This week’s mystery movie was the 1938 film The Goldwyn Follies, with Adolphe Menjou, the Ritz Brothers, Vera Zorina, Kenny Baker, Andrea Leeds, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Helen Jepson, Phil Baker, Bobby Clark, Ella Logan, Jerome Cowan, Charles Kullmann and the American Ballet of the Metropolitan Opera.
Story and screenplay by Ben Hecht.
The Ritz Brothers specialties and songs by Sid Kuller and Ray Golden.
Additional comedy sequences by Sam Perrin and Arthur Phillips.
Directed by George Marshall.
Music by George Gershwin. Lyrics by Ira Gershwin.
Designed in color by Richard Day.
Musical direction by Alfred Newman.
Photographed by Gregg Toland.
Ballets conceived and staged by George Balanchine.
Music for ballets — additional songs by Vernon Duke.
Costumes by Omar Kiam.
Orchestrations by Edward Powell.
Edited by Sherman Todd.
Sound by Frank Maher.
Music recorder Paul Neal.
Photographic advisor Ray Rennahan.
Color art director Natalie Kalmus.
Associate Henri C. Jaffa.
Color harmony makeup ensembles by Max Factor.
Produced by Samuel Goldwyn.
Associate producer George Haight.
Released through United Artists.
Further information on The Goldwyn Follies is available from the AFI Catalog.
The Goldwyn Follies is available on DVD from Critics’ Choice Video.
::
I picked The Goldwyn Follies by going through the trades, as it sounded interesting: Songs and lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin; photography by Gregg Toland; choreography by George Balanchine; story and screenplay by Ben Hecht. Lots of famous names and a lot of money were thrown at this film. On the screen, however, it’s a jumble: vaudeville routines and popular songs shoved up against opera and ballet – as if someone said: “Hey we gotta class up this picture.”
I’m confident that The New York Times will thoroughly hate this film. Paging Mordaunt Hall!
Frank S. Nugent gets the job (Feb. 21, 1938):
Sam Goldwyn has been dreaming about a Goldwyn Follies for so many years it was inevitable that its realization, on the Rivoli’s screen, should have a certain nightmarish quality. A dream always makes sense to the dreamer and nonsense when he relates it over the breakfast table. To any normally functioning subconscious, a ballet, a crooner, a Miss Humanity, the Ritz brothers, an operatic soprano, a ventriloquist and his dummy are orderly and congenial story companions. (If the subconscious belongs to Ben Hecht, so much the better). Mr. Goldwyn, the dreamer, has accepted it as the most logical and delightful of patterns. But I stayed awake at the Rivoli, sometimes with an effort, and found his Follies a hodgepodge.
For Monday, we have a mystery woman.
Update: This is Helen Jepson.
For Tuesday, we have some rather affectionate mysterious guests.
Update: This is Bobby Clark and Ella Logan.
For “Hm Wednesday,” we have two mysterious fellows.
Update: This is Alan Ladd, left, and Adolphe Menjou.
Brain Trust roll call: Allabouteve1950 (mystery movie and all mystery guests), Mike Hawks (mystery movie and all mystery guests), Howard Mandelbaum (mystery movie and all mystery guests), Sylvia E. (mystery movie and Tuesday’s mystery guests), and Dan Nather (mystery movie and all mystery guests).
For “Aha Thursday,” we have these mysterious fellows.
Update: These are the Ritz Brothers.
We also have these mysterious guests.
Update: This is Charlie McCarthy and Edgar Bergen.
Brain Trust roll call: Greg (mystery movie and Wednesday’s mystery guests), Blackwing Jenny (mystery movie and Wednesday’s mystery guest No. 2), Mary Mallory (mystery movie, Monday’s and Tuesday’s mystery guests and Wednesday’s mystery guest No. 2), Anne Papineau (mystery movie and all mystery guests), Howard Mandelbaum (Wednesday’s mystery guests), Chrisbo (Wednesday’s mystery guest No. 2), B.J. Merholz (mystery movie, Monday’s mystery guest and Wednesday’s mystery guest No. 2), Sylvia E. (Monday’s and Wednesday’s mystery guests), Incredible Inman (Wednesday’s mystery guest No. 2), Mike Hawks (Wednesday’s mystery guests), Sheila (mystery movie and Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s mystery guests) and Dan Nather (Wednesday’s mystery guests).
For Friday, we have this mysterious woman.
Update: This is Vera Zorina.
And this mysterious couple.
Update: This is Kenny Baker and Andrea Leeds.
Brain Trust roll call: Mary Mallory (Thursday’s mystery guests), Charles Kjelland (Thursday’s mysterious ventriloquist and companion), Megan and Thom (mystery movie, Monday’s and Wednesday’s mystery guests), Chrisbo (mystery movie and Thursday’s mystery guests), Howard Mandelbaum (Thursday’s mystery guests), Earl Boebert (mystery movie and Thursday’s mystery ventriloquist and mystery companion), Roget-L.A. (mystery movie, Wednesday’s and Thursday’s mystery guests), Sylvia E. (Thursday’s mystery guests) and Mike Hawks (Thursday’s mystery guests).
ladailymirror.com 
Dorothy Comingore?
