REMEMBERING STELLA STEVENS (1938-2023)

Actress Stella Stevens (1938-2023) recently passed away. She appeared with Bing in 1959's Say One For Me. RIP Stella Stevens...

GUEST REVIEWER: SAY ONE FOR ME

Here is the usual great review done by the Bing Crosby guru Bruce Kogan. This time around he reviews one of Bing's least liked films - Say One For Me from 1959...

I'm sure that during his career in his later years Bing Crosby was offered the chance to repeat playing Father O'Malley as an older priest and at one point that would have been a natural fit for him. Unfortunately after this film, Bing was done with the clergy.

He tries his best with Father Conroy and his best moments are musical ones especially with Debbie Reynolds, but the story is not convincing. It seems like Bing was doing a favour for someone just being involved in the film. The plot was the worst. Try as I might, I just can't believe that Robert Wagner turns from opportunistic heel to good guy just to win Debbie Reynolds.

In fact the main problem with the movie is Robert Wagner. A good actor he just doesn't have any talent musically. His big number in the movie was You Can't Love Them All was recorded by Dean Martin and had a modest success. Now if Dino had played his part, he might have overcome the script.

Bing's best number is The Secret of Christmas. In addition to recording it for the cast album of this film, six years later he recorded it for Frank Sinatra's Reprise label in a joint Christmas album with Old Blue Eyes and Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians. That is the superior version to the one he did in Say One For Me...

Bruce's rating: 4 out of 10
My rating: 3 out of 10

PHOTOS OF THE DAY: BING IN HOLLYWOOD

Bing Crosby is the undisputed king of Hollywood. He was the top box office draw longer than any other actor before or since. He held that position from 1944 until 1949. Slowly, his movies are starting to see the light of day on DVD, but many of his movies are currently unavailable. Here are a few different pictures that you might not have seen before from Bing's movies...

DR. RHYTHM (1938) with Mary Carlisle

HOLIDAY INN (1942)

BLUE SKIES (1946)

JUST FOR YOU (1952) with NATALIE WOOD

SAY ONE FOR ME (1959) with Debbie Reynolds

THE STAGE COACH (1966)

NEW BING CD FROM SEPIA RECORDS

I am so glad Sepia is keeping up with their Bing Crosby issues. The movies Say One For Me (1959) and The Road To Hong Kong (1961) were pretty dreadful, but the soundtracks were actually better than the movies!

This is the full track listing, taken from the Sepia Records site http://www.sepiarecords.com/sepia1216.html

THE ROAD TO HONG KONG / SAY ONE FOR ME (SEPIA 1216)

1. “THE ROAD TO HONG KONG'' OVERTURE Robert Farnon & Orchestra
2. LET’S NOT BE SENSIBLE Bing Crosby, Joan Collins
3. MOON OVER HONG KONG Robert Farnon & Orchestra
4. TEAM WORK Bing Crosby, Bob Hope
5. THE ONLY WAY TO TRAVEL Robert Farnon & Orchestra
6. THE CHASE Robert Farnon & Orchestra
7. THE ROAD TO HONG KONG Bing Crosby, Bob Hope
8. LET’S NOT BE SENSIBLE BLUES Robert Farnon Orchestra
9. RELUCTANT ASTRONAUTS Robert Farnon Orchestra
10. WARMER THAN A WHISPER Dorothy Lamour
11. LAMASERY CHANT Robert Farnon Orchestra

