Latin Lovers(1953). Romantic/musical/comedy was directed by Mervyn LeRoy. The music score is by Nicholas Brodszky and the cinematographer was Joseph Ruttenberg. Fernando Lamas was originally cast in the role that Ricardo Montalban played. Lamas and Lana Turner were lovers and when they broke up, she insisted he be replaced.
After a meeting with the board of directors of her New York corporation, Nora Taylor is off to meet with her analyst Lionel Newman, to talk about her problems with boyfriend, Paul Chevron. Nora, became rich when her father struck oil, now she wonders if he only loves her for her money. Newman reminds her that Paul is also rich.
Meanwhile, Paul is meeting with his analyst for advice on proposing to Nora. Later that evening, Paul brings up the subject of marriage and asks Nora, not give him her answer until he's back from Brazil in three weeks.
Before she can answer, Nora is asked to dance by a Brazilian man, who tells her "that the atmosphere in Brazil makes all men passionate about women." Nora, worried decides to keep an eye on her Paul and secretly flies to Brazil. She checks into the same hotel as Paul and goes to his room to surprise him... what she finds is that he was injured in his polo game.
The next day, while Paul and Nora are looking at some horses, Nora finds herself in the the stables and in Roberto arms for a passionate kiss. Will Nora find true love while vacationing in Brazil? Or.. will Nora's money continue to control her heart.
This film has beautiful sets and costumes that really show-off Lana Turner's icy elegance. Ricardo Montalban, is very handsome and a wonderful dancer. They make a gorgeous couple dancing the sexy samba.
June Hagan's, first film was as a femme fatale in Adam's Rib(1949).
The Asphalt Jungle (1950), was Jean Hagen's first starring performance.
She is best known for her wonderful performance in Singin' in the Rain. As the talent-less silent movie star Lina Lamont, Hagen received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
By 1953, she was performing in the television sitcom Make Room for Daddy. As the first wife of Danny Thomas, for three seasons. Hagen received three Emmy Award nominations. Thomas, who also produced the show, was not happy with Jean leaving the show and her character was killed off rather than recast. This was the first TV character to be killed off on a family sitcom.
Hagen performed as Frida Daniels in The Shaggy Dog starring with Fred MacMurray.
In 1960, she performed as "Elizabeth" in the episode "Once Upon a Knight" with June Allyson.
She made guest appearances in many television series and for the remainder of her career played supporting roles, such as Marguerite LeHand, personal secretary to Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Sunrise at Campobello (1960), and the friend of Bette Davis in Dead Ringer (1964).
In the 1960's, Hagen's started having trouble with her health and she spent many years hospitalized.
In 1976, she performed in episodes of the television series Starsky and Hutch and The Streets of San Francisco, and made her final film performance in the 1977 television movie Alexander. The Other Side of Dawn.
Neptune's Daughter (1949). Musical/ romantic/ comedy Cast: Esther Williams, Red Skelton, Ricardo Montalban, Betty Garrett, Keenan Wynn, Xavier Cugat and Mel Blanc. Directer: Edward Buzzell. Features the Academy Award winning song Baby, It's Cold Outside by Frank Loesser. Neptune's Daughter was the third movie that paired Williams and Ricardo Montalbán together, the other two being Fiesta (1947) and On an Island with You (1948), and the second to co-star Red Skelton (1944's Bathing Beauty).
At first aquatic ballet dancer Eve Barrett, rejects the offer by Joe Backett to become his business partner at the Neptune swimming suit design company, but changes her mind when she thinks about the publicity she will get out of the partnership.
When Joe learns that a South American polo team will be playing a big match in town, he and Eve begin planning a swim number for the event. Eve tells her love starved sister Betty about the South American team coming to town, Betty comes up with a plan to find herself a husband.
After practice, Jose O'Rourke, the captain of the polo team, goes to see Jack Spratt, a masseur, who tells Jose that he has never been on with a date woman. During the massage, Jose gives Jack advice on how to talk to women. Jack, now believes women can not resits him when he speaks to them in Spanish, which he calls the "language of love."
While looking for the South American team captain, Betty accidentally mistakes Jack for Jose. Jack keeps his true identity secret and accepts her invitation to have dinner at her house. On their date, Jack secretly plays a Spanish language instruction record while pretending that he is speaking to Betty.
Later, Betty tells Eve about her date and Eve tries to talk her out of dating any of the visiting polo players.
The next day, while giving a tour of the Neptune bathing suit factory, Eve meets Jose and warns him to stay away from her sister. Jose is attracted to Eve, and pretends to understand and agrees to break his date with Betty.
