1945: Movies

You know I'm not going to leave 1945 quickly, so we're going to look at some non-holiday movies I like from that year.

It was a great year for movies and there are a number of classics I think are great, such as "Spellbound," "Mildred Pierce," "The Lost Weekend," etc., but I thought I'd focus on a bunch that are a bit more off-the-beaten-path.

So, here a ten somewhat wacky choices...

First off we have an entry from the Roy Rogers series of westerns from Republic Pictures:

His movies are always enjoyable, but this one is extra fun as it has Roy playing a version of himself as a western star at Republic Pictures! And he enlists the help of his fellow Republic cowboy stars:

Plus, we have Gabby Hayes, Dale Evans, Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers, and with billing second only to Roy, Trigger!

Next up is Dick Powell, putting his new hard-boiled persona to good use:

He really delivered the goods:

I love Abbott and Costello and they were riding high in 1945 with three releases, including this one:

Lots of good 1940s Universal Pictures fun! Lou even gets a love interest in Peggy Ryan - Costello even gets in a quip about Peggy's frequent co-star Donald O'Connor! 

And a blast to see Lon Chaney, Jr. with the boys a couple of years before "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein!"

The last time that Chaney had played Larry Talbot (AKA The Wofman) before "A & C Meet Frankenstein" was in this 1945 release:

Love seeing all those monsters together! And Larry Talbot has a mustache:

Also, the "hunchback," as played by Jane Adams is otherwise lovely:

This next one is based on the great radio show created by Carlton E. Morse:

Always interesting to see how the movie studios adapted popular radio shows:

Speaking of radio shows, this next one is a ton of fun for fans of master comedian Fred Allen:

Really funny and great to see Fred interact with his "nemesis" Jack Benny:

We also get Jerry Colonna, Walter Tetley, Minerva Pious ("Mrs. Nussbaum" from Allen's Alley, with Fred below) and a bunch of others:

This next one features the Hoosier Hot Shots and Spade Cooley along with the Three Stooges.

Love to see the Hot Shots in action!

Interesting in that the Stooges don't really act as a team here (at least in their traditional sense) and Moe has a bigger part and a regular haircut!

Johnny Weissmuller had brought Tarzan over to RKO studios from MGM a couple of years before and this was the third entry in that new series:

This was the first RKO release in which they stopped trying to explain why Jane wasn't around and recast Brenda Joyce in the role (Maureen O'Sullivan had stayed at MGM):

Besides B-Westerns with all those stars, Republic turned out a lot of B-Pictures in other genres (like "Smuggled Cargo") such as this one:

Interesting to note that Cy Kendall, the guy with the headshot on the left, played the Ghost of Christmas Present on Ronald Colman's Decca recording of "A Christmas Carol!"

I think Kane Richmond is awesome, perhaps the best serial star ever, so it's always good to see him:

Last (and maybe least?) is this feature from RKO starring their road company thrown-together-to-compete-with Abbott and Costello team of Wally Brown and Alan Carney:

Always great to see Bela Lugosi in a sort-of mainstream picture at a sort-of big studio!

Wally Brown and Alan Carney were separately under contract to RKO when someone decided to team them à la Abbott and Costello, with Brown as the fast-talking Abbott-type and Carney as the dimwitted Costello-type.

By no means are they any competition for Bud and Lou, but I think they're pretty funny and their movies are entertaining in a 1940s RKO kind of way!

I think RKO, Universal, Columbia and Republic were great at putting out unpretentious entertainment in the mid-1940s.

All of these studios put out solid B-Westerns and the latter three (not RKO) also produced serials.

Republic made the best serials and I think this one was their best from 1945:

This serial has a great cast and George J. Lewis steals it as the sophisticated "Moonlight Sonata" playing villain:

I feel that at this time Republic had relatively weak leads (Kane Richmond was over at Columbia for serials that year) and the FBI agent here played by the bland Marten Lamont has a British accent!

Barry MacKay could have easily played this part if he stayed with Republic and would have been much better as the unexplained-British-accent guy!

And before we leave the theater, this offering from Tex AVery is my favorite cartoon from 1945:

Lots of fun to be had at the local movie palace in 1945!