You look sort of shipshape to me and I've spotted a few...

So, to continue with our delightful marathon about singing sailors, let's move on to a musical where the main sailor is not your typical musical star...

Born To Dance (1936)

This movie was in my public library growing up for as long as I can remember. And I don't know how long it took me to finally check it out. I kept wanting to. But I didn't know who Eleanor Powell was at the time and didn't know if I'd like her. As it happens, I didn't. I've grown to feel differently, of course. She's not my favorite but I know what an amazing performer she was and I love several of her scenes. This isn't my favorite of her movies, per se, but it's worth a watch just to see James Stewart singing!

The plot is kind of odd and convoluted (the main reason this isn't my absolute favorite) but I'll do my best to explain it. Ted Barker (Stewart) meets aspiring dancer, Nora Paige (Powell) and they fall in love. However, when a famous starlet Lucy James (Virginia Bruce) visits his ship and Ted rescues her pet Pekinese, he finds himself in the middle of a publicity campaign where he and Lucy are shown to be an item. Naturally, Nora becomes jealous and hurt. After much confusion, Nora and Ted are reunited and Nora becomes the star she deserves to be. There are some great supporting characters played by Una Merkel, Sid Silvers, Frances Langford, and Buddy Ebsen.

I don't know a whole heap about this one unfortunately. I know that when the movie was being made, the studios were doing their best to produce as many musicals as possible because of their popularity. To do so, they put some of their top stars in their musicals, even if the stars were not musically inclined. Thus, Jimmy Stewart as our leading man. Incidentally, I like Jimmy Stewart's voice. He's not exactly Bing Crosby, but his voice is sweet and sincere and when he sings "You'd Be So Easy to Love," he sounds perfectly vulnerable and gentle. I've read that they planned to dub his voice over but decided against it. I've also read that Cole Porter picked James Stewart for the role. In any case the song was a big hit.

Have you guys seen this one? What do you think of Jimmy's singing pipes? Are you Eleanor Powell fans? Which is your favorite Powell film? I'll be posting some pictures and clips of the film on my Facebook page in the following days so be sure to check them out!

All of the pictures in this post are from Doctor Macro.

And what did we see? We saw the sea.

So, I'm sick. I've actually been sick but now it's moved to my nose and chest where all I do is sniffle and cough. The only good thing about being sick is that it gives you an excuse to relax. This said, I'm having a movie marathon. I love movie marathons. I think it's so fun to have a theme and plan a whole line-up of films (hmm. new blog post series?). Today, I decided to go for a theme of... well, I'll let you figure it out. Here's the line up:
Follow the Fleet (1936)
Born to Dance (1936)
Two Girls and a Sailor (1944)
Anchors Aweigh (1945)
On the Town (1949)
Hit the Deck (1955)

And because movie marathons are no fun alone, I'll let you join me (without having to get sick too). Ready? Here we go:

I hope you enjoyed the movie marathon!

Lobsters dancing in a row shuffle off to Buffalo

First off, the answer to the quote of the week is Top Hat. Well done, Maggie for guessing right!!

13. Buddy Ebsen


Favorite dance: "The Codfish Ball" from Captain January
I love the part where he goes all the way down to dance with her. The moment only lasts a few seconds but it shows what an amazing dancer he is. I love his loose style. He was the model for one of Walt Disney's Audio-Animatronics (I believe it was his first), one of a dancing vaudeville performer. I've heard that Disney had some difficulty when Ebsen changed the dancing up every time. With his style, though, it's easy to imagine. He looks like he's just goofing off and having fun all the time!

He was slated to play the Tin Woodman in The Wizard of Oz and I kind of wish he'd stayed in the cast. The trouble was, the original mixture for the makeup consisted of aluminum powder. It's a pretty awful story so I'll save you the details but suffice it to say that he was rushed to the hospital and, while he was gone, they replaced him with Jack Haley - and replaced the aluminum powder with aluminum paste. It's rather sad because it seems like that could have really launched him into the public eye. I realize that terms like "overlooked" and "neglected" can be overused by us filmbloggers, but I really do think Buddy Ebsen deserves more credit than he gets. Most people know him today for his role in The Beverly Hillbillies tv show than his dancing talents. So, for your enjoyment, I'm going to post my favorite of his dances. This is another one with Shirley Temple (there are three on this list). I really admire the actors and actresses who worked with Shirley Temple. It just seems neat that they could gracefully costar with a little girl. I don't know. Anyway, the song is "The Codfish Ball." Enjoy!



P.S. Like Fred Astaire, Buddy Ebsen sometimes shared the spotlight with his sister. He appeared in Broadway Melody of 1936 with her (and Eleanor Powell). Below is a picture I stumbled upon when digging up pictures for this post. They were both pretty average-looking people and I love how elegant they look in this photo.