Jose asks Eve to go on the date with him, she says "yes" only to prevent him from dating her sister. Eve finds him attractive and begins to fall in love with him. Now, she thinks that she must find a way to break the news to her sister.
The mistaken identities and romantic complications turn this film into a great mix of fun. Garrett and Skelton's on screen chemistry was wonderful. I'm surprised that they did not do more films together..
Betty Garrett (May 23, 1919 – February 12, 2011). After graduating from grammar school, Garrett enrolled at the Annie Wright School in Tacoma, with a full scholarship. There was no drama department, so she organized musical productions and plays on her own.
Following her senior year performance in Twelfth Night, the bishop urged her to pursue a career on the stage. At the same time, her mother's friend arranged an interview with Martha Graham, who was in Seattle for a concert tour and the dancer recommended her for a scholarship at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City.
Garrett and her mother moved to Manhattan in the summer of 1936 and Garrett began classes in September. Her teachers included Graham and Anna Sokolow for dance, Sandy Meisner for drama, Lehman Engel for music, and Margaret Webster for the Shakespearean classics.
She felt she was destined to be a dramatic actress and shied away from playing comedic roles.
During the summer months, Garrett performed in the Borscht Belt, where she had the opportunity to work with Danny Kaye, Jerome Robbins, Carol Channing, Imogene Coca, and Jules Munshin, and she was encouraged to work on her singing and dancing skills.
She joined Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre as an understudy in what was to be its last stage performance, a short-lived production of Danton's Death that gave her the opportunity to work with Joseph Cotten, Ruth Ford, Martin Gabel, and Arlene Francis.
She performed with Martha Graham's dance company at Carnegie Hall and the Alvin Theatre, sang at the Village Vanguard, and appeared in satirical and political revues staged by the Brooklyn-based Flatbush Arts Theatre, which eventually changed its name to the American Youth Theatre and relocated to Manhattan. It was during this period she joined the Communist Party and began performing at fundraisers for progressive causes.
Garrett made her Broadway debut in 1942 in the revue Of V We Sing, which closed after 76 performances but led to her being cast in the Harold Rome revue Let Freedom Sing later that year. It closed after only eight performances, but producer Mike Todd saw it and signed her to understudy Ethel Merman and play a small role in the 1943 Cole Porter musical Something for the Boys. Merman became ill allowing Garrett to play the lead for a week. During this time she was seen by producer Vinton Freedley, who cast her in Jackpot, a Vernon Duke/Howard Dietz musical also starring Nanette Fabray and Allan Jones. The show closed quickly, and Garrett began touring the country with her nightclub act.
After Laffing Room Only another production Garrett appeared in on Broadway closed there she traveled with the show as it played extended runs in Detroit and Chicago, after which she returned to New York and was cast in Call Me Mister. She won critical acclaim and the Donaldson Award for her performance. It led to her being signed to a one-year contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer by Louis B. Mayer.
Garrett arrived at the studio in January 1947 and made her film debut portraying nightclub performer Shoo Shoo O'Grady in Big City. Mayer renewed her contract where she performed in the musicals Words and Music, On the Town, Take Me Out To The Ball Game, and Neptune's Daughter.
The Jolson Story had been a huge hit in the United Kingdom, and Garrett and husband Larry Parks decided to capitalize on its popularity by appearing in at the London Palladium and then touring the UK with their nightclub act. But, the increasing popularity of television led to the decline of music hall entertainment.
Then Garrett was cast opposite Janet Leigh and Jack Lemmon in My Sister Eileen, a 1955 musical remake of a 1942 film starring Rosalind Russell, when Judy Holliday dropped out of the project due to a contract dispute.
The following year, she and Parks replaced Holliday and Sydney Chaplin in the Broadway production of Bells Are Ringing during their vacation from the show.
Over the next two decades, she performed on Broadway in two short-lived plays (Beg, Borrow or Steal with Parks and A Girl Could Get Lucky with Pat Hingle) and a musical adaptation of Spoon River Anthology, and making guest appearances on The Dinah Shore Chevy Show, The Lloyd Bridges Show, and The Fugitive.
In the fall of 1973, All in the Family added two new neighbors to the neighborhood, Frank Lorenzo and his feisty Irish American wife, Irene. Lear had been the publicity man for Call Me Mister, All in the Family writers Bernard West and Mickey West knew Garrett from her days with the American Youth Theatre, and Jean Stapleton had been in the cast of Bells Are Ringing, so Garrett appeared to be a front runner for the role of Irene. It went instead to Sada Thompson, but, unhappy after filming one episode, Thompson asked to be released from her commitment, freeing the role for Garrett, who remained with the series from 1973 through 1975.
