Bonus Movie - "tom thumb" (1958)!

Another movie I recently caught on TCM was 1958's "tom thumb" starring Russ Tamblyn as the pint-sized title character.

It's not a bad movie, although it seems pretty dated.

What struck me was that there seemed to be an unusually high number of the cast and crew that were connected to versions of "A Christmas Carol" and/or other projects of note.

The cast supporting American star Russ Tamblyn is mostly British, so maybe it's not too surprising.

Tom's parents are played by Bernard Miles and Jessie Matthews, who pop up here a lot.

Bernard Miles had that 1960 recording on which he played Scrooge, but his performance here reminds me more of his role as "Joe Gargery" in David Lean's 1946 version of "Great Expectations." 

I don't think that Jessie Matthews ever appeared in a Dickens adaptation, but she did co-star with Barry MacKay in three movies in the 1930s, as I frequently point out!

"tom thumb" is 20 years later and Jessie's about 50, but she's still attractive. Her character gets a song and it sounds like Jessie singing, but some (all?) of it was apparently dubbed by future Lawrence Welk "Champagne Lady" Norma Zimmer.

The romantic leads are played by Alan Young and June Thorburn, who also have some interesting connections.

Alan Young, who kinda seems too old for this part, was, of course, the voice of Scrooge McDuck on the original album and animated short "Mickey's Christmas Carol."

And June Thorburn, a very lovely actress who tragically passed away in a plane crash at age 36, had a small role in the 1952 adaptation of "The Pickwick Papers," which also featured Barry MacKay!

"tom thumb" was directed by George Pal, who was famous for his Puppetoons shorts featuring stop-motion animation and Tom interacts with various toys in that style.

One of the toys is the Yawning Man who is voiced by Stan Freberg, who played a modern Scrooge on his brilliant Capitol Records single "Green Chri$tma$" from 1958!

That's three Scrooges!

Also of note is that a couple of songs from "tom thumb" were written by the team of Janice Torre and Fred Spielman, the talents behind "The Stingiest Man in Town" - pretty cool!

You know, I'd almost say I enjoyed making these connections more than I did the movie itself!

Bonus 78s - Sailing Along!

If you've been paying attention, you'll know it's time to hear some recordings of the songs from 1938's "Sailing Along" starring Jessie Matthews! 

Jessie cut the four main songs from the movie for British Decca backed by Peter Yorke and his Orchestra.

Here's the coupling of "Souvenir of Love" and "Trusting My Love":

And here's "Your Heart Skips a Beat" backed with "My River":

Sounds good!

Decca also had Sidney Lipton and his Grosvenor House Orchestra record "Souvenir of Love" and "Trusting My Luck" with the great Al Bowlly on vocals:

Al Bowlly was just a great singer. He's best-known for his many recordings with Ray Noble both in England and the U.S.

RCA had British bandleader Roy Fox record the same two songs (flipping them as the A and B sides) which they released in America on the Bluebird label:

To top it all off, RCA also had the musical director of "Sailing Along," Lou Levy, record all four songs on two sides on their British His Master's Voice label featuring vocalists Gerry Fitz Gerald and Eve Becke:

Lou Levy worked on a ton of British films including the Alfred Hitchcock classics "The 39 Steps" and "The Lady Vanishes."

Lots of good recordings of the "Sailing Along" songs!

Barry MacKay 101 - Lesson 6!

After having enjoyed "Gangway" with Jessie Matthews and Barry MacKay, I thought it appropriate to watch their third and final screen pairing - "Sailing Along" from 1938!

It's also Barry's last movie in England before going Hollywood for MGM's "A Christmas Carol" later in 1938.

"Sailing Along" is another fun movie with Jessie and Barry still displaying good chemistry, but it's a bit different from "Evergreen" and "Gangway" in a few ways.

A big difference is that their characters already know each other when the movie starts, so they don't "meet cute" as is often the case.

