''Walking My Baby Back Home'' is a 1953 American
musical
Musical is the adjective of music.
Musical may also refer to:
* Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance
* Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...
comedy film
A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...
directed by
Lloyd Bacon
Lloyd Francis Bacon (December 4, 1889 – November 15, 1955) was an American screen, stage and vaudeville actor and film director. As a director he made films in virtually all genres, including westerns, musicals, comedies, gangster films, an ...
and starring
Donald O'Connor
Donald David Dixon Ronald O'Connor (August 28, 1925 – September 27, 2003) was an American dancer, singer and actor. He came to fame in a series of films in which he co-starred with Gloria Jean, Peggy Ryan, and Francis the Talking Mule.
His best ...
,
Janet Leigh
Jeanette Helen Morrison (July 6, 1927 – October 3, 2004), known professionally as Janet Leigh, was an American actress, singer, dancer, and author. Her career spanned over five decades. Raised in Stockton, California, by working-class parents, ...
, and
Buddy Hackett
Buddy Hackett (born Leonard Hacker; August 31, 1924 – June 30, 2003) was an American actor, comedian and singer. His best remembered roles include Marcellus Washburn in ''The Music Man'' (1962), Benjy Benjamin in ''It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Wo ...
. It was Hackett's film debut.
Excerpts of the film are used in the ''
Columbo
''Columbo'' () is an American crime drama television series starring Peter Falk as Lieutenant Columbo, a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. After two pilot episodes in 1968 and 1971, the show originally aired on NBC f ...
'' episode "
Forgotten Lady", in which Leigh plays a middle aged former film star Grace Wheeler who nostalgically watches the film.
Donald O'Connor enjoyed working with Janet Leigh.
She hadn't danced in years but was a real trouper. Nine times out of 10 we'd do all those beautiful dance routines on cement, and she got very tired, started falling a lot on her knees. And her knees started to swell three times their normal size. It was very painful. On the screen you can't tell how she was suffering in that darn thing.
Plot
A World War II veteran joins a minstrel show and falls in love with the daughter of the troupe's patriarch.
Cast
*
Donald O'Connor
Donald David Dixon Ronald O'Connor (August 28, 1925 – September 27, 2003) was an American dancer, singer and actor. He came to fame in a series of films in which he co-starred with Gloria Jean, Peggy Ryan, and Francis the Talking Mule.
His best ...
as Clarence "Jigger" Miller
*
Janet Leigh
Jeanette Helen Morrison (July 6, 1927 – October 3, 2004), known professionally as Janet Leigh, was an American actress, singer, dancer, and author. Her career spanned over five decades. Raised in Stockton, California, by working-class parents, ...
as Chris Hall
*
Buddy Hackett
Buddy Hackett (born Leonard Hacker; August 31, 1924 – June 30, 2003) was an American actor, comedian and singer. His best remembered roles include Marcellus Washburn in ''The Music Man'' (1962), Benjy Benjamin in ''It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Wo ...
as Blimp Edwards
*
Lori Nelson
Dixie Kay Nelson (August 15, 1933August 23, 2020), known professionally as Lori Nelson, was an American actress and model mostly active in the 1950s and early 1960s. She had roles in the TV series ''How to Marry a Millionaire'' and the films ''Re ...
as Claire Millard
*
Scatman Crothers
Benjamin Sherman Crothers (May 23, 1910 – November 22, 1986), known professionally as Scatman Crothers, was an American actor and musician. He is known for playing Louie the Garbage Man on the TV show ''Chico and the Man'', and Dick Hallo ...
as "Smiley" Gordon
*
Kathleen Lockhart
Kathleen Lockhart (née Arthur; 9 August 1894 – 18 February 1978) was a prolific English-American actress during the early-mid 20th century.
Early life
Kathleen Arthur was born on August 9, 1894 in Southsea, Hampshire, England.
Caree ...
as Mrs. Millard
*
George Cleveland
George Alan Cleveland (September 17, 1885 – July 15, 1957) was a Canadian film actor. He appeared in more than 180 films between 1930 and 1954.
Career
Cleveland was born in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada. His first appearance on the stag ...
as Col. Dan Wallace
*
John Hubbard as Rodney Millard
*
Norman Abbott
Norman Abbott (July 11, 1922 – July 9, 2016) was an American vaudevillian, actor, producer and television director.
Abbott was born in New York City, where his uncle, comedian Bud Abbott, and his mother raised him. His early experience in ...
as Doc
*Phil Garris as Hank
*
Walter Kingsford
Walter Kingsford (born Walter Pearce; 20 September 1882 – 7 February 1958) was an English stage, film and television actor.
Early years
Kingsford was born in Redhill, Surrey, England.
Career
Kingsford began his acting career on the Lo ...
as Uncle Henry Hall
*
Sidney Miller as Walter Thomas
*
The Modernaires
The Modernaires was an American vocal group, best known for performing in the 1940s alongside Glenn Miller.
Career
The Modernaires began in 1934 as "Don Juan, Two and Three," a trio of schoolmates from Lafayette High School in Buffalo, New Y ...
as themselves
*The Sportsmen Quartet as themselves (credited as The Sportsmen)
References
External links
*
*
*
*
1953 films
1953 musical comedy films
American musical comedy films
Films directed by Lloyd Bacon
1950s English-language films
1950s American films
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