12. “SAY ONE FOR ME'' MAIN TITLE Lionel Newman Orchestra
13. SAY ONE FOR ME Bing Crosby, Debbie Reynolds
14. SAY ONE FOR ME Lionel Newman Orchestra
15. YOU CAN’T LOVE ’EM ALL Debbie Reynolds, Robert Wagner
16. SAY ONE FOR ME (Orchestral Reprise) Lionel Newman Orchestra
17. THE GIRL MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED Debbie Reynolds, Robert Wagner
18. YOU CAN’T LOVE ’EM ALL (Orchestral Reprise) Lionel Newman Orchestra
19. THE NIGHT THAT ROCK AND ROLL DIED (ALMOST) Lionel Newman Orchestra
20. I COULDN’T CARE LESS Bing Crosby Accompanied By Buddy Cole
21. I COULDN’T CARE LESS (Hangover Scene) Lionel Newman Orchestra
22. THE NIGHT THAT ROCK AND ROLL DIED (ALMOST) Judy Harriett
23. SAY ONE FOR ME Bing Crosby
24. CHICO’S CHOO-CHOO Debbie Reynolds, Robert Wagner
25. THE SECRET OF CHRISTMAS Bing Crosby
26. I COULDN’T CARE LESS (Pop Version) Bing Crosby
27. SAY ONE FOR ME (Pop Version) Bing Crosby
28. THE SECRET OF CHRISTMAS (Pop Version) Bing Crosby

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SAY ONE FOR ME: A 1959 REVIEW

The movie Say One For Me is often on the list of worst movies of all time. When I found this review from the NY Times on June 20,1959 I was very interested in reading the review. The soundtrack is more interesting than the film but here is what the Times had to say...

Bing Crosby Portrays Priest...Again
by Bosley Crowther

AFTER all the times Bing Crosby has played a priest in films, you'd think by now he would be a Bishop or a Monsignor, at least. But no, he is still a parish pastor in Frank Tashlin's "Say One for Me," another romance of religion and show business, which came to the Paramount yesterday.

Mr. Crosby is still atmosphering informally in cassock and biretta (or just toupee) in and about the vicinity of a small Catholic church off Broadway, mixing piety and wisecracks in about equal measures and snatching brands from the burning that is going on all the time just up the street.

The principal brand that takes some snatching is a young night club impresario, entertainer and general sin-doer among the showgirls at the club. This fellow, played by Robert Wagner, is a real gone type ("know what I mean"), given to impudent indifference toward the squareness of a priest. He tees off on Father Conroy (that's our Bing, of course), accuses him of stealing his routines for an old vaudevillian and other such. Needless to say, the good father regards him dubiously.

Particularly does he do so because one of his best parishioners, a little college girl played by Debbie Reynolds, goes to work at this fellow's club. Of course, she is not a usual showgirl, she just needs money for a father who is ill, and so there is really no good reason for the burning anxiety of Father Bing. But he worries and probes the situation. This takes him to the club. This leads him to the pious business of poking his mitts into the fire.

In the process, he does score some rescues. The most obvious and delightful save he makes is that of a beat piano player who is trying to make his home in a bottle of booze. This character, played by Ray Walston, is more of Bing's vintage and type, and the two do some gratifying chumming and crooning in the war on John Barleycorn.

Father Bing also plucks from the embers a moody showgirl who has a tiny tot without the benefit of a marriage license. He gives baby and mother the sign.

But we really can't credit him with saving the impudent impresario. That job is mainly done by Miss Reynolds, who looks great in tight slacks or opera hose and also in the color and wide-screen effectively used here. It is she who really angles the young scapegrace to 2 A. M. mass (or what Father Bing calls his "late, late LATE show"). But then Bing's successes in the priesthood have usually had strong assists from Cupid's bow.

It is a pleasant show-world entertainment, this obvious "Say One for Me," full of pretty girls with shapely legs, a few song numbers (two sung by Bing) and religious images. Robert O'Brien has contributed a screen play that is loaded with slang. Broadway gags that are easily comprehended and not too much clerical sentiment. Connie Gilchrist as the priest's housekeeper has some of the cutest lines and, next to Mr. Walston, is the most solid comic in the show.

As for Bing—well, he's just about as usual, a little less lively, perhaps, a little older looking, but still casual and sincere. He'll never make Monsignor. He'll always be a parish priest, whenever he turns his collar backward, because you always sense a sport shirt underneath...

SOURCE

BING CROSBY AND DEBBIE REYNOLDS - 1959

Here is the opening number from what many say is Bing Crosby's worst movie SAY ONE FOR ME from 1959!