Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938) Excellent cast fights its way through a rather contrived, maudlin plot which serves as the framework for an outstanding Irving Berlin retrospective. Alice Faye is always enjoyable to hear and sometimes amazing - it's just incredible the voice that comes out of that little gal. I have never really enjoyed Ethel Merman, but it seems she was once quite a cutie and she really swings it here, putting across some hot numbers - including one in a scanty spangled devil costume a far cry from her monolithic "Mame" period. For my money they could have dropped the plot entirely and done a straight revue but still 8/10.
Last night I finally got to see The Great Rupert (1950) after some 20 years since I first heard of it. Produced by George Pal, featuring a stop-motion animated squirrel, starring Jimmy Durante and ingenue Terry Moore before she got creepy. Not as squirrel-centric as I had hoped, with just a few short sequences, but it's an entertainingly eccentric novelty/christmas movie. You can't go wrong with Durante, and there is a surprise appearance by Frank Cady as an IRS inspector. 6.5/10
I got to see The Great Rupert because the price of the Comedy Classics 12 disc DVD set is now down to $4.95 on Amazon, and I finally felt I could justify getting it. There are a number of good things on it, many I haven't seen, but way too many East Side Kids movies. I just didn't feel like I could pay nearly $20 with shipping, but for under $8 I no longer had any qualms. I am looking forward to the inevitable decline of the DVD to push the set of 50 Sword and Sandal movies down to a reasonable level in the near future.
