Skip to content
Half a Hero (1953), starring Red Skelton, Jean Hagen

Half a Hero [Red Skelton]

  • by

Half a Hero (1953), starring Red Skelton, Jean Hagen

Synopsis of Half a Hero, starring Red Skelton, Jean Hagen

In Half a Hero, Red Skelton stars as Ben Dobson, a freelance writer who no sooner starts working full-time as a rewrite man at a magazine then his wife (Jean Hagen) decides that they should have their first child. Afterward, she pushes him into moving from New York City to the suburbs.  Here he is nickel and dimed to the verge of bankruptcy.  Until his boss gives him his first chance at writing his own article for this national magazine.  An article talking about the “slums of tomorrow” — the suburbs

The Facts of Life

  • by

The Facts of Life (1960) starring Lucille Ball, Bob Hope

The Facts of Life is a 1960 comedy starring Lucille Ball and Bob Hope, dealing with a very serious subject: adultery. The movie begins with Lucille Ball and Bob Hope arriving at a foreign hotel kissing, and with Lucille Ball asking the question how she, a normal housewife, got involved with another man?  The movie is then told in flashback as she details how she came to be in this position.

The Great Diamond Robbery [Red Skelton]

  • by

The Great Diamond Robbery (1953) starring Red Skelton and Cara Williams In The Great Diamond Robbery, Red Skelton plays Ambrose C. Park, a jewel cutter who was abandoned on a park bench as an infant (hence his name – Ambrose… 

Ziegfeld Follies

  • by

Ziegfeld Follies (1945) starring William Powell, Red Skelton, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly,  Lucille Ball,  Lena Horne, Kathryn Grayson and many more

Ziegfeld Follies is an attempt at recreating the spectacle of Flo Ziegfeld’s famous Broadway shows … And so the film is a series of unrelated musical and comedy routines. They’re unconnected except by the narration of the ghostly Flo Ziegfeld (played by William Powell) as he sits back in Heaven, thinking of the spectacles that he could create with then-current stars.  The various acts include:

Flight Command

  • by

Flight Command (1940) starring Robert Taylor, Walter Pidgeon, Ruth Hussey, Red Skelton

I originally watched  Flight Command because it was one of Red Skelton‘s earliest movie roles — which is technically true; Red’s in the film as part of the Hellcats squadron, acting as the class clown, but he’s definitely a secondary character.  Flight Command is primarily about a brash young pilot, Alan Drake (played by Robert Taylor) who’s recruited straight out of college to join the premier squad of Navy Hellcats.  He has trouble fitting in at first, although the flight commander (played by a young and dashing Walter Pidgeon) tries to help — as does the commander’s wife (played by Ruth Hussey). There’s a suspected romantic triangle between Drake and the commander’s wife (which was only him trying to console her on the death of her brother) — but all turns out well in the end.

Roxie Hart

  • by

Roxie Hart (1942), starring Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou, George Chandler

Synopsis of Roxie Hart

After her husband shoots a burglar in their apartment, Roxie Hart (Ginger Rogers) is talked into pretending she did it by a newsman and a theatrical agent who promise to sign her for a vaudeville tour. Realizing she’ll become a household name overnight, Roxie agrees and becomes the center of an outrageous trial.

Neptune’s Daughter

  • by

Neptune’s Daughter (1949) starring Esther Williams, Ricardo Montalban, Red Skelton, Betty Garrett, Keenan Wynn

Neptune’s Daughter is a laugh out loud funny romantic musical comedy, which I enjoyed immensely.   Although the movie stars the beautiful (and aquatic) Esther Williams and the dashing Ricardo Montalban (one of my favorite actors), the movie comes to life when Red Skelton is onscreen.

Doctor Who: The Deadly Assassin

  • by

Doctor Who: The Deadly Assassin (1976), starring Tom Baker, Peter Pratt

Synopsis of Doctor Who: The Deadly Assassin

Doctor Who: The Deadly Assassin – Gallifrey. Planet of the Time Lords. The Fourth Doctor has finally come home, but not by choice. Summoned by a vision from the Matrix, he is drawn into a web of political intrigue and assassination. Nothing is quite what it seems, and in the shadows lurks his oldest and deadliest enemy.

The Carioca

  • by

The Carioca song lyrics – 1933 popular song with music by Vincent Youmans, lyrics by Edward Eliscu and Gus Kahn, as well as the name of the dance choreographed to it for the 1933 film Flying Down to Rio.  Performed in the Gus Kahn biography, I’ll See You in my Dreams

The Time Travelers

  • by

The Time Travelers (1964) starring Merry Anders, Preston Foster, Philip Carey, John Hoyt, Steve Franken

Synopsis of The Time Travelers

In The Time Travelers, four scientists step through a time portal, travels 107 years into the future and find a barren underground post-nuclear war world where a handful of “normal humans” are being attacked by mutants.

Exit mobile version