Word: balalaika
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Dates: during 1940-1940
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...Square is a whirling top. Buses are leaving every minute: what will you have? The world is yours: Zero Hereford, The Folies Bergere, or just Belmont. Traffic on Boylston Street is stalled. Blow your horn, blow: Saturday night waits for no man. A car radio is shrilling: "At the Balalaika, who knows what mystery tonight may bring?" Who knows? Around every corner, around every smile is mystery...
Although the management of the Met has seen fit to bill "The Earl of Chicago" second to Nelson Eddy and Ilona Massey in "Balalaika," it is the Robert Montgomery vehicle which makes the evening worth while. Bob forsakes his debonair Piccadilly Jim pose and goes to town with a portrayal of the shock effect of English upper class mores upon a typical Chicago, gangster...
...Balalaika (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) is the first picture in which Ilona, now Massey without Haj, has her first chance to star. Unfortunately, Hollywood has now got the idea that "social significance" has something to do with the amusement business. So the picture, which takes its name from a truncated Russian mandolin, the balalaika, includes not only fatuously lovable grand dukes and musicians, but downright sinister Bolsheviks. It also includes Baritone Nelson Eddy, the Russian Cossack Choir, an excellent cast (Frank Morgan, Lionel Atwill, Charles Ruggles, C. Aubrey Smith) and a lot of gorgeous clothing and sets...