A United Artists Retrospective Scrapbook: 1941

[CinemaInternational]

Louis Hayward, Joan Bennett, and George Sanders started 1941 going with a swashbuckler, The Son of Monte Cristo.

Adolphe Menjou, Carole Landis, and Patsy Kelly were off to the circus in Road Show.

Martha Scott was a dedicated teacher in Cheers for Miss Bishop.

Fredric March, Margaret Sullivan, Frances Dee, Glenn Ford, Erich von Stroheim, and Anna Sten  astarred in So Ends Our Night, which was another one of the early anti-Nazi (and one of the most outspokenly so) films to come out before America joined the war.

Topper returns was the final of the ghost comedy series, again with Roland Young, just this time with Joan Blondell.

Jimmy Stewart and Paulette Goddard were teamed for the musical Pot O' Gold

Merle Oberon, Fredric March, and Burgess Meredith starred in That Uncertain Feeling, a comedy from Lubitsch.

Vivien Leigh was the notorious Lady Hamilton and Laurence Oliver was her Lord Nelson in a sweeping and engrossing saga of their involvement with one another. (The stars married off screen around this time)

Major Barbara was a piece of barbed satire from George Bernard Shaw's play, well acted by Wendy Hiller, Rex Harrison, Robert Morley, Robert Newton, and film-debuting Deborah Kerr.

Broadway Limited was the saga of much  mayhem that occured on a train.

Kukan was a documentary about how China was fighting against Japan.

Sailors Three was a war comedy from England.

Alan Curtis was Franz Schubert in the biopic The Great Awakening.

Tanks a Million was what was known as a streamliner, a short film, in this case a war comedy, made quickly and on a low budget. Hal Roach made many of these in the war years.

Merle Oberon played the gamut in Lydia going from being a young girl to an elderly woman. Joseph Cotten and Edna May Oliver were also in the cast.

Ilona Massey was an enemy spy in International Lady.

Niagara Falls was another short streamlined comedy.

Gene Tierney and George Sanders were in Sundown, a war-set film that was a big critical hit.

All American Co-Ed was another streamliner comedy, this one also a war film, and a musical, thus hitting three nails simultaneously.

Miss Polly was one of the shortest streamliners. Only 45 minutes.

The Corsican Brothers found Douglas Fairbanks Jr. appearing in the type of swashbucker his father was famed for.

Gaiety (also known as Fiesta) was another musical quickie that was only 45 minutes.

1941 closed with Von Sternberg's The Shanghai gesture, a film noir with Gene Tierney, Victor Mature, Walter Huston, and Ona Munson.

[LawrenceA]

1. That Hamilton Woman
2. So Ends Our Night
3. The Shanghai Gesture
4. International Lady

I've also seen Cheers for Miss Bishop, Pot o' Gold, That Uncertain Feeling, Broadway Limited, Sundown, and All-American Co-Ed.

[TopBilled]

Lots of product from Hal Roach's studio. I read something where his most frequently used working title was "Road Show" which had been used for ZENOBIA. Only this time, he couldn't think of a better title so the Adolphe Menjou comedy remained as ROAD SHOW.

I haven't seen INTERNATIONAL LADY but it looks interesting.

MISS POLLY was a pseudo-sequel to a streamliner earlier in the year called NIAGARA FALLS. Miss Polly was 45 minutes and NIAGARA FALLS was 43 minutes. They were edited together later, and Roach re-released them as a full feature-length comedy.

The streamliners were created to give audiences a double bill where the main film was over 2 1/2 hours long. 

BROADWAY LIMITED is a great comedy with a superior cast. There's a very funny scene where ZaSu Pitts and Patsy Kelly are in bed together with a baby.