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In honor of Desi Arnaz's 100th birthday, which was yesterday (March 2), this week on «Film Friday» I bring you the film that marked his screen debut. It was also the picture that introduced him to (arguably) the greatest love of his life, Lucille Ball.   Directed by George Abbott, Too Many Girls (1940) is the story of Connie Casey (Lucille Ball), a high-spirited, headline-chasing heiress who keeps her manufacturing-tycoon father (Harry Shannon) busy worrying about her. Deported from Europe for her antics, Connie enrolls in her father's alma mater, Pottawatomie College, in New Mexico, to be near her latest sweetheart, British playwright Beverly Waverly (Douglas Walton). In desperation, Mr. Casey secretly hires four Ivy League football players — Clint Kelly (Richard Carlson), Jojo Jordan (Eddie Bracken), Manuelito Lynch (Desi Arnaz) and Al Terwilliger (Hal LeRoy) — to act as her bodyguards. (from left to right) Hal LeRoy, Lucille Ball, Eddie Bracken and Richard Carlson in Too Ma...

To celebrate Mickey Rooney's 95th birthday, this week on "Film Friday" I bring you one of his best-remembered films, wherein he gave one of the most endearing performances of his career. Incidentally, this is also the film that made Elizabeth Taylor a star.   Original release poster Directed by Clarence Brown, National Velvet (1944) tells the story of Velvet Brown (Elizabeth Taylor), a 12-year-old girl living in a small 1920s English town with her parents (Donald Crisp and Anne Revere) and her three siblings, Edwina (Angela Lansbury), Malvolia (Juanita Quigley) and Donald (Jackie Jenkins). While walking home from school one day, Velvet meets a mysterious young drifter named Mi Taylor (Mickey Rooney), who has come to town in search of the Brown family after finding Mrs. Brown name and address in one of his deceased father's notebooks. As Velvet is talking to Mi, she sees a rambunctious horse being chased by its owner, Mr. Ede (Reginald Owen), and immediately...