87% (2) The Major and the Minor 100 min, Passed, [Comedy, Romance] [Billy Wilder] [24 Dec 1942]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 75%, Rotten Tomatoes: 100%, External Reviews
Awards: 3 wins.
Actors: Ginger Rogers, Ray Milland, Rita Johnson, Robert Benchley
Writer: Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, Edward Childs Carpenter (suggested by a play by), Fanny Kilbourne (from a story by)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: New York working girl Susan Applegate is desperate to go home to Iowa but does not have the railway fare so she disguises herself as a child to ride half fare. Enroute she meets Philip Kirby, an Army major teaching at a military school.
Rotten Tomatoes: This comedy is about the budding romance between an engaged soldier and a woman posing as a 12-year-old girl.
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83% (2) I Married a Witch 77 min, Not Rated, [Comedy, Fantasy, Romance] [René Clair] [30 Oct 1942]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 72%, Rotten Tomatoes: 95%, External Reviews
Actors: Fredric March, Robert Benchley, Susan Hayward, Veronica Lake
Writer: Robert Pirosh (screen play), Marc Connelly (screen play), Thorne Smith (based upon a story: The Passionate Witch), Norman Matson (story completion)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: In 1672, two witches (Jennifer and her father Daniel) were burned by puritan Jonathan Wooley. In revenge, Jennifer cursed all future generations of the Wooley family, that the sons will always marry the wrong woman and be miserable. In the 20th century, a bolt of lightning frees Jennifer and her father from the tree that had kept their souls imprisoned. Jennifer assumes corporeal form and decides to make up-and-coming politician Wallace Wooley, then unhappily engaged, even more miserable by getting him to fall in love with her before his wedding. Wallace is a straight arrow, though, and Jennifer has to resort to a love potion. As we all know, love potions tend to backfire, with comedic results.
Rotten Tomatoes: As she burns at the stake, a 17th century witch, Jennifer (Veronica Lake), places a curse on her accuser (Fredric March), so that from this day forward, all of his descendants (each played by him) will be unhappy in marriage. After several hilarious through-the-years examples (the Civil War-era Fredric March runs off to battle rather than endure his wife's nagging), we are brought up to 1942. Wallace Wooley (March) is a gubernatorial candidate, preparing to wed snooty socialite Estelle Masterson (Susan Hayward) -- the well-to-do daughter of a publisher who is backing him. A bolt of lightning strikes the tree where Jennifer had been executed three centuries earlier, thereby freeing the spirits of Jennifer and her warlock father, Daniel (Cecil Kellaway). Wallace meets Jennifer when she materializes in a burning building, obliging him to save her life. The revivified sorceress does everything in her power to induce Wallace to fall in love with her -- even destroying the ceremony in which the wedding is supposed to take place. The attempts succeed, and the two marry, but on their wedding night, Wallace refuses to believe Jennifer's claims that she is a witch. Frustrated, she attempts to convince him by doctoring the gubernatorial election -- in his favor. Based on the Thorne Smith novel The Passionate Witch, the rollicking I Married a Witch can be considered the forerunner of the TV series Bewitched, but only on a surface level. The film had been scheduled to be directed by Preston Sturges and to be released by its producing studio, Paramount; the end result was helmed by René Clair (his second Hollywood film), and was distributed by United Artists.
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70% (1) The Reluctant Dragon 74 min, Approved, [Animation, Comedy, Family] [Alfred L. Werker, Hamilton Luske, Jack Cutting, Ub Iwerks, Jack Kinney] [20 Jun 1941]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 70%, External Reviews
Actors: Buddy Pepper, Frances Gifford, Nana Bryant, Robert Benchley
Writer: Kenneth Grahame (based on the story by), Ted Sears (screenplay), Al Perkins (screenplay), Larry Clemmons (screenplay), William Cottrell (screenplay), Harry Clork (screenplay), Erdman Penner (story "Reluctant Dragon" sequence), T. Hee (story "Reluctant Dragon" sequence), Joe Grant (story "Baby Weems" sequence), Dick Huemer (story "Baby Weems" sequence), John P. Miller (story "Baby Weems" sequence)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Humorist Robert Benchley attempts to find Walt Disney to ask him to adapt a short story about a gentle dragon who would rather recite poetry than be ferocious. Along the way, he is given a tour of Walt Disney Studios, and learns about the animation process.
Rotten Tomatoes: Comic legend Robert Benchley visits the Walt Disney Studios, hoping to talk Uncle Walt into creating a film based on Kenneth Grahame's The Reluctant Dragon. Along the way, he receives a behind-the-scenes tour of the animation process in this lively mixture of live-action and animation.