LikeLike
An interesting guess, but alas, I’m afraid not.
LikeLike
Helen Jepson in THE GOLDWYN FOLLIES (1938). Then Bobby Clark and Ella Logan.
LikeLike
Helen Jepson, Bobby Clark and Ella Logan in GOLDWYN FOLLIES.
LikeLike
Monday: Helen Jepson
Tuesday: Bobby Clark, Ella Logan
LikeLike
The Goldwyn Follies 1938
LikeLike
Monday’s blond is so Lee Patrick, but I’ve never seen her in color.
LikeLike
Tuesday’s guy resembles Henry Morgan to me. But can’t find a film that fits the era this seems to be from. He doesn’t have a lot to choose from, so probably not him.
Maybe I’ll hunt for cigar smoking character actors.
LikeLike
THE GOLDWYN FOLLIES (1938)!
Monday — Helen Jepson
Today — Bobby Clark and Ella Logan
This was the first Technicolor movie I ever saw as an impressionable teen-age classic movie geek in the early ’70s. (“I can’t believe I’m watching the 1930s in living color! WOW!!”) About twenty years later, I watched it in a theater, and it “wowed” me all over again.
LikeLike
For no other reasons than I’m “getting that feeling” again and this movie has such interesting connections from cast to writers to music and it’s Tuesday and I’m glad to be home and I think I may have seen this on the late show long long long ago as a kid (memories of the soda jerk guy singing”Love Walked In”)…
The Goldwyn Follies 1938
Monday – no guess
Tuesday – Bobby Clark and Ella Logan
I’m sure I’m wrong about the movie but the color style seems similar, so why not.
LikeLike
Wednesday’s fellows are Alan Ladd and Adolphe Menjou in The Goldwyn Follies, 1938.
LikeLike
Adolph Menjou! In The Goldwyn Follies.
LikeLike
Adolph Menjou in The Goldwyn Follies!
LikeLike
GOLDWYN FOLLIES. Helen Jepson Monday, Bobby Clark and Ella Logan Tuesday, and Phil Baker and Adolphe Menjou today.
LikeLike
Well, thank you, Alan Ladd. There he is with Adolph Menjou in “The Goldwyn Follies,” a film I’ve never been able to sit through. The Technicolor is great, though. So that must be Metropolitan Opera star Helen Jepson on Monday, followed by Bobby Clark and Ella Logan on Tuesday.
LikeLike
Alan Ladd, Adolfe Menjou.
LikeLike
Hmm… Adolphe Menjou on the right?
LikeLike
It was folly to suggest Lee Patrick instead of Helen Jepson, but I hope to do better with Adolph Menjou.
LikeLike
I’m still stunned that my shot in the dark yesterday was correct. Now for Monday and today.
Monday – Helen Jebson
Wednesday – Alan Ladd and Adolphe Menjou
LikeLike
Today’s older mystery man is Adolphe Menjou. That’s all I got.
LikeLike
Alan Ladd and Adolphe Menjou.
LikeLike
Bobby Clark on Tuesday, Alan Ladd and Adolphe Menjou on Wednesday, ‘The Goldwyn Follies’?
LikeLike
I think that’s Alan Ladd with Adolphe Menjou.
LikeLike
the 3 Ritz brothers and Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy.
LikeLike
Charlie McCarthy and Edgar Bergen today
LikeLike
I meant to put this in last night. Our movie is Goldwyn Follies with Alan Ladd and Adolphe Menjou, and I think Helen Jepson for Monday.
LikeLike
Aha! The Ritz Brothers and Edgar Bergen with Charlie McCarthy must make this The Goldwyn Follies.
LikeLike
The Ritz Brothers; Edgar Bergen, Charlie McCarthy.
LikeLike
You must be in a Christmas mood for Freebee Thursday 🙂
Edgar Bergen and The Smart Aleck. I’m guessing “The Goldwyn Follies” and requesting a mulligan if I’m wrong.
LikeLike
The Goldwyn Follies (1938) — Adolphe Menjou on Wednesday, The Ritz Brothers and Bergen & McCarthy on Thursday
LikeLike
Thursday 1) The Ritz Bros
2) Charlie McCarthy and Edgar Bergen
LikeLike
The Ritz brothers, Bergen and McCarthy.
LikeLike
The Ritz Brothers (who I always thought were better singers/dancers than comedians) along with Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy (even Noel Coward praised this act).
LikeLike
Vera Zorina, Kenny Baker, and Andrea Leeds.
LikeLike
Vera Zorina, Kenny Baker and Andrea Leeds.
LikeLike
I think I see Adolphe Menjoy hiding on W and Edgar Bergen and the Ritz Bros. on Th so I’m guessing Goldwyn’s Follies (1938*
LikeLike
Friday image 1 – Vera Zorina I think
image 2 – Kenny Baker and Andrea Leeds
LikeLike
Pingback: Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +) |