The Musicals of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Category: Performers

  • James Finlayson

    James Henderson Finlayson (1887-1953) was acting on the stage in his native Scotland when he travelled with a play to the United States in 1911. His parents had recently died and he decided, along with one of his brothers, to stay there. 

    Finlayson obtained a part in a 1912 production of Bunty Pulls the Strings, and later worked in vaudeville with Alex Lauder, the lesser-known brother of Harry. He ended up touring with a play that took him to Los Angeles, and never left. 

    He made his first film appearance in 1917, and by 1919 was working at the Mack Sennett studio. He became a key member of Sennett’s troupe, working repeatedly with Ben Turpin. But in 1922, Finlayson signed with Hal Roach. 

    Roach tried to groom him as a lead player, but this did not work out. He is said to have considered partnering Finlayson with Laurel and Hardy as a comedy trio, but staff director Leo McCarey realized that the duo was a better bet. So Finlayson became an unofficial third member of the partnership, appearing in thirty-three films with Stan and Ollie, right the way through to Saps at Sea in 1940.

    Finlayson always wore a fake walrus moustache and became famous for his overacting, master of the double take and the quizzical or exasperated face, accompanied by the extended cry of ‘D’oooh!’.

    James Finlayson was in five Metro musicals, initially with Laurel and Hardy. He featured prominently in The Devil’s Brother, followed by The Bohemian Girl. Later on, when he had become a bit-part player, he appeared in Two Sisters from Boston, Till the Clouds Roll By and Royal Wedding.

    Finlayson also worked with Hawks in The Dawn Patrol (1930), Hitchcock in Foreign Correspondent (1940), and Lubitsch in Angel (1937) and To Be or Not to Be (1942).

  • Thelma Todd

    Thelma Alice Todd (1906-35) made well over 100 film appearances in her brief life, largely in shorts, but also in many notable features.

    A teenage beauty pageant winner, Todd inevitably came to the attention of Hollywood scouts. She made a few undemanding appearances for Paramount, before finding a berth at the Hal Roach Studios in 1929. After working successfully with Roach’s stars, including Laurel and Hardy, Todd was eventually partnered with ZaSu Pitts in a double act intended as a distaff version of Stan and Ollie. Though not achieving the comic heights of their models, the Todd and Pitts shorts are entertaining enough, even using the same theme and incidental music as Laurel and Hardy.

    Thelma Todd was a gifted comedian, and worked well with the Marx Brothers in Monkey Business (1931) and Horse Feathers (1932). Todd always looks genuinely amused by the comics she is working with, and incorporates this into her performances.

    Todd could also play it straight, and was Iva Archer, widow of Sam Spade’s partner, in the first version of The Maltese Falcon (1931).

    Todd made two appearances in MGM musicals, both of them in Laurel and Hardy vehicles. She had the female lead in The Devil’s Brother, and was later cast in The Bohemian Girl. Unfortunately, she died before the latter film’s release, and most of her part was edited out.

    Thelma’s Todd’s death was deemed to be suicide, but this was always unbelievable to those who knew her, who said she had never shown the slightest sign of depression. She was in a relationship with director Roland West, and it is claimed that he confessed to her murder on his death bed in 1952.

  • Dennis King

    British-born Dennis Pratt (1897-1971) could thank army surgeons for his successful career as an actor and singer. Serving during the First World War, he was injured in battle and required surgery to repair the damage done to his face by shrapnel.

    King was a rare performer who was equally at home in Shakespeare and operettas. He made his West End debut in 1919, and was performing on Broadway just two years later. After working for some years as a classical actor, King gained the lead role in Rose-Marie (1924) and then created the role of François Villon in The Vagabond King (1925).

    King recreated his stage role in Paramount’s The Vagabond King (1930), the first of his handful of film appearances. In 1933, he worked for Hal Roach and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on The Devil’s Brother.

    Dennis King made his first television appearance in 1948, and worked for many years in that medium and on the stage.

  • The Devil’s Brother

    The Cast

    Stan LaurelStanlio
    Oliver HardyOllio
    Dennis KingFra Diavalo/Marquis de San Marco
    Thelma ToddLady Pamela
    James FinlaysonLord Rocburg
    Lucile BrownZerlina
    Arthur PiersonLorenzo
    Henry ArmettaMatteo
    Matt McHughFrancesco
    Lane ChandlerLieutenant
    Nina QuarteroRita
    Wilfred LucasAlessandro
    James C MortonWoodchopper
    Marion BardellTavern Bartender (uncredited)
    Alice BelcherOld woman in tavern (uncredited)
    Louise CarverTavern Customer (uncredited)
    Kay DeslysTavern Customer (uncredited)
    Scotty MattrawTavern Customer (uncredited)
    Rolfe SedanTavern Customer (uncredited)
    Lillian MooreTavern Customer (uncredited)
    Walter ShumwayTavern Customer (uncredited)
    Leo WhiteTavern Customer (uncredited)
    Grace WoodsTavern Customer (uncredited)
    Carl HarbaughSecond Woodchopper (uncredited)
    Tiny SandfordBig Woodchopper (uncredited)
    Harry BernardDrunk (uncredited)
    John CollumBoy (uncredited)
    Jackie Lynn TaylorGirl (uncredited)
    Edith FellowsGirl (uncredited)
    Francis FordMan under table (uncredited)
    Dick GilbertBrigand (uncredited)
    Arthur StoneBrigand (uncredited)
    Jack HillBrigand (uncredited)
    George MillerMinister (uncredited)
    Frank TerryServant (uncredited)
    Brooks BenedictUnspecified role (uncredited)

  • Jayne Shadduck

    Jayne Dunham Francis Shadduck (1915-93) was barely 17 when MGM hired her to provide baby sounds in The Cuban Love Song. 

