Best Music Movies of 1950

Gunslinger Annie Oakley romances fellow sharpshooter Frank Butler as they travel with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.

The Disassociated Press wants Bugs Bunny's life story. Got a pencil? "First," says Bugs, "I was born." He quickly learns he is different from the other children: he's a "rabbit in a human world." He grows up to accept repetitive chorus boy jobs in such Broadway revues as "Girl of the Golden Vest," "Wearing of the Grin" and "Rosie's Cheeks." His career hits the skids and he's living on a park bench before he's discovered by that great vaudeville star, Elmer Fudd. Their dual comedy act is a hit, which leads to film roles. Will Bugs Bunny ever have to look back?

To Jane Falbury's New England farm comes a troup of actors to put up a show, invited by Jane's sister. At first reluctant she has them do farm chores in exchange for food. Her reluctance becomes attraction when she falls in love with the director, Joe, who happens to be her sister's fiance.

Airing on Christmas Day, 1950, this holiday special was the first Disney TV production. It features Edgar Bergen with Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd at Walt Disney's Christmas party. The show includes clips of movies and animated shorts and the first appearance of the Fire House Five Plus Two jazz band.

Song-and-dance man Bert Kalmar can't continue his stage career after an injury for while, so he has to earn his money as a lyricst. Per chance he meets composer Harry Ruby and their first song is a hit. Ruby gets Kalmar to marry is former partner Jessie Brown, and Kalmar and Jessie prevent Ruby from getting married to the wrong girls. But due to the fact, that Ruby has caused a backer's withdrawal for a Kalmar play, they end their relation.

Legendary trumpeter Art Hazzard teaches young Rick Martin everything he knows about playing, so Rick becomes a star musician, but a troubled marriage and the desire to play pure jazz instead of commercial swing songs cause him problems.

A Broadway director helps the West Point cadets put on a show, aided by two lovely ladies and assorted complications.

In this reworking of "No, No, Nanette," wealthy heiress Nanette Carter bets her uncle $25,000 that she can say "no" to everything for 48 hours. If she wins, she can invest the money in a Broadway show featuring songs written by her beau, and of course, in which she will star. Trouble is, she doesn't realize her uncle's been wiped out by the Stock Market crash.

An American actor, impersonating an English butler, is hired by a rich woman from New Mexico to refine her husband and headstrong daughter. The complications increase when the town believes the actor/butler to be an earl and President Roosevelt decides to pay a visit.

Radio star Kitty Moran, long married to partner Jack, finds she's pregnant, but miscarries. For a change, the couple turn their act into a series on early TV and try to adopt a baby. Finally they acquiring a girl in a somewhat back alley manner.

Mother and daughter compete over same singing role and, unbeknownst to each other, the same man.

Ellen Hallit is in love with her playboy boss, Douglas Morrison, but is too timid to do anything about it. To help her, her roommate Chris decides to step in, and devises a plan. Chris follows Morrison on his trip to Sun Valley, Idaho and plays the overattentive female, hoping that he will send for Ellen (who often played his "fiancée" when he had a female he couldn't discourage otherwise.) Complications arise when Chris catches the eye of band leader Dick Layne, and finds herself caught in a triangle between the two men.

The Robinson family are spending two weeks of summer vacation at a resort in the Catskills. Older daughter Patti vies with her friend, Valeria, for the affections of Demi Armendez but Patti is at a disadvantage because her parents think she is too young for boys. But with Patti singing at an amateur show and a dance, her adventures in quest of Armendez ends happily.

Andy Clark discovers he was cheated out of a half interest in partner Mike's business, now a thriving dance hall in 1892 Chicago. Unable to win it back, Andy schemes to make Mike's position untenable. He also hopes to turn Ruby Summers, Mike's motor-mouthed burlesque queen, into a classier entertainer, and incidentally to make her his own. But at the last minute, Andy's revenge comes unravelled.

Snooty opera singer meets a rough-and-tumble fisherman in the Louisiana bayous, but this fisherman can sing! Her agent lures him away to New Orleans to teach him to sing opera but comes to regret this rash decision when the singers fall in love.

