Best Music Movies of 1949

Bugs Bunny vs. a famous opera singer at the Hollywood Bowl.

Josh and Dinah Barkley are a successful musical-comedy team, known for their stormy but passionate relationship. Dinah feels overshadowed by Josh and limited by the lighthearted musical roles he directs her in. So she decides to stretch her skills by taking a role in a serious drama, directed by another man.

Two co-workers in a music shop dislike one another during business hours but unwittingly carry on an anonymous romance through the mail.

The Wolves baseball team gets steamed when they find they've been inherited by one K.C. Higgins, a suspected "fathead" who intends to take an active interest in running the team. But K.C. turns outs to be a beautiful woman who really knows her baseball. Second baseman Dennis Ryan promptly falls in love. But his playboy roommate Eddie O'Brien has his own notions about how to treat the new lady owner and some unsavory gamblers have their own ideas about how to handle Eddie.

A waitress at the Warner Brothers commissary is anxious to break into pictures. She thinks her big break may have arrived when actors Jack Carson and Dennis Morgan agree to help her.

An illiterate stooge in a traveling medicine show wanders into a strange town and is picked up on a vagrancy charge. The town's corrupt officials mistake him for the inspector general whom they think is traveling in disguise. Fearing he will discover they've been pocketing tax money, they make several bungled attempts to kill him.

Conceited singer Garry Mitchell refuses to renew his radio contract, so agent Doug Blake decides to find a new personality to replace Garry. In New York, he finds Martha Gibson, a single mother with a great voice. He arranges for her to move to Hollywood, but then has a problem trying to sell her to the show's sponsor. Doug tries every trick he can think of to make Martha a star, and as the two work more closely, he falls in love with her. Complicating matters further is when Martha meets and becomes attracted to Garry.

A bump on the head sends Hank Martin, 1912 mechanic, to Arthurian Britain, 528 A.D., where he is befriended by Sir Sagramore le Desirous and gains power by judicious use of technology. He and Alisande, the King's niece, fall in love at first sight, which draws unwelcome attention from her fiancée Sir Lancelot; but worse trouble befalls when Hank meddles in the kingdom's politics.

Scatterbrained Betty Barrett mistakes masseur Jack Spratt for Jose O'Rourke, the captain of the South American polo team. Spratt goes along with the charade, but the situation becomes more complicated when they fall in love. Meanwhile, Betty's sensible older sister Eve fears Betty's heart will be broken when Jose returns to South America. She arranges to meet with the real O'Rourke and love soon blossoms between them as well.

A film director, in bad standing with his studio, tries to turn a local carnival dancer into a "French" movie star and pass her off as his big new discovery

Tottie True is a gay-90s British music-hall performer who has her sights set on moving from rags to riches, who loses her heart to the pure-and-true blue balloonist, Sid Skinner, but continues her upward search on improving her social status. She finally settles for Lord Landon Digby who has lots of assets and a very-stiff upper lip. She gets a lot of the latter and very little of the former, and decides Sid might have been a better choice.

In this sequel to The Jolson Story, we pick up the singer's career just as he has returned to the stage after a premature retirement. But his wife has left him and the appeal of the spotlight isn't what it used to be. This time Jolson trades in the stage for life in the fast lane: women, horses, travel. It takes the death of Moma Yoelson and World War II to bring Jolson back to earth - and to the stage. Once again teamed with manager Steve Martin, Jolson travels the world entertaining troops everywhere from Alaska to Africa. When he finally collapses from exhaustion it takes young, pretty nurse Ellen Clark to show him there's more to life than "just rushing around".

Liza Lee, fast-talking press agent for Al Jarvis, persuades Jarvis to stage a Musical Mystery Contest, with a $5000 prize to the person who can first name the most musical numbers and their performers. Lots of musicians perform.

Penniless man-about-town Michael Gore-Brown is delighted to hear he has been left a high-class Mayfair fashion salon. His intention is to sell it as quickly as possible, but on meeting Ellen, chief designer and manager, he quickly changes his mind and turns his attention to courting her.

Diamonds are being smuggled across the border from Mexico in a specially made shoe of a palomino mare. One of the smugglers is killed when the mare runs off. The sheriff blames Trigger for the death. To keep his horse from being destroyed, Roy confesses and goes to jail. The smugglers buy Trigger and put him to work smuggling diamonds. The mare, who had earlier heard a trist with Trigger, foals Trigger, Jr. who Roy, finally out of jail, uses to help capture the smugglers.

A Broadway director rescues a starlet from mobsters who blame her for a shooting.