The following year, Garrett was performing her one-woman show Betty Garrett and Other Songs in Westwood when she was offered the role of landlady Edna Babish in Laverne and Shirley. The character was a five-time divorcee who married Laverne's father Frank. Although Garrett reportedly felt she was never given enough to do on the show, she appreciated the fact that her musical talents occasionally were incorporated into the plot, and she won a Golden Globe for her performance. When the series was extended beyond what had been intended to be its final season, Garrett was forced to drop out because she already had committed to performing with Sandy Dennis, Jack Gilford, Hope Lange, and Joyce Van Patten in The Supporting Cast on Broadway. The play closed after only eight performances, but returning to Laverne and Shirley was not an option, as the writers had explained Edna's disappearance by having her divorce Frank.
Garrett appeared on television in Murder, She Wrote, The Golden Girls, Harts of the West, Union Square, Boston Public, Becker (for which she was nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series), and Grey's Anatomy, among others, and on stage in Plaza Suite (with Parks), And Miss Reardon Drinks A Little, and the 2001 Broadway revival of Follies.
At Theatre West, which she co-founded, she directed Arthur Miller's The Price and appeared in the play Waiting in the Wings. She won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award twice, for Spoon River Anthology and Betty Garrett and Other Songs.
Garrett received a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame in 2003. On her 90th birthday in 2009, she was honored at a celebration sponsored by Theatre West at the Music Box Theatre in Hollywood.
In 2010, Garrett appeared alongside former two-time co-star Esther Williams during Turner Classic Movies' first annual Classic Film Festival. Their film Neptune's Daughter was screened at the pool of the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, California, while a Williams-inspired synchronized swimming troop, The Aqualilies, performed.
Esther Williams, is a retired American competitive swimmer and MGM movie star. Esther is also one of my favorite actress. Williams set multiple national and regional swimming records as part of the Los Angeles Athletic Club swim team. Unable to compete in the 1940 Summer Olympics because of World War II, Williams joined Billy Rose's Aquacade, where she took on the role left by Eleanor Holm. After the show move from New York City to San Francisco. Where she performed five months with Olympic swimmer and Tarzan star, Johnny Weissmuller.
It was at the Aquacade that Williams caught the eye of MGM scouts. After performing with Mickey Rooney in an Andy Hardy film, and five time co-star Van Johnson in A Guy Named Joe, Williams made films in the 1940's and early 1950's known as "aquamusicals", which featured beautiful performances with synchronized swimming and diving.
My favorite Esther Williams film is: ON AN ISLAND WITH YOU (1948). Cast: Ricardo Montalban, Esther Williams, Cyd Charisse and Peter Lawford.
Williams and Lawford are wonderful together and so are Ricardo Montalban and Cyd Charisse. Especially, during their beautiful dance numbers. If you love happy and romantic musicals you'll love this movie. And don't forget.. we get to see Esther doing what she does best in beautiful water performances.
The film begins when Ricardo Montez, is playing the part of a Navy man in love with a Polynesian woman, played by his fiancee, Rosalind. They hired Lawrence a Navy Lieutenant, as technical adviser, to help the director with the film's authenticity. During the filming of one of Rosalind and Ricardo's love scenes, Larry interrupts the shooting to take the opportunity to kiss Rosalind. That evening, at the Royal Aloha hotel, the cast and crew attend a nightclub show performed by Xavier Cugat and his orchestra. Larry, finds another opportunity to get close to Rosalind, and asks her to dance. She refuses thinking that he is too forward.
The next day, Larry is to circle the set once in an airplane with Rosalind on board, but he flies the plane to the tropical island where they first met. Larry wants one dance with her before he returns her to the set. Rosalind, says she will kiss him to prove that she has no feelings for him, but the kiss shows that she is an attracted to Larry. When Larry and Rosalind return to the airplane, they find that the wheels and other parts have been stolen by the islanders. The two set out to find the natives village, but become separated. Will they be rescued before the natives have them for dinner? (wink/wink).
In 1952, Williams performed in her only biographical role, as Australian swimming star Annette Kellerman in Million Dollar Mermaid, which would go on to become her nickname while at MGM. Williams left MGM in 1956 and performed in feature films, followed by several water-themed television specials, including one from Cypress Gardens, Florida.
