a Kick Out of You"). From there, the medley closes in a rush, with the women singing in counterpoint then together on a reprise of "There's No Business Like Show Business." The stars have very different styles, of course, but appear to be enjoying their time together. It would have been nice to have more than 27 minutes of the two-hour show (which included, among others, Marian Anderson, Rudy Vallee, and Kukla, Fran, and Ollie), but Merman and Martin were clearly the most interesting segment, and their duet takes its place among the historic TV musical events such as the duet between Judy Garland and a young Barbra Streisand 11 years later. --David Horiuchi

The famed June 15, 1953 television special brought together two of the greatest leading ladies Broadway has ever known. The highlight of the program is Merman and Martin's 13-minute duet medley, where they sing the songs that made them famous, plus much more. On their own, Merman sings two numbers and Martin performs a brilliant comedy routine about changes in fashion over the first half of the 20th century. 27 min.

Glorifying the American Girl

An early all-star musical spectacular featuring Flo Ziegfield and the greatest names in show business.

Howard Hughes: Aviator, Director, Billionaire (3 Movie Pack)