When asked about the Ghost Riders song he sings, Gene Autry tells this legend: Gene is about to resign as an investigator for the county attorney and go into the cattle business with his pal Chuckawalla Jones but decides instead to help Anne Lawson clear her father, rancher Ralph Lawson, of a false murder charge. He looks for the three witnesses who can testify that Lawson shot only in self defense in killing a gambler, but the witnesses are terrorized by another gambler, town boss Rock McCleary, who shoots witness Pop Roberts Morgan. Fatally wounded, Pop gives Gene the information needed to clear Lawson, then dies crying the "Ghost Riders" are coming for him. Gene then heads for a showdown with McCleary.

While working as a hotel busboy, aspiring bandleader Carlos Estrada tries to persuade singer Lolita Valdez to join him in a rhumba contest in Havana.

Opera singer Prudence Budell (Kathryn Grayson), overhears truck driver Johnny Donnetti (Mario Lanza) singing opera, and persuades her opera company to give him a chance in her new opera. They fall in love, but on meeting his colleague Mary (Marjorie Reynolds) while visiting Johhny's work, Prudence becomes convinced Johnny is in love with her.

Two talent scouts for a New York-based country music TV show called "Square Dance Jubilee" are sent out West to get authentic western singing acts. They find what they're looking for, but also get mixed up in cattle rustling and murder.

While trailing Forest Ranger Charles Carter, who is suspected of permitting lumber man Henry Mitchell to cut restricted timber, Gene fires at a dangerous mountain lion and apparently kills Carter. Actually, Bill Wright, Mitchell's associate, killed Carter because the ranger had discovered tussock moth infestation in the forest, and if the infestation was not reported, the trees would die and have to be cut, thereby profiting Mitchell and Wright. In order to compensate the best he can, Gene sells his sportsman's camp and gives the money to Carter's daughter Helen . En route to Texas, Gene discovers the infestation and is assigned by the Forest Department to supervise the program of spraying the area with DDT from the air. After the first day of spraying, the DDT is blamed by furious stock men for the many animals found dead of poisoning.

Father dances to Jazz in the kitchen with the maid, his family won't tolerate his behaviour anymore. And now he has to deal with Uncle Adam's strange antics.

A kind of filmed vaudeville show, using old material from RKO films and some new.

Outlaws attempting to kidnap Steve Blaine from a stagecoach are ran off by the sharpshooting of his sister, Sally and rescuers Jimmy Wakely and Cannonball Taylor. Steve is investigating his father's sudden death after charges of theft from the Sloan/Carson mine. Sloan is killed after Wakely learns that ore is being smuggled across the Mexican border into the mine, and then sold at the higher U.S. prices

Filmed record of a burlesque show, with Sunny Knight ("The Golden Girl of the Golden West") as the headliner.

A Gay-Nineties musical set in NYC's Bowery and East-Side explores the life of its inhabitants---an Irish policeman and his tap-dancing daughter and music-hall wife; a German professor of music and his singing daughter; and an Italian café-owner, a kindly priest, a struggling young doctor and a saloon-keeper. And a political ward-heeler, Terrence Dowd, who has a deceptive and dishonest plan to sell them all out in order to build a fight arena. But he meets his match in property-owner Claire Adamson.

At a college, a group of ex-GIs clash with their wives about over playing football.

In 1924, stage-struck Boston blueblood Hannah Adams picks up musical star Tim O'Connor and takes him home for dinner. One thing leads to another, and when Tim's show rolls on to Chicago a new Mrs. O'Connor comes along as incompetent chorus girl. Hollywood beckons, and we follow the star careers of the O'Connor family in silents and talkies. Includes good imitation "silents" with classic cameo by Buster Keaton.

In 1906 in Connecticut, Elisha Hunt, the 55-year-old curator of a small government museum, marries Abigail, the 19-year-old daughter of a local farmer. In addition to the differences in their ages in this May-to-December union, Elizha is a man of culture while Abigail is uneducated. Bruce Edridge, young, handsome and wealthy, comes into her life, and they fall in love. Abigail is now faced with two choices; the chance of wealth versus her present mediocre circumstances, or her love for Bruce versus her loyalty to Elisha.

On board a riverboat bound for Creek City, singer Jimmie Davis, who is going to become half-owner of a land development company willed to him by his uncle, shares a cabin with traveling salesman Dixie Dalrymple. After Dixie invites Jimmie to perform in a concert he is putting on for the other passengers, Jimmie is persuaded to participate in a crooked card game run by Judge Homer Kenworthy and his associates. However, with Dixie's intervention, Jimmie wins handsomely, then accuses the gamblers of trying to cheat him.