They argue a lot and profess not to like each other, but if you've ever seen a movie before, you know that couples who argue that much must really love each other. In the movies at least!

Another difference is that Jessie is given a polished song and dance man to perform with, as opposed to having Barry sing a little and dance a little.

The singer/dancer in question is American Jack Whiting, who was mainly a stage performer, making only a handful of movie appearances. His only other movie of the period is Paramount's "Give Me a Sailor," also from 1938, a Martha Raye/Bob Hope vehicle in which Jack is cast as Hope's brother!

Funny that Jack Whiting has those two movies from 1938, but one's American and one's British, yet they both have "sail" in the title!

Whatever the case, he's quite good here in "Sailing Along," which gives him a better chance to showcase his musical skills than "Give Me a Sailor" does.

Jack's character is also a romantic rival for the affections of Miss Matthews, an idea not present in the first two movies.

Also different is the setting, as a lot of the action takes place on a barge, Barry's character being the son of a barge owner, with Jessie the foster daughter of the same owner.

Said barge owner, the Skipper, is played by Frank Pettingell, whom we remember from his 1959 recording of "A Christmas Carol."

Second (but much smaller than Jessie Matthews) billed is Roland Young, whom I've always enjoyed in the many movies in which I've seen him.

He has a British stiff-upper-lip mumbly delivery that enhances the one-liners he gets to toss off.

Roland Young's main Dickens connection is his terrific performance as Uriah Heep in MGM's 1935 adaptation of David Copperfield," in which he cast against type but delivers the goods.

Also on hand in "Sailing Along" is Alastair Sim, playing another wacky side character as he had in "Gangway."

Watching these movies definitely gives me context for Barry MacKay, but it's also enlightening to see Alastair Sim early in his career playing very eccentric characters. You wouldn't think he be giving an acclaimed performance as Scrooge as dozen or so years later!

Here's a clip from the VCI's DVD of "Sailing Along":

All in all a fun flick!

That's "Love Is Not a Joke" in Italian!

Bonus 78s - Gangway!

Since I was just talking about the 1937 movie "Gangway" starring Jessie Matthews and Barry MacKay and since I never pass up the opportunity to listen to some 78rpm records, let's hear some of the songs from the movie!

The film's main four featured songs all had studio recordings by Jessie Matthews on British Decca, backed by Jay Wilbur and his Band. 

Here's the title song:

What's interesting is that although it's the title song, within the context of the movie it's a song that Jessie's character had heard in a stage production and she performs it for a co-worker. So, it's sort of from the movie but sort of not, you know?

The flipside is "Lord and Lady Whoozis" (which was sung as a duet with Barry in the movie):

Interesting to note that the Australian label says the song is from the film "Sparkles." That's the name of the jewel thief whom Jessie is suspected as being. I wonder if that was the original pre-release title.

Another duet in the movie was "Moon or No Moon":

And then there's the snappy "When You Gotta Sing You Gotta Sing":

I always enjoy tap dancing sounds on records and if you're going to namedrop Fred Astaire in the lyrics, why not?

I like the very 1930s sound on those records. Jessie's singing style seems very much of the period as well, kind of in the Deanna Durbin and Snow White (from the Disney film) family.

I don't think that these records of Jessie Matthews were released in America, but Decca did have American releases of the versions of the same four songs recorded by popular British bandleader Ambrose, whom we heard with "Winter Wonderland" not too long ago.

Here's "Gangway" featuring vocalist Evelyn Dall:

For the flipside, this version of "Lord and Lady Whoozis" keeps it as duet, with Sam Browne and future star Vera Lynn:

Then Sam Browne gets a solo vocal on "Moon or No Moon":

And the Manhattan Trio (per the original British label) sings "When You Gotta Sing You Gotta Sing":

I like these Ambrose records a lot, as I'm partial to dance band records anyway, and they offer a nice contrast to Jessie Matthews's versions.

