Sensations of 1945
As dancer Ginny Walker performs on stage, a veiled woman in the audience stands up, accuses Ginny of stealing her husband and then fires a gun at her. After Ginny collapses and is taken to her dressing room, the woman, Julia Westcolt, a friend of Ginny's, dashes backstage, discards her veil, and then congratulates her friend on their successful publicity stunt. When Ginny's press agents, Gus Crane and his son Junior, visit their client backstage, she brags about her feat and chides them for not being more creative in promoting her. Horrified at Ginny's brashness, Junior, a conservative Harvard graduate, chastises her and leaves the room.
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- Cast:
- Eleanor Powell , Dennis O'Keefe , C. Aubrey Smith , Eugene Pallette , Lyle Talbot , W.C. Fields , Sophie Tucker
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Reviews
I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much
Gripping story with well-crafted characters
Absolutely brilliant
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
Some wonderful ideas are in this film, which taking into consideration when it was filmed, are quite wonderful, inventive and enjoyable. Yes it gets a bit boring now and again, however stick with it! During these years when many movie theatres would not screen motion pictures with Black performers (they often deleted scenes for their audiences) this film highlights Cab Calloway and His Orchestra in two great numbers (well 2.5)!!!The cast is delightful! In fact, they are perfect! And Sophie Tucker is always a pleasure to watch, as is Woody Herman and His Orchestra.Sit back and enjoy a good fun musical with some great staging, fantastic big band music!
On Oct. 4 2004, an interesting Comment by "John5th" contained a serious slip of the pen in the following sentence: "... we see a huge production number called Circus In The Sky featuring Sammy Kaye and his band and a host of circus acts all at the top of a skyscraper." Clearly, John5th intended to write "WOODY HERMAN" (who stars -- even sings! -- in several musical numbers in this film, and is prominently mentioned in the opening credits, along with Cab Calloway). And NOT Sammy Kaye (who doesn't appear at all, and isn't mentioned in the credits). If John5th is still reading this Commentary, I feel sure he'd make the correction himself. I tried 2 ways to contact John5th, but got no reply; he may have gone on to other interests. -- Prof Steven P Hill, Cinema Studies, University of Illinois.
Sophie Tucker was probably sixty years old when she filmed her scenes in "Sensations of 1945". My comments here will focus on her participation in this film. Sophie sings two songs in a nightclub setting that was filmed at Republic Studios facilities and released by United Artists. These songs are "Mammy O'Mine' and "You Can't Sew A Button On A Heart"; this last also recorded commercially for Decca by Sophie. Sophie is in full voice for Maceo Pinkard's song "Mammy O'Mine" and this appearance is a wonderful preservation of her singing style as well as her splendid appearance with her beautiful ensemble including fur cape, hat, jewelry , and 1940s upsweep coiffure. In fact, she looks like one of her many beautiful Maurice Seymour photographs taken through the years of her long career spent singing on the variety stages of the world.
Despite contrary opinion this film is unchallenging fun, great entertainment and a wonderful showcase for the kind of show biz performance that is all but gone today. Eleanor Powell is very funny as a stunt crazy publicity agent who for starters fakes getting shot during her own show! She competes with partner Dennis O'Keefe (also very good as the son of the agency owner) to bring in bigger and better clients. In the process of lining up acts and artists we see a huge production number called Circus In The Sky featuring Sammy Kaye and his band and a host of circus acts all at the top of a skyscraper. Another hare-brained scheme results in a wonderful Cab Calloway number called Hepster's Dictionary that is projected on to the side of a building in Times Square, naturally resulting in the arrest of Ms. Powell. Other highlights include Powell dressed as a pinball(!) dancing in a giant pinball machine set, an odd dance with a horse as partner, 2 numbers by the the inimitable Sophie Tucker and the always funny W.C.Fields. For a glimpse at the last gasp of Vaudeville, an era when down-on-their-luck actors could trust their memoirs to a PR agent, enjoy the very unique Sensations of 1945.