Island girl Mimi plans to leave Tahiti, but maybe she'll have a reason to stay when Mr. Endicott arrives.

An improvised jazz session with some of the greats from the 1950s era including Ella Fitzgerald.

I'll Get By is an updated remake of the 1940 20th Century-Fox musical Tin Pan Alley. William Lundigan and Dennis Day play William Spencer and Freddie Lee respectively, successful song publishers who make hits out of such numbers as "I Got a Gal in Kalamazoo", "Deep in the Heart of Texas", "You Make Me Feel So Young", "There Will Never Be Another You", and other favorites (the rights to all of these songs were conveniently held by 20th Century-Fox). The partnership has some hard times, especially during the feud between ASCAP and the radio networks, when only public-domain songs like "I Dream of Jeannie" were permitted to be broadcast.

A cowboy is hired by a stagecoach boss to stop the railroad reaching his territory and putting him out of business. He uses everything from Indians to dancehall girls to try to thwart the plan. But the railroad workers, led by a female sharpshooter and an ambitious salesman, prove tough customers.

The episodic story of a composer of operettas, Rudi Kleiber, in in old Viennese days, and the two women in his life; Maria Zeitler, his sweetheart, later mistress, lost love, an operetta star, and his first patron, and the mother of a son he did not know he had; and of Greta, his first love and companion in later years

An artist famous for his calendar portraits of beautiful women becomes fascinated by a prim and proper professor and tries to get her to pose for his arwork. She declines his offer, but he's determined not to take no for an answer.

Filmed record of a burlesque performance.

Jungle Jim is out to save Joan from an evil witch doctor whilst simultaneously fighting evil treasure hunter Barton.

A Jewish resort hotel celebrates a pair of longtime customers' fiftieth wedding anniversary by staging an old-fashioned Borscht Belt show replete with singers, dancers, comedians, and impressionists.

An Irish horsecar driver's daughter meets New York showman Tony Pastor and goes into vaudeville.

Popeye's nephews practice their music, swinging out at the end. He puts them to bed with a perfunctory story; they say their prayers, finishing by blessing "all the nice people that come to see their pictures." But they're not ready to sleep, so they sneak down to their instruments. Popeye confiscates the instruments (even the piano) so he can get some sleep. The tots quickly realize that common objects in their bedroom can be used as musical instruments and they start swinging out on everything in sight. Popeye can't catch them in the act; they are always asleep when he looks in, even through the window or floorboards. He pulls his bed outside the iris-out, but they follow and he runs down the aisle of the theatre.

When You're Smiling is distinguished by the presence of several top recording artists of 1950. The wafer-thin plotline concerns the misadventures of Texan Gerald Durham (Jerome Courtland), who arrives in the Big City to learn the ropes of the music business. Durham not only ends up with a recording contract, but also wins heroine Peggy Martin (Lola Albright) in the bargain. So much for the story. The principal selling card of When You're Smiling consists of the guest-star turns by Frankie Laine, Bob Crosby, The Modernaires, The Mills Brothers, Kay Starr and Billy Daniels.

While raising cash to pay a debt, a Vegas gambler tricks a night club crooner there who looks like him to play him for a bit.The gambler's Latina girlfriend opens the eyes of the prissy crooner.

Wealthy Kip Artmitage III (Robert Rockwell) honors his late wartime friend's request to look after the friend's "little sister."

In this musical, an ambitious young singer and her band leave their small hometown to head for the Big Apple in hopes of finding fame and fortune.

Sailor meets singer in Cuba. He's due to ship out, but hits it off with her, so he sticks around. Trouble brewing on many fronts - singer's best friend doesn't like the sailor, and singer has another suitor anyway. Rich guy takes her to all the fancy Cuban sports events - jai-alai, horse racing. Much more glamorous than spending time with Sailor. Can he win her over before he gets in trouble for letting his ship sail without him?

A tour of the state of Maine with comic undertones: "modern" tree cutting, lobster fishing and moose hunting. In Bar Harbor, the boats get plastered after being filled up with their choice of gin, rum and rye. The "Lobster Pot" nightclub has a "one fin" cover charge. "The Stein Song" is included as a singalong.

Count Basie and His Orchestra playing us a boogie.