January 23

Randolph Scott

Sheriff: “You'd do it for Randolph Scott.”
Crowd rises to their feet, take off their hats and whisper as in church “Randolph Scott”.
Hallelujah chorus with music “Randolph Scott!”

This was the first that I ever heard of Randolph Scott from Blazing Saddles. The scene where the Sheriff tries to get the people to stay and defend their town. This may be in praise of the western films he did, but I did not watch any westerns. I watched 2 musicals and 1 pre-war marine film.

Randolph was in 2 Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers films: Roberta and Follow the Fleet. In the films he plays 2 very different characters. In Roberta he played a “country hick” in Paris who ends up inheriting is Aunts fashion house. He is more of a puritan in the styles that he wants women to wear and blushes when he sees a woman in a negligee. When he and his fiancee argue he orders a dozen brandy's. He sings loudly the song Astaire/Rogers just finished, I Won't Dance. He gets drunk and goes to see Irene Dunn when he hears her sing. She sings Smoke Gets In Your Eyes. They too argue and he leaves the bar tipsy, but only slightly.

In Follow the Fleet Randolph plays a sea wolf, with a slight drawl. A very charismatic and outgoing navy man. He and some of the men are on leave. They go to a dance hall where he meets Harriet Hillard (Nelson), a nice girl. Later he meets an other woman who is in a higher social circle and dumps Harriet. This film has my favorite Astaire/Rogers dance scene Lets Face the Music & Dance.

The last film I watched is To The Shores of Tripoli with John Payne and Maureen O'Hara. Randolph plays a Sargent in the Marines who is training John, the son of the man who Randolph greatly admired. John's father gave Randolph a note stating that he could not do anything with him that he should try and not to give him any special favors. This of course makes Randolph treat him harder then the rest of the men. Randolph takes great pleasure in Johns pain and discomfort. While on maneuvers Randolph is working on repairing a water target when he falls and is unconscious. The men on the boat don't realize he is not on the repair ship until they get back to the main ship. Firing has already begun on the targets. John gets on a boat and goes to find him while shells are still being fired. John manages to get him off the target and as the boat pulls away from the target, the target explodes. It is a very exciting scene. The firing in Technicolor film was a bright orange in a dark night and a black sea. He is totally believable as a Marine, his bearing, his manor and his whole demeanor. Robert Osborn introduced the film and stated that it was half-way through production when Pearl Harbor was attacked. They changed the film to reflect the start of the war. John Payne left the Marines and his fiancee were in a cab when he turned on the radio and it was announced that Pearl Harbor was attacked. The girl said “I know, it's Orson Wells”. He leaves the cab and joins the group of Marines marching off to a ship. Randolph says “you've got a fat chance of getting on that boat without a uniform.” John gets into ranks and changes from street cloths to his uniform. Randolph is tough till the end, but happy that he made a Marine of John.

It is also Dan Duryea birthday.

I found a few sites that that had classic stars (and crew) but missing a lot of people. As I think of someone I have to look up the names on other sites to find what their birth date. Admittedly there were some people I didn't recognize like J. Carrol Nash (I got it right this time). There will only be one or two days a month where I cannot find someone's birthday. This has been pretty fun.

January 24th is Ernest Borgnine's Birthday. TCM is showing his films Saturday Night (29th) so I will wait till then and have a night off. I might start Dean Jones for the 25th so I can watch Sons of the Desert for the final Hal Roach night.