Donald O'Connor

comedian

played by Donald O'Connor, who's a nightclub comedian.

There's a hit on him from The Mob, and the mobster is this old character actor, Don Gordon.

And I was

course, horrible, as all those 70s shows were.

The music, the acting, the filming, the stories, they were all horrible.

But I remember thinking, God, I would have loved to have played either one of those characters, either the Donald O'Connor part or the Don Gordon tough guy.

Or the bionic

Like Goliath, this mule will only talk to one person, the behind-the-line soldier.

The Francis stories were turned into a 1950 comedy film featuring Donald O'Connor and Chill Wills as the voice of Francis.

This film, simply called Francis, was directed by Arthur Lubin, who had developed the short stories into a movie.

And Arthur Lubin directed five of the six sequels.

Um, you've got Debbie Reynolds, obviously, uh, the mother of Carrie Fisher and, uh, an incredible actress in her own right.

And then you've got Donald O'Connor, who is absolutely hilarious in this film.

He is good.

He is so, he is so class in this film.

Um, she was only 19 in this film, uh, and he was, uh, nearly 40.

Um, but obviously because he was kind of the head honcho, he kind of was able to pull rank on a lot of things, uh, particularly basically making her do a crazy amount of dance rehearsals, um, that she said, like, she was literally in tears at the end of most days.

Um, but that Donald O'Connor and Fred Astaire, who was actually working on a movie in the studio next door, had to like console her and basically be like, "Trust me, when this movie comes out, you'll be glad that you did it." Um, but even just the fact that she...

I read she had to...

The first one, the musical comedy Singing in the Rain, comes requested from my mother, Sarah Engelman, since my grandmother really loved the movie's songs.

Set in 1927, the famous April 1st musical comedy, and beloved film with the late actors Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Connor, and Gene Kelly centered on Hollywood silent film stars changing to talking pictures while dealing with love and a disastrously squeaky voice.

The film only made $12.4 million, which was a modest hit for its time, but has since been hailed by critics and often called the best musical ever made.

Did you know that according to IMDB.com, it was actually the breakout film for Reynolds, who was only 19 when cast for the film, and then she lived with her parents, so she commuted to the set.

But it appealed to Dan Daly.

Dan Daly was the rugged leading man of There's No Business Like Show Business, It's Always Fair Weather, Panama Hattie, and seemed to be there when Donald O'Connor was unavailable, like he was for Spotlight.

Daly had been signed for the project and would bring that extra resonance to the role.

He would remind audiences of the golden age of MGM, and he would be a relatable mouthpiece to the lines that pretty much exclaimed, ah, these crazy kids and their music today.

Especially this comedy, which already had a stiffness to it.

There is one moment where a woman kisses a young Barry and says, Wow, where'd you learn to kiss like that? And he replies, Scranton.

Not the funniest line, but a line that Dick Van Dyke could get a laugh on, or Donald O'Connor.

Hell, even Liv Ullman could.

uh but yeah i i really watchable enjoyable um gene kelly was great i i like the performances the friend it gives me weird vibes uh in the same way that wizard of oz used to give me weird vibes with just that kind of like

Like Donald O'Connor?

Yeah, like...

Cosmo? Yeah, Cosmo.

It's somewhere in the middle and it just doesn't work for me personally.

Um, but yeah, it's, It's great.

And as I said, Donald O'Connor steals the show for me.

I think he's fantastic.

Although it

had people like Ethel Merman and Dan Daly and Donald O'Connor and Mitzi Gaynor.

What a lineup.

Hugh O'Brien, Wyatt Earp was in it.