Since her retirement from film in the 1960s, Williams has become a businesswoman, lending her name to a line of swimming pools and retro swimwear, instructional swimming videos for children, and acting as a commentator for synchronized swimming at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Watching films from the "golden age" is one of my favorite past times. I love fluffy romance movies, film noirs , westerns, drama, and musicals. This has been an a lot of fun for me to build the Noir Chick Flicks blog...I also enjoy, traveling with my husband, gardening and my English springer spaniel.
My top 5 favorite classic movie actor/actresses. Gene Tierney, Betty Grable, Doris Day, Ricardo Montalban and Robert Mitchum.
In my opinion, not only was Gene Tierney beautiful, she was a very versatile in her movie performances. She was equally wonderful in what ever role she would perform in. From her role in, Heaven Can Wait, to her performance in, Leave Her to Heaven. Where she played one of the most heartless characters I have ever seen on film.
Betty Grable, was a wonderful dancer, singer, and actress. I really love where Betty movies were filmed on beautiful locations. For me it is like taking a mini vacation.
Doris Day, was another fun actress and singer. Love how she can always can put a smile on your face. Although, I also did enjoy the few film Noirs she performed in. Ricardo Montalban, I thought he showed elegance, charm and grace on film. I do not want to forget to mention he is very handsome and one of my favorite dancers.
I feel Robert Mitchum, is one of those underrated leading man with enormous talents. He was equally good in noir, westerns and romantic dramas. His lazy style seemed to enhance rather than diminish his "bad boy" appeal.
The movie that got me hooked on classic movies was: Meet Me in St. Louis(1944). A romantic musical film which tells the story of four sisters living in St. Louis at the time of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair in 1904. Cast:Judy Garland, Margaret O'Brien, Mary Astor, Lucille Bremer, Tom Drake, Leon Ames, Marjorie Main, June Lockhart, and Joan Carroll.
My top favorite movie is: GONE WITH THE WIND(1939), Is one of my top 5 "gotta see films". I love everything about it, the scenery, costumes, actors and story line of a young woman growing into a self-driven woman to succeed regardless of cost. If you were to ask me which is my favorite part of the movie. I would have to say the beginning, where Scarlett O'Hara, is sitting on the mansion's porch, on her family's plantation, sick of hearing the young men talk about going to war with the North. She would much rather talk about the next day's barbecue at Twelve Oaks.(Wilkes plantation.) When the twins tell her that Ashley Wilkes, is planning on announcing his engagement, to marry his cousin Melanie Hamilton from Atlanta, Scarlett can't believe it, because she is also in love with Ashley. Her father confirms the wedding announcement when he sees her on his way home to Tara, and warns Scarlett to forget about Ashley, because "like should marry like."
My top 5 current favorite actors/actress:
Val Kilmer, played one of my favorite characters.. Doc Holliday, in one of my favorite current movies, Tombstone. I have loved all his movies that I have seen him perform in. Michelle Pfeiffer and Daniel Day Lewis, had wonderful on screen chemistry in another favorite current movie: Age of Innocence. What I loved about Goldie Hawn, was she is a natural for the kind of comedy in which she made her name.
FIESTA(1947). Is a musical with beautiful exotic settings, and a different role for Esther Williams. It begins with Maria and Mario as children of retired famous toreador Antonio Morales. Antonio's dream is for Mario to follow in his footsteps. Mario spends his time training for the bull ring, but his true passion is to play the piano.
On the night of the bullfight, Antonio sabotages Mario's chance to work with the famous composer Maximino Contreras. Mario becomes angry and goes into hiding. In order to convince her brother to come back and save the family name. Maria comes up with a plan, with the help of a trusted friend Chato (Tamiroff), to impersonate Mario in the ring.( There are some beautiful, bullfighting scenes.)
This runs the risk of her future marriage to scientist Pepe Ortega (Carroll). Ricardo Montalban, performs several beautiful dances with Cyd Charisse. I was especially impressed by Montalban's piano playing, wondering if he was really playing. If he was... he is wonderful.
Esther Williams, in her autobiography "Million Dollar Mermaid" states that during the shooting of "Fiesta", her husband at the time - Ben Gage - got drunk and had a run-in with the Mexican police, causing production to be halted as the authorities had him thrown out of the country.
Latin Lovers(1953). Romantic/musical/comedy was directed by Mervyn LeRoy. The music score is by Nicholas Brodszky and the cinematographer was Joseph Ruttenberg. Fernando Lamas was originally cast in the role that Ricardo Montalban played. Lamas and Lana Turner were lovers and when they broke up, she insisted he be replaced.
