Swing High, Swing Low(1937).

Swing High, Swing Low(1937). Romantic/musical starring Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray. This is the second film adaptation, after The Dance of Life (1929) and before When My Baby Smiles at Me (1948).

While traveling by cruise ship, Maggie King, masquerading as a hairdresser to pay her way to California, meets a soldier named, Skid Johnson. After they arrive, Skid offers to drive Maggie and her friend Ella into Panama City and introduces them to his roommate, Harry. Skid, gets into a fight defending Maggie, at a night club and they both land in jail.



After they go before a judge the next morning, Maggie's, ship has sailed on without her. Harry and Skid, invite her to move in with them. Skid, gambles away his trumpet and Maggie convinces Murphy, the owner of a cafe, to give her the money to buy back Skid's trumpet and then hire him to play at the club.

After Maggie, becomes angry with Skid, who spent the night with Anita, a girl who works at the club. Skid, decides to marry to Maggie.

A New York agent, tells Skid about a job in New York at the El Greco. Skid is a big hit, with Anita's help, but.. he keeps putting off sending money for Maggie's ticket to join him. Concerned Maggie, borrows money from Murphy and sends a telegram to Skid, but .. Anita, sees it first and tosses it out. When Maggie, arrives in New York, with no one to meet her, she calls Anita's room and Skid answers the phone. Heartbroken, Maggie files for divorce, will Maggie have a change of heart and get back together with Skid?

Please click here to view the full movie Swing High Swing Low.

Fun Fact:

The lead was originally offered to Gary Cooper, who turned it down, then to Bing Crosby, who also turned it down, then to Fred Mac, who took it.

I loved the night club scene with Anthony Quinn. Wonderful little movie for all Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray fans.

Jean Dixon (July 14, 1896 – February 12, 1981). While living in France, she studied dramatics under Sarah Bernhardt. She was on the Broadway stage a number of years before Hollywood called her in 1929. She mostly played the streetwise, smart-mouthed friend of the leading lady. Her most famous performance was in the film, My Man Godfrey (1936).

Filmography:
The Lady Lies (1929)
The Kiss Before the Mirror (1933)
Sadie McKee (1934)
I’ll Love You Always (1935)
She Married Her Boss (1935)
My Man Godfrey (1936)
You Only Live Once (1937)
Swing High, Swing Low (1937)
Holiday (1938)
Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943)

Pushover (1954).

Pushover (1954). Film noir notable for being the first film to feature Kim Novak in a starring role. The picture also stars Fred MacMurray as a good cop gone bad. It was adapted from two novels, The Night Watch by Thomas Walsh and Rafferty by William S. Ballinger. Other cast members: Philip Carey and Dorothy Malone.

Bank robbers, Harry Wheeler and his partner kill a policeman and pocket $200,000. After the police investigation, headed by Lt. Carl Ekstrom, he knows Wheeler as the man responsible. Eckstrom assigns detective Paul Sheridan to befriend Wheeler's girl friend, Lona McLane. Paul plans a meeting with Lona and they quickly fall in love. Paul takes Lona to his apartment, then spends the next several days with her. Later, Eckstrom, Paul and his partner, Rick McAllister, plan a stakeout across from Lona's apartment, and wait for Wheeler to contact her. They watch as Lona leaves the apartment, Paul follows her, to his apartment. He meets her there and she accuses him of being a cop. Paul admits to being a detective, but tells her that he has been seeing her for personal reasons. Lona tells him that she is frightened of Wheeler and says that she did not know about his criminal activities. Lona asks what would happen to Wheeler if she turned him in and that she and Paul keep the money, he angrily demands she leave. It won't be easy for Paul to get his hands on the money when he's part of the investigation. Soon, he's in much deeper than he wants to be. This story becomes quite exciting as a crooked cop tries to cover his tracks.

This maybe an underrated, little known crime melodrama from the mid-'50s. Fred MacMurray, in another movie where he is an authority figure seduced by the charms of a femme fatale.

Dorothy Malone (born January 30, 1925), in her early years she played mainly in B-movies. best known for her performance in, Written on the Wind (1956), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her film career reached its peak in the 1960s, and she achieved later success with her television role of Constance MacKenzie on Peyton Place from 1964 to 1968. Less active in her later years, Malone returned to film in 1992 as the friend of Sharon Stone's character in Basic Instinct.




Philip Carey, performed in the films: I Was a Communist for the FBI (1951), This Woman is Dangerous with Joan Crawford (1952) Calamity Jane with Doris Day (1953), Pushover (1954), The Long Gray Line (1955) and Monster (1979).

The Gilded Lily(1935)

The Gilded Lily(1935). Directed by Welsey Ruggles. Cast: Claudette Colbert, Fred MacMurray, Ray Milland and Aubrey Smith.