Period musical about a song plugger who vows to turn an opera composer's music into popular hits.

A man watching a musical show at the Windmill theatre is shot apparently from the stage. The cast continues the performance so that the detective can solve the murder.

This is an actual burlesque show, filmed in 1948 at the Hollywood Theater in San Diego, California. It is not a drama or a documentary, it is what you would have seen if you'd been sitting in the theater.

This film is a compilation, with narration by Steve Allen, of comedies from the old Mack Sennett silent studio. Sennett, himself, appears in a cameo at the end of the film.

Jim decides to leave his tribal area to seek his fortune in Johannesburg. As soon as he arrives, three gangsters mug him. When he regains consciousness, a friendly night watchman takes care of him. With the watchman's help, Jim gets a job in a nightclub as a waiter.

Eddy Arnold, singing star of the Ace Lucky radio program gets involved when Ace's equipment for a television program is destroyed by a fire. Aces accepts the sponsorship of social-climber Lucille Upperworth, who tries to revamp the western/hillbilly music format to classical music.

A look at the rise of the record industry from its primitive beginnings to the unveiling of the formats that would revolutionize the world of popular music.

When Ranger Raymond is killed during a stage holdup, Wells Fargo Agent Whip Wilson assumes his identity.

A young girl holds a special place in her heart for a place called Shamrock HIll, and she tries to stop it from having a television station built on it.

Posing as unemployed musicians, Roy Acuff and his Smoky Mountain Boys, are being helped by Ted Gibson owner of the Harmony Inn in San Antonio, Texas. Gibson is impoverished because he keeps buying his kleptomaniac Uncle Zeke out of trouble, supports his Ma, and Grandpa. He wants to marry Jean Wallace, and doesn't know that Acuff and his musicians are traveling incognito for the radio show "Who Am I Helping?" If he guesses their identity, he wins $100,000.

Cheyenne Jones comes to the Blue River Ranch and asks for a job as a cowpuncher. Actually, Jones's real name is Buck McCloud and he's the new owner of the spread, having inherited it when his uncle died a year earlier. He's roaming the range incognito while trying to identify who's behind the cattle rustling that is afflicting his new business.

This video depicts Tanglewood in its very early years. It contains very rare footage of Serge Koussevitzky and Aaron Copland.

Produced, written, and directed by the veteran Elmer Clifton (here for obscure reasons billed Elmer S. Pond), Red Rock Outlaw had the audacity to feature its novice star, Bob Gilbert (who also wrote the original story), as identical cousins -- one good, the other bad. The good Gilbert, a rancher, enjoys a campfire singalong with the members of s stranded girls' band, falling in love with Carolina (Ione Nixon), a bleach-blonde looker, along the way. The bad cousin, meanwhile, is scheming with neighboring rancher Jim Martin (Forrest Mathews) to have nice Bob killed so they can combine their properties. Produced in 16 mm back in 1946 or 1947 and released on States' Rights by Screen Features, Inc., Red Rock Outlaw was merely an excuse to showcase a series of country & western specialty acts, including Wanda Cantlon, who, according to an onscreen credit, introduced the song "Alimony" and supplied choreography.

Burlesque version of The Moonstone; the Prince of Panchistan and his cohorts are in Mexico to retrieve a sacred relic. Wacky hijinks ensue.

"Saturday Night Square Dance" was released in 1949 as a Soundie. Featured here are Jim Boyd and His Men of the West. Jim Boyd was the brother of Bill Boyd, well known for western swing music, and this film combines some western swing music with calls. The footage shows some fine examples, like the styling sometimes called the Abilene Lift.

The plot centers on an American nurse stationed on a South Pacific island during World War II, who falls in love with a middle-aged expatriate French plantation owner but struggles to accept his mixed-race children. A secondary romance, between a U.S. Marine lieutenant and a young Tonkinese woman, explores his fears of the social consequences should he marry his Asian sweetheart.

A sing-song film, with the popular Four Gentlemen Quartet leading in four old favorites: Camptown Races, Bury Me Out on the Lone Prairie, Grandfather's Clock and Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay.

The historic Toscanini television concerts with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. This concert, broadcast in two parts, on 26 March and 2 April 1949, from NBC Studio 8H, features the opera "Aida" by Giuseppe Verdi. (Both broadcasts were released as "Vol. 3" in the DVD series.)

Production number 5302 in Universal-International "Name Band Musical" series of shorts featuring Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra, with a much-larger-than usual number of supporting acts.