Singin' and Dancing Back in Time.: Colleen(1936).

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Colleen(1936).

Colleen(1936). Musical film directed by Alfred E. Green. Cast: Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, and Joan Blondell.

To the dismay of his family, the eccentric millionaire Cedric Ames, is talked into by his new assistant Joe Cork, to buy a dress shop for gold digger Minnie Hawkins, a former candy dipper at the "Itsey-Ditsey Nut Chewsie". Cedric's nephew, Donald Ames, steps in to close the dress shop.

The dress shops book-keeper Colleen Reilly, does not want Donald to close the dress shop, especially now, when the dress shop is doing so well.. Colleen, plans a fashion show and even designs some of the dresses herself. Now, all she has to do, is to talk Donald into keeping the shop open.

When Donald, asks her to dinner to discuss the dress shop, she agrees and that is when she tells him that she is engaged to Joe.

Joe and Minnie come up with a plan to get Cedric to adopt Minnie, after which Joe will marry her. Cedric's wife Alicia forces Donald to close the shop, to put a stop to their plans.

Meanwhile, Donald and Colleen have fallen in love. After, Minnie, Joe and Colleen are all fired. Colleen, thinks that Donald has been lying to her, so when he phones to ask her to marry him, she hangs up on him. Brokenhearted, she decides to open a dress shop on board an ocean liner. The ship turns out to be the one which Donald is on. But further complications follow before things get under way on board the ocean liner.

This film reunites the musical team of Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler for the seventh and final time. A fluffy little comedy that somehow works, with plenty of songs and dance. Colleen, an overlooked musical, giving Keeler an opportunity to sing and dance more than she ever did on screen . However, her dancing with Draper, is no threat to Astaire and Rogers.Colleen, is worth viewing at least once.

Louise Fazenda (June 17, 1895 - April 17, 1962), performed mostly in silent comedy films. Before trying motion pictures, she worked for a dentist, a candy store owner, and a tax collector and on stage.

Fazenda got her start in comedy shorts as early as 1913 with Joker Studios, frequently appearing with Max Asher and Bobby Vernon. She was soon recruited for Mack Sennett's troupe at Keystone Studios.

Fazenda continued through the 1930s, performing mostly in character roles. She played such diverse parts as a fussy old maid and a lady blacksmith.

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Bob Fosse

Was a musical theater choreographer and director, screenwriter and film director. He won an eight Tony Awards for choreography, as well as one for direction. He was nominated for an Academy Award four times, winning for his direction of Cabaret. He was identified with his third wife, Gwen Verdon. She was both the dancer/collaborator who he choreographed much of his work and, together with dancer/choreographer Ann Reinking, a guardian of the Fosse legacy after his death. Fosse is considered to be one the most influential coreographers of the 20th Century.

Esther Williams.

JANE POWELL

After rising to fame as a singer in her home state of Oregon, Powell was signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer while still in her teens. Once there, the studio utilized her vocal, dancing and acting talents, casting her in such musicals as Royal Wedding, with Fred Astaire, A Date with Judy, with friend Elizabeth Taylor and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, with Howard Keel. In the late 1950s, her film career slowed, only to be replaced with a busy theater and television career.Click picture to enter websight.

Jeanette MacDonald

Singer and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier (Love Me Tonight, The Merry Widow) and Nelson Eddy (Naughty Marietta, Rose-Marie, and Maytime). During the 1930s and 1940s she starred in 29 feature films, four nominated for Best Picture Oscars (The Love Parade, One Hour With You, Naughty Marietta and San Francisco), and recorded extensively, earning three gold records. She later appeared in grand opera, concerts, radio, and television. MacDonald was one of most influential sopranos of the 20th century. Click picture to view fan website.

Joan Crawford.

Click picture to view website. Joan Crawford, born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre. Starting as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway, Crawford was signed to a motion picture contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1925. Initially frustrated by the size and quality of her parts, Crawford began a campaign of self-publicity and became nationally known as a flapper by the end of the 1920s. In the 1930s, Crawford's fame rivaled MGM colleagues Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo. Crawford often played hardworking young women who find romance and financial success. These "rags-to-riches" stories were well-received by Depression-era audiences and were popular with women. Crawford became one of Hollywood's most prominent movie stars and one of the highest paid women in the United States, but her films began losing money and by the end of the 1930s

Rodgers and Hammerstein.

Richard Rodgers (1902 – 1979) and Oscar Hammerstein II (1895 – 1960) the songwriting duo, on our musical page. They created many popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s during what is considered the golden age. With Rodgers composing the music and Hammerstein writing the lyrics, five of their shows, Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I and The Sound of Music. They won thirty-four Tony Awards, fifteen Academy Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, and two Grammys. Click picture to read movie reviews.

Cab Calloway

Calloway was a master of energetic scat singing and led one of the United States' most popular African American big bands from the start of the 1930s through the late 1940s. Calloway's band featured performers including trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Adolphus "Doc" Cheatham, saxophonists Ben Webster and Leon "Chu" Berry, New Orleans guitar ace Danny Barker, and bassist Milt Hinton. Calloway continued to perform until his death in 1994 at the age of 86 .Click picture to view official website.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Colleen(1936).

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