Lynn, and her best friend, reporter Peter Dawes, meet every Thursday night on a bench, where they share a bag of popcorn and talk about their life.. Lynn, soon, meets vacationing English aristocrat Charles Gray Granville, and they fall in love, although he keeps his royal identity a secret. Gray is already engaged to Helen Fergus and when he tells his father, Duke of Lomeshire, that he wants to marry Lynn, the duke insists they return to England and break off the engagement. Gray lies to Lynn about why he's leaving New York, but when Pete meets the Granvilles at the dock, Gray tells him that he is engaged to Helen. Pete writes an article about Lynn, who he calls "No Girl," leaving Gray at the altar. When the Granvilles, read that Helen has broken her engagement, the duke believes Lynn is trying to blackmail him. Gray then sends Lynn a telegram at work asking her price to forget him. Pete decides to make her a celebrity. He gets her a job as a singer and dancer at Nate's Cafe, despite the fact that she can neither sing nor dance. At her opening, Lynn's lack of talent wins laughs from the audience, and she becomes a hit.

After one publicity stunt after another, "No Girl" becomes a household name and as a nightclub star, she goes to London to perform. Gray is in the audience and Lynn, assuming they are still in love, goes out with him. Heartbroken, Pete returns to the states. Who will Lynn share her bag of popcorn with?

Fun Fact:

First of seven movies that Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray filmed together.

This is a wonderful little film I saw for the first time over the weekend. Claudette Colbert is wonderful as always. Fred MacMurray also does a fine job in his part, Ray Milland looks very young and handsome.

First video of 9.

Aubrey Smith(21 July 1863 – 20 December 1948), was an English cricketer and actor. He was knighted by King George VI in 1944 for services to the theatre. He appeared in early films for the nascent British film industry, starring in, The Bump in 1920. Smith later moved to Hollywood where he had a successful career as a character actor playing either officer or gentleman roles.

Smith became infamous for expecting his fellow countrymen to report for regular duty at his Hollywood Cricket Club, and anyone who refused was known to "incur his displeasure". Fiercely patriotic, Smith became openly critical of the British actors of enlistment age who did not return to fight after the outbreak of World War II in 1939. He starred alongside such screen legends as leading ladies Greta Garbo, Elizabeth Taylor, Vivien Leigh, and actors Clark Gable, Laurence Olivier, Ronald Colman, Maurice Chevalier and Gary Cooper. His films include such classics as The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) mentioned above, The Four Feathers (1939), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941), and And Then There Were None (1945).

Happy Birthday: Fred MacMurray!

Fred MacMurray, played the saxophone. In 1930, he recorded a tune for the Gus Arnheim Orchestra as a featured vocalist on All I Want Is Just One Girl on the Victor 78 label. Before he signed on with Paramount Pictures in 1934, he performed on Broadway in Three's a Crowd (1930–31) with Sydney Greenstreet and with Bob Hope in the original production of Roberta (1933–34).

MacMurray worked with some of Hollywood's greatest directors Billy Wilder and Preston Sturges and actors Barbara Stanwyck, Humphrey Bogart and Marlene Dietrich. He played opposite Claudette Colbert in seven films, beginning with The Gilded Lily. He co-starred with Katharine Hepburn in Alice Adams and with Carole Lombard in four films, Hands Across the Table, The Princess Comes Across, Swing High, Swing Low and True Confession.

Fred MacMurray, was usually cast in light comedies such as, (The Trail of the Lonesome Pine) and in melodramas (Above Suspicion 1943) and musicals (Where Do We Go from Here? 1945).

MacMurray, thought his best roles were when he was cast against type by Wilder. In 1944, he played the role of Walter Neff, an insurance salesman who plots with a greedy wife Barbara Stanwyck to murder her husband in Double Indemnity.

Sixteen years later, he played Jeff Sheldrake, a two-timing corporate executive in Wilder's Oscar-winning comedy The Apartment, with Shirley MacLaine and Jack Lemmon. MacMurray played Lieutenant Thomas Keefer in the film, The Caine Mutiny(1954).

MacMurray, was cast as the father in the Disney comedy, The Shaggy Dog. In the 1960s, he performed in one of my favorite shows, My Three Sons, which ran for 12 seasons. While filming the show, My Three Sons, MacMurray continued to perform in films, The Absent-Minded Professor(1961) and in its sequel, Son of Flubber(1964).

MacMurray was known to bring a brown bag lunch to work, often with a hard-boiled egg. Friends and business associates called him "the thrifty multimillionaire". After the cancellation of My Three Sons in 1972, MacMurray made only a few more films before retiring in 1978.


In 1941 MacMurray purchased land in Northern California and built the MacMurray Ranch where he raised prize-winning Aberdeen Angus cattle. In keeping with his wishes that the property's agricultural heritage be preserved it was sold in 1996 to Gallo, which planted vineyards on it for wines with the MacMurray Ranch label.