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69% (1) You'll Never Get Rich 88 min, Approved, [Comedy, Musical, Romance] [Sidney Lanfield] [25 Sep 1941]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 68%, External Reviews
Actors: Fred Astaire, John Hubbard, Rita Hayworth, Robert Benchley
Writer: Michael Fessier (original screenplay), Ernest Pagano (original screenplay)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: After his wife discovers a telltale diamond bracelet, impresario Martin Cortland tries to show he's not chasing after showgirl Sheila Winthrop. Choreographer Robert Curtis gets caught in the middle of the boss's scheme. Army conscription offers Robert the perfect escape from his troubles- or does it?
Rotten Tomatoes: You'll Never Get Rich was the first of two films made by Fred Astaire at Columbia, and also the first in which he was paired with his favorite female dancing partner--not Ginger Rogers or Cyd Charisse, but Rita Hayworth. Fred and Rita play a team of Broadway dancers whose partnership is abruptly rent asunder when Fred is drafted into the Army. Unable to adapt to military routine, Astaire frequently ends up in the guardhouse; during one of these visits, he and the Delta Rhythm Boys collaborate on the lively song-and-dance number "The A-starable Rag." Back to the plot: Rita shows up on the army base as the girl friend of captain John Hubbard. This leads to more fancy footwork, and, of course, a happy ending for our stars. Though the Cole Porter score yielded no hits, one of the songs, "Since I Kissed My Baby Goodbye", was nominated for an Academy Award. Robert Benchley provides comic relief, as he would in the subsequent Astaire vehicle The Sky's the Limit. You'll Never Get Rich was followed by the even better Astaire-Hayworth pairing You Were Never Lovelier.
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66% (1) The Sky's the Limit 89 min, APPROVED, [Comedy, Musical, Romance] [Edward H. Griffith] [13 Jul 1943]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 66%, External Reviews
Actors: Fred Astaire, Joan Leslie, Robert Benchley, Robert Ryan
Writer: Frank Fenton (original screenplay), Lynn Root (original screenplay)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Flying Tiger Fred Atwell sneaks away from his famous squadron's personal appearance tour and goes incognito for several days of leave. He quickly falls for photographer Joan Manion, pursuing her in the guise of a carefree drifter.
Rotten Tomatoes: In this film, Fred Astaire plays a war hero who sneaks into New York incognito in order to spend a quiet furlough in the city. He meets photojournalist Joan Leslie, who assumes that Astaire is a coward because of his apparent unwillingness to contribute to the war effort.
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65% (1) The Stork Club 98 min, APPROVED, [Comedy, Musical, Romance] [Hal Walker] [28 Dec 1945]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 65%, External Reviews
Actors: Barry Fitzgerald, Betty Hutton, Don DeFore, Robert Benchley
Writer: Buddy G. DeSylva (screenplay), Jack McGowan (screenplay)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: A hat-check girl at the Stork Club (Hutton) saves the life of a drowning man (Fitzgerald). A rich man, he decides to repay her by anonymously giving her a bank account, a luxury apartment and a charge account at a department store. When her boyfriend (DeFore) returns from overseas, he thinks she is a kept woman.
Rotten Tomatoes: The Stork Club, the famed New York nightspot immortalized by columnist Walter Winchell (in return for special favors from its owners), is the setting for this typically brash Betty Hutton musical. Hutton plays a young hat check girl who rescues an elderly tramp (Barry Fitzgerald) from drowning. The old bum turns out to be a millionaire, and expresses his gratitude by setting up Hutton in luxury--asking for nothing in return. Hutton's boyfriend Don DeFore suspects hanky panky, but all is forgiven during the obligatory floor show. There are rumors that the Stork Club itself financed The Stork Club as a feature-length commercial. Whatever the case, ownership of the film was cloudy enough to allow it to slip into the public domain in 1982, which explains why Stork Club seems to be running 24 hours a day on cable TV.
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59% (1) Song of Russia 107 min, PASSED, [Drama, Music, Romance] [Gregory Ratoff, Laslo Benedek] [01 Feb 1944]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 59%, External Reviews
Actors: John Hodiak, Robert Benchley, Robert Taylor, Susan Peters
Writer: Paul Jarrico (screenplay), Richard Collins (screenplay), Leo Mittler (story), Victor Trivas (story), Guy Endore (story)
External Links: Wikipedia IMDb Language: English, Russian Country: USA
Plot: In June 1941, famed American symphony conductor John Meredith (Robert Taylor) is touring Soviet Russia with his manager Hank (Robert Benchley) when they go to a small rural town where famed Russian composer Tchaikovsky was born. John meets Nadya (Susan Peters), a sweet peasant girl with an ear for classical music and they soon get married. When war breaks out, John want to flee back to the USA, but Nadya wants to stay and fight the invading Germans who are closing in on the village.
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