Good 1930s fun!

Barry MacKay 101 - Lesson 5!

While virtually hanging around the 1930s and realizing that it's been over a year since our last Barry MacKay lesson, I thought it was time to watch another of his movies!

So, I tracked down "Gangway" from 1937, his second co-starring film with Jessie Matthews, following 1934's "Evergreen."

This is another British musical from Gaumont Studios and it's a lot of fun!

It has a mistaken identity plot, which is so common in 1930s musicals and I can see this being adapted for Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers without too much trouble.

Jessie plays a newspaper movie reviewer who gets mistaken for an international jewel thief by most of the rest of the cast, including Barry as an inspector from Scotland Yard. 

Alastair Sim and Nat Pendleton provide the comedy relief

The movie is something of a spoof of American gangster movies and American actor Nat Pendleton is a riot as the main gangster, spouting gangster-lingo in a way that British filmmakers would think Americans actually talk!

Also on hand is Alastair Sim in an early role as a wacky insurance investigator.  In a movie filled with screwball characters, he's the screwiest!

Mr. Sim looks younger than he did as Scrooge, but he still doesn't look young, despite being only 37 at the time. Some people never looked young!

So, how's Barry MacKay here? He's very good and has great chemistry with Jessie Matthews.

She's a way better singer and dancer than he is, but the numbers are staged in a way that he does what he does and more or less stays out of the way while she is showcased.

Jessie Matthews is definitely the star attraction here and she's billed in huge letters above the title, but Barry's role is also pretty big.

Here's a promo clip from VCI's DVD release:

VCI offers a number of Jessie Matthews movies in nice prints!

Small font or not, at least Robert Young's name is on this lobby card!

In the meantime, I had also seen Jessie Matthews in 1936's "It's Love Again" opposite Robert Young and I'm officially a fan!

"Fred" in Hi-Def!

A while back I had mentioned watching the 1934 British musical "Evergreen" starring Jessie Matthews as part of my Barry MacKay excavation project.

It recently popped up on TCM and the high definition version of movie looked absolutely dynamite!

If only every movie from the 1930s looked this good!

Not to pick on "Scrooge" from 1935, as it probably never looked as good as "Evergreen," but I'd still like to see a really good print of it.

Carry on!

Barry MacKay 101 - Lesson 2

We had our first lesson in "Barry MacKay 101" by checking out one of his last roles, but for Lesson 2 we're going back to the beginning of his movie career!

His first movie appearance is in "Evergreen" a British film from 1934, so I thought I'd give it a watch.

I had never seen it before, but I thought I had heard of it. I knew the star of the movie, Jessie Matthews, by name, but I don't think I had ever seen her in anything, although knew she was very popular.

It turns out that "Evergreen" is a lot of fun! It's a musical and kind of plays like a Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers picture of the era, with a wacky mistaken identity type plot in which Jessie Matthews pretends to be her mother and her leading man is thought to be her son!

Said leading man is Barry MacKay!

He acquits himself quite well here as a light leading man and even does a little singing and dancing. He looks and sounds the same as he would as "Fred" a few years later in MGM's 1938 version of "A Christmas Carol," so you recognize him right away. He doesn't act the same exactly, so he has some range.

This is a Jessie Matthews picture, though, and I can see why she was popular, as she's delightful here. She could sing, dance and act and was very pretty, so what's not to like?

She sings and performs a stunning dance number to the great Rodgers & Hart standard "Dancing on the Ceiling," which made realize I had heard of "Evergreen" from seeing it on record labels!

Jessie and Barry make a nice couple and co-starred in a couple more movies, "Gangway" (1937) and "Sailing Along" (1938). I'll have to check those out as well.

I've seen a number of British films from the 1930s, but way more American ones, so I sometimes forget that British films were a bit saucier, if you will.

In any event, it's good to get some context for Barry MacKay as "Fred" and fun to discover a new/old movie!