Vincente Minnelli’s second musical for MGM, released seven months after his feature debut Cabin in the Sky. The stars of the film are popular radio and film comedian Red Skelton and dance legend Eleanor Powell, but as in the earlier film, many notable jazz musicians are featured as well, this time performing as themselves: Lena Horne returns in a smaller role and is joined by Hazel Scott, Helen O’Connell, Bob Eberly, and Jimmy Dorsey and his orchestra.Read More »
SYNOPSIS: In 1895, amateur inventor Joe Belden, a resident of Willow Falls, Indiana, is scorned by almost everyone in town, except his mother, his best friend, Ben Parrot, and his sweetheart, Liz Bullitt. Joe’s latest, and most ambitious, invention is a gasoline-burning horseless carriage he is building in his mother’s barn. He is overjoyed when his “gasomobile” finally starts up, but his jubilation is short-lived as the barn soon catches fire. After the volunteer fire department, which is headed by Joe, finally puts out the fire, the worried pharmacist, Horace Antler, refuses to sell Joe more gasoline, and Harvey Bullitt, Liz’s gruff father, angrily tells him to stay away from her. Read More »