    This was followed by a ten-year career combining small parts in some decent films (for example, 42nd Street and Gold Diggers of 1933 (both 1933) and Annie Oakley (1935) with voice work for Walt Disney. She provided the voices of Mickey Mouse’s nephews, Morty and Ferdie, in a number of short cartoons.

    Shadduck was also an aviator at a time when this was rare for women.

    After leaving show business, Shadduck lived in Hawaii and spent years being, by the account of her son, the mother from hell.

  • Purv Pullen

    Some careers cannot be categorized in a few words. Almy Purves Pullen (1909-92) imitated birds and animals. But he did it in the most impressive way possible.

    After various jobs, including a stint as a radio presenter, Pullen started as a voice actor, providing bird and animal noises for Walt Disney, in 1931. He whistled for Cock Robin in Who Killed Cock Robin? (1935), and worked on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). As a change of pace, he played a whistling saw in Pinocchio (1940), and was back to birds for Sleeping Beauty (1959). During this period, as well as providing sounds for Disney shorts, he also worked for Max Fleischer on Betty Boop and Popeye cartoons.

    Pullen provided the voice of Cheeta in Tarzan pictures and was a coyote in DeMille’s The Crusades (1935).

    In 1945, Pullen began working with Spike Jones and his City Slickers, and was renamed Dr Horatio Q Birdbath (the ‘Q’ stood for quinine, because he was hard to take). And on the side, Pullen had a nightclub act as a ventriloquist, with a dummy named Johnny and an invisible dog.

    Purv Pullen’s connection with MGM musicals is that, in 1931, he provided monkey noises for The Cuban Love Song. 

  • Harry Strang

    Harry R Strang (1892-1972) had the sort of career Hollywood was built on: thirty-six years and more than 500 appearances as a tough-guy  character actor.

    Strang trained at AADA and made his professional debut on the stage in 1910. His career in the theatre was interrupted by the First World War, in which he served with the marines. He then returned to the stage, working much of the time with stock companies.

    Harry Strang was one of the many stage actors who found work in Hollywood after the introduction of sound, and he was frequently cast in military roles that would have benefitted from his own wartime experience. His many appearances included parts in Hell’s Angels (1930), The Seas Beneath (1931, becoming part of John Ford’s Stock Company), What Price Hollywood? (1932), King Kong (1933), The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936), Gone With the Wind (1939), Saboteur (1942), Laura (1944), Detour (1945), The Lady from Shanghai (1945), White Heat (1949), Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956) and The Last Hurrah (1958).

    Strang was in five Metro musicals: The Cuban Love Song (as a marine sergeant), San Francisco, Born to Dance, New Moon and Thousands Cheer. 

    When you have made eight films with John Ford and also worked with Hawks, Capra, Lang and Welles, you can definitely say you have had a career. A very active career in small parts was lucrative enough for Strang to maintain two homes after he retired in 1965, where he could pursue life as an avid birdwatcher.

  • George Kuma

    Mystery surrounds the actor named George Kuma. According to IMDb, he played the “Japanese Tattoo Artist” at the beginning of The Cuban Love Song. There are no other credits, but it is stated that he was born in Hawaii in 1900. The AFI Catalog concurs about Cuban Love Song, but cites one other appearance, in the same year, a Fu Manchu tale called Daughter of the Dragon (1931).

    The United States Federal Census for 1930 certainly confirms that a George Kuma, born in Hawaii in 1900, was living in California at the time of the census, so he could have made two screen appearances in the following year. Or he might not have. 

  • John George

    Four feet and two inches tall, Tutie (or possibly Tufie) Fatella (1898-1968) emigrated with his family from Syria to the United States in around 1911. By the age of 18, he was in Hollywood, starting out on a career as a character actor that would last almost fifty years and about 250 performances.

    George’s first film is believed to have been Bobbie of the Ballet (1916), which starred Lon Chaney. In the 1920s he worked regularly with both Chaney and director Tod Browning, being particularly memorable as Cojo in the macabre The Unknown (1927). He also featured in Rex Ingram’s The Prisoner of Zenda (1922) and Scaramouche (1923).

    In the sound era, George played a scientist in both Browning’s Dracula and its Spanish version, Drácula (both 1931). He renewed his acquaintance with Bela Lugosi in Edgar G Ulmer’s The Black Cat (1934). Later appearances included The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), Canyon Passage (1946) and a cameo in the Lon Chaney biopic Man of a Thousand Faces (1957). George’s last big screen appearance was in One-Eyed Jacks (1963), but he continued working in television. 

    Amongst John George’s many roles were eleven in MGM musicals, all uncredited: The Cuban Love Song, Babes in Toyland, Rose-Marie, San Francisco, Let Freedom Ring, At the Circus, Du Barry Was a Lady, Two Sisters from Boston, Big City, Singin’ in the Rain and Deep in My Heart.

  • Palau Brothers

    Orquesta Hermanos Palau consisted of a core of five brothers: Manolo, Felipe, Luis, Rafael and Raimundo (dates all unknown), and was one of the most popular dance bands in Cuba during the 1930s and 40s. They were, in fact, part of a musical dynasty, dating back to the 1850s and through to today.

    In 1931, the band travelled to Hollywood with Ernesto Lecuona, to perform in MGM’s The Cuban Love Song.

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