Wednesday, 15 August 2012

Amarilla Morris

Born: 19 November 1919, Amarillo, Texas, USA
Died: unknown

Amarilla Morris was an actress and dancer. It seems that her film career only lasted a short while and the IMDB only list her in 5 films. She has a distinctive face and it would be interesting to see if she made any other appearances in films of the era. Her film work was done at RKO.
 
Too Many Girls (1940) as Co-ed (uncredited)
 
Amarilla Morris is facing the camera in the bottom right of the picture.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


A Date with the Falcon (1942) as Spectator (uncredited)

Amarilla is on the right. The other spectator is as yet unknown.

















Four Jacks and a Jill (1942) as Girl in revolving door gag (uncredited)

A short and sweet shot of Amarilla Morris. Amarilla's face is never seen and she is on screen for only a few seconds with Ray Bolger.
















The Falcon Takes Over (1942) as Wife of man in fight with waiter (uncredited)

Amarilla Morris watches the short waiter Charlie Hall make trouble with her husband. The man in the foreground on the left is Dale Van Sickel, who is also a stuntman.















A Yank in Libya (1942) as Haditha

Amarilla Morris' only credited role was in this awful film, in which the highlight was Amarilla's dancing.









Posted by Ian T at

5 comments:

  1. parkurkarcus18 July 2020 at 22:09

    I could not help but notice Ms. Morris in the film "A Yank in Libya". I am surprised she was not in more films of her era! The camera obviously liked her look. A tip of my hat to a talent under used!

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  2. Unknown19 September 2020 at 03:48

    She was a great,athletic,versatile dancer that was involved in two famous Rodgers and Hart musicals:"Too Many Girls"both the Broadway stage version(1939)and in the film version the following year(1940)-and Can Johnson was also a chorus dancers in both versions..and both she and Van Johnson were featured dancers in the 1940 Broadway version of"Pal Joey"..and what Broadway's 1940 version of"Pal Joey"has in common with the Ray Bolger 1941 RKO Musical"Four Jack's And A Jill"-is that the Ray Bolger musical features Amarillo Morris(I wish she would've had a dance number with Ray Bolger and/or June Havoc in this film..instead of her"faceless",quick walk-on bit!)and June Havoc and Jack Durant were all in this movie..and all three were featured in Broadway's 1940"Pal Joey"..and Jack Durant was teamed with June Havoc in"Four Jack's And A Jill"-and they were also teamed-up together 1year earlier on Broadway in"Pal Joey"..and all three of these actor/dancers were given much more to demonstrate &show off their acrobatic dancing skills in"Pal Joey"(1940)than they got to do in"Four Jack's And A Jill"(1941)And this movie was June Havoc's film debut..And both she and Jack Durant played pretty much the same type of lowbrow,rough,comedic characters that they both played together in"Pal Joey"..two great physical comedians..and Amarilla Morris was absolutely breathtaking in the dances she got to perform on film in"Too Many Girls"and"A Yank In Libya"

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  3. Unknown19 September 2020 at 03:53

    Amarilla Morris should've definitely done more musical film work following her work from 1939 to 1942 in the stage musicals &small handful of films that she was so under-used in..She should've been given the opportunity to really showcase her dancing in more filmwork that she should've been given during this early-'40s period in film musicals.

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  4. Unknown21 September 2020 at 00:35

    Amarilla Morris was born Mary Elizabeth Morris in Amarillo, Texas, on November 19, 1919. She was my mother’s sister and a favorite aunt of mine. She married David Roberts, an Air Force career officer, and followed him until his retirement in the mid 1960’s when they settled in Denver, Colorado. They had one son, Stephen Madison Roberts, also a career Air Force Officer. After David’s death, she moved to Redlands, California, where Stephen and his wife retired. Her only grandson, Jeffrey, lives in California.

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